The Struggle Over Redevelopment At Cabrini-Green, 1989-2004

Abstract

Over the past three decades, American public housing authorities have advocated the demolition of high-rise public housing projects. Since the late 1980s, governments and local groups have developed plans to tear down the Cabrini-Green public housing project located in the Near North neighborhood in Chicago. The plans call for the demolition of the Cabrini high-rises and replacing them with mixed-income neighborhoods. The new communities are intended to help the public housing residents by reducing their social and economic isolation. Some of the Cabrini residents have fought the redevelopment plans in court because they argue that the new communities are not adequate for the number of displaced residents. Due to court injunctions, the redevelopment has been a slow process: while some of the high-rises have been torn down and several mixed-income developments have been built near Cabrini, a number of high-rises remain. Questions surrounding the resistance at Cabrini-Green and implications for the future of public housing policy are briefly considered