It always seemed logical that Barack Obama’s presidential library and museum would wind up in Chicago – and specifically, on the city’s economically and racially diverse South Side.

President Obama found his political voice there – first as a community organizer, then as a state senator, before reaching the pinnacle of American power. His wife, Michelle, grew up there and they started their family there. They both worked at the University of Chicago, he teaching law, she at the medical center. They still own a home there.

But for both Chicago and the South Side, the path to victory as the home of the future Barack Obama Presidential Center, announced Tuesday, was anything but straightforward. All the other bids – from New York City, Hawaii, and the University of Illinois at Chicago – had their own logic as well, but came up short.