The Whites and the Reds. The Projects. Cabrini-Green. The notorious public housing development whose near total demolition was finalized ten years ago had many names. But to the thousands of people who lived there, they were home.
In 2000, Chicago launched the Plan for Transformation, a sweeping project to demolish 18,000 units of high-rise public housing across the city. Through demolition, the city said in its plan that it would then be able to rehab roughly 25,000 units of public housing. The plan was met with fierce opposition from residents who claimed that the project left them in the lurch while the city redeveloped the sites of their homes. Lawsuits, consent decrees, and federal oversight also hampered the wide-ranging redevelopment project.
The neighborhood that would eventually house Cabrini-Green was once known as Little Hell. Before the public housing developments were built, the area was home to Italian, Puerto Rican, and Irish immigrants, and in the early days of the development, its demographics reflected that fact.
Residents of the government-owned towers often had to climb several flights of stairs if the elevator was broken or turned off. Trash piled up in garbage chutes, at one point to the 15th floor. Cockroaches infested the buildings. Apartments went without repairs or updates. CHA was effectively a landlord in rent collection and eviction only, abdicating its responsibility to maintain the buildings and ensure residents’ safety.
Cabrini-Green was also the site of historic activism. Legendary tenant activist Marion Stamps led a voting drive at the complex in 1983 that helped elect Harold Washington, the city’s first African-American mayor. And Cabrini-Green tenants successfully sued the city to ensure they wouldn’t be left homeless while the Plan for Transformation redevelopment project took place.
Ali, born Aujahnee Wright, says the complex felt like the safest place in the city, even after she “watched it change from good to bad.” And despite the “bad,” Ali is quick to say she had a happy, exciting childhood “full of one big-ass family,” surrounded by friends, neighbors, and a litany of people doing outreach in the community. As part of what she calls the “Last Generation of Cabrini,” she’s still fiercely loyal to the community.
