WOODLAWN — Leaders in Woodlawn are preparing for changes to come quickly to the neighborhood now that Barack Obama has chosen Jackson Park for his presidential library.
The Rev. Byron Brazier, pastor of Apostolic Church of God, said at the formal announcement of the library’s location on Wednesday that he believes plans to improve the community that he expected to take 15 years could now be accomplished in little over half that time.
“[The presidential library] is not a catalyst if you have no plans,” Brazier said.
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The church has partnered with community groups, the University of Chicago, the Woodlawn Community Development Corp. and others in recent years to make plans to improve the schools, housing and institutions in the neighborhood.
Brazier said the library will help draw resources to the neighborhood, starting at Stony Island Avenue and pushing west toward Washington Park, where he’s partnered with the Rev. Torrey Barrett of the Life Center Church of God in Christ.
He said he thinks changes will start with improvements to Hyde Park Academy High School, 6220 S. Stony Island Ave., directly across the street from the site for the library.
“You have to at least make that school look like another Walter Payton [College Prep],” Brazier said.
He said he will hold Mayor Rahm Emanuel to his commitments to replace parkland lost by the construction of the library.
“We certainly need a commitment to replace the soccer and football field,” Brazier said.
Emanuel said the library will be a new center of gravity as the city looks to make infrastructure improvements.
“There will be a lot of enrichment that will mushroom out,” Emanuel said.
Brazier said he is preparing people in the community to be an informed part of the process, and, in the next six weeks, the church is rolling out a curriculum for neighborhood residents on how economic and community development processes work in the city.
Emanuel has called on the four aldermen whose wards are closest to the library site to start a forum with residents and community institutions to develop best practices on how development should be done as the library moves forward.
“The Obama Presidential Center, when complete, will offer tremendous educational, cultural and economic benefits to the city and its residents, and it is important that community members be part of the process of investment and development in the South Side of Chicago,” Emanuel said when the effort was announced Friday.
The library is not expected to open until 2021, but Marty Nesbitt, chairman of the Obama Foundation’s board of directors, said the foundation’s work in the community would begin to accelerate next year.
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