The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
Back when former Gov. George Ryan was letting lawmakers pass out grants to boost the economy and build political support, a young state senator named Barack Obama secured $100,000 in state money to help a not-for-profit group create a botanic garden in Englewood.
There's more:
Now, more than a decade later, Illinois state officials are still trying to recover that grant, which they say the garden’s developers misspent. And the effort isn’t going well.It was in January 2000 that Obama and Kenny B. Smith, president and chief executive officer of the Chicago Better Housing Association, laid out their “Englewood Beautification Plan” — a $1.1 million “botanical walk, garden and fountain” that would span 6
1/2 blocks under the CTA’s Green Line tracks near new homes that the group had been building in the crime-plagued South Side neighborhood.
The story the New York Times, MSNBC, and others will not be talking about today.
