Snapshot · The Indicator from Planet Money
Housing organizers and tenant unions spent a decade campaigning with the message 'Yes, Obama Center, no displacement' — affirming the center while demanding housing protections.
Where this was said
At 22:17 · chapter starts 20:30
When the Obama Center was first announced, the dominant fear among South Side residents was that it would serve as a Trojan horse for the University of Chicago to expand its land holdings into Woodlawn. Natalie Moore decided to test this claim empirically, drawing a boundary around East Woodlawn and mapping every significant landowner. [1] — Natalie Moore "City of Chicago largest landholder in East Woodlawn: A reporting project by Natalie Moore found the largest landholder in East Woodlawn was…" 21:07 The result was surprising: the biggest landholder wasn't the University of Chicago at all — it was the city of Chicago itself, which owned vast amounts of vacant land left over from demolished buildings. The late housing organizer Maddie Butler told Moore at the time that there was enough room for everyone in the community: so much vacancy existed that development could happen without displacing a single resident. Myra Kwadja adds that the tenant unions Butler worked with were consistent throughout their decade-long campaign — they were not anti-Obama Center. Their message was simply: 'We want to be able to stay here to enjoy it.' The students Kwadja worked with at Hyde Park Academy echoed the same sentiment: they hoped their younger siblings would get to use the new campus, because they feared their own families would be pushed out first.
Everyone feared the University of Chicago would use the Obama Center as cover for a land grab in Woodlawn. Natalie Moore's data reporting found the opposite: the city of Chicago was by far the biggest landholder in East Woodlawn, owning vacant lots from demolished homes. The city held the power to protect residents — and largely didn't use it.
A reporting project by Natalie Moore found the largest landholder in East Woodlawn was the city of Chicago — not the University of Chicago — due to vacant lots and inherited properties.
The median sale price of a single-family home in Woodlawn has jumped 4.6 times in the past decade. Zillow now lists some homes in the neighborhood at $1 million. People have been displaced. The data is not ambiguous.
Kierkegaard's concept of anxiety as 'the dizziness of freedom' predates Freud's psychological framework by roughly 60 years, yet modern research has since validated his core claims about commitment and identity.
Between 2003 and 2020, Americans accumulated roughly 24 extra hours per month spent alone — the equivalent of a part-time job's worth of isolation, and that's before the pandemic.
Median age at first marriage climbed from 21 (women) and 23 (men) in the 1970s to nearly 29 (women) and 30 (men) today — a rise of 6–8 years per gender, extending the 'emerging adulthood' liminal phase.
San Francisco's average rent rose 18% over the past two years to $3,728/month, surpassing New York City as the most expensive rental market in the country.
San Francisco's average monthly rent now stands at $3,728, surpassing New York City to become the most expensive rental city in the United States.
At a childhood sleepover, Bobby Lee's friends drew penises on his face and he walked 7 miles home on a dirt road before being picked up by Eric Purvis's mom.
In 1950, about 60% of the world lived in extreme poverty; today it's about 1 in 10, attributable to capitalist economic growth.
From 2021 to 2024, 6 million children fell below the poverty line in the US after the expanded child tax credit expired.
Private domestic infant and international adoptions typically cost $40,000 to $70,000, while foster care adoption is the most affordable route at $0 to $2,000.
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