Unknown Speaker 0:03 And we're live. All right. It can be really, really fun to get some like sound, running water. Take to Unknown Speaker 0:16 welcome to the debut podcast or the maroon Weekly. I'm your host Austin. Unknown Speaker 0:19 And I'm Miles. Unknown Speaker 0:20 We're both first years and this is going to be the Maroons new weekly podcast covering everything you Chicago. Unknown Speaker 0:26 So every week we'll be bringing the tons of great content. We're going to recap the last week's news, we're going to have a couple of featured stories and we'll be bringing you a preview of what's to come in the upcoming week. Unknown Speaker 0:36 Also have a fun, cool, neat tech fact. So watch out for those. Unknown Speaker 0:40 This week, we're bringing you a primer on the Obama Presidential Library and we're going to talk to you about what UCSC did in relation to MLK Day. So what happened last week, miles? Well, dozens of students woke up at dawn every morning to celebrate the university's annual tradition of gouvia Unknown Speaker 0:54 Ha Did you know active mines and access you Chicago celebrated see through stigma week Unknown Speaker 0:58 I didn't. But I do know that the women's basketball team claims 10 straight wins winning 72 to 63 yesterday against Brandeis. Unknown Speaker 1:05 Damn they were killing it. Well, we also have some more stats about class of 2021 that were published in Chicago maroon you should definitely check that out on the website. Unknown Speaker 1:13 In other news, you see Dan has teamed up with the College Democrats of Illinois to host a public forum for candidates and the Attorney General for Illinois Democratic primary race. Unknown Speaker 1:21 Wow, that sounds like it went great. On the other hand, the Policy Exchange had a pipe burst Luckily there were no injuries but the entire North Building got absolutely wrecked. Unknown Speaker 1:30 No, that's not accurate. It's just all their all their internet all their internet infrastructure got Unknown Speaker 1:37 everything that sounds like they don't remove drywall and stuff. Yeah. But like the building was not destroyed. Repairs are ongoing. However, the South building remains open. Unknown Speaker 1:45 The Med started selling beer much to the joy of upperclassmen. Unknown Speaker 1:49 And if you haven't heard about it yet, check out news reporter Emily miles coverage of the Social Science Research Center's new violence law and politics Lab, which investigates a historical policy context around homicide ways to better understand the dynamics of urban crime. Recently, you may have heard something about a CVA in relation to the Obama Presidential Library so we wanted to find out more. Unknown Speaker 2:09 The south side was announced as the future location of the Obama Presidential Library in May of 2015. But it wasn't until two years later in May of last year that the foundation unveiled its preliminary plan. The foundation hopes to start construction by the end of this year, with the grand opening expected in 2021. The library has proposed would take up 3.6 acres of what is now parkland, but the Foundation believes the closure of Cornell drive, a six lane road which runs through Jackson Park will make up for this loss of park space. The foundation estimates 5000 jobs created during construction, as well as an additional 2500 permanent jobs in the area with a projected total economic impact of $3.1 billion in its first 10 years. Architects estimate that the project's three main buildings the museum, Library and Community Forum will together amass over 200,000 square feet Unknown Speaker 2:54 while groups first began to organize following the foundation's initial announcement the Obama Library Southside community benefits agreement Coalition did not publish an official platform until September 29 2016. Since then, the coalition membership has grown from four to 13 members including the Chicago Teachers Union, black youth project and friends of the park. Since then, the discussions surrounding the CBA have been met with fierce debate. Proponents of the CBA have hosted Community Information Sessions letter writing campaigns, marches, protests and more. Meanwhile, foundation officials and others have continued to oppose signing a CBA Unknown Speaker 3:28 we spoke to Alex Ward, a news reporter for the maroon to talk about his coverage of the Obama Presidential Center. Unknown Speaker 3:35 Here's the most important thing. Michelle, and I want this center to be more than just a building. 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. We want it to be a gathering place somewhere for all kinds of people to come together and learn not just from history, or current events, but from Unknown Speaker 3:59 what you just heard was a piece of audio from the Obama Foundation about the Presidential Center. We sat down with one of our news reporters to get caught up on the story so far. Unknown Speaker 4:08 I'm Alex Ward. I'm a reporter with Chicago maroon I'm a third year in the college and for the maroon I sort of cover the generally the development of the Obama Presidential Center. Unknown Speaker 4:24 Thanks for joining us, Alex. Recently, there's been a lot of coverage on the maroon about the center's parking lot. Could you fill us in on that Unknown Speaker 4:30 story? The main issue with the garage seems to be as he said, the location the original idea that the center had for the garage was that it would be sort of a two storey above ground structure with a landscaped sloping roof on the east end of the midway. So there's past the Metro tracks. They're sort of an open green space and different residents definitely have different reasons for objecting there were If there were some groups that were concerned that sort of building the garage there would disrupt Jackson Park and the Midways sort of historic connection since that they were designed together by Frederick Law Olmstead and his partner Calvert Vox as sort of at a parks network. And there was only concerned that building a garage there would would break up the flow between those two parks. And there was also just concern that the garage with the garage, there would be a loss of green space. Other than Unknown Speaker 5:37 the location of the parking lot, what other concerns does the community have with the center, Unknown Speaker 5:41 there's concern about the loss of a fairly large amount of park space. And then the other big issue is the closing of Cornell drive, which cuts through that part of the of Jackson Park and is a fairly large six lane roadway. So those are those are the issues with the plan itself. I also think there were there are also some issues that are more related to just any development of this size. In an area. Basically a historically underserved area like, like this part of the south side, there's concerns both about the potential harm, potential downsides and benefits of the center. Downsides, mainly involving concerns about residents being forced out. Unknown Speaker 6:41 The other big story around the Obama center is the discussion surrounding a proposed community benefits agreement, aka SCBA. Could you explain exactly what a CBA is? Unknown Speaker 6:53 So a community benefits agreement is the idea of getting sort of a written a written legally binding agreement between the developers and the community. So there would actually be three community benefits agreements between one each with the city of Chicago, the Obama Foundation, and the University of Chicago, which is been a sort of important part of the development at the university originally proposed the site, people are looking for a CVA both to sort of mitigate the potential gentrification and the potential for residents to be negatively affected, but also just to make sure that potential benefits of the center like like that, in those employment numbers that the foundation was discussing, and the economic benefit, as well as you know, potentials for educational opportunities. And Unknown Speaker 7:53 so what exactly are the Obama Foundation's reasons for being opposed to the CBA? Unknown Speaker 8:00 The Obama Foundation has pushed back on this as have various other entities associated with the development. The in September, there was a meeting between developers and some members of the community where Barack Obama personally sort of voiced opposition to the idea of a community benefits agreement. And his basic argument was that the foundation does actually have good intentions, you know, they actually do want to bring benefits to the south side, they don't want to force people out. And when you when you agree to something like a community benefits agreement, you're, you're saying you're signing a deal with certain people. And there's sort of a an implication, but also a potential practical effect of these people are cutting on a deal other people want. Other people in other organizations want to be part of that deal, and they want to get part of some of the benefits. Unknown Speaker 9:15 Thanks, Alex, for chatting with Austin and I about that. If you want to find out more as the story develops, you should follow the Marines coverage. Next up, we have an interview conducted by Grace Hawk grace, who'd you talk to you? Unknown Speaker 9:25 Hey, miles, thanks for having me. So I actually chatted with Amy Chan, who is the Dean and Director of University of Chicago Community Service Center, which is UCSD. It's actually part of the Office of Civic Engagement and it focuses on providing people exposure to various social justice issues in Chicago and shows them how to get involved. So we chatted about the work that volunteers did on Saturday in honor of MLK Day, as well as a little bit about the upcoming homeless count. Also, most people don't know that UCSD is actually located right across from Ratner, kind of by that parking garage near North. So feel free to stop in for any questions and chat with UCSC. Unknown Speaker 9:57 Let's take a listen. Unknown Speaker 10:00 We're really excited to have this opportunity to host this annual event in partnership with our wonderful colleagues at the lab school as well as Unknown Speaker 10:10 UC charter. How many years have you been doing this now. Unknown Speaker 10:13 So this is our third year of collaborating with the lab, school as well as UC charter. The park to that it was an event that UCSC historically has hosted since our founding, when Michelle Obama was our founding director. 20 years ago, Unknown Speaker 10:30 I grew up just a few miles from the University of Chicago in my hometown, the institution made no effort to reach out to me a bright and promising student in their midst, and I have no reason to believe there was a place for me there. Therefore, when it came time for me to apply to college, I never for one second considered the university in my own backyard as a viable option. And as fate would have it, I ultimately went on and accepted a position in Student Affairs at the University of Chicago more than a decade later, I wanted desperately to be involved in helping to break down the barriers that existed between the campus and the community. And in less than a year through that position, I worked with others to build the university's first office of community service. And today, the office continues to provide students with opportunities to help reshape relationships between the university and its surrounding community. Students out there today are volunteering and local elementary schools serving as mentors and high schools, organizing neighborhood watches and work in show we're really Unknown Speaker 11:40 proud to be able to continue the wonderful legacy that Michelle Obama put forth 21 years ago, in seeing the University of Chicago as a place where students in particular could find a way to integrate service and civic engagement into a rigorous academic life. Our MLK Day of Service event theme, is the fierce urgency of now. With Dr. King message in his I Have a Dream speech, Unknown Speaker 12:11 now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice now is the pie Unknown Speaker 12:30 is like what is urgent that we're observing in our society that can allow us to be an asset. So tomorrow in the morning, there will be the service component and then the afternoon we will have a keynote dialogue at the max P cinema with to you Chicago alums. So we have 16 off site organizations and they're on the south side. So Washington Park, Woodlawn, Brownsville, Englewood, South Shore, South Chicago, and many of the organizations focus on various issues, education, college access, arts, health, poverty, homelessness. So the volunteers will be participating in the projects that we asked the committee partners to propose. So for example, one service site array Elementary, they will be helping to catalog and store books or other partners Chicago youth programs in Washington Park, they're having the volunteers just organize and prepare the spaces for their after school programming feather fists is preparing for their annual homeless data count, in partnership with the City of Chicago. So what is Unknown Speaker 13:50 that data count? Unknown Speaker 13:51 That is happening on Thursday, January 25. Unknown Speaker 13:55 Okay, so listeners, if you hear that, feel free to get involved, Unknown Speaker 13:59 please do get involved. And this is our fourth year participating with about five to seven different organizations on the south side where we deploy teams of volunteers to work closely with the staff of these various organizations serving the homeless population to do a data count to inform the city of the allocation of resources, and really address an issue that's very prevalent in the city. Unknown Speaker 14:29 And you mentioned that there are 16 offsite locations where projects will be taking, Yes, tomorrow. What's going on on campus? Unknown Speaker 14:36 Yeah, it's a really exciting new project, our second year of partnering with a nonprofit called Rise Against Hunger, as well as the Kraft Heinz foundation to do a meal packaging activity at the last school. This has turned out to be a wonderful activity especially for the little kids there are different stations where there is the way weighing of the micronutrients and the packaging, and then taking it to the truck that will then, you know, all these meals that are packaged. And our challenge is to package with the 150 volunteers that we're projecting 30,000 meals that will be delivered to developing countries Unknown Speaker 15:21 developing countries. Exactly. Global, not even just on the south side, you're literally shipping the Yes. Unknown Speaker 15:27 So they ship them to India, they ship them to Africa. And so it's a wonderful way for us to have the volunteers learn about hunger issues across the world across the globe, but also to do something very meaningful. Unknown Speaker 15:43 And that's 150 volunteers just on campus. Correct. How many volunteers will be going around the Southside of Chicago? We're Unknown Speaker 15:50 anticipating 250 for our 16 off site, community partner organizations Wow, you're again doing tremendous work. Unknown Speaker 16:00 So of the four or 500 or so volunteers then I those mostly undergrads, that you Chicago, are they mostly students from lab school? Unknown Speaker 16:08 Yeah, great question. This is the only annual event that actually spans the entire spectrum of the you Chicago community. So elementary, middle school students, high school students, undergrads, graduate students, alumni, faculty, I had yesterday, a parent of a second year student who works at Northwestern Rachel's like I heard about the event from my daughter, is there a way for me to get involved? And I said it again? Absolutely. The more the merrier, we really see the Day of Service and our MLK Day of Service as an entry point for further engagement. So oftentimes, these days of services like great that we have the people power to do a lot of things that the organizations that might have limited staff capacity to do like organizing and just making sure that the infrastructure is set up. But we hope that just due to the various issues that they're addressing education, arts health, that students will explore, I really would encourage our listeners to consider how to get involved. And there's so many ways to do so. But everyone has a place in improving the social fabric of our society, especially our amazing city of Chicago. Our website is UCSC dot u chicago.edu. Feel free to reach out to me at AMI chan ch a n@uchicago.edu and I'd be happy to sit down with you to have a chat. Unknown Speaker 17:45 And for those listening happy MLK Day. Hey guys, if you like what you're hearing, check out our weekly arts cast first episode coming this Wednesday on VR games you tease production of as you like it and more. Unknown Speaker 18:00 Thanks, Dean Chan and Grace and I encourage all of you guys to make use of UCSC and check out what they have to offer. If you couldn't make it to UCSC service day on Saturday. Check out civil rights leader Professor Timmy All Blacks afternoon tour of the South Side where he'll talk about his work with Dr. King and civil rights in Chicago. The program will begin in a couple hours around 1130 This morning, and stop by Rockefeller Chapel tonight at 6pm to hear reporter and activist Dorothy Butler, Gilliam's keynote commemoration address. Unknown Speaker 18:27 So Austin, what's coming up next week. Unknown Speaker 18:29 So miles if you like jazz the third Tuesday, jazz is at Logan center this January 16 at 7pm hosted by the Hyde Park jazz society featuring Ari Brown. Unknown Speaker 18:39 In other music news, you can hear the early music ensemble at 4pm in Fulton Hall on January 18. On January Unknown Speaker 18:45 19, coupe presents the snowball to Chicago Cultural Center. Unknown Speaker 18:49 For other great events, check out Chicago maroon.com/events For an interactive calendar where you can see everything going on on campus. So Austin, here's what the sweet fact for this week. Unknown Speaker 18:59 Okay, so the Consumer Electronics Show was last week biggest tech show of the year and there were a ton of cool gadgets. However, the coolest was the cell phone iPhone case drone. So it was a Kickstarter project that raised over a million dollars and partnered with a drone technologies company. And what it is, is it's a phone case that's about half an inch thick the sides of like an Otterbox case that has a drone built into it. So the drone pops out, you can throw it up in the air and it'll help you like take selfie shots and get some sick panorama shots with it. It has full HD 60 frames per second. It only costs $130.45 feet of range. It's so cool. You got to check it out thanks for tuning in this week. First off, we want to thank grace our podcast Unknown Speaker 19:46 contributor and also thank Alex Ward and Dean chan for their interviews thanks to the entire Logan cage staff Ben and Kent for their technical assistance. And thanks to Aaron Senate and for the original music. Unknown Speaker 19:56 Finally, thanks to Katherine MacDonald for her continued support of this past eject I'm Austin Unknown Speaker 20:01 and I'm Myles thanks for tuning in we'll catch you next week Transcribed by https://otter.ai