HYDE PARK — With Chicago’s native son approaching his fifth year in the White House, Forgotten Chicago is offering a tour of South Side paths that Barack Obama traveled on the way to power.
With all the requisite stops in Hyde Park at the University of Chicago and lunch at Valois Cafeteria, the tour goes past the history many know to travel deep to the South Side of the city where the president’s career began.
“This is really a chance to get to know those places before Hyde Park, such as Pullman and Altgeld Gardens,” said Daniel Pogorzelski, one of the tour organizers.
The man raised on the island of Hawaii arrived in Altgeld Gardens, the remote public housing project on the far Southeast Side, in the mid-1980s as a rookie community organizer.
“It is literally surrounded by the boundaries of the city and a forest,” Pogorzelski said.
The tour is the first time Forgotten Chicago has explored the city through the life of a single individual.
“Given the big stature of the first president to come from Chicago, we think it is worth it,” Pogorzelski said.
The tour starts at 10 a.m. Nov. 10 at the Chicago Cultural Center, 77 E. Randolph St., and costs $60 per person. The tour returns at 3:30 p.m. and includes lunch at Valois in Hyde Park.
“Given that we have a native son as president, we think this will appeal to anyone who is interested in Barack Obama,” Pogorzelski said.
