Chicago's Obama Presidential Center Opens Amid Ballooning Costs and Displacement Fears

The Obama Presidential Center in Chicago opens after costs balloon to about $850 million, with Illinois taxpayers contributing roughly $120 million for surrounding infrastructure and total public costs around $200 million. The center is a civic campus with a museum, library, plaza and community programming, but locals warn the project could price them out via higher rents and taxes. The project has faced controversy over design, delays, payments to subcontractors, and a racial-discrimination lawsuit by a Black-owned firm; the Obama Foundation defends its DEI goals, while some see the center as a potential economic engine for the South Side.