Cabrini–Green Homes
Crime and neglect created hostile living conditions for many residents, and "Cabrini–Green" became a metonym for problems associated with public housing in the United States.The area has seen major redevelopment due to its proximity to downtown, resulting in a combination of upscale high-rises and townhouses, with some units being CHA-owned, creating a mixed-income neighborhood.The area acquired the "Little Hell" nickname due to a nearby gas refinery, which produced shooting pillars of flame and various noxious fumes.In 1957 the Cabrini Homes Extension (red brick mid- and high-rises), with 1,925 units in 15 buildings by architects A. Epstein & Sons, was completed.This changed in the years after World War II, when the nearby factories that provided the neighborhood's economic base closed and thousands were laid off.[5] Lawns were paved over to save on maintenance, failed lights were left for months, and apartments damaged by fire were simply boarded up instead of rehabilitated and reoccupied.Later phases of public housing development (such as the Green Homes, the newest of the Cabrini–Green buildings) were built on extremely tight budgets and suffered from maintenance problems due to the low quality of construction.[5] As with the Robert Taylor Homes, low construction budgets, combined with a desire to fit the maximum possible number of units in the project led to design decisions that made the towers extremely unpleasant and unappealing places to live.[18] Rather than interior hallways, units in many of the later-phase buildings were accessed via exterior walkways made of bare concrete and enclosed with chain-link fencing.This meant that residents would be exposed to the elements any time they left their units to go to other sections of the building, a dangerous prospect during Chicago's severely cold winters.Rat and cockroach infestations were commonplace, rotting garbage stacked up in clogged trash chutes (it once piled up to the 15th floor), and basic utilities (water, electricity, etc.)[19] On the exterior, boarded-up windows, burned-out areas of the façade, and pavement instead of green space—all in the name of economizing on maintenance—created an atmosphere of decay and government neglect.[22] While Cabrini–Green was deteriorating during the postwar era, causing industry, investment, and residents to abandon its immediate surroundings, the rest of Chicago's Near North Side underwent equally dramatic upward changes in socioeconomic status.First, downtown employment shifted dramatically from manufacturing to professional services, spurring increased demand for middle-income housing; the resulting gentrification spread north along the lakefront from the Gold Coast, then pushed west and eventually crossed the river.In February 2006, a unique partnership between CHA, Holsten, Kimball Hill Urban Centers and the Cabrini–Green LAC Community Development Corporation began a 790-unit, $250-million redevelopment of the 18-acre (73,000 m2) Cabrini Extension site, to be called Parkside at Old Town.On July 17, 1970, Chicago police patrolman Anthony N. Rizzato and Sergeant James Severin were shot and killed by gang members while patrolling community housing for an all-volunteer "Walk and Talk" project.[33] In March 1981, in an effort to demonstrate a commitment to making the complex safer, then-Chicago Mayor Jane Byrne moved into a fourth-floor apartment in the 1160 N. Sedgwick Street building with her husband.[citation needed] On October 13, 1992, seven-year-old Dantrell Davis was shot in the head and killed by a sniper's bullet while walking to Jenner Elementary School with his mother.[39][40] The attacker used a marker to scrawl gang symbols on her abdomen in an attempt to mislead any investigation and left her for dead, face down in the snow, in the dangerously unlit corridor to be found by a janitor who quit the same day.[35][10] Patrick Sykes, a neighboring 25-year-old male who was not a gang member, was later apprehended by police, gave a detailed confession, and was sentenced to the state maximum[41] of 120 years in prison.[44] The judge, Joseph Urso, awarded the family a $3 million payment by the Chicago Housing Authority on the grounds of negligence of maintenance and security of the facility, with the money dedicated to the child's long-term care.[36] Though many non-residents regarded Cabrini–Green with almost unalloyed horror, long-term residents interviewed by a Chicago Tribune reporter in 2004 described mixed feelings about the end of the Cabrini–Green era.Local Little League baseball coach Daniel Coyle wrote a book Hardball: A Season in the Projects (1994), summarizing the blight and violence as "That's the story of Cabrini.[55] In the 2010s, CPS considered merging Jenner and Manierre together, but concerns involving students crossing gang territorial lines meant that both schools remained open.[59] To further their cause and implement their plan, the young activists wrote letters and emails, surveyed, petitioned, interviewed legislators, developed and produced a DVD, video documentaries, and a website in an effort to "get the word out" and garner support in hopes of seeing the new school built.
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