White House disputes a report that Reagan's home could become a parking lot for Obama's presidential

[DonViejo]

Best worst reactions to that Obama presidential library story

The White House disputes a report that Reagan's home could become a parking lot for Obama's presidential library

BY JILLIAN RAYFIELD

The Daily Mail reported Wednesday that “Former President Ronald Reagan’s childhood Chicago home to be demolished and turned into parking lot – but could it be for Obama’s Presidential Library?” The right, predictably, was outraged, but White House Press Secretary Jay Carney threw cold water on story:

To those chasing the @mailonline "scoop" about alleged Obama library parking lot - stand down. The report is false. Shocking, I know.

— Jay Carney (EOP) (@PressSec) January 30, 2013

The story initially gained traction about a month ago, when a conservative journalist, Mary Claire Kendall, wrote about it for the Washington Examiner. At the time, the story was picked up by a few bloggers, like Judi McLeod of the Canada Free Press.”To the beat of Joni Mitchell’s song, Big Yellow Taxi running in the background, we’re calling on Michael Reagan and NewsMax.com to come to the rescue of an American tragedy in the making,” McLeod wrote.

The story gained more steam after Bill Kelley, a contributor to the American Spectator and Breitbart.com, picked up the Mail story and wrote about it on the Washington Times communities page, asking if the move was “politically motivated”:

This is still Chicago. Barack Obama’s Chicago. Rahm Emanuel’s Chicago. It is safe to say that Democrats don’t want any reminders of a Republican president named Reagan and his glory days a stone’s throw from a future Obama Presidential Library.

Better to raze the building now, than later. But do they have the right to erase Ronald Reagan from Chicago history?

The story was reposted by Drudge Report, Newsmax, Fox Nation, and a number of conservative bloggers, who were not pleased. Blogger Pat Dollard wondered if it is an “act of spite.”

-snip-

http://www.salon.com/2013/01/31/best_worst_reactions_to_the_obama_presidential_library_story/

[Angry Dragon]

1. The White House should have run with it

They should have said that they were not planning on it until the republicans brought it up and to be bi-partisan they would consider it and it sounded like a good idea.

[Agnosticsherbet]

2. They should use its site as a Reagan Memorial Public Toilet.

Each square of toilet paper could have Reagan's smiling face. The Urinals could be in the shape of his head.

[frazzled]

3. Bought by U of C, with other land, in 2004 (before Obama was even Senator)

From a February 2011 (two years ago) article in the Sun-Times:

Locked up, abandoned and forgotten, the vacant six-flat standing at the northeast corner of 57th and Maryland has no plaques or statues and few clues to its history.

Now, the little-known childhood home of Ronald Reagan in Hyde Park could soon be torn down by the University of Chicago, which has quietly plotted its demolition, the Sun-Times has learned.

The plan has made unlikely allies of conservatives who consider Reagan an icon and liberal Hyde Parkers who say the university’s secrecy is typical of how it has treated its neighbors for decades.

It puts the school that provided the intellectual force behind “Reaganomics” in the awkward spot of attempting to destroy what was until the election of Barack Obama the only home in Chicago where a president has lived.

In fact, the university’s controversial new Milton Friedman Institute — named in tribute to the architect of Reagan’s free market policies — is just a few blocks away from the former Reagan home.

Though Reagan — born 100 years ago Sunday — spent just a year at the home as a 3-to-4 year-old from 1914 to 1915 and most of his youth in western Illinois, he wrote fondly of the gas-lit first-floor apartment at 832 E. 57th St.

...


University officials, who bought Reagan’s home in 2004 and ordered tenants out a year ago, refuse to publicly discuss their plans for the building or the surrounding area. Spokesman Jeremy Manier said the university has “no announcements to make.”

But sources inside and outside the university versed in its real estate policy say it is in private talks to demolish the home, and that the university has long considered buying up and razing the entire block and the block to the east as essential to hospital expansion. The $700 million, 10-story Hospital Pavilion, due to open in 2013, already looms over Reagan’s home across 57th Street.

Records show the university spent millions buying at least 60 percent of the two blocks over the last 20 years, with most purchased since 2000 now standing vacant. It already owns blocks to the immediate north, south and east, while Washington Park blocks westward expansion. A university source said at least some officials have known of the Reagan connection for years.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/3637552-418/reagan-university-president-park-building.html

[LeftinOH]

4. The Daily Mail is a generator of outrageous urban legends-

this is just another one of many.

[dballance]

5. Even if it Were True Who Really Cares? He Only Lived There One Year.

From the Chicago Sun-Times article:

"Though Reagan — born 100 years ago Sunday — spent just a year at the home as a 3-to-4 year-old from 1914 to 1915 and most of his youth in western Illinois, he wrote fondly of the gas-lit first-floor apartment at 832 E. 57th St." Right, I clearly remember my year between the ages of 3 and 4. I call BS. Whatever he wrote probably was encouraged by his publisher to make a heart-warming anecdote.

A YEAR, he only lived there for a year. It's not a landmark. These "Reagan as a God" worshipers have to get over their disposition to declare anything Reagan touched a holy relic.

I still refuse to call National airport in DC "Reagan National" airport.