murder

Cabrini-Green is a Chicago Housing Authority public housing development on Chicago’s Near North Side, bordered by Evergreen Avenue on the north, Sedgwick Street on the east, Chicago Avenue on the south, and Halsted Street on the west. At its peak, Cabrini-Green was home to 15000 people, living in mid- and high-rise apartment buildings. Over the years, gang violence and neglect created terrible conditions for the residents, and the name “Cabrini-Green” became synonymous with the problems associated with public housing in the United States. Cabrini-Green was composed of 10 sections, built over a twenty-year period: the Frances Cabrini Rowhouses (1942), Cabrini Extension North and Cabrini Extension South (1958), and the William Green Homes (1962). The construction reflected the “urban renewal” approach to United States city planning in the mid-twentieth 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. A majority of residents in the completed complex were black. White flight from the complex escalated over the following decade; by the 1970s, its population was almost entirely black. During the worst years of Cabrini-Green’s problems, vandalism increased substantially. Gang members and miscreants covered interior walls with graffiti and damaged doors, windows, and …