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Cabrini–Green Homes are a Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) public housing project on the Near North Side of Chicago, Illinois. The Frances Cabrini Rowhouses and Extensions were south of Division Street, bordered by Larrabee Street to the west, Orleans Street to the east and Chicago Avenue to the south, with the William Green Homes to the northwest. At its peak, Cabrini–Green was home to 15,000 people, mostly living in mid- and high-rise apartment buildings. Crime and neglect created hostile living conditions for many residents, and "Cabrini–Green" became a metonym for problems associated with public housing in the United States. In 1995, CHA began tearing down dilapidated mid- and high-rise buildings, with the last demolished in 2011. Today, only the original two-story rowhouses remain. The area has seen major redevelopment due to its proximity to downtown, resulting in a combination of upscale high-rises and townhouses, with some units being CHA-owned, creating a mixed-income neighborhood. Layout and demographics The construction reflected the urban renewal approach to United States city planning in the mid-20th century. The extension buildings were known as the "Reds" for their red brick exteriors, while the Green Homes, with reinforced concrete exteriors, were known as the "Whites". Many of the high-rise buildings originally had exterior porches (called "open galleries"). According to the CHA, the early residents of the Cabrini row houses were predominantly of Italian ancestry. By 1962, however, a majority of residents in the completed complex were African Americans. Timeline 1850: Shanties were first built on low-lying land along Chicago River; the population was predominantly Swedish, then Irish. The area acquires the "Little Hell" nickname due to a nearby gas refinery, which produced shooting pillars of flame and various noxious fumes. By the 20th century, it was known as "Little Sicily" due to large numbers of Sicilian immigrants. 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, the first large-scale (although funded through private charity) low-income housing development in area, is completed. 1942: Frances Cabrini Homes (two-story rowhouses), with 586 units in 54 buildings by architects Holsman, Burmeister, et al., is completed. Initial regulations stipulate 75% White and 25% Black residents. (Named for Saint Frances Cabrini, an Italian-American nun who served the poor and was the first American to be canonized.) 1957: Cabrini Homes Extension (red brick mid- and high-rises), with 1,925 units in 15 buildings by architects A. Epstein & Sons, is completed. 1962: William Green Homes (1,096 units, north of Division Street) by architects Pace Associates is completed. (Named for William Green, longtime president of the American Federation of Labor.) 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 liable in 1969, and a consent decree with HUD was entered in 1981. February 8, 1974: Television sitcom Good Times, ostensibly set in the Cabrini–Green projects (though the projects were never actually referred to as "Cabrini-Green" on camera), and featuring shots of the complex in the opening and closing credits, debuts on CBS. It ran for six seasons, until August 1, 1979. March 26 – April 19, 1981: Mayor Jane Byrne moves into Cabrini–Green to prove a point regarding Chicago's high crime rate. Considered a publicity stunt, she stays just three weeks. 1992: The horror film 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. 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 and/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. December 9, 2010: The William Green Homes complex's last standing building closes. March 30, 2011: The last high-rise building was demolished, with a public art presentation commemorating the event. The majority of Frances Cabrini Homes row houses remain intact, although in poor condition, with some having been abandoned. Overview Cabrini–Green was composed of 10 sections built over a 20-year period: the Frances Cabrini Rowhouses (586 units in 1942), Cabrini Extension North and Cabrini Extension South (1,925 units in 1957), and the William Green Homes (1,096 units in 1962) (see Chronology below). As of May 3, 2011, all the high-rise buildings had been demolished. One hundred and fifty of the dilapidated Frances Cabrini Rowhouses (south of Oak Street, north of Chicago Avenue, west of Hudson Avenue, and east of Cambridge Street) have been renovated and remain inhabited. Crime and response Problems develop Poverty and organized crime have long been associated with the area: a 1931 "map of Chicago's gangland" by Bruce-Roberts, Incorporated notes Oak Street and Milton Avenue (now Cleveland Avenue) as "Death Corner" (captioned "50 murders: count 'em"). At first, the housing was integrated and many residents held jobs. This changed in the years after World War II, when the nearby factories that provided the neighborhood's economic base closed and thousands were laid off. At the same time, the cash-strapped city began withdrawing crucial services like police patrols, transit services, and routine building maintenance. Lawns were paved over to save on maintenance, failed lights were left for months, and apartments damaged by fire were simply boarded up instead of rehabilitated and reoccupied. Later phases of public housing development (such as the Green Homes, the newest of the Cabrini–Green buildings) were built on extremely tight budgets and suffered from maintenance problems due to the low quality of construction. As with the Robert Taylor Homes, low construction budgets, combined with a desire to fit the maximum possible number of units in the project led to design decisions that made the towers extremely unpleasant and unappealing places to live. Rather than interior hallways, units in many of the later-phase buildings were accessed via exterior walkways made of bare concrete and enclosed wit.... Discover the William Green popular books. Find the top 100 most popular William Green books.