7) Pruitt-Igoe, St. Louis MO
Designed by architect Minoru Yamasaki, who later designed the World
Trade Center towers, Pruitt-Igoe was first occupied in 1954 but
completed in 1956. Because Missouri public housing was racially
segregated until 1956, the 33 11-story buildings were originally built
to house segregated sects of young, middle-class whites and Blacks; but
the projects became the home of mostly African American inhabitants as
St. Louis’ white population fled for the suburbs.
Unlike most public housing plots, Pruitt-Igoe survived for only a
short period of time. Critics say design failures, including “Skip-stop”
elevators which only stopped at every three floors contributed to the
downfall of the once heralded housing development. Reports of muggers
waiting to rob residents in the stairwells as they trekked between
elevator floors fueled high crime rates.
By 1971, Pruitt–Igoe housed only six hundred people in 17 of its
original 33 buildings. That same year, federal authorities agreed to
demolish parts of Pruitt-Igoe. By 1976, the rest of the Pruitt–Igoe was
demolished.
6) Queensbridge Houses, Queens NY
The 3,142-unit Queensbridge Houses is the largest public housing
development in the U.S. Located in the western part of the borough of
Queens, the houses are technically two separate complexes (North and
South Houses) that house nearly 7,000 people. Architects designed the
collection of six-story buildings in a unique Y shape hoping to give
residents more access to sunlight.
During the 1950s, a majority of Queensbridge residents were white.
Since, they have become inhabited by predominantly African American and
Latino families. Like many of the infamous housing projects,
Queensbridge was the home to a host of notable hip-hop artists (Nas,
Marley Marl, MC Shan, Roxanne Shante and Mobb Deep) who have detailed
the housing project’s poverty-stricken conditions in their rhymes. Gun
violence and a vibrant illegal drug-trade sum up their details of the
harsh realities living in Queensbridge.
In 2005, Queensbridge made news after New York authorities raided the
housing project to dismantle the infamous “Dream Team” drug syndicate.
5) Robert Taylor Homes, Chicago IL
Located in the Bronzeville neighborhood of the South Side of Chicago,
the Robert Taylor Homes were at one time the largest public housing
development in the country. Completed in 1962, the developments were
named after Robert Taylor, the first Black student to enroll at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology back in 1888.
Composed of 24 16-story high-rises and a total of 4,415 units, the
Robert Taylor Homes were once home to Mr. T, athletes Kirby Puckett and
Maurice Cheeks, and the current governor of the state of Massachusetts
Deval Patrick.
During its time, the Robert Taylor homes housed some of the poorest
residents in the country. A 1999 article reported that 95 percent of the
housing development’s 20,000 residents were unemployed and listed
public assistance as their only income source. With such poverty, the
Robert Taylor Homes recorded some of the highest rates of violent crime
and gang activity in Chicago.
4) Jordan Downs, Watts CA
Originally constructed in the Watts section of Los Angeles as
temporary housing for war workers during World War II, but converted to
public housing in the early 1950s, the Jordan Downs Housing projects is
one of the few public housing developments named after regular people
(David Starr Jordan, and Samuel Elliot Downs, two of the area’s oldest
residents).
What started as a partially integrated development in its early
years, became majority African American by the mid-60s due to Los
Angeles’ restrictive covenants and an influx of African Americans who
continued to migrate west after the war. Since, Jordan Downs has become a
microcosm of the ills of South Los Angeles. Police brutality and a lack
of employment fueled a sense of hostility among African Americans
living in Jordan Downs and throughout Watts. The world witnessed these
social tensions during the 1965 Watts riots. Gang violence in the 80s
and 90s highlighted the plight that still persists today.
3) Magnolia Projects, New Orleans LA
Officially named the C.J. Peete Projects, the Magnolia Projects were
built in a part of Uptown New Orleans known as Central City.
When construction began in 1941, the development bordered Louisiana
Ave., Magnolia Street, Washington Ave. and La Salle Street. Fourteen
years later, the complex was expanded north six additional city blocks
to Clara Street. Flint Goodridge Hospital, African American New
Orleanians’ primary source for medical care from the time of Jim Crow
until the 1980s when it closed, was located in Magnolia’s southwest
corner.
Rife with all the urban blight consistent with many poor areas and
public housing developments, Magnolia’s murder rate consistently ranks
the highest of all the city’s public housing developments, a startling
fact considering that New Orleans itself frequently has one of the
highest murder rates in the nation.
The Dooney Boys, one of New Orleans’ largest street gangs, calls
Magnolia its home. More notably, Magnolia has bred many of the south’s
biggest hip-hop artists including Juvenile, Soulja Slim, and Jay
Electronica.
2) Marcy Projects, Brooklyn NY
Located in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, the Marcy
Houses or Marcy Projects were named after William L. Marcy, the 11th
Governor of New York, who later served as the U.S. Secretary of War and
U.S. Secretary of State. Its 1,705 apartments house more than 4,200
residents.
Known as the childhood home of rapper Jay-Z, Marcy ‘s infamous
reputation has been documented in countless rap songs. Jay-Z ‘s “Murder
Marcyville” was named to describe the development’s violent lure. And
his “Where I’m From” track details the poverty and prevalence of gun
violence and crack cocaine that consumed the housing development. In
the song, Jay-Z raps “ [I’m from...] Where you can’t put your vest away
and say you’ll wear it tomorrow / Cause the day after we’ll be saying,
damn I was just with him yesterday.”
1) Cabrini Green, Chicago IL
Originally named the Frances Cabrini Rowhouses after Frances S.
Cabrini, the first American citizen to be canonized by the Roman
Catholic Church, the public housing development on Chicago’s near North
Side was bordered by Evergreen Ave. on the north, Orleans Street on the
east, Chicago Ave. on the south, and Halsted Street on the west. Made up
of 3,607 units at its peak, Cabrini Green housed more than 15,000
people.
After nearby factories closed in the 1950s leaving many of Cabrini
Green’s working-class residents out of work, poverty and crime began
infecting the development. Since, Cabrini Green’s poverty-stricken high
crime conditions have been documented more than any of Chicago’s housing
projects. USA Today described Cabrini Green as “a virtual war zone, the
kind of place where little boys were gunned down on their way to school
and little girls were sexually assaulted and left for dead in
stairwells.”
In 2010, Chicago closed Cabrini Green.
