Chicago’s plan to honor President Obama with the “Barack Obama College Preparatory High School” had a certain logic to it that I found compelling. The selective admissions school was to occupy the former site of the Cabrini-Green housing project, one of the most conspicuous examples of the failure of liberal social policies. Designed and implemented by progressives, Cabrini-Green was intended to use government money to improve the lives of poor city dwellers. Instead, it turned into such a nightmare of crime and broken families that it had to be demolished. Honoring Obama on a site known for liberal failure made sense.

But the bloom is so completely off the rose of Obama’s presidency that Mayor Rahm Emanuel is backing away from his plan to honor his former boss. John Byrne, Juan Perez Jr. and Dana Ferguson of the Chicago Tribune report:

Mayor Rahm Emanuel backed off Thursday from naming a new elite high school after President Barack Obama amid ongoing criticism from African-Americans who felt the honor inappropriate for a school slated for a wealthy, predominantly white part of the Near North Side.

Instead of naming the new school after his former boss, the mayor indicated he would consider other names for the selective enrollment high school set to be built near the site of the former Cabrini-Green public housing project just northwest of downtown.

“Over the last few months, my team has listened to questions and concerns from the community, ranging from location of the building to the naming of the school. We take that community input seriously, which is why – as we continue to look for a thoughtful way to honor President Obama – we will look for other possible names for this future school,” Emanuel said in a statement.

But wasn’t Barack Obama the son of a white woman and raised by a bank vice president? So how is it inappropriate to honor hum in a wealthy whit neighborhood? Hyde Park, where he made his Chicago residence, is not exactly a ghetto.

There are many alterative possibilities that occur to me for commemorating Obama’s residence in Chicago. The city has an extensive sewer network.