Plans for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago are coming under fire amid concerns about the cost and doubts about the benefits for the local area, with a group of professors from the school where Barack Obama once taught slamming one proposal as "socially regressive."
The former president said in a video statement released Tuesday that he had been "pretty hands-on" with the project and had high hopes for what it could do for the local area.
“Michelle and I want this center to be more than just a building,” Obama said. “We want to create an economic engine for the South Side of Chicago, a cultural attraction that showcases the South Side to the rest of the world.”