Comments ( 18 )

• I can’t wait till all the Cabrini Green buildings are demolished. They are a blight on our city and an ugly reminder of our past failures and segregated history. It’s time to move on.

• And who says gentrification is bad for a neighborhood or community? Those Cabrini residents are dregs on society.

  If they can’t afford market rate housing they should not be reproducing. If they are that poor that they can’t afford $600 for a 1 bedroom apartment in the city without a government handout then they should move some place with a lower cost of living. Its really that simple.

• Bob,

  You should take your ugly soul somewhere else. This is not the place for you.

  I personally detest your viewpoint and anyone who holds it.

  It’s really that simple.

• THanks JOe, that’s just MEAN!

• Bulldoze the slums to close to reality of a civilized world. Hopefully Mayor Daley and his crew can continue to kick these people out to the suburbs like they have been doing over the past 7 years or so. I know first hand in the suburbs they hate it can’t find work and hang out in front of thier house without being arrested.

• Earth to Dan! I hang out in front of my suburban home on occasion too without being arrested. Hanging out in front of your house is not yet a criminal offense.

  Most of “these people” are kids who’ve done nothing to merit your hatred. Most of the rest of them would love to live in a civilized world.

  I try to keep this site a civilized world. What that means is that you get to shut up and not spout your garbage here.

  This site is about housing, not about the people who live in it. If you have something to contribute on that subject we’d love to hear it. If not, go back to CribChatter.

  ADDED: Be aware, Dan, that I firmly believe that people like you have no business holding a real estate license. If you continue to pollute this site with the kind of comments you made above I’ll make an exception to our anonymity pledge and out you to your sponsoring broker, the Chicago Association of Realtors, and the state licensing authorities.

• There is no reason to keep these highrises around when other CHA residents have been given the oppertunity to live in mixed income redevelopments or vouchers to rent more decent hosing than the cabrini green highrises. Everyone living in the highrises should be awarded the same oppertunity for vouchers to choose their own home and/or location or be able to live in mixed income develeopments like other CHA residents. There should not be a selection process of who gets what, that is unfair and rip for corruption. The highrises need to go however, it is time to close that chapter.

• Just adding from personal experiance thats all from living close to this areas and talking with both cpd and suburban police.

• Dan,

  You’re a few words away from complete career fail – if that hasn’t already happened to you.

  If you have any sense at all you’ll just shut up.

• Joe you are the voice of reason (“I hang out in front of my suburban home on occasion too without being arrested”) and empathy (“Most of ‘these people’ are kids who’ve done nothing to merit your hatred”)…thank you.

  The third-rail of any discussion around housing and urban-planning is race and class. While I am not smart enough to offer solutions (Should the CHA high-rises be demolished?)I am smart enough to know that solutions will NEVER be found without genuine empathy/concern (love?) for EVERYONE involved.

  I’m not new to wrestling with complex social issues; I work for the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). And while CPS’ problems are clear, the solutions are not. Nonetheless CPS’ solutions will only be found when there is respect for EVERYONE effected AND a clear-eyes focus on goals. (CPS’ goal? student-achievement)

  If we want to find solutions to nettlesome social problems, the tone and tenor of our conversations must improve.

• McPaper has an interesting story today about the relative change in urban/suburban housing starts over the last ten years.

  What does that have to do with Cabrini Green?

  Perhaps nothing directly.

  I don’t have an answer to the issues of public housing. I know highrise public housing is a failure. I know that President Obama even expressed skepticism regarding concentrated low rise public housing recently. Probably drawing on his experience in the 80’s as a community organizer at Altgeld Gardens on the far south side.

  The older buildings that remain at Cabrini need to go. Moving the current residents in that building into other buildings makes sense from a “security” point of view. Living in a 2/3 vacant building in that neighborhood is only asking for trouble.

• Since when do public housing residents have some sort of permanent right to keep a neighborhood in despair and blight? If they want to be part of the new and improved neighborhood, great. If they just want some place where they can live in squalor, they are free to move to Englewood.

• Jon, a/k/a Jake, a/k/a John, a/k/a Jane, a/k/a Pete,

  A Pete by any other name reeks of ignorance and hatred.

  You are not welcome here.

• [ deleted ]

  Note from Joe Zekas —

  Bob’s out of here. Save your thinly-disguised racial hatred for CribChatter, Bob.

• This is an perfect example mixed income housing is a failure. They should stop forcing racial and economic integration on people who don’t want it.

  I hope the CHA doesn’t relocate the tenants to the south side. We already have our fair share of them. We have a hard time getting commericial developments and home buyers because of this stupid mixed income development plan. It would be great if they were all given vouchers.

• I don’t understand this joe zekas fellow???

• I mean of course theirs good ppl in the public housing system but zekas seems to be getting mad over nothin…….

• ^ Maybe Joe Zekas is just a bit peeved by the inflammatory, hateful, rude, and perceivably racist comments being made over and over again by one individual who keeps changing their name (Bob, Dan, Jon, Carmine?).

  I don’t blame him.