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It’s History why you say these were condo’s for wealthier people, these housing buildings or projects were built for the poor whites, it was called free housing for the immigrants…. Then after the government pulled us in as to say they built it for us all lies
The movie 'Hardball' wasn't filmed at Cabrini-Green. It was filmed at the former Grace Abbot Homes that used to be in the city's West Side. The movie was based on a youth baseball team out of Cabrini-Green in the 90s.
I lived there for 5 years back in the 60' s. It was scary. 636 W. Evergreen in the white buildings. I was bullied by the kids. Almost raped by 2 teenage boys when I was 9. My father got brutally beaten and robbed on several occasions. But the straw that broke the camel' s backs was the riots of 1968 when MLK got shot. I was ever so happy when we moved to Lincoln Park that summer. My father thought if we stayed, we would all die. Needless to say, the area got worse over the years. The projects needed to come down.
My dad grew up in Chicago Public Housing. He told me that they were nice at first with amenities, mixed income, and diverse. When the city stopped caring they fell into disrepair creating contained concrete boxes of crime. Such a shame how the demolition of these buildings just spread the crime around and ruined neighborhoods in Chicago. Where I lived in the Southside used to be such a nice neighborhood until all the riffraff came in. We're still reeling from the affects of these mistakes till this day. 😔
My daughter lived on the south side of Chicago for several years as a student at the U. of Chicago. She got lucky because one of the corners of the property she lived in actually touched the property of President Obama's home. The Secret Service was present in a 6-block area around his home 24/7. They knew who the students were and kept an eye out for them. As time went on it got worse so she moved closer to the lake. But you're right: the houses on the south side looked nicely built with a park nearby.
@@kurtlamprecht93 I can only go by what my daughter told me at the time and the photos she shared with me. That doesn't mean I live in a "bubble". I'm an American who stood in Red Square, USSR in '81, so YOU must live in a bubble for never having been there. Great logic, kiddo.
"The city stopped caring"? Or jobs went overseas leaving the community and resulting tax base for certain areas of the city destitute? Do you think cities choose to house people in projects/trailer parks just for sh*ts and giggles?
@@fmiller36 Hey I agree with you. My family came from Cuba to Chicago and worked in factories until our family became stable. Most those factories closed down and the ones that stayed open became automated displacing thousands of jobs. It's an American problem stemming from greedy Capitalism with overseas cheap labor
@snappeas1031 It's wonderful that your friend's niece felt safe and had a nice senior prom. It's a shame that resources are held back now and everyone suffers for it.
My father worked at cabrini in the 90's as electrician, he actually got pulled into the office for working too fast. They said they didn't want things fixed and if he kept fixing things they would fire him 🤷♀️ the city would keep buying tons of supplies and let parts get stolen and didn't care. This goes on for plumbers, hvac, etc. He said at times the police would tell them to just drag the dead bodies out to the front 😂 there was crazy gang riots that would last all night
It's so sad because there were many good people who lived in Cabrini Green. Not all were on drugs they were just poor. I know I used to work for CHA many years ago!
This is why I always cringed when people didn't recognize that. However no matter your color or income, if you didn't live or work there you probably didn't know the unwriten rules making it dangerous to outsiders. That unfortunately is the root of the problem.
A lot of drug users are good people, too. The government is standing by waiting for them to die of poisoned drugs instead of doing the smart thing which is legalizing drugs and supporting universal mental healthcare.
I used to sell maintenance equipment and I called on all the CHA projects. I would have my sales calls at about 7 am since the gang bangers weren't active at that time in the morning but one time when I was leaving I was carrying a sample case and my briefcase. As I left the building and the door locked behind me I was greeted by about 5 gang members who were just coming home..one of them flashed a gun at me and demanded my cases and my wallet. Will that I figured that they could have the cases but I wasn't going to relinquish my wallet..I tossed the cases to them and I took off running towards my car. A couple of them gave chase but I was in pretty good shape at the time. just as I got to my car a Chicago police car came driving down the street and the gang bangers fled the scene. I thanked the cop and he let me retrieve my cases but I was terrified. from then on I always carried a gun when calling on the project's .In conclusion. The CHA was a great account since my competitors wouldn't go to see them they bought anything I was selling.
@@onemoremisfit No, that's Canada, where shooting someone in self-defense will get you sent to prison, in part for 'murder' and also using a gun even if you have a rare permit in an unauthorized manner.
i was a cab driver for 2 yrs in chicago between 1989 to 1991and i know this area well. Cab driver going north west cannot avoid this area. i used to say prayers when i had to go through Cabrini Green. My cousin told me once he got a bullet in his windshield
I think what was most interesting about Cabrini Green growing up in Chicago was how close it was to downtown. It wasn't some far flung off neighborhood stratling the Chicago city boundary, but was just 10-ish blocks from the wealthiest part of Chicago, the Gold Coast.
It kinda makes sense if you think about it,cause all those downtown businesses need cheap labor to keep them going, and who better to exploit for that role,than the people that are already struggling to pay their bills and feed their families,that will work just about any job for little pay to do so.
Yes! In the late 90 I was driving w a friend thru Chicago moving to NYC. We stayed a night at her friends house & wanted to see Cabrini Green on way out. That was about 25 years ago & I have a vague memory but I still remember think this is right by downtown. I assumed it was one of the massive project buildings that lined the highway as you approached Chicago with the skyline ahead.
I drove cab in college (2002-05). The instructor for the license class was an off duty police officer. She made it very clear that we can’t refuse service and should go to ALL underserved areas. One day she invited a seasoned cab driver and just stepped out after a few minutes. The old man told the class straight up that there’s no amount of money worth going into Cabrini. The only time I went to the Whites was when one of the three guys in my cab put a knife at my throat. They got in at the Viagra triangle, took me to the whites and made me turn off my car and headlights, they did a drug deal, went into the Reds off of Orleans & Oak, picked up a prostitute, made another drug deal, picked up Portillos, went to Evanston, IL and gave me a $100
I used to hang out at Mother's. I'd take the blue line down and walk. I always crossed the street before Cabrini. I haven't lived there in a long time but seeing the Viagra Triangle referenced brings back memories.
Friend of mine lives a few blocks from Cabrini. I still remember his instructions to get to his place ending in "If you go too far, immediately hang two turns, and don't stop for anything. Do NOT go back down the street you came in on."
Unfortunately, the residents of Cabrini Green were sent to smaller towns in Northern Illinois such as Rockford and Belvidere which has ruined those two towns permanently. The new residents didn't want to go there and the old residents did not welcome them including the African Americans who were already living in those smaller towns and cities. The Cabrini residents brought huge crime problems and the individual neighborhoods they were brought to were decimated. Sorry, but this is fact!
If you are a moral, working person, you don’t want criminals, drugs, etc. in your hometown! Doesn’t matter the color, most people want to be safe. That’s why in the late 60’s and early 70’s we saw a mass exodus from the great cities of the north. Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland were left deserted because of crime, drugs and early gang activity. Truth .
I was interested to find out who Cabrini Green was. It's actually two different people: Cabrini was a nun who was canonized and Green who was a labor leader. How a catholic saint and labor leader responsible for ending mandatory loyalty to non-union shops, got their totally unrelated names together on a low income housing project is a question for another day.
In the 1940s several hundred row houses were built I believe named after Cabrini and then in the 1950s the high-rises were built as the Green extension. The two aren't necessarily connected to each other but both deserved to be memorized in such a way
and then there's the great distancing of the middle/upper class from everyone else yet most fail to realize it's that very middle/upper class that owns the rental properties and is in hot pursuit of that fat government check via section 8 housing aka metropolitan housing help!! Though I'm sure most with in the middle class purely ignore that fact because of their false belief that the middle class nor the upper class "doesn't in anyway benefit from welfare"! Lol shit, that's why rent is high, hell I remember here in Ohio back in 06 the big rush for landlords to place their properties on section 8 housing started, it took our local government over 9 years to admit that 50% of the town the rentals! Yeah, went from being able to rent a single family home at $425-$550, to no less than $600 because metropolitan sets the bottom line price for any area! Of course those prices was then, now we're seeing the ghetto demand 12 to $1400 a month! Modest prices are for a one bedroom apartment mostly studio apartments, $725-850 of course higher depending on credit score... But the modest prices are disappearing it's quickly becoming, over 950 bucks a month and that's a hole in the wall the equivalent to a cardboard box! But hey those landlords yes the majority of them have the majority of their houses placed on the government system and no one says anything! Hummm the government pays their taxes their insurances and their mortgages plus any upkeep that we know they don't want to do all the while providing them with an income! Explain to me how they're not the real welfare recipients??? I'd love to hear it!
I do not believe "green" is in reference to a labor leader. It is in reference to the green field on which the complex was constructed. i.e. Cabrini "Meadow" ...You now, like Bowling "Green"...a green meadow where people bowled...
I moved to Chicago in '95. I lived a few miles NW of downtown and I got a job waiting tables @ Melvin B's downtown. I didn't want to pay for parking downtown, and decided to bike to work. I pulled out a map and charted my direct route to State/Division. I ended up biking directly through the Cabrini Green neighborhood. I was such a Greenhorn. They knew I had no idea what I was doing, and some kids messed with me, but it was all good. No worries, but everyone I worked with thought I was crazy. Let's just say I took a more round about route home with $200 cash in my pocket every night.
When I was a kid, watching Good Times, I didn't know what those building were, and I assumed they must be the factory where the dad worked. When, as an adult, I found out that was the building they lived in, I was horrified.
I lived on the North Side in the 90’s. I remember the tragic incident with Girl X at Cabrini-Green and how it was all over the news. That happened roughly about the same time as Jon-Benet Ramsey tragedy. It wasn’t long after that a full on commitment to shut these housing projects down.
First time I ever visited Chicago, I looked out my hotel window and saw "the Good Times buildings" in the distance. They were unmistakable -- the "Reds". I immediately rode the train up to them and took a walking tour. Later, it was explained to me that the buildings were the Cabrini-Green projects and I'd taken my life in my hands.
@@keishawinn2153 Of course not. The show was filmed in front of a live studio audience in Hollywood. But the Cabrini Reds were featured heavily in the opening and closing themes, and were used as a backdrop outside the Evans family's apartment.
In the early 2000’s I lived in Wicker Park and worked construction in Cabrini rebuilding the empty lots after tear down into new mid-rise condos. I literally saw it all. We would take gunshots into the new building from the still standing towers nearby. I will say that aside from the crime I saw just as many examples of stable families doing the best they could to survive. Great video thanks for the history and memories!
This place was so dangerous that police were afraid to go in. I worked on an ambulance and if someone had a heart attack we were not allowed to go in without police escort and that wasn't "in the building" that was out front and sometimes you would call for people to bring down the patient because it was to dangerous to go in. When they realized that the property was prime real estate, close to McCormick Place, Midway Airport and the south lakeshore then the towers came down and million dollar townhouses came in.
@@kurtlamprecht93 Cabrini Green was only a few miles from some of the most desirable areas of Chicago. I am mistaken at the distance from McCormick Place. I doubt Millennial Park would be as popular if that area hadn't been demolished. I grew up on the North Side, Irving Park and Pulaski. That area where the projects were, from what I have been told, is now high end townhouses and condos. Cleaning up that area made it more convenient to access and work in the south shore area. I haven't been in that area since 1984 so my memory is a bit sketchy. You are 100% correct on the locations that I though were within the vicinity of that area. My apologies on that.
and then there's the great distancing of the middle/upper class from everyone else yet most fail to realize it's that very middle/upper class that owns the rental properties and is in hot pursuit of that fat government check via section 8 housing aka metropolitan housing help!! Though I'm sure most with in the middle class purely ignore that fact because of their false belief that the middle class nor the upper class "doesn't in anyway benefit from welfare"! Lol shit, that's why rent is high, hell I remember here in Ohio back in 06 the big rush for landlords to place their properties on section 8 housing started, it took our local government over 9 years to admit that 50% of the town the rentals! Yeah, went from being able to rent a single family home at $425-$550, to no less than $600 because metropolitan sets the bottom line price for any area! Of course those prices was then, now we're seeing the ghetto demand 12 to $1400 a month! Modest prices are for a one bedroom apartment mostly studio apartments, $725-850 of course higher depending on credit score... But the modest prices are disappearing it's quickly becoming, over 950 bucks a month and that's a hole in the wall the equivalent to a cardboard box! But hey those landlords yes the majority of them have the majority of their houses placed on the government system and no one says anything! Hummm the government pays their taxes their insurances and their mortgages plus any upkeep that we know they don't want to do all the while providing them with an income! Explain to me how they're not the real welfare recipients??? I'd love to hear it!
I believe "Candyman" was inspired by a real life case on (a resident named Ruth Mae McCoy of Chicago ABLA Homes on Racine Ave -- I think demolished as well) McCoy was murdered through her bathroom cabinet, which was closely connected to an apt that was supposed to be vacant but unknown to CHA it was occupied by a delinquent whom was given the keys by the former tenant that used to live there. The delinquent had been observing-listening to McCoy's conversations, her steps ~this is what I remember reading.
@@WickedWayne57 Had to look back into it & Yes, you are right; those CHA high-rises have been demolished. What I didn't know is that there are still rowhouses there. If I remember correctly Ruth McCoy lived in one of the Grace Abbott high-rise bldgs - on the 11th floor- the bathroom "medicine" cabinets were like 2 feet closely connected from unit to unit. It's crazy! What's sad about this true case/story is that McCoy (though she had a mental illness) lived by herself & the delinquent heard her phone conversations about when she would be receiving her first disability check by which she planned on moving out of ABLA Homes/ projects & from what I recall reading that's why she was murdered - delinquent & his accomplices broke in, shot her & ended up stealing her money, furniture, etc.
You're right this happened in 1987 when she called police and said they were coming in through the medicine cabinet which confused the dispatcher also didn't help that Ruth had a history of mental illness... Little fact that the housing projects were so poorly condtructed that many apartments were connected and the only separation was the installation of each apartments medicine cabinet
This so echo's the situation in high rise estates in Glasgow from the 1970's through the 80's and 90's. The biggest problem was the management who did not care who they dumped there, as long as the number of voids (empty apartments) was as low as possible. if keeping the figures right meant dumping mentaly unstable people, drug addicts and dealers, or people evicted from other areas for gross anti social behaviour, then so what, the housing managers didnt have to live there.
Well that's what public housing is largely about. Giving people who have not worked for it and don't really deserve it, a place to live. It becomes like them, and what they make of it. Does not matter where you put it, it all turns to shit after a while.
@@covercalls88 that would be a drop in the bucket in comparison to public housing not existing. We should definitely build them different than regular apartments.
Yea I use to drive from Rogers park up north to either 35th and state or the buildings I believe was on 43rd and federal behind the that bp gas station on state. As soon as you pull in that parking lot on 43rd you have about 10 dudes all on the hood of your car trying to get the sell. Hands all in your car window with bags of weed.
@@hairyape3935 absolute hell. It was the headquarters of the GDs and BDs before the BDs moved to Randolph Towers. The MCs and Stones had buildings in the 80s and 90s then the MCs were the only nation under the 5 still in the Taylor. 5322 5326 State and 5323 S Federal were the buldings in the hole
Small detail, where did the people move when Cabrini Green and Robert Taylor homes were demolished. Section 8 housing destroyed thriving neighborhoods such as Chatham and South shore. Cabrini Green had the Chicago Gold Coast (The most expensive real estate in the city) to the east and Miracle Mile, high end retailers. Why did this happen, Mayor Daley 2 went to European capitals to developed a strategy to make Chicago a higher level world class city. The idea was to grow from the center out. For this to happen, the projects had to come down. Crime could be contained within the projects and now crime is spread all over the city. The idea was, move people in the projects into good neighborhoods to create better behavior. Unfortunately people without money see other people in the neighborhood with money buying brand name products want to have the same and the crime cycle continues. I won't discuss the criminal prosecution changes which makes matters worse.
I can tell you were a high percentage of them went: Portage, Hobart, and Valparaiso, Indiana turning what were quiet apartment complexes into drug and crime riddled areas. The police departments learned a bit about what violence is. The Democrat mayor's of those towns were ousted next election.
The same happened in Dallas. I bought into what was a good neighborhood around 17 years ago and sold last year. Went from a relatively safe and crime free neighborhood to one of constant crime. The difference was the soft on crime and section 8 housing that came. And people wonder why middle and upper class say not in my neighborhood, this is it.
@@stevenkilgore5771 and then there's the great distancing of the middle/upper class from everyone else yet most fail to realize it's that very middle/upper class that owns the rental properties and is in hot pursuit of that fat government check via section 8 housing aka metropolitan housing help!! Though I'm sure most with in the middle class purely ignore that fact because of their false belief that the middle class nor the upper class "doesn't in anyway benefit from welfare"! Lol shit, that's why rent is high, hell I remember here in Ohio back in 06 the big rush for landlords to place their properties on section 8 housing started, it took our local government over 9 years to admit that 50% of the town the rentals! Yeah, went from being able to rent a single family home at $425-$550, to no less than $600 because metropolitan sets the bottom line price for any area! Of course those prices was then, now we're seeing the ghetto demand 12 to $1400 a month! Modest prices are for a one bedroom apartment mostly studio apartments, $725-850 of course higher depending on credit score... But the modest prices are disappearing it's quickly becoming, over 950 bucks a month and that's a hole in the wall the equivalent to a cardboard box! But hey those landlords yes the majority of them have the majority of their houses placed on the government system and no one says anything! Hummm the government pays their taxes their insurances and their mortgages plus any upkeep that we know they don't want to do all the while providing them with an income! Explain to me how they're not the real welfare recipients??? I'd love to hear it!
Housing thousands of people in a structure with no support services was a stupid idea with failure built right in. Poorly run public schools. No job training programs. No child care programs for people who had jobs. Poor public transportation. What exactly were they expecting?
@@dapperdonny4051 It was about the proximity to the downtown area of chicago, it was prime location, I grew up there and i didn't know of anything going on, I was a kid and i stayed a kid, i didn't wonder about anything else but being a kid.
it was done by design they were ment to keep poor people poor same as the welfare system it was designed to oppress the racial minoritys and keep them down. the democrats arent the good guys and neither are the republicans they are both just as racist as the other. one just hides it better. why is some of the higest crime cities are democrat run for decades and they always run on change but never do. its all by design...
The movie 'Hardball' wasn't filmed at Cabrini-Green. It was filmed at the former Grace Abbot Homes that used to be in the city's West Side. The movie was based on a youth baseball team out of Cabrini-Green in the 90s.
I interviewed for a job at the Montgomery Ward headquarters building in 1999 and drove through the project afterwards, white knuckling it all the way. My father worked for Wards for years and said they had bulletproof curtains on all of the office windows facing Cabrini Green, and from my visit to their offices it seemed possible.
We were in a hurry one time due to an emergency and the fastest way from point a to point b was by cabrini green. My friend literally weighed the pros and cons of it but decided to do it. That section was white knuckles for sure and just shock at how broken down it was.
There were these 2 firemen from Michigan who, in the late 80's, spent a week chasing fires in the Windy City. Their mini van dropped its transmission in Cabrini green. We still drove it, we had to! First gear,...350 highway miles...Good times!
I’m a native Chicagoan. Thank you for telling this history. Was born in the 90’s and my family owned property over by Hudson and North Ave. So I’ve known about Kabrini Green and it’s sketchyness since I was a little girl. Also my father grew up in one of those buildings. He’s from a huge Jehovah’s Witness family with 15 other siblings. So he’s told me some wild stuff that has happened. Like him and his sister getting robbed on their way to the store and a gang member putting a gun to my grandma’s face whilst she was out doing field service ( knocking on doors to share the religion). They’re father worked and mother stayed home. Also I’ve never knew the history of the area before it was Kabrini Green. It seems like that area has always been trouble.
It was successful at first. Everyone knew eachother, people were there for eachother and everything al the way until the late 60s, early 70s when it started to become a place for gangs and rival gangs to turn it into one of the worst public housing projects where it was almost never safe. It used to be a nice area, until the gangs messed it up.
I remember the last buildings of Cabrini Green being demolished in 2011 and the old residents used to throw parties on the blacktop that Target now sits on. Thank you for another amazing video 💪🏾
Can you imagine all of the residual energy left behind on those grounds? All the decades of anger, hurt, death, fear… crazy. It has to resonate through those new condos and stores that now reside there.
From what I remember, the 1992 slaying of 7 year-old Dantrell Davis was the watershed moment which eventually led to the project's demolition almost a decade later. A crime so shocking that the politicians started seeking the removal of the buildings instead of their replacement.
It wasn’t though crime is down from its peak of 1989-1994 that was the peak crime time for Chicago. Crime up until 2019 was low, 2020 and 2021 were blips 2022 seems to be going down slowly
my wife was born and raised there and she was the same age as girl x around the same time she was murdered my wife was also living there as a child. even though she was a small child she tells me some of the stuff she remembers and its beyond crazy what these people had to live through
I went to public school about half a mile north of Cabrini. Amazing how different life can be within the span of a few blocks. Kids who came from uber, uber wealthy families (homes valued in the 8 figure range) lived a 5 minute walk away from Cabrini. Hell, our current governor (heir to the Hyatt empire) lived right next to the school. The older I get, the more I appreciate how crazy that dynamic is. Wouldn't trade it for the world, but man. Even at a time when Cabrini was very close to being shuttered, it was a stark contrast. By the time I left that school, Cabrini was mostly skeletal. They built a posh private school basically smack dab in the middle of it, an apple store, the whole shebang. Still a few highrises left up, and a lot of people still living in the rowhomes. Such an extreme schism looking back, especially when I consider that Cabrini was surrounded by extreme wealth on all sides. Ultra contained poverty and suffering. Even so, there is a worthwhile argument to be made that other public complexes like the Robert Taylor homes had it worse. I have not been back to Cabrini in a decade, but I hope the city takes measures to enshrine the human experience that was the norm there for half a century. It's their duty to educate the next generations about the skeletons underneath their duplexes.
My dad and his siblings were born and raised there.. I spent my early childhood hanging out in the playground and riding the elevator up to my grandmothers apt.. she had plastic on her couches and we made icey cups, and boy was it fun times😊
As someone that works a block away. It’s an eyesore to still have those row houses there. Some are occupied and there are shootings among other illicit activities in those couple of blocks. Mind boggling how it is allows to occur in The neighborhood considering 600 W at the corner employees thousands of middle class people. Plus some nice condos on the area as well. Imagine paying $1M+ only to overlook this mess of history
and then there's the great distancing of the middle/upper class from everyone else yet most fail to realize it's that very middle/upper class that owns the rental properties and is in hot pursuit of that fat government check via section 8 housing aka metropolitan housing help!! Though I'm sure most with in the middle class purely ignore that fact because of their false belief that the middle class nor the upper class "doesn't in anyway benefit from welfare"! Lol shit, that's why rent is high, hell I remember here in Ohio back in 06 the big rush for landlords to place their properties on section 8 housing started, it took our local government over 9 years to admit that 50% of the town the rentals! Yeah, went from being able to rent a single family home at $425-$550, to no less than $600 because metropolitan sets the bottom line price for any area! Of course those prices was then, now we're seeing the ghetto demand 12 to $1400 a month! Modest prices are for a one bedroom apartment mostly studio apartments, $725-850 of course higher depending on credit score... But the modest prices are disappearing it's quickly becoming, over 950 bucks a month and that's a hole in the wall the equivalent to a cardboard box! But hey those landlords yes the majority of them have the majority of their houses placed on the government system and no one says anything! Hummm the government pays their taxes their insurances and their mortgages plus any upkeep that we know they don't want to do all the while providing them with an income! Explain to me how they're not the real welfare recipients??? I'd love to hear it!
When I was kid in the 70's in the chicago suburbs I remember story about the projects (as we called them) in the Chicago Tribune. The author described them as "vertical visions of hell." Sadly, an on the nose description. I did not know some of that backstory. Thanks.
@Kurt Lamprecht depending on his age, I'd say Gen X, but the zoomers don't give a f*** and don't distinguish between the two, though they are very different
One thing that has always stayed with me has been what was pointed out in the original Candyman movie. When you ride the train, the side that Cabrini Green was on looked dramatically different from the opposite side of the tracks. That building was an eyesore! I used to feel fear any time I rode through that area. I hope that the people who moved from there were able to improve their lives .
I lived in Chicago. I liked to explore the city, late at night. I was riding the subway at around 2 a.m., decided to get off at a stop name I didn't recognize. Could be interesting, right? Went up the stairs, didn't recognize the neighborhood either, but I was able to orient myself to start heading homeward. I'd done a lot of exploring so finding my way home was always easy. Uh, uh-oh. I recognize those buildings: Cabrini Green. Two o'clock in the morning and I'm walking through Cabrini Green. Yikes. I had already walked far enough that the choice to return to the subway or keep walking toward familiar ground was a fifty-fifty shot. Nothing happened. I don't know if my fears were unfounded, or if I was lucky.
You were lucky. 2am walkin around there if you didn't know where you were the attitude of anyone that you may have run into would be, you should know where you are! It's 2am, the game is on at 2am! Walkin around there they would view you as a player, you put yourself in the game. Situational awareness is how you avoid gettin killed. I lived around that shit my whole life and you better know where you are and what's going on at all times! We knew that as kids, do not go over there or you will get hurt! You got real lucky my friend!
I came from Poland fir a summer holiday to Chicago. I asked my mother to tske me to the worst district to see famous american getthos. It was far far more that i was prepere for. People was laying on the ground drunk or stoned, half of windows was broken and i even didnt got out from my car. In my country it is tottaly safe and i can sleep in the city center with my phone next to me and nobody will take it.
@@panpanpanpan4631 Wished my parents took me to see how the ghettos looked like. My parents pretty much shielded me from that stuff until I became an adult and witnessed it for myself. Words cannot describe how disgusting some of the living conditions people put themselves into. How can people turn places into that is beyond me.
In the winter of 1979-80 I was on my way to work as a house officer at Cook County Hospital. As I passed Cabrini Green, a young woman flagged down my car, upset, asking for help-someone was after her. I let her in the car and said I would take her to the police station. She insisted I wait there. Instead I traveled down the block. When I stopped at a red light, she jumped out, without explanation. When I later recounted this to colleagues, I was deemed a naive fool and told that I was more likely the one in trouble than her. And that was always the problem with Cabrini Green-should you stop and help, or just steer clear.
You should *always* stop and help those who are in need. Even if you are hurt or killed, it is for a worthy cause. Sacrificing one's self for others should be required by law.
@@GregoryTheGr8ster I agree with you. If I'm meant to help, I help. Just like other strangers have been meant to help me. I'm not afraid to die. How could I be afraid to do something everyone does? I wasn't afraid to be born. I dunno about requiring sacrifice by law. It seems to me making assistance compulsory would increase cynicism and selfishness, whilst decreasing the actual quality of said help. Sorta like jury duty.
My family and I live in a rowhome in what was the Greens of Carbrini Green area north of Division off Halsted. Totally transformed community. It has come a long way. There is a super Target off Larrabee and Division. New City shopping center with a Mariano's and Dicks and more upscale restaurants. The pricing of market rate housing is getting high - but still not as expensive as neighboring Lincoln Park and Old Town/Gold Coast. The church on Larrabee by the Stanton park is still there although it looks abandoned. Great presentation! Fascinating to learn the history.
Unfortunately the Cabrini Green row houses are not completely vacant. It remains one of the most dangerous areas of River North. Shootings happen there on a nightly basis, and there is always couple of police cars permanently stationed at the end of the street. I used to live just across the street from these row houses, and the amount of violence that would spill out made me fearful for my life. My building had bullet holes in it, and multiple people had been robbed or beaten at gun point. The Montgomery condo building recently had about a dozen or more bullet holes introduced to it, which didn't even make the local news. The sooner these buildings can be destroyed, the better. These row houses attract so much murder and death that it boggles the mind. I'm glad I got out of there before I got shot.
Are you seriously implying " these row houses attract so much murder" ???? Wth kinda statement is this? How are these buildings attracting crime?? Same logic as "gun violence" like its a building or a tool commiting these heinous crimes...
I remember it well, as I grew up in the northern suburbs in the 80's. It was frequently in the news on a regular basis. I just turned 18 when Cantrell Davis was killed by gunfire on October 13, 1992 on his way to school. He was only 7 years old.
Because of Norman Lear's top rated TV show Good Times, everyone in the US in the 1970s knew all about Cabrini Green. If not for the familiarity of it to the public through Good Times, the outrage about it and later demolition would not have been as great events.
Candy man & Good Times got me interested years later & then. As a kid I remember seeing them when we drove through Chicago. I was curious why they were called the “projects” & always thought about how many people lived there.
Look for an old book called The Horror of Cabrini Green by Bruce C. Conn. His family lived there. Great read. The Green was sitting on some prime real estate near Chicago's touristy and pricey Old Town, so it had to go. The years passed and now the whole town is Cabrini Green.
Chicago does it's best to cover up is how it handled the relocation of the residents. A large portion was relocated to DeKalb, IL and were put into a housing community that is in between where the majority of students live and the campus forcing many students to cross past a heavily active crime area to and from classes. The housing community was originally designed as apartments for students and the city of Chicago forced the owners to kick out the students as part of the relocation process.
Naw you must be mistaken because a lot of them came right over the border to my hometown where I grew up Hammond. There were so many Chicago people that came because we are right over the border from the SS. We only had two housing projects The Renaissance and Columbia Center and they were packed with people from the city. I was in highschool from 93 to 97. Alot of them had their vouchers and just came across . I met some really good friends back then.
Now they give renters a voucher stating they have a confirmed payment monthly. You can have someone living next to you on government substituted rent. As long as they are leading a fruitful life there should be no judgements
It's called Section 8 Housing. They have minimum income requirements and the apartment complexes that do it have to tell the tenants that they are involved with it.
The effects of LBJ's Great Societies programs were briefly touched on. I wonder if the same federal inspectors used to ensure that there were no male breadwinners living inside the same apartment as families receiving welfare benefits as done in Pruitt Igoe, written about by Amity Shlaes in "The Great Society".
What's it matter? Single parents need the help more than 2-parent homes, it could be argued. Mass incarceration contributed greatly to the lack of fathers in homes.
“When everybody owns something, nobody owns it, and nobody has a direct interest in maintaining or improving its condition. That is why buildings in the Soviet Union - like public housing in the United States - look decrepit within a year or two of their construction...” - Milton Friedman
Proud Chicagoan native here, I remember the first time going back to Chicago and seeing what became of that area after the city got rid of CG.... big difference, looks so nice. That's something Chicago should have done ions ago.
Yes, the areas around the Near North Side have gotten better, but other neighborhoods in Chicago as well as the suburbs have gotten much worse, because the former-residents (and gangbangers) got relocated to various locations.
Problem is that when you tear down a housing complex that houses 15k people, those people have to go somewhere... including all the gang members and druggies.
I'm 65 years old. My cousin's lived there in the 1960s, it was exciting visiting them there. Growing up in that environment didn’t seem dangerous or threatening, at all.
Same for capitalism funded entities. Where is Sears? Kmart? Montgomery Ward? Venture? It all dies off eventually public and private. Mismanagement is something both of them have in common.
I spent almost everyday of my youth as far back as I can remember, at clyborn and Division I was raised from 2nd grade until I left for college in Carol Stream IL & father, graduate from Moody bible institutes ministry was Clyborn Gospel Church and he serviced the community there. I spent many a new years eve in his church ringing in the new year with bullets bouncing off the front door and the outside brick wall of the facia of the church, watching his year in review of the parishiners experiences caught throuhout the year by him with his movie camera. chronicling the whole year each year. Everyday he drove from our suburban home to the city for his day job. With ECFA in the city. He would roll from the inner city out to carol stream every night to pick up me and my siblings to take us back to the church each evening for what ever event he had scheduled purposed in serving his congregation which quite a large populus were residents of pagrini green, this video brought a flood of memories. associated with that time. HE would often have troubled youth in large groups out to our nice home and some would stay for months, to complete education or to traverse some family or tragedy. I often think of those people and how their lives were affected by his dedication.
My town has a fair number of them. The college here lost enrollment and the slumlords needed tenants for their neglected shitholes so the took the section 8 money and how we have section of town with nightly gunshots and bi-monthly shootings. 2 murders recently too. It’s no good to hole poor people all up together in shitholes.
Definitely remember the day the last building came down. It’s crazy how different the area is now and how the crime just was spread to other areas. The row houses are still there too. It’s a interesting place to explore
Fascinating history, I think the same applies to low cost housing all over the world. I do not know the answer or attempt to suggest a way to remedy this issue but thank-you for illuminating a social issue that many turn their back on. Great effort and work. best regards, Peter in Penang, Malaysia.
There have been successful examples of public housing but I think most of them suffer from two problems: The first being not enough funds allocated to maintenance and upkeep after construction (high-rises exacerbate this problem tremendously. They are not cost-efficient). The second being that since poverty leads to crime, putting a bunch of poverty-stricken people in a small area will create a high crime area. I think mixed-income public housing with plenty of maintenance funds may fix this. The government agency can operate the higher income units at a profit to help subsidize the lower income units too. The channel donoteat01 has two great videos on public housing.
@@Petey5 Thank-you for your reply I will have a look at the video you mentioned. I agree with what you say, the other thing is education. People with an education in basic living skills and consideration of others tend to have more pride in keeping their space clean and comfortable, I have witnessed this in many third world countries, it does not take much or more than a generation or two to make substantial change as long as there is governmental stability.
It was dangerous slums before the government took it over in 1940 and it became even more dangerous slums again soon after. No improvement, more expense, and now it's a constitutional "right" to housing.
@@Petey5 Mixed income housing does help to solve this issue. I lived in Montgomery Village for a couple of years when I was a kid, and it was one of the safest neighborhoods in Maryland.
Well, I attended a Cabrini parochial school, in Burbank California and got a good education. The sisters were wonderful to us girls, and they also had an orphanage in Los Angeles, among other cities. At one time, in the early 20th century there were all these kids who needed a home and the order of Mother Cabrini stepped in to fill that emergency void. You wouldn't believe the sweet very young little girls (a lot of them) just left off by parents who were unable to care for them. We older girls of high school age used to help out with caring for this immense load placed on the sisters. I appreciated a good moral atmosphere in addition to our schooling. It's a shame Mother Cabrini's name was still on that building after things went downhill. She and the other sisters were very wonderful.🧡
Majority of the residents that were forced out, ended up being sent out to the western suburbs, such as Willowbrook, Downers Grove, Woodridge, Maywood, Bellwood, Bolingbrook, La Grange, Lombard, Villa Park, Aurora etc, and ended up bringing crime there. Last year there was a major mass shooting that happened in unincorporated dupage county in an apartment complex, that was owned by section 8. It was a normal nice community, before all the trouble moved in and started causing trouble.
Its been a year or two since i drove thru the rows but there were people living there then. Shout out to the Demon Slayer. I worked with a CHA Police Officer for a few years, That guy had stories galore. Like people throwing refrigerators from the top floor onto squad cars or even people.
My dad was an investigator in Chicago in the 1970s. He was told to never go near Cabrini Green. Once “Candyman” was filmed…I was so intrigued but never brave enough to go near it.
Low-income housing in Los Angeles -- and perhaps other major urban areas as well -- is created through a process called "Section 8." Apartment developers are required to designate 10 percent of the units for the economically challenged. The municipality avoids the responsibility connected with the housing business, while providing housing options for low-income residents. Proliferate small numbers of low-income residents across the entire city rather than concentrate them in all in one monolithic development while costing the city nothing. The plan works great on paper, but real-world results have been mixed.
Section 8 exists all around the country. It can be okay when done well. There are different regulations in different places and most cities don't require the 10% low income, but they provide incentives for developers who do include low income housing
Surprised you didn’t share the detail on how gang members would cut holes in the walls at Cabrini Green, so when police would respond to one unit criminals would escape to others in their tunnel net work, giving it the nickname ‘the rats nest’
Thanks for this video! I'm a chicago native and grew up in the Northside. My friends and I would occasionally drive through division st at night purposely for the thrill. This was definitely one of those communities that most chicagoans would avoid at all cost. My parents worked at the old Montgomery wards building for several years next to the projects and now... what a drastic change. I still tell stories about this area to my visitors new to chicago.
Just finished a book about the failed Pruitt Igoe St Louis housing projects demolished thankfully in 1972. Lee Rainwater was a sociologist who performed field research on Igoe residents from 1966-1970. Teenage pregnancies at 13 years old from countless “families “ whoever the fathers were they would have sex in the stairwells and laundry rooms easy come easy go attitude the Johnson administration naively back then unleashed a “war on poverty “ with stolen tax dollars from wealthier middle classes and affluent Americans . Want to STOP POVERTY get an abortion and stop destroying your lives and futures having children so young everyone in that generational collapse is doomed to failure and misery same in 1970 as it is fifty three years later in 2023 . 🤡🤡🤡
Same with Waukegan and Zion, they pushed them out the city to disperse the crime and gentrify the area but basically pushed the problems into the suburbs
Daley pushed out many from the projects and sent them all over IL. Rockford, Waukegan, Aurora, Dekalb. And then they developed a lot of those areas. It worked for awhile for him. Unfortunately some of those people pushed out brought their lifestyle with them.
@@andyandreson3989 ...and Bolingbrook. The Bolingbrook mayor literally called Daley and told him to stop sending public housing tenants. They came in masses sadly it did greatly affect the area.
It even stretch to Milwaukee or even most cities who had fallen to crime. I bet Indiana was effected by it as well for Evansville, Indianapolis, and Terre Haute.
Thanks for posting this video. I now live in what used to be known as Cabrini Green and I wish I could have met Marion Stamps. I heard she was an amazing lady. I heard the police officers that were killed were killed at Seward Park around the basketball area. The most heartbreaking story to me was that of Dantrall Davis who was shot and killed on his way to school with his mother. I love this area and let's remember that alot of great families came out of these buildings.
17:30 LOL, your comment made me think of my cousin who said he was so scared of that area, that he would never stop at a red light and just pass them so he can get out of there quickly. I'm glad changes are being made there and I'm hoping for the best in that neighborhood.
I was born and raised in Cabrini Green. I grew up in the 1980's when the crime was at its peak in Cabrini Green. Lots of crazy stuff went on there. Especially at night.
When I first moved here to Chicago, I lived on Division close to rush st and state street. Cabrini green was very close by only a few blocks I think. I remember when I had just gotten here and moved in, a search light came barreling past the window and I turned on the news to watch the search helicopter that just passed by my window looking for the people that were shooting at officers from inside their caged porches to the streets below. And then these years later, I remember the last of the buildings being torn down, making the city look better, and definitely safer too. The thing is, is that I clearly remember Cabrini green was very dangerous, but while it stood those years ago, at that same time the area all around it was and still is extremely safe and beautiful ❤️ I hope to the people that lived there that wanted bigger and better things, I'm hoping they worked hard to find it. And to the dangerous people that lived there and made part of that community a danger, good riddance !!! I've LOVED Chicago for as long as I've lived here, gorgeous city, and good friendly people that look out for each other every day!
Back in 1988 I worked in Addison IL. at a factory. Worked with this guy Leroy from Cabrini Green. One day at lunch in the break room, about 20 guys eating, Leroy says I don't live in the projects. I live in a condominium. I piped up and responded, "condominium? Leroy you thought you lived in a condominium until someone told you the sign says condemned." Food flew out everyone's mouth. Even Leroy laughed. Miss that dude.
They’ve always portrayed as national failures but at the end of the day they were low income houses and that’s it. It’s up to the people living there to form a community, keep them hospitable and be secure. Of course poverty was consolidated. It was an apartment for poor people. That I’m itself does not direct the destiny. It’s not the housing projects fault for if they were not there it would be the same issues just with a bunch of homeless or shanty towns. You can be poor and not terrorize your community or raise your children .
You have no idea of how good old Chicago Irish politics played a part in all of this. You can't treat ppl like animals, and then not expect them to act like it.
Ehhhh it’s not all luxury condos. It’s a mixed income development. Whether or not it’s successful or not is debatable. But they didn’t just knock everything down for millionaires. Source: yeah I live nearby. Biking in that area you can see it still has rowhomes. But every street where Cabrini buildings still stand? Each end of the street is capped off with police cars. They have officers watching the area 24/7. The area is still iffy but not enough to stop me from biking through.
I worked in some of the low income housing and I felt sorry for many living there, the filth, bullet holes, etc. I was there during the day when things were quieter, but at night it was like hell.
@@jackpotdadon Capitalism is the reason we all aren't living in poverty. It's the reason you can get on your phone & ignorantly complain about capitalism.
Activists will say it's the governments fault, but truth be told it's the residents fault. I grew up on public housing in NYC, at that time they were decent because you had mostly working people living their. When NYC decided to start housing the homeless, the buildings rapidly deteriorated. It's not the buildings, it's the people and the values they live by.
Yep right on, but ypu forgot to mention that the city after a few years stopped caring about the projects and they fell.into disrepair and when even the city doesn't care about your area, that leads to a crime zone because there's no opportunity there
You forgot to say Cooley high, that movie was made here , it was actually filmed inside the buildings, and apartments, not just showing our buildings but filming somewhere else
I find it amusing that claiming that the issues were due to "poor planning" ultimately implies that the residents can't help themselves as if they are uncivilized animals. This _"hate crime"_ will probably be the next lawsuit.
I lived 5 blocks from Cabrini green X 10yrs. For most of those residents it is a way of life , public housing section 8 coupons, food stamps and Medicade, for life. Rarely do they leave this lifestyle, they know how to abuse the system of government programs. This takes aways money & resources from those desperately need it , like elderly, vets , chronic ill people. They also get free mobile phones, computer s, and internet. Often they refuse to work bc they make more collecting statw benefits. I know other states don't offer as much , Illinois basically a welfare state. I do know plenty of fine folks that left that lifestyle, got education, job, and joined society. Success stories do happen ✌️ ☮️
@@Kim-J312 LBJ was a disaster. Who'd a thunk that giving unwed mothers money for food and other expenses would lead to an explosion of even more babies from lotharios cruising the meat buffet, malt beer in hand. Just another Dem scheme to 'grow the vote', but only a tiny fraction can be bothered to get an ID, get registered and then actually vote. More successful would be the PoC in the vast gov bureaucracy work force, they do vote, and overwhelmingly Democrat, of course that true's of all races in the gov work force.
Yeah I was wondering how Chicago building a whole bunch of housing for poor folks was somehow Chicago's fault when ghetto people came in and ruined it. I guess you just can't win with those types of people. They want you to hold their hand and be their daddy too.
I grew up on the Near North Side in the 70s and 80s, and I remember the Green vividly. Of course my experience was as a child, but I don't remember ever being frightened to be anywhere near or in Cabrini. It was the adults around us kids that put the fear of it into us.
I can't imagine the fear and hopelessness that people who lived there felt every minute of the day and night. I'd like to think it's better today but with 800 homicides last year and the 4th highest all time number of shootings its obviously not. 3/4 of shootings are unsolved and with more than 1/2 the homicides also unsolved I surmise it's going to take more than the Mayor's proclamation of 2022 to be the summer of love to make it happen.
I was born at Loyola University Hospital in Chicago, IL in 1971. Went to elementary school in Chicago before we moved to Oklahoma City for my middle school years but most of my relatives stayed in Chicago and the suburbs. Cabrini-Green was where you could get ANYTHING…. especially KILLED if you weren’t careful. The true beginning of “Chiraq” was right here. My Uncle Greg was Chicago PD Narcotics, Gang Task, then SWAT and he said they’d stop a couple blocks outside The Green and wait for some of the gunfighters to kill each other before rolling in during viscous gun battles in that hood.
Hmmmm 🤔. Seems like the problem is the same in every city/ situation. How about we teach kids self respect, respect for others, respect for property, responsibility, manners, appreciation, and general ideals of being a good person. Break down this culture of scumbaghood.
Cabrini Green, Robert Taylor, Ida B. Wells, Altgeld Gardens(Pill Hill). I remember going in all of them and then some when I was a Paramedic in Chicago during the mid to late 80's working for a private ambulance service. We had to go in there late at night and early in the morning when CFD was busy with other calls around the city. Sometimes we had CPD waiting to escort us into and out of the buildings, sometimes we got there before the Police. Got robbed at gunpoint twice, the robbers thought we had drugs in our jumpbox. Boy were they in for a surprise. Fun times 😳I was sad when I found out they tore down Read MHC and Tinley Park MHC.
I ran with a private service at around the same time as you, was in all the same projects as well. Never had a PD escort but also was never robbed!!! Usually we received respect since CFD usually wouldn’t respond there.
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Can you do a video on stiltsville? (Miami)
I don't see where you remove insulting statements. There all over the comments. Selective
@@tylerjones7263 *They're* , not There. 🤦🏼♂️
It’s History why you say these were condo’s for wealthier people, these housing buildings or projects were built for the poor whites, it was called free housing for the immigrants…. Then after the government pulled us in as to say they built it for us all lies
The movie 'Hardball' wasn't filmed at Cabrini-Green. It was filmed at the former Grace Abbot Homes that used to be in the city's West Side. The movie was based on a youth baseball team out of Cabrini-Green in the 90s.
I lived there for 5 years back in the 60' s. It was scary. 636 W. Evergreen in the white buildings. I was bullied by the kids. Almost raped by 2 teenage boys when I was 9. My father got brutally beaten and robbed on several occasions. But the straw that broke the camel' s backs was the riots of 1968 when MLK got shot. I was ever so happy when we moved to Lincoln Park that summer. My father thought if we stayed, we would all die. Needless to say, the area got worse over the years. The projects needed to come down.
Damn that’s crazy I grew up in Philly we had high rise projects ass well glad my family never had to live in them
Tortured into appearing to have sex unwanted sex, rape?
This is so sad. Nobody deserves to go through that. Glad you all are okay.
My dad grew up in Chicago Public Housing. He told me that they were nice at first with amenities, mixed income, and diverse. When the city stopped caring they fell into disrepair creating contained concrete boxes of crime. Such a shame how the demolition of these buildings just spread the crime around and ruined neighborhoods in Chicago. Where I lived in the Southside used to be such a nice neighborhood until all the riffraff came in. We're still reeling from the affects of these mistakes till this day. 😔
My daughter lived on the south side of Chicago for several years as a student at the U. of Chicago. She got lucky because one of the corners of the property she lived in actually touched the property of President Obama's home. The Secret Service was present in a 6-block area around his home 24/7. They knew who the students were and kept an eye out for them. As time went on it got worse so she moved closer to the lake. But you're right: the houses on the south side looked nicely built with a park nearby.
@@kurtlamprecht93 I can only go by what my daughter told me at the time and the photos she shared with me. That doesn't mean I live in a "bubble". I'm an American who stood in Red Square, USSR in '81, so YOU must live in a bubble for never having been there. Great logic, kiddo.
"The city stopped caring"? Or jobs went overseas leaving the community and resulting tax base for certain areas of the city destitute? Do you think cities choose to house people in projects/trailer parks just for sh*ts and giggles?
@@fmiller36 Hey I agree with you. My family came from Cuba to Chicago and worked in factories until our family became stable. Most those factories closed down and the ones that stayed open became automated displacing thousands of jobs. It's an American problem stemming from greedy Capitalism with overseas cheap labor
@snappeas1031 It's wonderful that your friend's niece felt safe and had a nice senior prom. It's a shame that resources are held back now and everyone suffers for it.
My father worked at cabrini in the 90's as electrician, he actually got pulled into the office for working too fast. They said they didn't want things fixed and if he kept fixing things they would fire him 🤷♀️ the city would keep buying tons of supplies and let parts get stolen and didn't care. This goes on for plumbers, hvac, etc. He said at times the police would tell them to just drag the dead bodies out to the front 😂 there was crazy gang riots that would last all night
Wow!
Really?? 🤔
Must have been his union bosses. No joke intended.
It's so sad because there were many good people who lived in Cabrini Green. Not all were on drugs they were just poor. I know I used to work for CHA many years ago!
This is why I always cringed when people didn't recognize that. However no matter your color or income, if you didn't live or work there you probably didn't know the unwriten rules making it dangerous to outsiders. That unfortunately is the root of the problem.
@@peterharren8909 It was like a fort!
A lot of drug users are good people, too. The government is standing by waiting for them to die of poisoned drugs instead of doing the smart thing which is legalizing drugs and supporting universal mental healthcare.
U see, the gov has evolved to only care about absorbing tax dollars. Screw every other agenda.
Every politician now has stocks in whatever the gov buys. The more tax payer absorption, the more their stock goes up
I used to sell maintenance equipment and I called on all the CHA projects. I would have my sales calls at about 7 am since the gang bangers weren't active at that time in the morning but one time when I was leaving I was carrying a sample case and my briefcase. As I left the building and the door locked behind me I was greeted by about 5 gang members who were just coming home..one of them flashed a gun at me and demanded my cases and my wallet. Will that I figured that they could have the cases but I wasn't going to relinquish my wallet..I tossed the cases to them and I took off running towards my car. A couple of them gave chase but I was in pretty good shape at the time. just as I got to my car a Chicago police car came driving down the street and the gang bangers fled the scene. I thanked the cop and he let me retrieve my cases but I was terrified. from then on I always carried a gun when calling on the project's .In conclusion. The CHA was a great account since my competitors wouldn't go to see them they bought anything I was selling.
A gun was essential anyway
Thank the Lord you didn't have to shoot one of them and end up in prison doing double life.
@@onemoremisfit No, that's Canada, where shooting someone in self-defense will get you sent to prison, in part for 'murder' and also using a gun even if you have a rare permit in an unauthorized manner.
Wow that is so amazingly and totaly not interesting to anyone but you... this isn't the "tell us your life Howie" channel
@@slowery43 I liked howies story...
i was a cab driver for 2 yrs in chicago between 1989 to 1991and i know this area well. Cab driver going north west cannot avoid this area. i used to say prayers when i had to go through Cabrini Green. My cousin told me once he got a bullet in his windshield
I think what was most interesting about Cabrini Green growing up in Chicago was how close it was to downtown. It wasn't some far flung off neighborhood stratling the Chicago city boundary, but was just 10-ish blocks from the wealthiest part of Chicago, the Gold Coast.
If you think about it, most of the worst areas in major cities are close to downtown, which makes them ripe for gentrification & displacement
I recall a comedian saying "it was just a gun shot away from the loop".
In Baltimore more than 90% of our projects are in a circle bordering downtown from all sides
It kinda makes sense if you think about it,cause all those downtown businesses need cheap labor to keep them going, and who better to exploit for that role,than the people that are already struggling to pay their bills and feed their families,that will work just about any job for little pay to do so.
Yes! In the late 90 I was driving w a friend thru Chicago moving to NYC. We stayed a night at her friends house & wanted to see Cabrini Green on way out. That was about 25 years ago & I have a vague memory but I still remember think this is right by downtown. I assumed it was one of the massive project buildings that lined the highway as you approached Chicago with the skyline ahead.
A story needs to be told on Robert Taylor Homes. It was the Hercules of public housing in Chicago...much larger than Cabrini Green Homes.
I drove cab in college (2002-05). The instructor for the license class was an off duty police officer. She made it very clear that we can’t refuse service and should go to ALL underserved areas. One day she invited a seasoned cab driver and just stepped out after a few minutes. The old man told the class straight up that there’s no amount of money worth going into Cabrini.
The only time I went to the Whites was when one of the three guys in my cab put a knife at my throat. They got in at the Viagra triangle, took me to the whites and made me turn off my car and headlights, they did a drug deal, went into the Reds off of Orleans & Oak, picked up a prostitute, made another drug deal, picked up Portillos, went to Evanston, IL and gave me a $100
I haven’t lived in the Gold Coast for about 20 years and you recount of events brings back so many memories! Thanks for sharing!
Sounds About Right !! 😐
Urban Entrepreneurialism.
I used to hang out at Mother's. I'd take the blue line down and walk. I always crossed the street before Cabrini. I haven't lived there in a long time but seeing the Viagra Triangle referenced brings back memories.
Wow but still pay the driver well afterwards.
Friend of mine lives a few blocks from Cabrini. I still remember his instructions to get to his place ending in "If you go too far, immediately hang two turns, and don't stop for anything. Do NOT go back down the street you came in on."
Unfortunately, the residents of Cabrini Green were sent to smaller towns in Northern Illinois such as Rockford and Belvidere which has ruined those two towns permanently. The new residents didn't want to go there and the old residents did not welcome them including the African Americans who were already living in those smaller towns and cities. The Cabrini residents brought huge crime problems and the individual neighborhoods they were brought to were decimated. Sorry, but this is fact!
Dekalb il too
Thanks
It's almost like being displaced w no opportunity to escape the endless cycle of poverty will cause problems
Not disputing it at all
If you are a moral, working person, you don’t want criminals, drugs, etc. in your hometown! Doesn’t matter the color, most people want to be safe. That’s why in the late 60’s and early 70’s we saw a mass exodus from the great cities of the north. Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland were left deserted because of crime, drugs and early gang activity. Truth .
I was interested to find out who Cabrini Green was.
It's actually two different people:
Cabrini was a nun who was canonized and Green who was a labor leader.
How a catholic saint and labor leader responsible for ending mandatory loyalty to non-union shops, got their totally unrelated names together on a low income housing project is a question for another day.
In the 1940s several hundred row houses were built I believe named after Cabrini and then in the 1950s the high-rises were built as the Green extension. The two aren't necessarily connected to each other but both deserved to be memorized in such a way
and then there's the great distancing of the middle/upper class from everyone else yet most fail to realize it's that very middle/upper class that owns the rental properties and is in hot pursuit of that fat government check via section 8 housing aka metropolitan housing help!!
Though I'm sure most with in the middle class purely ignore that fact because of their false belief that the middle class nor the upper class
"doesn't in anyway benefit from welfare"!
Lol shit, that's why rent is high, hell I remember here in Ohio back in 06 the big rush for landlords to place their properties on section 8 housing started, it took our local government over 9 years to admit that 50% of the town the rentals!
Yeah, went from being able to rent a single family home at $425-$550, to no less than $600 because metropolitan sets the bottom line price for any area!
Of course those prices was then, now we're seeing the ghetto demand 12 to $1400 a month!
Modest prices are for a one bedroom apartment mostly studio apartments, $725-850 of course higher depending on credit score... But the modest prices are disappearing it's quickly becoming, over 950 bucks a month and that's a hole in the wall the equivalent to a cardboard box!
But hey those landlords yes the majority of them have the majority of their houses placed on the government system and no one says anything!
Hummm the government pays their taxes their insurances and their mortgages plus any upkeep that we know they don't want to do all the while providing them with an income!
Explain to me how they're not the real welfare recipients???
I'd love to hear it!
I do not believe "green" is in reference to a labor leader. It is in reference to the green field on which the complex was constructed. i.e. Cabrini "Meadow" ...You now, like Bowling "Green"...a green meadow where people bowled...
@@Amerikanerer So you think you know more than Chicago Housing Authority?
A lot of project buildings were named after good people back then even in NYC
I moved to Chicago in '95. I lived a few miles NW of downtown and I got a job waiting tables @ Melvin B's downtown. I didn't want to pay for parking downtown, and decided to bike to work. I pulled out a map and charted my direct route to State/Division. I ended up biking directly through the Cabrini Green neighborhood. I was such a Greenhorn. They knew I had no idea what I was doing, and some kids messed with me, but it was all good. No worries, but everyone I worked with thought I was crazy. Let's just say I took a more round about route home with $200 cash in my pocket every night.
When I was a kid, watching Good Times, I didn't know what those building were, and I assumed they must be the factory where the dad worked. When, as an adult, I found out that was the building they lived in, I was horrified.
😳🙀😹😹😹😂😂😂💯♥
For crying out loud LOL 😆
Really? 😂
I lived on the North Side in the 90’s. I remember the tragic incident with Girl X at Cabrini-Green and how it was all over the news. That happened roughly about the same time as Jon-Benet Ramsey tragedy. It wasn’t long after that a full on commitment to shut these housing projects down.
First time I ever visited Chicago, I looked out my hotel window and saw "the Good Times buildings" in the distance. They were unmistakable -- the "Reds". I immediately rode the train up to them and took a walking tour. Later, it was explained to me that the buildings were the Cabrini-Green projects and I'd taken my life in my hands.
It wasn't filmed here. Though
🥴😭
@@keishawinn2153 it's already understood they were oblivious.....
@@keishawinn2153 Of course not. The show was filmed in front of a live studio audience in Hollywood. But the Cabrini Reds were featured heavily in the opening and closing themes, and were used as a backdrop outside the Evans family's apartment.
Really? You took a train? No train near there, only buses. 🤦🏾♀️
In the early 2000’s I lived in Wicker Park and worked construction in Cabrini rebuilding the empty lots after tear down into new mid-rise condos. I literally saw it all. We would take gunshots into the new building from the still standing towers nearby. I will say that aside from the crime I saw just as many examples of stable families doing the best they could to survive. Great video thanks for the history and memories!
This place was so dangerous that police were afraid to go in. I worked on an ambulance and if someone had a heart attack we were not allowed to go in without police escort and that wasn't "in the building" that was out front and sometimes you would call for people to bring down the patient because it was to dangerous to go in. When they realized that the property was prime real estate, close to McCormick Place, Midway Airport and the south lakeshore then the towers came down and million dollar townhouses came in.
@@kurtlamprecht93 Cabrini Green was only a few miles from some of the most desirable areas of Chicago. I am mistaken at the distance from McCormick Place. I doubt Millennial Park would be as popular if that area hadn't been demolished. I grew up on the North Side, Irving Park and Pulaski. That area where the projects were, from what I have been told, is now high end townhouses and condos. Cleaning up that area made it more convenient to access and work in the south shore area. I haven't been in that area since 1984 so my memory is a bit sketchy. You are 100% correct on the locations that I though were within the vicinity of that area. My apologies on that.
and then there's the great distancing of the middle/upper class from everyone else yet most fail to realize it's that very middle/upper class that owns the rental properties and is in hot pursuit of that fat government check via section 8 housing aka metropolitan housing help!!
Though I'm sure most with in the middle class purely ignore that fact because of their false belief that the middle class nor the upper class
"doesn't in anyway benefit from welfare"!
Lol shit, that's why rent is high, hell I remember here in Ohio back in 06 the big rush for landlords to place their properties on section 8 housing started, it took our local government over 9 years to admit that 50% of the town the rentals!
Yeah, went from being able to rent a single family home at $425-$550, to no less than $600 because metropolitan sets the bottom line price for any area!
Of course those prices was then, now we're seeing the ghetto demand 12 to $1400 a month!
Modest prices are for a one bedroom apartment mostly studio apartments, $725-850 of course higher depending on credit score... But the modest prices are disappearing it's quickly becoming, over 950 bucks a month and that's a hole in the wall the equivalent to a cardboard box!
But hey those landlords yes the majority of them have the majority of their houses placed on the government system and no one says anything!
Hummm the government pays their taxes their insurances and their mortgages plus any upkeep that we know they don't want to do all the while providing them with an income!
Explain to me how they're not the real welfare recipients???
I'd love to hear it!
@@American-Motors-Corporation , very insightful aspect. Nice to know.
Always
Are you thinking of the Robert Taylor Homes?
Chicago projects were like no other Robert Taylor homes was 26 high rises stretched across 4 and a half miles!
I believe "Candyman" was inspired by a real life case on (a resident named Ruth Mae McCoy of Chicago ABLA Homes on Racine Ave -- I think demolished as well) McCoy was murdered through her bathroom cabinet, which was closely connected to an apt that was supposed to be vacant but unknown to CHA it was occupied by a delinquent whom was given the keys by the former tenant that used to live there. The delinquent had been observing-listening to McCoy's conversations, her steps ~this is what I remember reading.
The ABLA Homes are only row houses now, their high rises are all torn down.
@@WickedWayne57 Had to look back into it & Yes, you are right; those CHA high-rises have been demolished. What I didn't know is that there are still rowhouses there. If I remember correctly Ruth McCoy lived in one of the Grace Abbott high-rise bldgs - on the 11th floor- the bathroom "medicine" cabinets were like 2 feet closely connected from unit to unit. It's crazy! What's sad about this true case/story is that McCoy (though she had a mental illness) lived by herself & the delinquent heard her phone conversations about when she would be receiving her first disability check by which she planned on moving out of ABLA Homes/ projects & from what I recall reading that's why she was murdered - delinquent & his accomplices broke in, shot her & ended up stealing her money, furniture, etc.
And the tv show good times.
You're right this happened in 1987 when she called police and said they were coming in through the medicine cabinet which confused the dispatcher also didn't help that Ruth had a history of mental illness... Little fact that the housing projects were so poorly condtructed that many apartments were connected and the only separation was the installation of each apartments medicine cabinet
Just realized the lady in Candyman that the two ladies was named Anne Marie Macoy coincidence or more likely a nod to the actual events
This so echo's the situation in high rise estates in Glasgow from the 1970's through the 80's and 90's. The biggest problem was the management who did not care who they dumped there, as long as the number of voids (empty apartments) was as low as possible. if keeping the figures right meant dumping mentaly unstable people, drug addicts and dealers, or people evicted from other areas for gross anti social behaviour, then so what, the housing managers didnt have to live there.
Well that's what public housing is largely about. Giving people who have not worked for it and don't really deserve it, a place to live. It becomes like them, and what they make of it. Does not matter where you put it, it all turns to shit after a while.
@@johnstudd4245 would you rather have armies of homeless walking the streets? Public Housing doesn't just benefit the lowest in society
@@penskepc2374 You are describing the situation in Los Aneles skid row.
@@covercalls88 that would be a drop in the bucket in comparison to public housing not existing. We should definitely build them different than regular apartments.
@@penskepc2374 I agree with you, build them with bare concrete blocks and bars for windows. They can't destroy that.
Robert Taylor was poorer and more violent. It was the largest housing development in the world until its demolition in 03
Yes the Robert Taylor homes were even worst!
Yea I use to drive from Rogers park up north to either 35th and state or the buildings I believe was on 43rd and federal behind the that bp gas station on state. As soon as you pull in that parking lot on 43rd you have about 10 dudes all on the hood of your car trying to get the sell. Hands all in your car window with bags of weed.
More violent than CG? Must have been Hell
It was larger but because Cabrini green was located a stone's throw away from goals coast that's what made it hard
@@hairyape3935 absolute hell. It was the headquarters of the GDs and BDs before the BDs moved to Randolph Towers. The MCs and Stones had buildings in the 80s and 90s then the MCs were the only nation under the 5 still in the Taylor. 5322 5326 State and 5323 S Federal were the buldings in the hole
Small detail, where did the people move when Cabrini Green and Robert Taylor homes were demolished. Section 8 housing destroyed thriving neighborhoods such as Chatham and South shore. Cabrini Green had the Chicago Gold Coast (The most expensive real estate in the city) to the east and Miracle Mile, high end retailers. Why did this happen, Mayor Daley 2 went to European capitals to developed a strategy to make Chicago a higher level world class city. The idea was to grow from the center out. For this to happen, the projects had to come down. Crime could be contained within the projects and now crime is spread all over the city. The idea was, move people in the projects into good neighborhoods to create better behavior. Unfortunately people without money see other people in the neighborhood with money buying brand name products want to have the same and the crime cycle continues. I won't discuss the criminal prosecution changes which makes matters worse.
I can tell you were a high percentage of them went: Portage, Hobart, and Valparaiso, Indiana turning what were quiet apartment complexes into drug and crime riddled areas. The police departments learned a bit about what violence is. The Democrat mayor's of those towns were ousted next election.
The same happened in Dallas. I bought into what was a good neighborhood around 17 years ago and sold last year. Went from a relatively safe and crime free neighborhood to one of constant crime. The difference was the soft on crime and section 8 housing that came. And people wonder why middle and upper class say not in my neighborhood, this is it.
@@stevenkilgore5771 and then there's the great distancing of the middle/upper class from everyone else yet most fail to realize it's that very middle/upper class that owns the rental properties and is in hot pursuit of that fat government check via section 8 housing aka metropolitan housing help!!
Though I'm sure most with in the middle class purely ignore that fact because of their false belief that the middle class nor the upper class
"doesn't in anyway benefit from welfare"!
Lol shit, that's why rent is high, hell I remember here in Ohio back in 06 the big rush for landlords to place their properties on section 8 housing started, it took our local government over 9 years to admit that 50% of the town the rentals!
Yeah, went from being able to rent a single family home at $425-$550, to no less than $600 because metropolitan sets the bottom line price for any area!
Of course those prices was then, now we're seeing the ghetto demand 12 to $1400 a month!
Modest prices are for a one bedroom apartment mostly studio apartments, $725-850 of course higher depending on credit score... But the modest prices are disappearing it's quickly becoming, over 950 bucks a month and that's a hole in the wall the equivalent to a cardboard box!
But hey those landlords yes the majority of them have the majority of their houses placed on the government system and no one says anything!
Hummm the government pays their taxes their insurances and their mortgages plus any upkeep that we know they don't want to do all the while providing them with an income!
Explain to me how they're not the real welfare recipients???
I'd love to hear it!
Same thing for ABLA, Ickes, Stateway Gardens!
You are absolutely correct op.
Housing thousands of people in a structure with no support services was a stupid idea with failure built right in. Poorly run public schools. No job training programs. No child care programs for people who had jobs. Poor public transportation. What exactly were they expecting?
Yep yep yep and a lot of people (in these comments especially) are too racist to see that
These social programs cost a lot of money. But the politicians don’t care one iota. It’s not their money.
@@dapperdonny4051 It was about the proximity to the downtown area of chicago, it was prime location, I grew up there and i didn't know of anything going on, I was a kid and i stayed a kid, i didn't wonder about anything else but being a kid.
it was done by design they were ment to keep poor people poor same as the welfare system it was designed to oppress the racial minoritys and keep them down. the democrats arent the good guys and neither are the republicans they are both just as racist as the other. one just hides it better. why is some of the higest crime cities are democrat run for decades and they always run on change but never do. its all by design...
People to not be scum bags? I know. A high bar
The movie 'Hardball' wasn't filmed at Cabrini-Green. It was filmed at the former Grace Abbot Homes that used to be in the city's West Side. The movie was based on a youth baseball team out of Cabrini-Green in the 90s.
I interviewed for a job at the Montgomery Ward headquarters building in 1999 and drove through the project afterwards, white knuckling it all the way. My father worked for Wards for years and said they had bulletproof curtains on all of the office windows facing Cabrini Green, and from my visit to their offices it seemed possible.
We were in a hurry one time due to an emergency and the fastest way from point a to point b was by cabrini green. My friend literally weighed the pros and cons of it but decided to do it. That section was white knuckles for sure and just shock at how broken down it was.
I’d say getting a job at Wards in the late 90s would not have been conducive to long term career goals.
@@jst7714 yeah since they went bankrupt in 1997!
There were these 2 firemen from Michigan who, in the late 80's, spent a week chasing fires in the Windy City. Their mini van dropped its transmission in Cabrini green. We still drove it, we had to! First gear,...350 highway miles...Good times!
I’m a native Chicagoan. Thank you for telling this history. Was born in the 90’s and my family owned property over by Hudson and North Ave. So I’ve known about Kabrini Green and it’s sketchyness since I was a little girl. Also my father grew up in one of those buildings. He’s from a huge Jehovah’s Witness family with 15 other siblings. So he’s told me some wild stuff that has happened. Like him and his sister getting robbed on their way to the store and a gang member putting a gun to my grandma’s face whilst she was out doing field service ( knocking on doors to share the religion). They’re father worked and mother stayed home. Also I’ve never knew the history of the area before it was Kabrini Green. It seems like that area has always been trouble.
It was successful at first. Everyone knew eachother, people were there for eachother and everything al the way until the late 60s, early 70s when it started to become a place for gangs and rival gangs to turn it into one of the worst public housing projects where it was almost never safe. It used to be a nice area, until the gangs messed it up.
You mean "Cabrini" Green?
Cabrini with a C
@@v10-ACR-E yes with a C. But I'm not adding the C because that place doesn't deserve to be named after a saint.
@@v10-ACR-E I didn't know about that. It still doesn't deserve to be named after a Saint though. To many lives lost and destroyed there.
I remember the last buildings of Cabrini Green being demolished in 2011 and the old residents used to throw parties on the blacktop that Target now sits on. Thank you for another amazing video 💪🏾
Can you imagine all of the residual energy left behind on those grounds? All the decades of anger, hurt, death, fear… crazy. It has to resonate through those new condos and stores that now reside there.
From what I remember, the 1992 slaying of 7 year-old Dantrell Davis was the watershed moment which eventually led to the project's demolition almost a decade later. A crime so shocking that the politicians started seeking the removal of the buildings instead of their replacement.
At least the crime was consolidated and made it easier to control now crime is spread out and out of control
It wasn’t though crime is down from its peak of 1989-1994 that was the peak crime time for Chicago. Crime up until 2019 was low, 2020 and 2021 were blips 2022 seems to be going down slowly
my wife was born and raised there and she was the same age as girl x around the same time she was murdered my wife was also living there as a child. even though she was a small child she tells me some of the stuff she remembers and its beyond crazy what these people had to live through
Girl X is still alive today. Where did you get this story from? Who is your wife?
I went to public school about half a mile north of Cabrini. Amazing how different life can be within the span of a few blocks. Kids who came from uber, uber wealthy families (homes valued in the 8 figure range) lived a 5 minute walk away from Cabrini. Hell, our current governor (heir to the Hyatt empire) lived right next to the school. The older I get, the more I appreciate how crazy that dynamic is. Wouldn't trade it for the world, but man. Even at a time when Cabrini was very close to being shuttered, it was a stark contrast.
By the time I left that school, Cabrini was mostly skeletal. They built a posh private school basically smack dab in the middle of it, an apple store, the whole shebang. Still a few highrises left up, and a lot of people still living in the rowhomes. Such an extreme schism looking back, especially when I consider that Cabrini was surrounded by extreme wealth on all sides. Ultra contained poverty and suffering. Even so, there is a worthwhile argument to be made that other public complexes like the Robert Taylor homes had it worse. I have not been back to Cabrini in a decade, but I hope the city takes measures to enshrine the human experience that was the norm there for half a century. It's their duty to educate the next generations about the skeletons underneath their duplexes.
My dad and his siblings were born and raised there.. I spent my early childhood hanging out in the playground and riding the elevator up to my grandmothers apt.. she had plastic on her couches and we made icey cups, and boy was it fun times😊
As someone that works a block away. It’s an eyesore to still have those row houses there. Some are occupied and there are shootings among other illicit activities in those couple of blocks. Mind boggling how it is allows to occur in The neighborhood considering 600 W at the corner employees thousands of middle class people. Plus some nice condos on the area as well. Imagine paying $1M+ only to overlook this mess of history
Let the buyer beware
wawawa,,,,then vote for government who doesn't pay you to vote to eliminate.
They're still there i was there in 2013 and they had tore down most of them i figured they would have tore the rest down by now
and then there's the great distancing of the middle/upper class from everyone else yet most fail to realize it's that very middle/upper class that owns the rental properties and is in hot pursuit of that fat government check via section 8 housing aka metropolitan housing help!!
Though I'm sure most with in the middle class purely ignore that fact because of their false belief that the middle class nor the upper class
"doesn't in anyway benefit from welfare"!
Lol shit, that's why rent is high, hell I remember here in Ohio back in 06 the big rush for landlords to place their properties on section 8 housing started, it took our local government over 9 years to admit that 50% of the town the rentals!
Yeah, went from being able to rent a single family home at $425-$550, to no less than $600 because metropolitan sets the bottom line price for any area!
Of course those prices was then, now we're seeing the ghetto demand 12 to $1400 a month!
Modest prices are for a one bedroom apartment mostly studio apartments, $725-850 of course higher depending on credit score... But the modest prices are disappearing it's quickly becoming, over 950 bucks a month and that's a hole in the wall the equivalent to a cardboard box!
But hey those landlords yes the majority of them have the majority of their houses placed on the government system and no one says anything!
Hummm the government pays their taxes their insurances and their mortgages plus any upkeep that we know they don't want to do all the while providing them with an income!
Explain to me how they're not the real welfare recipients???
I'd love to hear it!
@@American-Motors-Corporation Best comment! ✌🏼😊
When I was kid in the 70's in the chicago suburbs I remember story about the projects (as we called them) in the Chicago Tribune. The author described them as "vertical visions of hell." Sadly, an on the nose description. I did not know some of that backstory. Thanks.
@@kurtlamprecht93 boomers were born after World War Two. He said he was a kid in the 70’s.
@Kurt Lamprecht depending on his age, I'd say Gen X, but the zoomers don't give a f*** and don't distinguish between the two, though they are very different
Yeah I'm 44 and we call them projects too 😂
One thing that has always stayed with me has been what was pointed out in the original Candyman movie. When you ride the train, the side that Cabrini Green was on looked dramatically different from the opposite side of the tracks. That building was an eyesore! I used to feel fear any time I rode through that area. I hope that the people who moved from there were able to improve their lives .
They didn't and crimes flowed
I lived in Chicago. I liked to explore the city, late at night. I was riding the subway at around 2 a.m., decided to get off at a stop name I didn't recognize. Could be interesting, right? Went up the stairs, didn't recognize the neighborhood either, but I was able to orient myself to start heading homeward. I'd done a lot of exploring so finding my way home was always easy.
Uh, uh-oh. I recognize those buildings: Cabrini Green. Two o'clock in the morning and I'm walking through Cabrini Green. Yikes. I had already walked far enough that the choice to return to the subway or keep walking toward familiar ground was a fifty-fifty shot. Nothing happened. I don't know if my fears were unfounded, or if I was lucky.
You were lucky. 2am walkin around there if you didn't know where you were the attitude of anyone that you may have run into would be, you should know where you are! It's 2am, the game is on at 2am! Walkin around there they would view you as a player, you put yourself in the game. Situational awareness is how you avoid gettin killed. I lived around that shit my whole life and you better know where you are and what's going on at all times! We knew that as kids, do not go over there or you will get hurt! You got real lucky my friend!
Stupid is more likely.
@@marchellochiovelli7259 C'mon now, be nice.
@@UNUSUALUSERNAME220 It was an honest answer and I agree with it. It was stupid and could have gotten him killed.
You were DAMN LUCKY. PERIOD.
I came from Poland fir a summer holiday to Chicago. I asked my mother to tske me to the worst district to see famous american getthos. It was far far more that i was prepere for. People was laying on the ground drunk or stoned, half of windows was broken and i even didnt got out from my car. In my country it is tottaly safe and i can sleep in the city center with my phone next to me and nobody will take it.
@@panpanpanpan4631 Wished my parents took me to see how the ghettos looked like. My parents pretty much shielded me from that stuff until I became an adult and witnessed it for myself.
Words cannot describe how disgusting some of the living conditions people put themselves into. How can people turn places into that is beyond me.
In the winter of 1979-80 I was on my way to work as a house officer at Cook County Hospital. As I passed Cabrini Green, a young woman flagged down my car, upset, asking for help-someone was after her. I let her in the car and said I would take her to the police station. She insisted I wait there. Instead I traveled down the block. When I stopped at a red light, she jumped out, without explanation.
When I later recounted this to colleagues, I was deemed a naive fool and told that I was more likely the one in trouble than her.
And that was always the problem with Cabrini Green-should you stop and help, or just steer clear.
You should *always* stop and help those who are in need. Even if you are hurt or killed, it is for a worthy cause. Sacrificing one's self for others should be required by law.
@@GregoryTheGr8ster lmao what
@@GregoryTheGr8ster Nah, don’t think so. Not in this day.
@@GregoryTheGr8ster I agree with you. If I'm meant to help, I help. Just like other strangers have been meant to help me. I'm not afraid to die. How could I be afraid to do something everyone does? I wasn't afraid to be born.
I dunno about requiring sacrifice by law. It seems to me making assistance compulsory would increase cynicism and selfishness, whilst decreasing the actual quality of said help. Sorta like jury duty.
@@GregoryTheGr8ster - Put the pipe down already.
My family and I live in a rowhome in what was the Greens of Carbrini Green area north of Division off Halsted. Totally transformed community. It has come a long way. There is a super Target off Larrabee and Division. New City shopping center with a Mariano's and Dicks and more upscale restaurants. The pricing of market rate housing is getting high - but still not as expensive as neighboring Lincoln Park and Old Town/Gold Coast. The church on Larrabee by the Stanton park is still there although it looks abandoned. Great presentation! Fascinating to learn the history.
Unfortunately the Cabrini Green row houses are not completely vacant. It remains one of the most dangerous areas of River North. Shootings happen there on a nightly basis, and there is always couple of police cars permanently stationed at the end of the street. I used to live just across the street from these row houses, and the amount of violence that would spill out made me fearful for my life. My building had bullet holes in it, and multiple people had been robbed or beaten at gun point. The Montgomery condo building recently had about a dozen or more bullet holes introduced to it, which didn't even make the local news.
The sooner these buildings can be destroyed, the better. These row houses attract so much murder and death that it boggles the mind. I'm glad I got out of there before I got shot.
No wonder there's always some shit going down in that area.
Are you seriously implying " these row houses attract so much murder" ???? Wth kinda statement is this? How are these buildings attracting crime?? Same logic as "gun violence" like its a building or a tool commiting these heinous crimes...
@@1DEADBEEF1 There are criminal elements around those row houses.
@@1DEADBEEF1 hey truth hurts it’s a lot of violence in those row houses
@@GODislove99999 I think you missed the point completely - associate the violence WITH PEOPLE, not with buildings, neighborhoods and firearms
I remember it well, as I grew up in the northern suburbs in the 80's. It was frequently in the news on a regular basis. I just turned 18 when Cantrell Davis was killed by gunfire on October 13, 1992 on his way to school. He was only 7 years old.
Because of Norman Lear's top rated TV show Good Times, everyone in the US in the 1970s knew all about Cabrini Green.
If not for the familiarity of it to the public through Good Times, the outrage about it and later demolition would not have been as great events.
Candy man & Good Times got me interested years later & then. As a kid I remember seeing them when we drove through Chicago. I was curious why they were called the “projects” & always thought about how many people lived there.
On the show Good Times, they never mentioned Cabrini-Green. But you could see it when they showed the intro.
Look for an old book called The Horror of Cabrini Green by Bruce C. Conn. His family lived there. Great read. The Green was sitting on some prime real estate near Chicago's touristy and pricey Old Town, so it had to go. The years passed and now the whole town is Cabrini Green.
I read that book it was so good I could not put it down.
Chicago does it's best to cover up is how it handled the relocation of the residents. A large portion was relocated to DeKalb, IL and were put into a housing community that is in between where the majority of students live and the campus forcing many students to cross past a heavily active crime area to and from classes. The housing community was originally designed as apartments for students and the city of Chicago forced the owners to kick out the students as part of the relocation process.
The
Expletive that lived there are animals and will be animals in any location
Dekalb? Maybe a small portion, most were reposited to the southern suburbs where resegregation continues unabated.
Naw you must be mistaken because a lot of them came right over the border to my hometown where I grew up Hammond. There were so many Chicago people that came because we are right over the border from the SS. We only had two housing projects The Renaissance and Columbia Center and they were packed with people from the city. I was in highschool from 93 to 97. Alot of them had their vouchers and just came across . I met some really good friends back then.
Now they give renters a voucher stating they have a confirmed payment monthly. You can have someone living next to you on government substituted rent. As long as they are leading a fruitful life there should be no judgements
It's called Section 8 Housing. They have minimum income requirements and the apartment complexes that do it have to tell the tenants that they are involved with it.
It's the people not the city
The effects of LBJ's Great Societies programs were briefly touched on. I wonder if the same federal inspectors used to ensure that there were no male breadwinners living inside the same apartment as families receiving welfare benefits as done in Pruitt Igoe, written about by Amity Shlaes in "The Great Society".
The home rules only happened for 4 yrs.
What's it matter? Single parents need the help more than 2-parent homes, it could be argued. Mass incarceration contributed greatly to the lack of fathers in homes.
@@MsNooneinparticular why they committing crimes then
Crime has not decreased.What is the narrator talking about?Chicago is Murder City.
@@gart7511 poverty
If you are poor and are struggling then you shouldn't be having kids. That advice goes to all races of people.
Good point. Reckless procreation is what causes this. It is cultural. Discrimination does not make you have kids you cannot support.
animals in cages, if you don't earn anything, you can care less about taking care of it.
“When everybody owns something, nobody owns it, and nobody has a direct interest in maintaining or improving its condition. That is why buildings in the Soviet Union - like public housing in the United States - look decrepit within a year or two of their construction...”
- Milton Friedman
Proud Chicagoan native here, I remember the first time going back to Chicago and seeing what became of that area after the city got rid of CG.... big difference, looks so nice. That's something Chicago should have done ions ago.
Yes, the areas around the Near North Side have gotten better, but other neighborhoods in Chicago as well as the suburbs have gotten much worse, because the former-residents (and gangbangers) got relocated to various locations.
Problem is that when you tear down a housing complex that houses 15k people, those people have to go somewhere... including all the gang members and druggies.
I'm 65 years old. My cousin's lived there in the 1960s, it was exciting visiting them there. Growing up in that environment didn’t seem dangerous or threatening, at all.
Without Cabrini-Green public housing, we would never have Kid-Dyno-Mite! 😛
that freak?
Public money always runs out. EVERY public work, exists on borrowed time.
This is true.
That’s because they steal and officials are just conservatives dressed in liberal clothes to manipulate people in voting for them
Because mayor's can't go into debt
Same for capitalism funded entities. Where is Sears? Kmart? Montgomery Ward? Venture?
It all dies off eventually public and private. Mismanagement is something both of them have in common.
I spent almost everyday of my youth as far back as I can remember, at clyborn and Division I was raised from 2nd grade until I left for college in Carol Stream IL & father, graduate from Moody bible institutes ministry was Clyborn Gospel Church and he serviced the community there. I spent many a new years eve in his church ringing in the new year with bullets bouncing off the front door and the outside brick wall of the facia of the church, watching his year in review of the parishiners experiences caught throuhout the year by him with his movie camera. chronicling the whole year each year. Everyday he drove from our suburban home to the city for his day job. With ECFA in the city. He would roll from the inner city out to carol stream every night to pick up me and my siblings to take us back to the church each evening for what ever event he had scheduled purposed in serving his congregation which quite a large populus were residents of pagrini green, this video brought a flood of memories. associated with that time. HE would often have troubled youth in large groups out to our nice home and some would stay for months, to complete education or to traverse some family or tragedy. I often think of those people and how their lives were affected by his dedication.
Daley's big plan for the final closure of C-G was to basically just put a bunch of residents on buses and send them downstate to various towns.
And that's what he did. But the residents were not just sent "downstate." They were sent all over to quiet towns and small cities in No IL as well.
My town has a fair number of them. The college here lost enrollment and the slumlords needed tenants for their neglected shitholes so the took the section 8 money and how we have section of town with nightly gunshots and bi-monthly shootings. 2 murders recently too. It’s no good to hole poor people all up together in shitholes.
Definitely remember the day the last building came down. It’s crazy how different the area is now and how the crime just was spread to other areas. The row houses are still there too. It’s a interesting place to explore
Right that's why it's so much going on out south
Fascinating history, I think the same applies to low cost housing all over the world. I do not know the answer or attempt to suggest a way to remedy this issue but thank-you for illuminating a social issue that many turn their back on. Great effort and work. best regards, Peter in Penang, Malaysia.
There have been successful examples of public housing but I think most of them suffer from two problems: The first being not enough funds allocated to maintenance and upkeep after construction (high-rises exacerbate this problem tremendously. They are not cost-efficient). The second being that since poverty leads to crime, putting a bunch of poverty-stricken people in a small area will create a high crime area. I think mixed-income public housing with plenty of maintenance funds may fix this. The government agency can operate the higher income units at a profit to help subsidize the lower income units too. The channel donoteat01 has two great videos on public housing.
@@Petey5 Thank-you for your reply I will have a look at the video you mentioned. I agree with what you say, the other thing is education. People with an education in basic living skills and consideration of others tend to have more pride in keeping their space clean and comfortable, I have witnessed this in many third world countries, it does not take much or more than a generation or two to make substantial change as long as there is governmental stability.
@@Petey5 I think the solution is that the city just buys some percentage of new flats on every new building and leases them out.
It was dangerous slums before the government took it over in 1940 and it became even more dangerous slums again soon after. No improvement, more expense, and now it's a constitutional "right" to housing.
@@Petey5 Mixed income housing does help to solve this issue. I lived in Montgomery Village for a couple of years when I was a kid, and it was one of the safest neighborhoods in Maryland.
Well, I attended a Cabrini parochial school, in Burbank California and got a good education. The sisters were wonderful to us girls, and they also had an orphanage in Los Angeles, among other cities. At one time, in the early 20th century there were all these kids who needed a home and the order of Mother Cabrini stepped in to fill that emergency void. You wouldn't believe the sweet very young little girls (a lot of them) just left off by parents who were unable to care for them. We older girls of high school age used to help out with caring for this immense load placed on the sisters. I appreciated a good moral atmosphere in addition to our schooling. It's a shame Mother Cabrini's name was still on that building after things went downhill. She and the other sisters were very wonderful.🧡
Majority of the residents that were forced out, ended up being sent out to the western suburbs, such as Willowbrook, Downers Grove, Woodridge, Maywood, Bellwood, Bolingbrook, La Grange, Lombard, Villa Park, Aurora etc, and ended up bringing crime there.
Last year there was a major mass shooting that happened in unincorporated dupage county in an apartment complex, that was owned by section 8. It was a normal nice community, before all the trouble moved in and started causing trouble.
Its been a year or two since i drove thru the rows but there were people living there then. Shout out to the Demon Slayer. I worked with a CHA Police Officer for a few years, That guy had stories galore. Like people throwing refrigerators from the top floor onto squad cars or even people.
My dad was an investigator in Chicago in the 1970s. He was told to never go near Cabrini Green. Once “Candyman” was filmed…I was so intrigued but never brave enough to go near it.
St. Louis tried the same thing with Pruitt Igoe, with the same disastrous results.
Low-income housing in Los Angeles -- and perhaps other major urban areas as well -- is created through a process called "Section 8." Apartment developers are required to designate 10 percent of the units for the economically challenged. The municipality avoids the responsibility connected with the housing business, while providing housing options for low-income residents. Proliferate small numbers of low-income residents across the entire city rather than concentrate them in all in one monolithic development while costing the city nothing. The plan works great on paper, but real-world results have been mixed.
Section 8 exists all around the country. It can be okay when done well.
There are different regulations in different places and most cities don't require the 10% low income, but they provide incentives for developers who do include low income housing
I wrote a poem about my time in Section 8 housing, it's called 'Cigarette Butts and Dogshit'
Surprised you didn’t share the detail on how gang members would cut holes in the walls at Cabrini Green, so when police would respond to one unit criminals would escape to others in their tunnel net work, giving it the nickname ‘the rats nest’
Thanks for this video! I'm a chicago native and grew up in the Northside. My friends and I would occasionally drive through division st at night purposely for the thrill. This was definitely one of those communities that most chicagoans would avoid at all cost. My parents worked at the old Montgomery wards building for several years next to the projects and now... what a drastic change. I still tell stories about this area to my visitors new to chicago.
Temporary layoffs, Good Times. Easy credit ripoffs, Good Times...
Just finished a book about the failed Pruitt Igoe St Louis housing projects demolished thankfully in 1972. Lee Rainwater was a sociologist who performed field research on Igoe residents from 1966-1970. Teenage pregnancies at 13 years old from countless “families “ whoever the fathers were they would have sex in the stairwells and laundry rooms easy come easy go attitude the Johnson administration naively back then unleashed a “war on poverty “ with stolen tax dollars from wealthier middle classes and affluent Americans . Want to STOP POVERTY get an abortion and stop destroying your lives and futures having children so young everyone in that generational collapse is doomed to failure and misery same in 1970 as it is fifty three years later in 2023 . 🤡🤡🤡
they provided housing for project dwellers in places like rockford. they brought propensity for crime with them. rockford used to be nice.
Same with Waukegan and Zion, they pushed them out the city to disperse the crime and gentrify the area but basically pushed the problems into the suburbs
Daley pushed out many from the projects and sent them all over IL. Rockford, Waukegan, Aurora, Dekalb. And then they developed a lot of those areas. It worked for awhile for him. Unfortunately some of those people pushed out brought their lifestyle with them.
@@andyandreson3989 ...and Bolingbrook. The Bolingbrook mayor literally called Daley and told him to stop sending public housing tenants. They came in masses sadly it did greatly affect the area.
It even stretch to Milwaukee or even most cities who had fallen to crime. I bet Indiana was effected by it as well for Evansville, Indianapolis, and Terre Haute.
@@autoworker12345 no doubt
It had absolutely nothing to do with the buildings.
Thanks for posting this video. I now live in what used to be known as Cabrini Green and I wish I could have met Marion Stamps. I heard she was an amazing lady. I heard the police officers that were killed were killed at Seward Park around the basketball area. The most heartbreaking story to me was that of Dantrall Davis who was shot and killed on his way to school with his mother. I love this area and let's remember that alot of great families came out of these buildings.
17:30 LOL, your comment made me think of my cousin who said he was so scared of that area, that he would never stop at a red light and just pass them so he can get out of there quickly. I'm glad changes are being made there and I'm hoping for the best in that neighborhood.
I've been in places like that. Figure at least if I get pulled over there is a juicier target than me!
No sympathy. They're still voting, behaving and procreating in the EXACT same fashion that caused the problems in the first place. ZERO sympathy.
I was born and raised in Cabrini Green. I grew up in the 1980's when the crime was at its peak in Cabrini Green. Lots of crazy stuff went on there. Especially at night.
When I first moved here to Chicago, I lived on Division close to rush st and state street.
Cabrini green was very close by only a few blocks I think. I remember when I had just gotten here and moved in, a search light came barreling past the window and I turned on the news to watch the search helicopter that just passed by my window looking for the people that were shooting at officers from inside their caged porches to the streets below. And then these years later, I remember the last of the buildings being torn down, making the city look better, and definitely safer too.
The thing is, is that I clearly remember Cabrini green was very dangerous, but while it stood those years ago, at that same time the area all around it was and still is extremely safe and beautiful ❤️
I hope to the people that lived there that wanted bigger and better things, I'm hoping they worked hard to find it.
And to the dangerous people that lived there and made part of that community a danger, good riddance !!!
I've LOVED Chicago for as long as I've lived here, gorgeous city, and good friendly people that look out for each other every day!
Well said I totally agree.
Back in 1988 I worked in Addison IL. at a factory. Worked with this guy Leroy from Cabrini Green. One day at lunch in the break room, about 20 guys eating, Leroy says I don't live in the projects. I live in a condominium. I piped up and responded, "condominium? Leroy you thought you lived in a condominium until someone told you the sign says condemned." Food flew out everyone's mouth. Even Leroy laughed. Miss that dude.
They’ve always portrayed as national failures but at the end of the day they were low income houses and that’s it. It’s up to the people living there to form a community, keep them hospitable and be secure. Of course poverty was consolidated. It was an apartment for poor people. That I’m itself does not direct the destiny. It’s not the housing projects fault for if they were not there it would be the same issues just with a bunch of homeless or shanty towns. You can be poor and not terrorize your community or raise your children .
Eh there are design techniques that reduce crime. Wealthy suburbs use them: good lighting, no areas to hide.
You have no idea of how good old Chicago Irish politics played a part in all of this. You can't treat ppl like animals, and then not expect them to act like it.
@@swannoir7949 you can't expect to treat animals like people either
You make an excellent point
@@swannoir7949 best comment ❤
@ 6:36 ......... I just know that little PRETTY BOY had all them Little Girls crushing on him back in those days, lol
Reparations now Reparations tomorrow Reparations forever!
This was reparations, along with all of the other freebies.
Ehhhh it’s not all luxury condos. It’s a mixed income development. Whether or not it’s successful or not is debatable. But they didn’t just knock everything down for millionaires. Source: yeah I live nearby. Biking in that area you can see it still has rowhomes. But every street where Cabrini buildings still stand? Each end of the street is capped off with police cars. They have officers watching the area 24/7. The area is still iffy but not enough to stop me from biking through.
I lived in Rockwell Gardens for 3 years. It was a hellhole. Constant gun fire day and night, trash everywhere and liquor stores everywhere.
I worked in some of the low income housing and I felt sorry for many living there, the filth, bullet holes, etc. I was there during the day when things were quieter, but at night it was like hell.
I hear gunfire where I live, but it's totally different in this culture.
It just means a family down the road is out target shooting together.
My sister had a social worker roommate in the 90s who had clients there. The place terrified him and he was a hockey player.
this is where my father first lived in chicago when he came from sicily in the mid50s.
people feel entitled and then complain when they destroy what's given to them
Who are these people you're referring to chud 🤨
Capitalism does that for them.
@@jackpotdadon Y'know, the useless ones taking up half of the welfare payments.
@@glennwall552 what capitalism is the reason why poverty still exist
@@jackpotdadon Capitalism is the reason we all aren't living in poverty.
It's the reason you can get on your phone & ignorantly complain about capitalism.
Activists will say it's the governments fault, but truth be told it's the residents fault. I grew up on public housing in NYC, at that time they were decent because you had mostly working people living their. When NYC decided to start housing the homeless, the buildings rapidly deteriorated. It's not the buildings, it's the people and the values they live by.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Always love Chicago history.
Public housing is necessary, but it should be designed for the type of people that' use it.
@@penskepc2374 government creates the problem then claims to have a solution. the results are predictable.
Corrupt as hell!
Lol there was barely any good intentions here just ego trips, kickbacks, purposeful neglect...
@@maddiekits it's called sarcasm 😒🤣👍
Yah right. Blame it on public housing.
those places are where crime breeds due to the no-accounts that are there
@@CharlesCoderre-yv1cuis poverty the reason for this behaviour?
Because when you give people something for nothing, you get entitled and ungrateful recipients.
Yep right on, but ypu forgot to mention that the city after a few years stopped caring about the projects and they fell.into disrepair and when even the city doesn't care about your area, that leads to a crime zone because there's no opportunity there
Do houses need to be 300,000?
You forgot to say Cooley high, that movie was made here , it was actually filmed inside the buildings, and apartments, not just showing our buildings but filming somewhere else
I find it amusing that claiming that the issues were due to "poor planning" ultimately implies that the residents can't help themselves as if they are uncivilized animals. This _"hate crime"_ will probably be the next lawsuit.
I lived 5 blocks from Cabrini green X 10yrs. For most of those residents it is a way of life , public housing section 8 coupons, food stamps and Medicade, for life. Rarely do they leave this lifestyle, they know how to abuse the system of government programs. This takes aways money & resources from those desperately need it , like elderly, vets , chronic ill people. They also get free mobile phones, computer s, and internet. Often they refuse to work bc they make more collecting statw benefits. I know other states don't offer as much , Illinois basically a welfare state. I do know plenty of fine folks that left that lifestyle, got education, job, and joined society. Success stories do happen ✌️ ☮️
@@Kim-J312 LBJ was a disaster. Who'd a thunk that giving unwed mothers money for food and other expenses would lead to an explosion of even more babies from lotharios cruising the meat buffet, malt beer in hand. Just another Dem scheme to 'grow the vote', but only a tiny fraction can be bothered to get an ID, get registered and then actually vote. More successful would be the PoC in the vast gov bureaucracy work force, they do vote, and overwhelmingly Democrat, of course that true's of all races in the gov work force.
The violence moved out with them mostly to Englewood it was never the planning. It's always been the people
Let's be honest - they are uncivilized animals. Would YOU want them as your neighbors? I sure wouldn't.
Yeah I was wondering how Chicago building a whole bunch of housing for poor folks was somehow Chicago's fault when ghetto people came in and ruined it. I guess you just can't win with those types of people. They want you to hold their hand and be their daddy too.
I grew up on the Near North Side in the 70s and 80s, and I remember the Green vividly. Of course my experience was as a child, but I don't remember ever being frightened to be anywhere near or in Cabrini. It was the adults around us kids that put the fear of it into us.
I’m favorite part of the day is watching it’s history
I can't imagine the fear and hopelessness that people who lived there felt every minute of the day and night. I'd like to think it's better today but with 800 homicides last year and the 4th highest all time number of shootings its obviously not. 3/4 of shootings are unsolved and with more than 1/2 the homicides also unsolved I surmise it's going to take more than the Mayor's proclamation of 2022 to be the summer of love to make it happen.
Wait, that is what chicago keeps hiring/voting for to throw their money at.
When single poor women STOP GETTING PREGNANT POVERTY WILL BE ERRADICATED. PERIOD.
They elected an even worse mayor
I was born at Loyola University Hospital in Chicago, IL in 1971. Went to elementary school in Chicago before we moved to Oklahoma City for my middle school years but most of my relatives stayed in Chicago and the suburbs. Cabrini-Green was where you could get ANYTHING…. especially KILLED if you weren’t careful. The true beginning of “Chiraq” was right here. My Uncle Greg was Chicago PD Narcotics, Gang Task, then SWAT and he said they’d stop a couple blocks outside The Green and wait for some of the gunfighters to kill each other before rolling in during viscous gun battles in that hood.
Hmmmm 🤔. Seems like the problem is the same in every city/ situation. How about we teach kids self respect, respect for others, respect for property, responsibility, manners, appreciation, and general ideals of being a good person. Break down this culture of scumbaghood.
Yeah, that's such an easy simple thing to do.
And start using rubbers once and for all.
How's about we end white supremacy????
Cabrini Green, Robert Taylor, Ida B. Wells, Altgeld Gardens(Pill Hill). I remember going in all of them and then some when I was a Paramedic in Chicago during the mid to late 80's working for a private ambulance service. We had to go in there late at night and early in the morning when CFD was busy with other calls around the city. Sometimes we had CPD waiting to escort us into and out of the buildings, sometimes we got there before the Police. Got robbed at gunpoint twice, the robbers thought we had drugs in our jumpbox. Boy were they in for a surprise. Fun times 😳I was sad when I found out they tore down Read MHC and Tinley Park MHC.
I ran with a private service at around the same time as you, was in all the same projects as well. Never had a PD escort but also was never robbed!!! Usually we received respect since CFD usually wouldn’t respond there.