CHICAGO (AP) — Mayor Rahm Emanuel said he acted too hastily and made a mistake when he announced plans to name a high school after President Barack Obama on Chicago’s North Side.
“In my rush to honor our favorite son, I made a mistake,” Emanuel said Wednesday. “I heard the community, and it’s not going to be named after the president. My goal is to have a library named after him in the city of Chicago.”
Emanuel, Obama’s former White House chief of staff, said in a statement last week that he was backing away from his decision to name the $60 million selective enrollment high school after his former boss.
There has been grumbling among aldermen and others ever since Emanuel announced plans in April to build Barack Obama College Preparatory High School. They balked at the idea of naming a school on the city’s near North Side after a president whose political career was launched on the South Side and who still has a home there.
