By Hua Qi (Sara), Zheng Jialiang (Jelen), Gao Wenhuan (Eliot) and Gong Jietong (Yamaha)

Chicago has a special place in Obama’s heart.

In 1985, Barack Obama arrived in Chicago and for three years worked on the south side as a community organizer with a meager annual salary of $13,000. Sarah Palin, the Republican Vice Presidential candidate, mocked his humble political beginning on a number of occasions. But Obama says his experience as a community organizer gave him a better understanding of “how the other half lived” and led him into politics.

Chicago has been home to Obama most of his adult life. Here he met his wife, Michelle, and later they married at a local church. Here are his favorite restaurant and church. Here is where the Obama daughters 10-year-old Malia and 7 year-old Sasa were born and raised.  And it was here he became a senator and later launched his presidential campaign.

MacArthur’s

Obama talks about his favorite restaurant, MacArthur’s, in his book The Audacity of Hope. The restaurant is located on West Madison Street, on Chicago’s northwest side.  

This Sunday morning MacArthur’s is filled with black churchgoers from a local church and families from afar. Most of them praised the food. The Chicago Herald Tribune introduced the restaurant like this: the menu here does not have an Obama Hamburger.
 
Obama is not MacArthur’s only celebrity customer. Politicians, writers, artists, sports stars have eaten here as well. Shack. Scottie. Obama’s photo is only one of many that grace the restaurant wall of fame.  

MacArthur’s self-service menu has plenty of ribs, fried chicken, turkey, and some  desserts. Boneless chicken with sweet potatoes cost $8.80. Roasted chicken and macaroni $7.50. Maurice Gaiter, the restaurant manager, said Obama’s favorite was probably fried chicken.  

The small restaurant has a VIP room lined with the long table that Obama has used. Gaiter said before his presidential bid, the Obamas often dined here, like an ordinary black family. This last summer they came back once and ordered fried chicken and red potatoes.

“l met Michelle with the children a couple of times,” said Gaiter. “The children always like to eat  their bananas on the fries.”

Security became an issue since Obama became the Democratic Presidential Nominee. Gaiter said now Obama  orders take-out from home.

“We’ve known each other for four years now and we would talk on the phone once every two months and ask how the other’s doing.” said Gatier.

“Running a political campaign is not easy. I admired him for that.” Gaiter believed this presidential election will have the biggest African-American turn-out yet.

“They will help him make history,” he said. “My son just turned eighteen and he couldn’t wait to vote for Obama.”

Most of the customers at MacArthur’s had no idea they might be sitting in the same seats that Obama once sat in, eating the fried chicken and macaroni that he relished.

Sabina Hessian and her daughter traveled 11 kilometers to lunch at MacArthur’s. She said she did not know it was Obama’s favorite restaurant.  Hessian, who is from Nigeria and works at a human resources company, said her family comes to eat here every month.

“I like the turkey and sweet potato here,” said Aminah,  Hessian’s six-year-old daughter.

“The food here is real soul food,” added the mother.

 ”I like Obama’s views,” Hessian said and hoped he could bring change to Washington. She also looked forward to more work opportunities and affordable healthcare.

Meanwhile, Alfred Lewis, a 61-year-old Vietnam veteran, believed the Bush administration had led the country in the wrong direction.

The American people are tired of high gas prices, high unemployment, and years of war. “The people want to see the changes Obama can bring.” Lewis said.

The Churches

Rose Garden Church is in Roseland. The homes here have a certain charm to them. For three years in the 1980s, Obama worked at the church as a community organizer. Together with the church’s  community development organization, he worked to improve the living standards of low-income members of the community.

The property next to the church was sold and now a facility for mental patients.  

“Until I saw Obama making a speech next door, I had no idea he worked here,” said Carl Pullun. The facility’s supervisor, 60,  lived in the neighborhood for 11 years, where there is also a large Hispanic presence.

 ”The poor need to go out and vote,” said Pullun. “I listened to Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convetnion and got really excited. But I didn’t get the same feeling listening to McCain’s speech.”

“If Obama gets elected and brings real change. Then he’s the real hero,”  he said.  

The Trinity United Church of Christ, a ten-minute drive away from Roesland, used to be Michelle and Obama’s church. Obama was not much of a churchgoer before he met Michelle. But then she changed all that.  

Obama joined the church over 20 years ago and was an active member from the start.   He had also established a long friendship with its pastor, Jeremiah Wright, who presided at his wedding.  

That relationship ended with much controversy this April, when Wright made his controversial remarks on race in America.  Obama condemned these remarks and publicly broke with Wright.

Beyond the trimmed lawn and fading facade, the faithful quietly carried on their worship, their baptisms, apparently unfazed by the media attention at their church doorsteps. Perhaps it was because they got used to the public entourage that followed Obama and Michelle when they still worshipped here. Now the media is not welcome here and photography is prohibited on the premises.

Hyde Park

Hyde Park , Obama’s current home, is about  seven kilometers from downtown Chicago, the Loop. His wife grew up not to far from here. Their children were born and attend private school here. In 2005, Obama bought his house in Hyde Park.

Security significantly tightened in Hyde Park since Obama clinched his presidential nomination. The police patrol every street and every vehicle that comes through gets a security check. Heavy police and FBI presence at the Obama residence was unmistakable. The media were kept at least two meters away from the house. Passers-by were not allowed to loiter.

Tequilla Swain Liugou, a Hyde Park resident, said although the streets were often blocked, she felt the neighborhood to be a lot safer now. One night her son was questioned and searched by the police when he accidentally parked his car nearby.

 ”Is there a better way to to show who you are than with the place you choose to live and raise your family?”  said John Rogers of USA Today, who is Obama’s friend, neighbor, and adviser.

Blacks and whites have lived side by side in Hyde Park and Sixties free-market conservatives mingle here. Their presence has given the local zip code a distinct mark of diversity. Hyde Park is also home to the University of Chicago where Michelle Obama works.

And come November perhaps this mixed-race child, who traveled from Hawaii to Indonesia to Chicago, will have a new address at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?