Obama defends gentrification ahead of presidential library construction

The Cultural Landscape Foundation, a D.C.-based nonprofit, has consistently called for putting the Obama Presidential Center on property owned by the University of Chicago, which won the bid to host the center, or vacant city land.

Charles A. Birnbaum, the conservation group’s president, said the abandoned buildings and vacant lots cited by Mr. Obama would be ideal locations for his presidential center.

“We agree with the former president,” Mr. Birnbaum said in a statement, “there are vacant lots on the South Side and other areas that could be used for the site of the Obama Presidential Center — public parkland does not need to be taken for it.”