Obama lived in a 1.6 million dollar home in Hyde Park in Chicago....Now that he is leaving everyone is trying to buy into the neighborhood. See article below.. By KEVIN J. KELLEY in Chicago Posted Saturday, November 22 2008 at 19:37
Barack Obama's Chicago neighborhood closely reflects his progressive political views, urban style and multi-cultural background. Which is to say it's quite unlike any of the home communities of previous US presidents.
Hyde Park is situated on the city's South Side, a few miles from the famous downtown Loop district. The skyscrapers that make Chicago America's most architecturally distinctive city can be seen towering in the distance from the Lake Michigan shoreline on the edge of Hyde Park.
It's an unusually diverse neighborhood, racially and economically.
According to the 2000 US census, 44 per cent of Hyde Park's 29,000 residents are white and 38 per cent are African-American.
Asians account for 11 per cent of the local population, with Hispanics making up four per cent. Another three per cent of Hyde Parkers described themselves as "other" on the part of the census form that lists racial groups.
President-elect Obama and his family are not the only celebrities who call Hyde Park home. Louis Farrakhan, the controversial leader of the Nation of Islam, lives here. So does Bill Ayers, a member of the 1960s-era Weather Underground group that bombed several government buildings in protest against racism and the Vietnam war.
Mr Ayers, used in guilt-by-association attacks on Mr Obama during the presidential campaign, hosted a fundraising event for Mr Obama in 1995 when the young neighbourhood politician was running for a seat in the Illinois state legislature.
Hyde Park votes overwhelmingly for left-leaning Democrats, but its institutional anchor, the University of Chicago, has long been a base for leading conservative intellectuals. Mr Obama taught at the university's law school for 12 years.
He has lived in Hyde Park since the 1980s when he moved to Chicago to work as a community organizer. Mr Obama initially rented a flat in a working-class area near the university.
In 2005, he and his wife Michelle, along with their two daughters, Malia and Sasha, moved into a mansion on South Greenwood Avenue that they had bought for $1.6 million.
Their street is now closed to everyone but its residents and is watched over closely by Secret Service agents and Chicago police.
"There's a certain amount of inconvenience," one of the Obamas' neighbors, Jade Giacobbe, said one recent afternoon as she stood alongside a police barricade. "But it's an inconvenience you're willing to cope with if it assures the safety of him and his family."
Hyde Park stands as a generally prosperous enclave within the larger South Side that is mainly black and poor. It has historically been a racially segregated part of the city, and it continues to be a part of Chicago that outsiders seldom visit.
The Chicago White Sox baseball team's stadium is less than two miles from the incoming First Family's home. While relaxing in his neighborhood, Mr Obama often wears a cap with the White Sox logo.
Closer still is the DuSable Museum of African-American History, regarded as the pre-eminent institution of its kind.
The neighborhood is also known for its bookshops, one of which Mr Obama used to visit regularly. He also frequented local playgrounds with his daughters and sometimes played basketball on courts near the lake.
45Caliber
Obama lived in a 1.6 million dollar home in Hyde Park in Chicago....Now that he is leaving everyone is trying to buy into the neighborhood. See article below.. By KEVIN J. KELLEY in Chicago Posted Saturday, November 22 2008 at 19:37
Barack Obama's Chicago neighborhood closely reflects his progressive political views, urban style and multi-cultural background. Which is to say it's quite unlike any of the home communities of previous US presidents.
Hyde Park is situated on the city's South Side, a few miles from the famous downtown Loop district. The skyscrapers that make Chicago America's most architecturally distinctive city can be seen towering in the distance from the Lake Michigan shoreline on the edge of Hyde Park.
It's an unusually diverse neighborhood, racially and economically.
According to the 2000 US census, 44 per cent of Hyde Park's 29,000 residents are white and 38 per cent are African-American.
Asians account for 11 per cent of the local population, with Hispanics making up four per cent. Another three per cent of Hyde Parkers described themselves as "other" on the part of the census form that lists racial groups.
President-elect Obama and his family are not the only celebrities who call Hyde Park home. Louis Farrakhan, the controversial leader of the Nation of Islam, lives here. So does Bill Ayers, a member of the 1960s-era Weather Underground group that bombed several government buildings in protest against racism and the Vietnam war.
Mr Ayers, used in guilt-by-association attacks on Mr Obama during the presidential campaign, hosted a fundraising event for Mr Obama in 1995 when the young neighbourhood politician was running for a seat in the Illinois state legislature.
Hyde Park votes overwhelmingly for left-leaning Democrats, but its institutional anchor, the University of Chicago, has long been a base for leading conservative intellectuals. Mr Obama taught at the university's law school for 12 years.
He has lived in Hyde Park since the 1980s when he moved to Chicago to work as a community organizer. Mr Obama initially rented a flat in a working-class area near the university.
In 2005, he and his wife Michelle, along with their two daughters, Malia and Sasha, moved into a mansion on South Greenwood Avenue that they had bought for $1.6 million.
Their street is now closed to everyone but its residents and is watched over closely by Secret Service agents and Chicago police.
"There's a certain amount of inconvenience," one of the Obamas' neighbors, Jade Giacobbe, said one recent afternoon as she stood alongside a police barricade. "But it's an inconvenience you're willing to cope with if it assures the safety of him and his family."
Hyde Park stands as a generally prosperous enclave within the larger South Side that is mainly black and poor. It has historically been a racially segregated part of the city, and it continues to be a part of Chicago that outsiders seldom visit.
The Chicago White Sox baseball team's stadium is less than two miles from the incoming First Family's home. While relaxing in his neighborhood, Mr Obama often wears a cap with the White Sox logo.
Closer still is the DuSable Museum of African-American History, regarded as the pre-eminent institution of its kind.
The neighborhood is also known for its bookshops, one of which Mr Obama used to visit regularly. He also frequented local playgrounds with his daughters and sometimes played basketball on courts near the lake.
45Caliber