Posted on 10/07/2006 2:22:34 PM PDT by Temple Drake
CHICAGO (AP) - The menacing row of concrete towers where four of Katie Sistrunk's children were shot is almost all gone now, replaced by weeds and fields, mud and memories.
The cage-like balconies that looked like prison tiers to Beauty Turner have all but disappeared.
The gangs that peddled crack to Krystal McCraney Moore have found new places to haunt.
One hollow-eyed lookout still paces at the entrance of the last high-rise, watching for police so he can alert drug dealers who lurk in the graffiti-scarred, darkened stairwells.
This is the end of the Robert Taylor Homes, the final days of what once was the nation's largest housing project. Four decades ago, its 28 towers overflowed with thousands of some of the poorest people in America. Now there's just one rotting building and a few dozen holdout tenants.
This month, the stragglers will leave, some reluctantly, a step ahead of the wrecking ball.
The rise and fall of Taylor is the story of a Great Society promise that became a debacle, of intimidating high-rises that became a national symbol of failure, of a community that, at times, became a war zone.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.excite.com ...
Another part of LBJ's rancid legacy will be swept under the rug. Democrats can criticize every idea conservatives have because they have no shame. Of course, the msm lapdogs will never point out that the taxpayers of this country poured some seven TRILLION dollars into liberal social programs since LBJ, failures all. And the victims of these socialist boondoggles are far worse off than their poor, but honorable parents and grandparents were. Most of today's poor, are poor in character as well as poor in wealth. That is true poverty because one can rarely overcome it.
Are the Robert Taylor homes a single police precinct like Cabrini Green was?
Three things made Karl Marx Hof special in the Vienna of the 1930's: each apartment had a toilet and cold running water, and the complex had balconies. Until then, public housing projects had only communal toilets and communal cold water taps. The balconies were considered an aristocratic luxury that went far beyond the needs of the workers.Citation here.Today, as when the complex opened in 1930, the new tenants are mostly young couples starting families. One out of every three Viennese now lives in public housing, and most can wait up to four years before being offered a place by the city.
I'm thrilled that these buildings are being torn down in Chicago. I wish we could dismantle other obvious mistakes from the 1960's.
Public housing isn't evil, its the character of the people who inhabit them. Tenaments until the 1950s were actually pretty clean, safe places to live. The key thing is the residents have to care about themselves and their surroundings. I suspect the same is true in Vienna. Though I bet its not in the house projects of France.
Section 8 - 50 yr. old house. Was your neighborhood built 48 years ago? You've got 2 years to move before property values start dropping like a rock.
yitbos
I'm curious--what did the people after whom these housing projects were named think of them? Have any ever asked to have their names removed?
Lots of housing stock in cities is a lot more than 45 years old. But this has to be torn down so they can demand reparations instead.
in baltimore surrounding area they have moved section 8 people into stable blue collar neiborhoods with hard working residents. the only difference is that the section 8 people don/t work.all they do is bitch about how bad they have it. they expect the goverment to take care of their every need.a local townhouse community for working renters went from a safe up beat neiborhood to a run down unsafe area in less then a year.
I've seen it. I'm not sure what area your talking about but the route 40 (north) project near the waste plant that operated illegally for decades comes to mind first. I know people that were affected.
I think this says it all.
Roaches is about right. I live in one of the suburbs newly infested with many people previously ensconced in Chicago public housing. In the past year our neighborhood has gone from fairly quiet to often scary and dangerous. Burglaries, incredible amounts of graffiti, and sidewalks and alleys loaded with layabouts with nothing to do but be loud, profane and annoying. First time spouse has considered moving, after over two decades.
My sympathies. Not that I know anything about your situation, but if it was a large complex you might want to consider it.
sadly, I live in a house I have been painstakingly renovating for many years. I live on a block of bungalows and the creeps are coming in and renting in large apartment buildings very nearby.
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