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Former President Barack Obama has defended the location of his $500 million Presidential Center in Chicago, saying hes absolutely confident it will benefit the community amid complaints from locals that it will destroy a historic park and lead to gentrification.

Following five years of legal battles, a federal review and gentrification concerns, Barack and Michelle Obama are expected to attend a celebratory groundbreaking Tuesday at the construction site of the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park on Chicagos South Side.

In an interview with ABCs Good Morning America on the eve of the groundbreaking, Obama dismissed the criticism of his legacy project, including multiple legal attempts to block construction.

The overwhelming majority of the community has been not just okay with it, but are hugely enthusiastic about it, Obama said.

The truth is, any time you do a big project, unless youre in the middle of a field somewhere, you know, and its on private property, theres always going to be some people who say, Well, but we dont want change. Were worried about it. We dont know how its going to turn out,' Obama said.

Which is why weve gone through such an exhaustive process to encourage and elicit comments and concerns and criticism and suggestions from the community.

The former president decided back in 2016 that he wanted his presidential library to be located on Chicagos South Side where he previously worked as a community organizer. His wife Michelle also grew up in the neighborhood.

The young person whos growing up across the street or down the block or a few miles away, now suddenly have a place where concerts and speeches and debates and forums are taking place that they can access, Obama told the outlet.

If they want to bring about change in their neighborhoods, theyve got resources and people who can teach them how to do that effectively. And theyre going to be able to see themselves as part of that change in a way that, so often, they dont feel right now.

Construction on the legacy project began last month and is expected to take five years.

On the same day that construction started, the Supreme Court blocked an 11th hour plea from Chicago park advocacy group, Protect Our Parks, to halt the project.

The group has argued it will destroy significant parts of historic Jackson Park. The presidential center will sit on 19 acres of the 540-acre park.

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Obama defends $500 million 'Presidential Center' in Chicago

CHICAGO (AP) After five years of legal battles, gentrification concerns and a federal review, Barack and Michelle Obama dug shovels into the ground Tuesday during a celebratory groundbreaking on their legacy project in a lakefront Chicago park.

Watch the event in the player above.

Construction on the Obama Presidential Center along Lake Michigan, near the Obama family home and where the former president started his political career on Chicagos South Side,officially began last month.

Standing near an excavator and other heavy equipment, Obama described how the citys South Side shaped him, first as a community organizer, then as a husband, father and elected official. He said the center was one way of giving back and he hoped it would bring an economic boost to the area and inspire a future generation of leaders.

We want this center to be more than a static museum or a source of archival research. It wont just be a collection of campaign memorabilia or Michelles ballgowns, although I know everybody will come see those, he joked. It wont just be an exercise in nostalgia or looking backwards. We want to look forward.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and several city aldermen were among the few people allowed at the event, which was streamed online to limit crowds amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The presidential center will sit on 19 acres (7.7 hectares) of the 540-acre (291-hectare) of Jackson Park, named for the nations seventh president, Andrew Jackson.

It will be unique among presidential libraries. Obamas presidential papers will be available in digital form. The sprawling campus will include a museum, public library branch, athletic center, test kitchen and childrens play area.

The initial cost was projected at $500 million, butdocuments releasedby the Obama Foundation last month showed it is now roughly $830 million. Funds are being raised through private donations.

Organizers estimate about 750,000 visitors will come to the center each year.

Work on the Obama Presidential Center is expected to take about five years. Currently, heavy machinery peppers the site thats fenced off with green tarps.

Progress has been delayed bylawsuitsand afederal reviewrequired because of the location in Jackson Park, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. At the same time,fears about displacing Black residentsin the area developed into a yearslong battle resulting in city-approvedneighborhood protections, including for affordable housing.

Some neighborhood activists said Tuesday that they were already seeing rising housing prices and would keep pushing for more protections in surrounding areas. Environmental advocates have also objected to the location and the loss of green space. During the event, a plane pulled an aerial banner reading, STOP CUTTING DOWN TREES. MOVE OPC.

Obama, who didnt take questions during the event, has said over the years that the center will benefit the surrounding area with new jobs and new trees would be planted on the campus.

He chose Chicago over several cities, including Honolulu, where he was born and spent his early years.

Its a part of Chicago that has special significance for the Obamas. The center is near the University of Chicago where Obama taught law and where the Obamas got married and raised their two daughters. Michelle Obama also grew up on the South Side.

This city, this neighborhood courses through my veins and defines me at my very core, she said at the event. This substantial investment in the South Side will help make the neighborhood where we call home a destination for the entire world.

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WATCH: After 5 years, Obamas break ground on Presidential ...

CHICAGO (CBS) The official groundbreaking for the future Obama Presidential Center begins Tuesday afternoon.

The former President and first lady Barack and Michelle Obama are in Chicago to attend the ceremony in Jackson Park.

When it came time to plan the Obama Presidential Center, we wanted to give back to the place that gave us so much, Michelle Obama said.

The center in Jackson Park is where construction began about a month ago, but its been five years in the making.

It will include a museum, public library, athletic center and community space.

The Obamas hope it will give an economic boost to the South Side.

This is the first presidential museum thats ever been located in the inner city community, Dr. Carol Adams, advisor to the Obama Foundation, said. We think that it is has social, cultural education and economic benefits. We see economic benefits to our community already, as we see the contractors that are working on the site evil now and more to come.

But the project has also faced multiple lawsuits.

Including from a group called Protect Our Parks.

They argue the center would have a negative impact on DuSable Lake Shore Drive and eat up Lake Michigan parkland.

Then residents in South Shore are worried the new center will drive housing prices up and displace them from their homes.

Theres an agreement already with Woodlawn and certain community complex properties coming with other neighborhoods that assure that the people live in the neighborhood, continue to stay in the neighborhood continue to be able to afford to be in the neighborhood, and benefit from the growth thats going to come as a result of this wonderful presidential center, Adams said.

Adams says shes ready to see the center standing tall as a beacon of light and hope for black children.

It tells them what they can be in what they can do, She said. It tells them that you can get there from here, because its right here its right here in your neighborhood this story.

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Obama Presidential Center Groundbreaking Underway In ...

CHICAGO, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Barack Obama warned against "politics that feeds anger and resentment" on Tuesday in a speech at the groundbreaking of his presidential library in Chicago, which he said would work to strengthen democratic ideas.

The 44th president said that future Obama Presidential Center in Chicago will aim to strengthen ideals that are vulnerable in a bitter modern U.S. political environment and address global economic, social, technological and environmental issues that major institutions have failed to address.

"In the breach, a culture of cynicism and mistrust can grow," the Democratic former president said. "We start seeing more division and increasingly bitter conflict. A politics that feeds anger and resentment towards those who are not like us and starts turning away from democratic principles in favor of tribalism and might makes right."

Obama did not directly name his successor, Republican Donald Trump, who has continued since leaving office to push false claims that his November election defeat was the result of widespread fraud. Multiple courts, state election officials and members of Trump's own administration rejected those claims.

Former U.S. president Barack Obama attends a groundbreaking ceremony for the Obama presidential center in Jackson Park, in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. September 28, 2021. REUTERS/Sebastian Hidalgo

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Construction of the $700 million center on the city's South Side began in August despite opposition from local activists. Donations to the Obama Foundation are paying for the project.

It will house a museum of artifacts from Obama's 2009-2017 presidency and be a public gathering space for cultural and educational events. Obama made history as the first Black U.S. president.

"We are about to break ground on the world's premier institution for developing civic leaders across fields, across disciplines and, yes, across the political spectrum," said Obama, 60, who once worked as a community organizer in Chicago.

Obama represented part of the city's South Side in the Illinois state Senate before being elected to the U.S. Senate and then the White House.

Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago; Editing by Scott Malone and Gerry Doyle

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Obama warns against politics of 'anger and resentment' in Chicago - Reuters

RIDGEFIELD While Cody Keenan was attending Ridgefield High School, the thought of working in the White House never crossed his mind, he said. But under Obamas administration, Keenan helped craft some of the most iconic speeches given by Americas 44th president.

Keenan, 40, served as the White House director of speechwriting during President Barack Obamas second term. He started as a speechwriting intern for the campaign in 2007 and was part of the presidents speechwriting team from 2009 to 2011, when he was promoted to deputy speechwriter. After Obama left office in 2017, Keenan remained as his sole speechwriter and collaborator for four years.

This professional experience made Keenan an ideal candidate to assist Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra composer Paul Frucht in developing A More Perfect Union. The song cycle is based on six speeches from Obamas presidency, which will debut at RSOs season kickoff on Saturday the ensembles first concert in almost 20 months.

I had been wanting to write this for a long time to capture the historical and cultural significance of Barack Obamas words through our artform, Frucht said in a statement. The symphony is a celebration of deeply-rooted American values articulated by a president revered for his rhetoric.

Frucht began developing A More Perfect Union in 2018. That year he arranged to meet Keenan at a bar at the Park Hyatt in Washington.

I dont know the first thing about writing music or even how to read it it feels totally foreign to me, Keenan said in an interview with Hearst Connecticut Media, but (Frucht) walked me through what it entails.

The composer sought speeches that shared connective tissue, Keenan said. The six speeches referenced in the symphony are: A More Perfect Union; Obamas first inaugural address; an address to the American Medical Association; an address to the nation on U.S. military action in Syria; an address on the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, Ala.; and a eulogy for the late Rev. Clementa Pinckney in Charleston, S.C.

From each speech, Frucht chose snippets containing universal ideals about thoughtfulness, plurality, unity, spirituality and the way we approach faith, he said. The libretto of A More Perfect Union will be sung by acclaimed American operatic baritone Jorell Williams.

The one thread through all those speeches ... is what kind of country do we want to be, and the answer is never as easy as we think it is, Keenan said. Each of them tell a bigger story about who we are and who we can be as a country and a people.

Obamas address to the AMA in June 2009 provides one of his first arguments for health care reform, Keenan said.

Amid a chippy presidential primary in March 2008, Keenan recalled, Obama confronted racism head in his speech for which RSOs symphony is named. It turned the campaign around, he added.

An updated version of that speech was given as a eulogy seven years later following the Charleston church shooting, which killed nine people, including Pinckney, in June 2015. The speeches address racial divides, divisions and misunderstandings, and how acknowledging our past mistakes as a nation can pave the path for a better future.

Obama views this country as a big jangling symphony you have all these wildly different instruments that look and behave differently working together to make something beautiful, Keenan said. It requires all of them one section playing alone doesnt contribute to the broader piece.

The first movement of A More Perfect Union includes a line from Obamas inaugural address in January 2009: A man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

As a composer, you want to make an audience member think more deeply or feel something about a (certain) moment in their lives, Frucht said, and I hope that this piece does that.

alyssa.seidman@hearstmediact.com

Link:
How Barack Obama's speeches have become focus of Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra - The Ridgefield Press