'They Want That Skyline': How Cabrini-Green Residents Were Displaced

For nearly 50 years, thousands of Black Chicagoans called the 23 high-rise towers and adjacent row houses of Cabrini-Green home. Soon after cutting ceremonial ribbons, the public housing development on the Near North Side would become a symbol of the Chicago Housing Authority’s mismanagement, disinvestment, and abandonment. As resources and opportunities disappeared, Cabrini-Green gained an infamous reputation as violent, run-down, and overcrowded. But the community was also on some of the most lucrative land in Chicago — and politicians and developers knew it. Beginning in the early 1990s, city leaders announced plans to tear down the high-rises and row houses for new mixed-income housing, promising thousands of residents they could live in those new homes. That didn’t happen.

City Cast Chicago is partnering with the Better Government Association for their investigation “A History of Broken Promises.” WBEZ reporter Natalie Moore and former Cabrini resident and housing activist Willie “J.R.” Fleming lay down the history of the community. 

At 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Jacoby Cochran will be hosting a virtual conversation about the history of Cabrini Green. Register now.

Some good news: Friday is Girls Day of P.L.A.Y at Chicago Parks.

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