The Obama Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) Coalition hosted its third annual summit over the weekend. Constituents met at South Shore High School on Saturday to discuss how to prevent displacement as the Obama Presidential Center prepares for a 2026 opening and how to advocate for developments that center the wants and needs of surrounding Woodlawn and South Shore residents.
“What is the legislation that we’re going to have in order to make sure we’re protected in every community? They ain’t gone just stop at the Obama Center. That’s just the biggest thing that’s going to be built,” Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th Ward) told the crowd. Her remarks were received with agreement as she called out outside developers like the ones looking to build a hotel near the site.
The event zeroed in on solutions to displacement, such as community organizing and demanding more from politicians.
Speakers noted that Mayor Brandon Johnson and two alders whose jurisdictions are impacted were invited to the summit, but did not attend. Alders Michelle Harris (8th Ward) and Greg Mitchell (7th) were called out multiple times during the event for not showing up for their constituents.
Following the announcement of the Obama Presidential Center in 2015, organizers fought for a CBA agreement for Woodlawn; they won it in 2020. The agreement secured sites for affordable housing and provisions for longtime residents to become property owners.
Since the win, however, organizers have been looking for the Chicago City Council to establish the same housing protections to preserve affordable housing for South Shore residents, too. Many in the neighborhood have complained about landlords not renewing their leases, and living in slum conditions with fears of displacement.
Woodlawn resident Charles Gill, who has attended past summits, said he came out to support the residents of South Shore.
“The information they give to try to support [community input] is very important for us to participate as African American people, to support our elders, who have been in the neighborhood forever,” Gil said.
Ald. Desmon Yancy (5th Ward), also in attendance, said a CBA ordinance for South Shore is crucial.
“When we talk about this beautiful lakefront property, in South Shore, it’s the last place in the country like this,” Yancy said during the community and aldermanic panel portion of the summit. “This place is very special. So while people are coming to South Shore, we talk about gentrification, and that is a role that our government, unfortunately, has played in diluting our historic communities. The CBA is important because this pushes the government to do the right thing. We won in Woodlawn. We’re going to win in South Shore.”
This year’s summit also discussed the impact of the upcoming public-private quantum computing campus at the former U.S. Steel South Works site in South Chicago. The multibillion-dollar Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park, anchored by Silicon Valley tech startup PsiQuantum, has received zoning change approval by the City Council without community input and without considering possible harms, according to organizers.
Ald. Mitchell has expressed his support for the quantum park along with Mayor Johnson, who has called the project a win for the Southeast Side, touting it as an investment for the area.
“We have a number of concerns about this development. One, it will push us out of the neighborhood, raise the rent and property taxes in South Chicago and South Shore and cause gentrification just like the Obama Center is doing; it will not have jobs for residents,” said Dawn Johnson, a member of Southside Together.
“PsiQuantum has only promised around 150 jobs, which would likely go to highly educated scientists from outside of the neighborhood,” Johnson explained to the summit’s audience. “It could possibly poison our water, air and usage of our resources. The land they are intending to build on is contaminated and harmful pollutants like arsenic and lead, and the developers have not committed to remediating it.”
Organizations such as the Environment Transportation, Health and Open Space of South Shore and the Alliance of the Southeast have been sounding the alarm about the quantum site. Gov. JB Pritzker has committed $500 million from the state to the $9 billion project.
Black residents in South Memphis are taking on a similar fight against Elon Musk’s xAI supercomputer that was placed in their neighborhood without their consent and produces methane. His xAI company runs the Grok chatbot on his X social platform. Such computing facilities add to the environmental racism that Black communities have historically faced all over America, and is one reason Black people are more likely to have respiratory issues such as asthma.
Jerry Whirley, South Shore resident and Southside Together member, shared how the process to debut the quantum facility lacked transparency and will not be good for his community.
“Let’s be honest, if this is truly a project for the community, [for] helping people, it wouldn’t have been happening without us. It wouldn’t be happening without real involvement, real conversation or real accountability,” Whirley said. “There’s a reason this facility isn’t being built on the North Side or downtown. It’s because we’ve been treated like we’re disposable, but we’re not.”
Part two of the CBA Summit is planned for Sept. 27 and will feature Mayor Johnson as a guest participant. The location of the event has yet to be determined.
In March, Johnson included the PsiQuantum Campus in the list of some $20 billion in investments that have been allocated for Black Chicagoans. According to Johnson, the quantum campus is expected to generate a $20 billion economic impact over the next 10 years and more than 175,000 jobs.
