Here Comes More Spending

Remember, Presidential Libraries are (usually) built with contributions and then "donated" to the National Archives and Records Administration, which then "maintains"  the library at public cost. Of course, there's always the "start-up" costs:

• If the Barack Obama Presidential Center is built in Washington Park, the city envisions a walking community, where visitors would step off a CTA Green Line train and stroll along decoratively landscaped sidewalks, lined with pedestrian scale lighting and seating areas.
  
  In Jackson Park, visitors might spend an afternoon biking from the lakefront to a well-lit, paved trail through the Midway Plaisance to the Obama center. Others might prefer to take the No. 10 CTA bus from downtown to the Museum of Science and Industry and then on to a new stop at the presidential library.
  
  The two ideas are among a list of proposals Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office submitted to the University of Chicago last year to strengthen its bid to place the Obama library and museum on the South Side in one of the two parks. Most of the proposals address transforming areas fraught with crime and neglect into a safe and inviting environment where visitors feel at ease — a key challenge for the first presidential center built in a low-income, urban neighborhood.

But Crime is Down!? Or so we heard.

And in true Illinois fashion, have you seen the projected fantasy numbers this library will have to pull in to even break even?

• A study commissioned by the U. of C. last year suggested that the library and museum would have a $220 million a year economic impact on the city, primarily due to an increase in visitors. To reach that goal, the Obama center would have to draw 800,000 visitors a year — more than the combined number who visited the presidential libraries of Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton last year and significantly higher than the 491,000 who visited the newest presidential library — that of George W. Bush.

Don't look now, but Obama is now less popular than W. and certainly doesn't come anywhere near Ronnie's or Willie's numbers...which might just translate into less visitor numbers, which mean Chicago is going to be eating the associated costs with this monstrosity for decades to come.

But this is a "win" for Rahm and Chicago.