Good Evening, Everyone!
This is still so surreal! The next President of the United States lives in Our Town!
Barack, Michelle, and the girls live in a beautiful, 110-year old Brown-Brick Colonial Home, on the 5000 Block of South Greenwood Avenue, in the Kenwood Neighborhood of Chicago, just north of Hyde Park, on the South Side.
And after President Elect Obama delivered his most stirring victory speech at Grant Park last night - that's where he went HOME!
The election of Mr. Obama is not only good for America. It is GREAT for Chicago as well!
Last night, we were watching the early votes come in near our office in the Lincoln Square Neighborhood - roughly as far north of Downtown Chicago as the Obama home is south. Folks were youthful, exuberant, ethnically diverse, and excited that we cast the old line aside, and are not set to CHANGE - CHANGE for the better, we all pray.
And his job will not be an easy one, we all know that! But we, as a nation, will now pull for him together, and all do our part to turn things around.
Barack should inspire us all - but he will especially inspire us here, in Chicago - the quintessential Midwest American city!
Will there be any benefits coming our way now that a Fellow Chicagoan will be heading to the White House? Many would assume so - from both a tangible and intangible perspective.
Take first the intangible - tied to our city's image. The city, who for one hundred years hasn't been able to cajole its North Side Baseball Club to win a World Series, is now World Class. All eyes were on Chicago last night, and we LOOKED GOOD! (And, yes, the President Elect happens to be a Chicago White Sox fan - guess you can't make ALL the right decisions, yes?)
It was incredibly ironic that Barack Obama's acceptance speech was delivered in Grant Park in Downtown Chicago. You ex-hippies may remember what happened in that same park just over 40 years ago, during the Summer of 1968.
During that troubled year that included Vietnam War Protests, Civil Rights Unrest, and the assassinations of Bobby Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Chicago Grant Park protests that summer during the Democratic Convention hosted here stained our city.
Forty years later, it appears those old ghosts are long gone. The orderly celebration in the same park last night proves that.
Tangibly, there will be a buzz of activity here as Senator Obama transitions to power prior to Inauguration Day next January 20th. Cabinet posts and other appointments will come soon, and I would bet many of these will be made with the City of Chicago as a backdrop.
As the new President takes office, one might assume that Chicago may become his "Western White House," perhaps in the same way that Crawford TX is now for President Bush.
Obama is the first president in memory transitioning from a major American Urban City. Will his agenda include help to the deteriorating infrastructure and social needs of big cities, in a more profound way than it has during recent administrations? If so - Chicago will likely be the launching pad.
The 2016 Summer Olympics, which Chicago has been vying for in competition with several other cities around the world. Will Obama's hometown presence here give us a bit of a leg up on grabbing the games? Maybe!
The list can go on, folks!
But today, we should all be proud to be Americans! And I am very proud to be a Chicagoan!
Click for Chicago and Suburban Cook County nearly-final vote tallies via CNN.com. Despite the overwhelming Obama victory across Chicago and all of its Neighboring Counties and Suburbs, voter turnout in the city was just over 69% - far lighter than a historic 80 to 90 percent level predicted before the vote.
Click here for vote tallies and registered voter percentages within the City of Chicago, Suburban Cook County IL, as well as the Suburban IL Counties of Lake, DuPage, Kane, McHenry, and Will, from today's Chicago Tribune.
And for more, check out our post today @ BlogChicagoHomes.com.
Godspeed, Barack Obama! Here in Chicago - we're behind you!
DEAN & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO
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