Obama Library doesn’t need above- ground garage
The Obama Library is very quickly proving to be the worst kind of neighbor, the one who says he likes your neighborhood and then insists you change it.
Leave aside the question of whether, on the South Side, where there are so many vacant lots, it ever made sense to sacrifice parkland. Focus only on the current proposal to build an above- ground garage. Where is the need?
For the 13 existing presidential libraries, the average first year atten- dance was only 323,000. Attendance falls by 50 percent in the following years.
The highest attendance in a library’s first year was at the Kennedy Library ( 583,000) and the Lyndon Johnson Library ( 521,000). There is no reason to think the Obama library would ever exceed those numbers, let alone come close.
Compare the Museum of Science and Industry, where in 2016, there were 1.5 million visitors. That is three times the attendance at any presidential library in its opening year and six times the attendance a presidential library can expect after 20 years. The Museum of Science and Industry has not needed to close Columbus Drive and has not thought it necessary to add lanes to Stony Island Avenue. As a good neighbor, it has actually added green space to Jackson Park.
So why, for the Obama Library, should we reroute traffic and sacrifice green space for parking? Or are these “needs” just fantasy, fed by ego and wishful thinking? Howard Helsinger, Hyde Park
Protect DACA recipients
The Trump administration announced that it is rescinding President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. We call on every member of the Illinois congressional delegation to denounce this action and immediately work to pass legislation that would provide a path to citizenship for the nearly 800,000 DACA: individuals living across the country, more than 41,000 of whom live in Illinois.
We urge Congress to do everything in its power to protect Dreamers by making sure the bipartisan Dream Act 2017 becomes law so that DACA recipients gain protection under the law.
Joellen Sbrissa, CSJ Congregation