The idea that President Obama’s presidential library would be sited in Chicago may not be a sure thing anymore.
Critics say the city doesn’t have its act together on its proposal, and the Obamas’ foundation is less than thrilled with how things are going, the New York Times reports.
If the library isn’t built in Chicago, which President Obama once represented in Congress, it could be built, for example, in New York City, where the president attended Columbia University, or Hawaii, where the president lived with his grandparents as a teenager.
In Chicago, both the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago are making pitches to lure the library.
The foundation is concerned, the Chicago Tribune reported last week, because the land for the site proposed by the private University of Chicago is actually controlled by the Chicago Park District, a separate public entity. Meanwhile, a leadership change at UIC casts a shadow on its proposal.
But Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a former Obama chief of staff, has tried to reassure Chicagoans that they’ll win out. “Chicago is going to meet its test and pass with flying colors,” Emanuel said last week, according to the Windy City’s WLS-TV.
