One of the nation’s oldest and most well-known community housing projects is being shuttered to make way for a new development. The 70-acre site was originally used as an example for other urban project homes. However, it has become renowned as a place where kids were regularly the victims of random gunfire. Over the years, it has been ravaged by gang violence, drugs and several high-profile, senseless murders. During its peak, it is estimated that more than 15,000 individuals lived there. It became a dumping ground for the city’s poorest people.
The closure of Cabrini-Green reflects what has been happening in predominantly African American urban neighborhoods across the nation — gentrification. With the unsightly homes of the Chicago’s lower class removed, now developers can construct high-rise buildings, mixed-income condos and retail stores.
As of 2009, it was estimated that less than 40 families remained in the housing project’s last standing building. A long way from its start in 1942, when it was originally named after the Roman Catholic patron saint of immigrants, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini. The urban community that was once well maintained has become the primary source for most of what is ugly and heinous in the city. The remaining residents are being moved out this week. Originally, residents were given until January 2011 to move.
In 1992, 7-year-old Dantrell Davis was murdered as he walked to school holding his mother’s hand. In 1997, a 9-year-old girl was found raped, poisoned and left in a stairwell. Now many residents are scrambling to find a new dwelling for their families. Some former residents have been offered vouchers for private apartments. Other residents will be allowed to return when the new buildings are completed, according to housing officials.
Sidebar:
1992 – Candyman is released, the story taking place at the housing project.
1974 – Television sitcom “Good Times,” set in the Cabrini-Green projects, and featuring shots of the complex in the opening and closing credits, debuts on CBS. It would run for six seasons until Aug. 1, 1979.
