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.

Chronology

• 1850 - Shantys first built on low-lying land along Chicago River; population predominantly Irish. Acquires "Little Hell" name due to nearby gas refinery.
• 1929 - Harvey Zorbaugh writes "The Gold Coast and the Slum: A Sociological Study of Chicago's Near North Side," contrasting the widely varying social mores of the wealthy Gold Coast, the poor Little Sicily, and the transitional area in between. Marshall Field Garden Apartments, first large-scale (although funded through private charity) low-income housing development in area, completed.
• 1942 - Frances Cabrini Homes (two-story rowhouses), with 586 units in 54 buildings, completed. Initial regulations stipulate 75% white and 25% black residents. Holsman, Burmeister, et al, architects.
• 1958 - Cabrini Homes Extension (red brick mid- and high-rises), with 1,925 units in 15 buildings, is completed. A. Epstein & Sons, architects.
• 1962 - Green Homes (1,096 units, north of Division Street) is completed. Pace Associates, architects.
• 1966 - Gautreaux et al vs. Chicago Housing Authority, a lawsuit alleging that Chicago's public housing program was conceived and executed in a racially discriminatory manner that perpetuated racial segregation within neighborhoods, is filed. CHA was found guilty in 1969, and a consent decree was issued in 1981.
• July 17, 1970 - Sergeant James Severin and Officer Tony Rizzato of the Chicago Police Department are fatally shot.
• 1981 - Mayor Jane Byrne moves into Cabrini-Green as part of a publicity stunt.
• October 13, 1992 - Seven-year-old Dantrell Davis is fatally shot while walking to school with his mother. Some of the shots came from 500-502 W. Oak Street.
• 1992 - Candyman is released, the story taking place at the housing project.
• 1994 - Chicago receives one of the first HOPE VI (Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere) grants to redevelop Cabrini-Green as a mixed-income neighborhood.
• September 27, 1995 - Demolition begins.
• January 9, 1997 - Nine-year-old "Girl X" found in a seventh-floor stairwell at 1121 N. Larrabee Street after being raped, beaten, choked, poisoned with insecticide and scrawled on with gang symbols. Her attacker allegedly stepped on her throat. She was left for dead but went on to live, though the attack blinded her.
• 1997 - Chicago unveils Near North Redevelopment Initiative, a master plan for development in the area. It recommends demolishing Green Homes and most of Cabrini Extension.
• 1999 - Chicago Housing Authority announces Plan for Transformation, which will spend $1.5 billion over ten years to demolish 18,000 apartments and build or rehabilitate 25,000 apartments. Earlier redevelopment plans for Cabrini-Green are included in the Plan for Transformation. New library, rehabilitated Seward Park, and new shopping center open.
• January 19, 2004 - The man who portrays the mascot of the Chicago Bulls, Chester J. Brewer, is arrested on the suspicion of selling marijuana out of his car at Cabrini-Green.