Design Observer :: Join the Discussion http://places.designobserver.com/feature/housing-chicago-cabrini-green-to-parkside-of-old-town/32298/ en-us Design Observer Group 2013-01-23T18:18:20-05:00 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/1.0
Public housing highrises were never ment to be perm housing. The residents had no vested interest in maintaining the buildings as they did not own them. They paid little to nothing to live there and contributed little if any taxes to the city. So the whole attitude these people have that we (the taxpayers) owe them a brand new 400,000 townhome for free is unacceptable.

In fact I don't support the Section 8 voucher program either. An apartment complex owner near my parents home suddenly started excepting Section 8 vouchers. Now the neighborhood has seen a dramatic increase in crimes of every type. The city and neighborhood association is doing everything they can to convince this property owner that it is in his best interest to stop accepting section 8 and to evict those already there once their leases have expired.

The cold hard truth is the same today as it was 50 years ago. Working middle class people (of any race) do not want to live side by side with public housing tenants. I think the best option would be for the city to keep its promise to rehab the rest of the Cabrini Row Houses and move in all of the acceptable public housing tenants there. Offer these units to those living in the mixed income buildings which (have seen nothing but problems) and then keep all of the new construction townhomes and apartments market rate. If additional public housing is needed there are plenty of burnt out blocks all over the city that could be raised and small scale, townhomes or apartments can be built for public housing tenants.

Developers and taxpayers should not be paying for those who can not afford it to live in luxury apartment buildings, this is liberalism gone completely off the rails, and I'm a Gay Dem saying this. I did not come from money or the best area in town, I busted my butt and made a life for myself and many public housing project residents have done the same thing. The time has come to put the city and its financial health first, complete the project and settle everyone where they will be comfortable and safe. ]]> http://places.designobserver.com/feature/housing-chicago-cabrini-green-to-parkside-of-old-town/32298/#comments 2013-01-23T18:18:20-05:00
1. Most Cabrini-Green residents do pay rent and most work. They certainly pay taxes, not the least of which is sales tax.

2. You misunderstand the 200,000 decline number. In fact, much of the 200,000 person population decline is due to declining residential units because multi-unit buildings are being transformed into single-unit buildings. Additionally, as these parts of the city get richer, the total population declines due to the fact that wealthier people have fewer children.

You have some other problems in your post, but those the biggest actual mistakes.]]> http://places.designobserver.com/feature/housing-chicago-cabrini-green-to-parkside-of-old-town/32298/#comments 2012-02-27T12:07:13-05:00 http://places.designobserver.com/feature/housing-chicago-cabrini-green-to-parkside-of-old-town/32298/#comments 2012-02-20T16:06:32-05:00
Federal rules were changed to count Section 8 vouchers as equivalent to one-for-one replacement. This engineered a massive dispersal of the most poor, least powerful residents to the wiles of the private market, which is seldom kind to them. The best reports show that nationwide, as few as 11 percent of the poorest families were rehoused by PHA's after their neighborhoods were torn down--this also coincided with Clinton-era welfare reform. Of course, the activists for the poor who could detect the rot in the program were basically treated as if they were crazy.

CNU's brainiacs took hold of this program not least through their vilifying of contemporary architecture and planning, though they had no real solutions themselves--they just cooked up new problems. It is about time that people concerned with design ethics take a good look at this recent history and use it to teach students that some grand programs don't deserve their participation, and, indeed, should incite their fiercest protest.]]> http://places.designobserver.com/feature/housing-chicago-cabrini-green-to-parkside-of-old-town/32298/#comments 2012-02-20T15:21:03-05:00