Cabrini-Green

Cabrini-Green, comprising two adjacent housing projects named after Frances Cabrini and William Green, is one of the most infamous and dangerous housing projects in the world. It is located on the North Side of Chicago, near the North/Clybourn Red Line stop along with the Chicago and Sedgwick Brown Line stops. The project is bordered by Evergreen Ave., Sedgwick St., Chicago Ave., and Larrabee St. It was made up primarily of mid- and high-rise apartment buildings, many with exterior porches ("open galleries") so that residents enter their apartments like motel rooms.

Related Topics:
Frances Cabrini - Housing projects - Chicago - Red Line - Brown Line - Apartment - Motel

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Though Chicago has many housing projects with crime problems, this one is the most notorious because it is surrounded by wealthy neighborhoods, notably the Gold Coast and Lincoln Park just blocks away. In fact, residents of Gold Coast high-rise condos whose windows faced to the west could often see the flash of gunfire from Cabrini-Green, and Oak Street, the city's poshest shopping street, dead-ends into Cabrini. The apartment buildings opened in 1958 (Cabrini Extension, also known as the "reds" for their brick exteriors) and 1962 (Green Homes, known as the "whites" for their reinforced concrete exteriors), while the rowhouses (called the Frances Cabrini Homes) opened in 1943. Cabrini-Green stands on top of what used to be an Italian slum called "Little Sicily" or more sardonically, "Little Hell"; the area was subject to extensive "urban renewal" beginning in the 1920s. The problems discussed in this article mostly pertain to the apartment buildings, not the rowhouses.

Related Topics:
Crime - Gold Coast - Lincoln Park - Condos - 1958 - 1962 - 1943 - Italian

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The concentration of poverty in one place turned out to be a ill-fated idea. At first, the housing was integrated and many residents held jobs. In the years after World War II, though, nearby factories closed and laid off thousands; the remaining white people left; the cash-starved city began withdrawing crucial services like police patrols and routine building maintenance; and the population of the projects became steadily poorer with each new resident. Drugs and violence were rampant.

Related Topics:
Poverty - Drugs - Violence

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Poverty passes from generation to generation, and many Cabrini-Green residents are pressured into joining gangs to protect themselves. Individual gangs 'control' individual buildings, while the buildings' proximity to affluent areas makes Cabrini-Green a lucrative site for illicit drug sales, further feeding the underground economy. Gunfire often erupts between the gangs, and innocent bystanders are often caught in the crossfire, including seven-year old Dantrell Davis, who was killed as he was walking to elementary school with his mother in 1992. Another well-publicized incident was of a girl brutally raped and poisoned in a stairwell in 1997. The notorious rape case of "Girl X" was so infamous that gang members were allegedly ordered to find the person responsible for the attack and beat him senseless. The attacker, Patrick Sykes, was later apprehended and sentenced to 240 years in prison.

Related Topics:
Gangs - Crossfire - Dantrell Davis

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After too many children fell over the railings of the exterior porches, the porches were completely enclosed with a steel mesh along the entire height of the buildings. This change meant it became easier for gunmen to see policemen from inside the building than it was for the police to see the gunmen through the steel mesh. Tall buildings are inherently difficult to police, and the steel netting made the situation even worse: in 1970, two policemen were killed by snipers. The steel also made residents feel as if they were in a prison; many were afraid to leave their apartments, despite cockroach infestations. Rotting garbage in trash chutes (once piled up to the 15th floor), the smell of urine in hallways, malfunctioning elevators, graffiti on walls, and frequently bursting pipes added to the misery of living there. On the exterior, the concrete buildings look cheaply built: mostly because they were cheaply built. Boarded-up windows, burned-out areas on the façade, and paved-over open spaces - all in the name of economizing on maintenance - enhanced the feeling of urban decay. People who do not live in Cabrini-Green are so afraid of it that many plan their trips to avoid even passing the project in a car. Hopelessness is present throughout Cabrini-Green, as 93 percent of the residents are unemployed.

Related Topics:
Steel - Police - Prison - Cockroach - Garbage - Urine - Elevator - Concrete - Façade - Unemployed

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In an effort to make the complex safer, Chicago Mayor Jane Byrne moved into a fourth-floor apartment in 1981. Backed by police and bodyguards, she stayed for only three weeks, and once she left, the violence returned.

Related Topics:
Jane Byrne - 1981

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