A circumstance between Cabrini and Love Jones

On a drive with friends Wednesday night, I randomly came across the few remaining buildings of Cabrini-Green Homes, a public housing project here in Chicago.


(Photo credit to flickr/reallyboring)
The dilapidated buildings, with majority of windows boarded up or scorched by arson, exuded an air of dereliction that immediately struck me as inhumane. It was not until further research at home, though, that I learned of the horrors that have happened at and to Cabrini-Green.

Built over the course of twenty years as a public housing project for Chicago's lower-income families, the complexes' demographics shifted from predominately blue-collar Italians to a majority of blacks on government assistance. At Cabrini-Green and similar Chicago projects, like the Robert Taylor Homes on the South Side, residency rates at their peaks toppled 15,000 and 27,000 respectively, with the proportion of families consisting of single mothers hovering around 90%.

These housing projects ended up serving as breeding grounds for brutal gang activity. Constructed in high-rise towers with as many as seventeen floors, the buildings' elevators were often defunct due to neglect. Those that were functioning put the residents in danger, as elevators acted as the ideal private venue in which to commit a crime. The stairwells became the primary means of travel throughout the building; however, the failure to maintain functioning lights within the stairwells resulted in threatening pitch black corridors. The "open galleries" of the homes used to be open walkways outside the rooms, but the rising numbers of children accidentally falling off the galleries resulted in mesh metal enclosures around all the open spaces of the buildings.


(Photo credit to flickr/metroblossom)
To best illustrate the ruinous efforts of Chicago public housing, I'll elaborate on a ghastly event that befell 9-year-old "Girl X," of Cabrini-Green Homes in 1997. A resident herself, she was lured into a stranger's apartment, where she was sexually assaulted, poisoned in the throat with roach spray, scrawled on in black graffiti, and left for dead in one of the stairwells.

Hearing a story of this nature, I frustratingly wonder how it is possible for heinous acts like these to occur, with efforts to inform the public and improve the state of affairs following at such a dilatory rate. As is frequently noted, the sensationalized media coverage on deaths of young, white middle- and upper-class girls has often outweighed that given to deaths stemming from problems needing solutions in our country.

And although I will concede that the majority of these buildings have been demolished under Chicago’s "Plan for Transformation"—there's only one high-rise remaining at Robert Taylor—the issue of cyclical poverty and vicious violence continues to plague the city of Chicago.

In a news piece I read earlier today, I learned that 36 teenagers and children have been murdered in Chicago this year alone, a rate yielding 2 murders weekly. Most of the deaths are gang-related and have caused alarm within communities. Numbers in other big cities, like Philadelphia, who reports four underage deaths this year, aren't even comparable.

So what does it take for those growing up in the toughest areas of Chicago to not succumb to the allure of gang life, but to seek an upwardly mobile trend leading to stable employment and housing?

The demolition of the Cabrini-Green Projects and other Chicago public housing has obviously caused the mass exodus of residents elsewhere. One aspect of the Plan for Transformation that attempts to accommodate (only a fraction of) those leaving the projects, are the "mixed-income developments" where anyone can purchase an apartment within the complex at market value while a portion of the units are allotted to those with affordable and public housing benefits. One example is the North Town Village Unit in Cabrini-Green, with 261 units sold at market value and 79 for those on public assistance.

Securing a spot in these mixed-income developments, however, is contingent on passing the “residency requirements”. These requirements include a review of one’s credit history and criminal background, drug testing, home visits, employment evaluations and their record of economic self-sufficiency.

And thus far, these efforts have been met with varying results. According to recent interviews with mixed-income housing residents, overall satisfaction is high amongst all income levels; however, the level of social integration—the ostensible objective behind mixed-income arrangements—is lagging. This approach, while helping eradicate the problems associated with homogenous high-rise public housing, does not attack the problem from where it stems.

A wise friend once told me, while on the topic of societal improvement, that education is the key to all. I was always cynical though, until reading recently about standardized testing improvements in students at the Harlem Children’s Zone in New York.

The holistic nature of the HCZ focuses not only on the child’s education at the Promise Academy charter schools in the program, but also on the parents’ education and that of the community through The Baby College and other initiatives. Also, HCZ stresses the importance of their continuous “pipeline” education—each student follows HCZ programs available from early childhood through to college.

A recent study conducted by Harvard’s economics department took an intensive look at HCZ students’ performances on the New York state math and English language arts as they progressed through middle school. The tables below illustrate achievement through deviation from the standard.

(Note: ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ refers to whether students in the community won or lost the lottery to join HCZ, as once HCZ reaches capacity, they admit on a lottery-basis.)



The white-black achievement gap on the math test is almost completely eliminated and although scores in English language arts still lag, the gains made through the HCZ are undeniable.

Other efforts to improve the state of affairs, such as decreasing class size, mandatory summer school, etc. yield only small advancements. The engaging community-school-family model of the Harlem Children’s Zone, however, seems to have drastically improved the performance of youngsters, all while instilling in them a drive for achievement.

With $90.9 billion (12%) of the recent bailout bill going to education, I hope that comprehensive programs like the Harlem Children’s Zone will spread. Tackling poverty through education coupled with community intervention will probably be our most beneficial approach. More comprehensive studies of the success of other efforts, such as mixed-income housing, are also underway. Hopefully we can see larger gains from these programs as well.

Although the remnants of Cabrini-Green will soon be no more, their legacy is one that will remain with us for years. My only hope is that we use this legacy constructively.