Tourists flock to Obamas' Chicago home

CHICAGO -- Barack Obama's neighborhood was Sam Tanaka's first stop on his first visit here.

After arriving on a long flight from Tokyo and sleeping for four hours, the banker, 51, wanted to see Obama's house on Greenwood Avenue before his business meetings Wednesday. "My family will be so proud," he says. "I feel like I am a part of this big moment in American history."

Tanaka didn't actually see the president-elect, and security barriers prevented his taxi from driving past the house, but he got close enough to snap photos. "This is Chicago's most famous landmark now," he says.

The brick home and nearby businesses Obama and his wife Michelle patronize haven't surpassed the Sears Tower or Wrigley Field in popularity yet. Still, traffic on the Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau website, www.choosechicago.com, is up 30% since last month, the Gray Line bus tour of the area is a hot ticket, and even the barbershop Obama has patronized for 14 years is a tourist attraction.

"People just want to come in and be associated with Obama in some kind of way," says Ishmael Alamin, owner of Hyde Park Hair Salon & Barber Shop. "They want to see the chair." Several visitors from Boston came in Monday to take photos, he says. "It's great for the neighborhood. It's buzzing right now."

'Grand' homes in area

Obama's house, which he bought for $1.65 million in 2005, is in the Kenwood neighborhood, which is adjacent to Hyde Park, where he once taught at the University of Chicago Law School.

There are grand old homes in the area, but reminders of the challenges Obama will face as president are nearby.

About four blocks from Obama's home, a blinking blue light on a tall pole identifies one of the police cameras that survey the city's high-crime areas. A few blocks from there, about 30 people lined up Wednesday morning, waiting for a state unemployment office to open.

Obama's presence in a busy urban neighborhood has caused some changes for people who live nearby. Teacher Danielle Washington, 32, can no longer drive down Greenwood Avenue to get home from work because of increased security. There are concrete barricades, police cars at intersections and portable metal fences to close more streets for motorcades.