Obama says it's ok for rent to rise a bit near presidential center: "If you go into some neighborhoods in Chicago where there are no jobs, no businesses, and nothing's going on— in some cases the rent's pretty cheap but, our kids are also getting shot on that block" (hp classics)
Here are his comments on a CBA... (part 1/2 b/c it's long):
(2/2)
tldw: 1) Foundation is a nonprofit, not a business, so he says he's working for the community first without a cba. 2) There are a lot of community organizations so even if they sign with 5, 10, 40, 50 orgs, there will still be some groups in the community not represented.
Would there have been power struggles if the Foundation went the route of negotiating a cba? sure. but community orgs would've been eager to work out those issues. Seems like a pessimistic attitude for an optimistic president to say it's not possible.
Also, the U of C seems to be the one org that's exempt from this problem of "Oh, we probably can't work with everyone, so we won't work with anyone" 🤨
news.uchicago.edu/article/2018/0…
news.uchicago.edu/article/2018/0…
Courtney, a woodlawn resident who couldn’t share full name bc she works for city, says people should be yelling about the development if rent will go up. Says most people in the community are already struggling to pay rent.
Courtney also says there should be equal opportunity employment for construction. Pointed to a man standing with her and says community residents like him should be able to get hired to do construction if they’re qualified.
Another resident, Efrem, on rent going up: “I don’t approve of it, because people over here barely doing what they can now to pay the rent that they is in this neighborhood. ... It would be harder for a lot of families over here”
As people are pointing out in the replies: his argument (that residents should tolerate rising rents b/c development comes w/ reduced violence in the neighborhood) doesn’t do a whole lot for people who’d have to relocate to more dangerous neighborhoods where they’d be outsiders.
