"A map published in the Chicago Tribune shows the site of eight planned high-rise apartment towers for the Cabrini-Green development, March 1, 1955", 1955, Chicago Tribune
"The downtown skyline is clearly visible from one of the fenced-in hallways at Cabrini-Green on Nov. 25, 1986", 1986, Chicago Tribune
Cabrini-Green: The Promise of Public Housing
The Cabrini-Green housing project was one of the most ambitious in the city, comprised of over 3,500 units and spanning 70 acres on Chicago's Near North Side. From 1942 to 1962, 54 rowhouses and 23 high-rises were built.
"LOOKING NE TOWARD CABRINI GREEN HOUSING PROJECT, NORTH HALSTED STREET AT RIGHT, WEST DIVISION STREET AT LEFT; GOOSE ISLAND AT BOTTOM OF FRAME", c. 1968, Library of Congress
For the new tenants, Cabrini-Green was a new way of life, with order and community. There was harmony among the many families, contrasting with the chaos of the slums (Hunt, 2005).
"It was nineteen floors of friendly, caring neighbors. Everyone watched out for each other. No gangs, drugs, or shootings."
~ Dolores Wilson, Cabrini-Green Resident
However, problems began to arise in the housing utopia. The population of children steadily grew over the years, skewing the child-adult ratio and upsetting the social balance. It was the beginning of another social crisis.
"People who were concerned about their children playing were up sixteen floors, while their children were sixteen floors away. All of a sudden, the children are making their own rules, without the connection of their mothers, fathers, their uncles, their grandparents…a sixteen story building pouring out children, and then the children deciding what they want to do, what was good, whether or not they wanted to fight, whether or not they wanted to steal."
~ Phillip Jackson, Public Housing Resident
Downfall
In the 1960s, industrial jobs in Chicago began to decline, and the CHA was forced to lower rents. This, along with negligence, caused the gradual deterioration of Cabrini-Green.
"[The CHA] systematically keeps tens of millions of dollars in unused modernization monies earning relatively low interest in local banks."
~ Newman Report (Housing and Urban Development Report)
"Cabrini-Green in 1966", 1966, Michael Ochs Archives
Eventually, street gangs moved into the projects, catalyzing a wave of violent conflicts and drug dealing. The high-profile murders of two policemen and a seven-year-old boy made Cabrini-Green notorious.
1992, Chicago Tribune
"A policeman scans the roof of the Cabrini-Green housing project with a sniper scope on a rifle on July 17, 1970. Two policemen were shot and killed by sniper fire from a high-rise in the projects on the Near North Side the night before as they walked across Seward Park. Patrolman Anthony Rizzato, 35, and Sgt. James Severin, 38, were killed. Both were equipped with portable shortwave radios and were part of the "walkie-talkie" unit of Task Force 6", 1970, Chicago Tribune
"A Chicago police officer guards the scene as an investigator photographs the scene of the shooting of Dantrell Davis at 502 W. Oak St. on Oct. 13, 1992, in Chicago", 1992, Chicago Tribune
"We cannot surrender. We refuse to stand by in a city where a seven-year-old can't walk from his home to his school without fear of death."
~ Mayor Richard M. Daley
"The police always used to say, they don't go into Cabrini until the shooting stops...they feared for their lives."
~ JR Fleming, Cabrini-Green Resident
Cabrini-Green gained a reputation of lawlessness and insecurity as law enforcement was unable to control the surge in violence. Due to its proximity to the affluent downtown district, Cabrini-Green attracted significant media attention, thrusting public housing into the national spotlight.
"An aerial view of Cabrini-Green in 1993", 1993, Chicago Tribune
"When you think of Cabrini, you can look right out my window and see it. It's only six blocks. But it's a cancer that can spread into every neighborhood of the city of Chicago."
~ Mayor Jane Byrne, 1981
"Either the CHA is going to manage its real estate, or we should just declare openly that the gangs have control of our property, and let them have it."
"Right now, the only organized activity in public housing is the gang and the drug dealing."
~ Vincent Lane, CHA Chairman
Confronted with poverty, drugs, and crime, the city was forced to reconsider public housing.