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Obama's new Presidential Center and his tricky relationship with the South Side
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Is This Gentrification? Natalie Moore Complicates the Frame
At 29:15 · chapter starts 28:05
Gene Demby asks Natalie Moore whether the Obama Center story is just a classic gentrification-and-revitalization narrative, with the unusual twist that the deep-pocketed developer is the first Black president. Moore says yes, that's too simple — and takes the framing apart carefully. Black South Side neighborhoods have historically been stripped of investment, so any development arrival triggers understandable suspicion about who it's really for. But Moore doesn't agree with the most extreme organizer position either, which she characterizes as 'this is a wholesale attempt by the Obamas to push us out.' She doesn't believe the Obamas intend to displace Black residents. She also doubts the most optimistic version: that the center will spark a renaissance of Black-owned businesses on 63rd Street. [1] — Natalie Moore "Calling what's happening in Woodlawn 'gentrification' is technically imprecise: classic gentrification — wealthy white newcomers flooding a…" 28:05 Then she makes her sharpest conceptual point: gentrification is a fraught word because classic gentrification — white yuppies flooding a Black neighborhood, displacing residents — often simply does not happen in Black neighborhoods in that way. The economic dynamics are different. What is happening in Woodlawn is real-estate speculation and price inflation, but characterizing it as gentrification can obscure more than it reveals.
Calling what's happening in Woodlawn 'gentrification' is technically imprecise: classic gentrification — wealthy white newcomers flooding a Black neighborhood — often doesn't happen that way in Black communities. But disinvestment followed by speculation is very real. Natalie Moore argues the framing on all sides has been overstated.
Michelle Obama grew up in South Shore, a South Side neighborhood, and the couple were married at the South Shore Cultural Center, giving the center's location deep personal roots.
A white-led group called Protect Our Parks sued repeatedly to stop the Obama Center from being built on public parkland — and courts rejected them every time. Natalie Moore notes that a group that doesn't otherwise advocate for equity choosing this particular fight is a very intentional, curious choice.
A white-led group called Protect Our Parks repeatedly sued to stop the Obama Center from being built on parkland; courts rejected every case, with a final ruling in 2018.
