Tonight’s obligatory viewing on the tube: NBC5 is doing a segment on Cabrini-Green called Life on the Green, at 10 p.m. It will explore life in public housing high-rises, apparently focusing on the ones that have not been torn down. Yo will be watching, but I can’t help but think that the book There Are No Children Here is the seminal work in this genre, and most of the stories I’ve read since have felt like exercises in voyeurism.
The real story, which so far has received scant media attention, is whether the Chicago Housing Authority’s Plan for Transformation, which is replacing dense high-rise projects with mixed-income communities, is actually working to the satisfaction of all the parties involved. It’s also time to really look at where exactly the displaced public housing tenants are now. Of course, if anyone has seen or read a good story on either of these subjects recently, let me know and I’ll shut up and look at it.