Though built for the middle class, Pruitt-Igoe became an economic and racial ghetto soon after it opened, in large part due to bad timing. The design, drawn up when Missouri law still mandated the segregation of public facilities, originally designated the Pruitt half of the complex (named after second world war fighter pilot Wendell O Pruitt) for black residents only, and the Igoe half (after former US Congressman William L Igoe) as white only.
But then came sweeping desegregation following the US supreme court’s 1954 Brown vs Board of Education verdict. In the aftermath, fearful white residents took flight, and the whole of Pruitt-Igoe became an exclusively black dwelling – with many black residents also decamping for the periphery, reducing Pruitt-Igoe’s tenant pool to those who simply couldn’t live anywhere else. theguardian.com/cities/2015/apr/22/pruitt-igoe-high-rise-urban-america-history-cities en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pruitt–Igoe
In 1968, the federal Department of Housing began encouraging the remaining residents to leave Pruitt–Igoe.[21] In December 1971, state and federal authorities agreed to demolish two of the Pruitt–Igoe buildings with explosives. They hoped that a gradual reduction in population and building density could improve the situation; by this time, Pruitt–Igoe had consumed $57 million, an investment that could not be abandoned at once.[15] Authorities considered different scenarios and techniques to rehabilitate Pruitt–Igoe, including conversion to a low-rise neighborhood by collapsing the towers down to four floors and undertaking a "horizontal" reorganization of their layout.[15][22]
After months of preparation, the first building was demolished with an explosive detonation at 3 pm, on March 16, 1972.[15] The second one went down April 22, 1972.[15] After more implosions on July 15, the first stage of demolition was over. As the government scrapped rehabilitation plans, the rest of the Pruitt–Igoe blocks were imploded during the following three years; and the site was finally cleared in 1976 with the demolition of the last block.
Controversy over the project remains, based mostly on racial and social-class perspectives. Housing projects of similar architectural design were successful in New York, but St. Louis's fragmented political culture and declining urban core contributed to the project's failure. This was elaborated upon in the Harvard University study on public housing in American cities, and in reports by actual residents. During the Nixon Administration, Pruitt–Igoe was widely publicized as a failure of government involvement in urban renewal, and the destruction of the buildings was dramatized in the media to show the American public that government intervention in social problems only leads to waste, and to justify cutbacks on social and economic "equalization" programs. Wealthy St. Louisans had also objected strongly to the artificial racial integration, and the resulting decrease in property values
>tl:dr; niggers ruin everything you get the gist, based bean
Jordan Bell
Reading about the nigger projects in Chicago like Cabrini-Green is also interesting.
Alexander Morales
So many. If they are still standing, yet are crime ridden no-go hellholes, they consider it a success NYC has a ton that I can't remember the names of..
Oliver Lopez
Only two families remain in the last standing high rise in Chicago's Cabrini-Green public housing complex and they could move out as soon as Tuesday.
The move marks the end of an era in Chicago's troubled public housing history, as the Chicago Housing Authority has been gradually moving residents out and tearing down the high rises at Cabrini and other public housing developments in the city.
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley praised the end of what he called a troubled era of public housing policy that warehoused large concentrations of poor people.
"It destroyed families," he said. "It moved people from rural communities into high rises. They had no supportive services and it completely failed."
At its peak, the dozens of white block and red brick high- and mid-rise buildings of Cabrini-Green were home to close to 15,000 people. Ricks, who moved into Cabrini in the late 1980s, says despite her initial reservations, things got better. Now, she says, she doesn't want to leave.
"It's good to me," said Ricks, who raised 12 of her 13 children here. Though she and her neighbors know they have to move, they want to remain within the Cabrini neighborhood. >"It's good to me," said Ricks, who raised 12 of her 13 children here.
yes, the bronx is not a nice place to live. the grand concourse is at least okay-tier for most of its length, but it's not the italian or jewish neighborhoods that were there in the 30s and 40s. pretty much all black and hispanic in the bronx
worth repeating: "But then came sweeping desegregation following the US supreme court’s 1954 Brown vs Board of Education verdict. In the aftermath, fearful white residents took flight, and the whole of Pruitt-Igoe became an exclusively black dwelling"
14 years later, plans to demolish
Hudson Nelson
Been pro-life my entire life. Seriously considering volunteering time and resources to Planned Parenthood, getting a Margaret Sanger tattoo.
Build 2 large housing complexes. Make one a family semi-luxury units and the other a family basic as shit unit building. Now tell people that the nicer building is for black families only. The basic as hell building is for white families only.
Black people will fight like hell to get to live in the white only building, while no one will want into the black only building. It is not racism, it is common sense based on historical evidence of how it would play out.
I used to walk around this area on my lunch break. Only a handful of the smaller buildings like these still exist, and most are blighted. It’s such a shame.
Colton Cooper
well there's Peter Cooper Village-Stuy Town in Manhattan that has the same design as any old housing project, but it's actually nice and a good place to live...
I'm okay with it: Research on birth control methods to reduce the black birth rate was one such area. Daan Goosen, the managing director of Roodeplaat Research Laboratories between 1983 and 1986, told Tom Mangold of the BBC that Project Coast supported a project to develop a contraceptive that would have been applied clandestinely to blacks. Goosen reported that the project had developed a vaccine for males and females and that the researchers were still searching for a means by which it could be delivered to make blacks sterile without making them aware. Testimony given at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) suggested that Project Coast researchers were also looking into putting birth control substances in water supplies. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Coast
