The Last Stateway Gardens Highrise Awaits its Fate

[tstruss912]

This was ranked the poorest neighborhood in America. Maybe it's best that they dozed it.

[artistmac]

@tstruss912 The only problem was, they finished demolition just as the economy crashed; most of the land where Stateway and Robert Taylor used to sit is still vacant, and the city's planning dept. was estimating 7-10 years to rebuild; that was before the recession. See my recent videos in which I drive State and Federal from 35th to 55th. Except for 35th and State, It's a moonscape.

[tstruss912]

@artistmac Ya, that's totally unacceptable. The way the poor are treated in this country--especially in Chicago--is unbelievable. The rich and powerful get hundreds of billions in tax-payer monies every year and almost nobody ever complains...or knows; but, the poor are treated like some disease. I say all poor working people go on strike until this system changes.

[artistmac]

@tstruss912 They can start by not sitting out "off-year" elections, like last year. The Tea Party is out to gut every social program they can find. And next year? There should be lines out the doors of polling places in every poor-to-middle class neighborhood in the country. Whoever the Republican candidate is should get steamrollered, if the millions of people suffering in this recession vote their interests like the rich do.

[myrabradwell40]

How ironic this is the building my family lived in up until 1975... Looking at its surroundings bring back so many memories..

[AvenueD417]

i realized the projects out in the Chi are located in isolated parts of town. the projects out here in NY are located in areas full of traffic, businesses and schools. they seem more live but out in Chicago they seem depressing. ive lived in the St Nicholas Projects in Harlem for 6 years and the neighborhood is slowly being swallowed by gentrification as well.

[rsharrieff]

@AvenueD417 : No the projects in Chicago were not in isolated parts of "town"...lol. They were purposefully constructed right in the middle of the neighborhoods they were designed to house. It looks isolated because everything has been torn down and boarded up for decades. And many neighborhoods have lost hundreds of thousands of residents and of course white businesses over the years.

[tstruss912]

This was ranked the poorest neighborhood in America in 1995....9 of the top 10 were CHA. Good that they took these fucked up neighborhoods apart.

[bulls007]

@ artistmac if you watch the history channels gangland ganster disciples they talk about the gds in CG and how tearingdown the buildings there fucked up the crime in chicago.

[silverbackgdn]

trey ball fa life 5153 till my soul drops

[Brutananadilewski007]

This is sad, unfair and horribly planned. Not just here, but all over the city from Cabrini to Rockwell to ABLA. This displaced thousands of people, uplifting them from their roots, their homes and their memories while leaving them with no other immediate place to go. Old "classic" Chicago will never be forgotten! If the CPD were not so damn corrupt maybe the city would have been safer. Shit, the police condoned and vicariously supported the violence in these areas!

[chicagosfinest2k10]

@Brutananadilewski007 yhea,but its up to us and not the police to take care of out communities bro,dont forget that.

[keyon61]

Brn n raise here.I left here at da age of 8.I member nothn but fun,even tho there were some bad moments.Hrn da Ice Cream trck way up on da 13th flr n my cuz runnin up frm 6th flr to put me on his shlders to get me dwn there.Of course I wsnt 8 then lol.Probably was 5.Its bad they didnt wnt to put da time n effort n Stateway.

[figbli]

I get sick when I see those new houses being built because they're so expensive now. CHA could've restored the buildings too, as they've left up some at Cabrini. It just seems like the majority of the city wants to pretend the buildings never even existed...sad. Love the quote at the end!

[The83rdgangsta]

BPSN ALL DAY R.I.P Stateway and Rodert Taylor Homes my old hood

[rsreed2002]

There was nothing wrong with the buildings. Just some of the people and the social schematics. I miss them and love them. 16 years of my life it was.

[pointsur]

My grandmothers stayed here. One on 38th, the other on 35th near mcdonald's I am so glad those projects are gone! Some good memories, but too many BAD ones.

[Stateway35]

3618 Enterprize BDN Nigga

[twofacetbgking]

i used to live in 3549 s state in stateway gardans

[dlw3000]

I grew up in Stateway Gardens, from birth until I went away to college. In fact, I think this the actual building that I lived in (3549 S. Federal "Tha Deuce"). Watching this video literally sends chills up my spine. The memories: friends, family, crooked cops, shootings, the "center," midnight basketball. Even with all of the despair, it was still home and a part of misses that.

[MEECHIEGSONGS]

CHI-TOWN IS MY HOME!

[williebay]

Im from 4950 state # 503 got through it all being shot, jailed, everything under the sun.mother got me out, got my degree, now live n Houston tx,17 yr veteran Police Police officer now a Detective. So all of us are not lazy.Still have love for my chitown peeps. BLESS!

[mld43]

is there any hi rises left in da chi that you know of????

[macdaddy112003]

CANT BELIVE CHICAGO SOO BAD THEY 2 TEAR DOWN R PROJECTS NIGGA N WE ONLY DA 3rd BIGEST CITY

[mld43]

is there many hi rises laft in da chiim from da shouth of chi stone terrace... but i moved out now i live in n.y.

[ceecoursian]

Good thing JJ and the Evans family moved out of these places before they took them down.

[artistmac]

The Evanses lived in Cabrini-Green. Watch out the windows of the set the next time it's on. It's red brick with white concrete bands. Cabrini hi-rise all the way.

[adoriaawyse]

Thank you for this, I was trying to find the address do you know it or what it used to be? thanks again

[artistmac]

Cabrini Homes used to be bounded by Chicago (800N), Division (1200N), Orleans (340W) and Larrabee (600W) about a half-mile west of Chicago's Gold Coast. The Green Homes were north across Division along a diagonal street called Clybourn.

[damen74]

im from up north and we use to drive down to stateway to get green sumtimes..they use to call that shit "no limit"..

[macdaddy112003]

was good folkks

[Djsmokemixtapes77]

YEP No limit on 35th & State!! but we used to go to I think it was called the Vulture on 43rd n State What you know bout dem star bag's & O bags NIGGA!!! LOL

[mizgege]

poogasisback you are a bitch you never stayed there to know what is was about iam from those same projects stateway garden my building was the last to go and i miss my hood if yo punk ass would have stayed out there i would have beat the shit out of you just bye the way yo talk i stay in birmingham iam paid and iam chillin if u need to say anything else you just say something.

[theblackhand2]

Wow! Chicago is sure taking down these hi-rise tenements left and right. Where are all the former inhabitants being moved to?

[artistmac]

Most of these high-rises were 50-90% vacant when the CHA began moving people out to demolish them. Some took Section 8 vouchers and moved to outlying Chicago neighborhoods and to the suburbs; working families, like my now next-door neighbor, moved out in the late 60's, when the federal government's Brooke Amendment tied rents to income levels.

[abeyta219]

@theblackhand2 fcuking homless fuck the chicago mayor

[ProfessorIgor]

bye, glad to see you go, don't ever come back because the lazy freeloaders will just come back and fill you up with drugs, gangs, and unwanted children.

[ladawnmalloy]

Ugh Poogasisback,u are one ignorant person to say such negative things about a place u wouldn't be able to survive in.You must haven't had the balls to visit any other project or u would know Stateway wasn't hell compared to others in the city.So get your facts in order before u open your dumb ass brain to another stupid ass thought like that.Every person came from Stateway isn't dead nor are they homeless.Some have EARNED they're degrees so they won't have to deal with cocksuckers like you

[ladawnmalloy]

Let me enlighten the scary:1st, not everybody that has or had section 8 is nasty or ghetto.I don't think anyone chose to be in the projex,thats the choice they had until they did better.And just because you're from the jex don't mean you're a THUG or THUG-MISSES.So stop using the,"I'm from the projects"line.Its not to be glorified,It just means,you know how to survive in tough situations & make it work.My mother showed me u can make it from the 4th flr to a house near the lake WITHOUT section 8

[KillaCastro6438]

i ain't from stateway but i remember them big ass dub sack they use to have, a nigga gettin about 6 blunts out that bitch

[SouthsideHoods]

Thats state street across the street from my school.

[Pygmonicus]

man the taylors and stateway looked like africa, makes me wonder how shitty this whole country would be if niggas ruled it.

[PoogasISBACK]

nay how many of u niggas are really from Stateway? That place was hell to compliment it. Yes there is crime everywhere, but weer talkin bout fuckin STATEWAY BITCH!Now every person who lives there is most likely dead or homeless!

[reebik]

ay i kno alot of nigas frm stateway they aint homeless dey jus movin around frm place 2 place

[tpoconno]

rockefeller and tornado from 35th.

4555's blows werent bad either.

[jen4paul]

REMEMBER THE ROCK FACE BY FEDERAL?

[unlocker]

Wow, this brings back some memories.

Follow your nose, to the dogface blows.

[Babysista26]

Now those same hood rats that lived in the jets fuckin up regular apartments writin on the walls, pissin in hallways, tearin up the mailboxes and door bells. F'd up the waiting list with that section 8, now people that deserve it have to wait another 25 years. Remember you don't live on State anymore you are among regular folk. Stop sellin drugs and havin babies with different people go and get a degree and get a real job!

[money13579]

alrighty then were da real

hood at then nigga

[nonphixional1]

the real hood doesnt have projects

[ProfessorIgor]

I don't let the race thing enter in to this. I am just glad the ugly ass hi-rises are gone.. It was a good experiment that didn't work.

[InfamousMurdera]

grimy

[manga12]

All too often people are like op the building is abandond smash it to the ground or ooo lets strip say we are going to preserve the building and then strip it bare and denude it like some prisoner and then show it to the world in its naked state much like they do with churches. they have no respect for heritage or what makes the place disinct due to the culture that built it.

now the generic pole barn buildings they have called buildings since the 1960s I dont care much about.

[manga12]

I am a preservationest. sure I like seeing stuff get blowed up and beat down. but when it comes to anything that is basicly built in the 50s or earlyer I say save it cuz they used to actualy have art and style to the buidings up till that era.

especialy the old theaters churches, and civic buildings of a city.

[YoungZuluNat]

I don't understand your agenda.

[artistmac]

I'm old enough to have watched this and Robert Taylor being built. I don't want anybody to forget about these buildings. Of course, they will. But ten years from now, when the new residents of South State Street are whining about the noise from the Rock Island and the traffic around Cellular Field on game days, this will at least be a record of what was here, and what a lousy landlord the CHA was.

[YoungZuluNat]

Lousy is puttin it nicely. Aren't they displacing all of the poor black folks who lived in the buildings to equally dangerous, neglected communities/neighborhoods? I don't think they get it.

[artistmac]

Worse, they're being moved to suburbs where they're completely isolated. The low-income population of the collar counties has gone up by 100,000 in the last seven years. And the police departments and schools of most of the suburbs in these counties are completely unprepared.

[figbli]

Are you interested in the CHA high-rises on a personal level, or is it work related? I ask this because I went to school for urban planning, and even did my senior undergraduate study on Chicago's wretched high-rise public housing, so the content of your films really affects me personally and also motivates me professionally.

[artistmac]

Strictly personal. Like I told YoungZulu Nat, I'm old enough to have watched Stateway Gardens and Robert Taylor being built, and to remember what was there before. And to think that the CHA used to fine people $5.00 for walking on the grass...I'm still trying to figure out what the hell happened.

[illslogic]

I'm from the Harold Ickes 2330 S. State Street Apt 706 and I heard that most of the buildings are vaccant except for a few. My cousins still live in the 44 west federal building and she was the president of CHA Gloria Williams if any of you all know her. I plan on going down there in a couple of weeks just to see my crib for a last few times. This really upsets me because even though the projects were supposed to be poverty we were a family and community this is some sad shit foreal.

[artistmac]

They're not being torn down. Ickes and Dearborn Homes are being rehabbed, and tenants who were lease-compliant before the renovations started will be able to move back in. The CHA's doing the same thing with Wentworth Homes and Altgeld Gardens. Ida B. Wells? It's just sitting there, mostly vacant.

[Drope131]

are you kidding!! this is GREAT!!! i never felt so happy on the dan ryan seeing a clear horizon!!! i never want to see these buildings ever again! unfortunetly the people who lived there are now destroying the suburbs! go to work and get off welfare!!!

[illslogic]

No i'm not kidding and I don't know what you're so happy about because i'm sure you won't be able to afford anything they're planning on rebuilding anyway. So what are you cummin all over yourself for? I have a JOB and i've never personally been on WELFARE and i'm from the projects so that goes to show how much you know. Anyway, you tell those tight asses down at city hall to create some equal opportunities, equal education, etc, shit like that and people will go to work.

[illslogic]

I lived in the Harold Ickes and i'm not destroying anything. You act like the projects were full of crazy people or some shit. That's like saying everybody in the suburbs is sane. Well that's bullshit because those kids who shot up Colombine were from the SUBURBS and they were more violent than any kid in any project on state street every was so you can really shove that bullshit you're trying to say up your ass. I'm glad those suburban kids are losing their minds.

[Drope131]

dont forget how many high school kids have been killed in chicagos south side this year buddy. hummmm dont see that happening here in the burbs!! haha! once again you have been treated!!! so that goes to show how much you know!

[illslogic]

The difference is suburban kids don't go out and shoot at each other, they lock themselves in their rooms and shoot or hang themselves and you ask yourself how many suburban kids have killed themselves this year. Hummmm!!! Ask yourself how many have overdosed on crystal meth, hmmmmm!!! Don't talk that shit to me BUDDY because i'm not your average project NIGGER, you cannot match wits with me PAL. Yeah some of us project people actually KNOW SOME SHIT.

[aireeBabe]

oh, && illslogic.. trust me, i know u guys that lived in the projects or still live there know things. i went to school right across the street from stateway [the school moved further down to 24th now] and i witnessed them tearing these buildings down everyday and seeing how sad my friends were and upset they were. they had no clue where they were going to turn to. dont focus on ignorant ppl like drope!

[JANEONELOVE]

HEY DROPE?? umm did u rememember how many kids thta dies in Colombine?? or are u so hung up on disrespecting someone that has lost their homes??

[aireeBabe]

well, that really goes to show how much you DONT know. this is not good, but just because someone lives in the suburbs doesnt mean they are less rough than someone from the projects. in case you didnt know, alot of the kids from the suburbs went to schools in the city and by the projects. killing happens everywhere, and not all project ppl are on welfare. so sdfu and educate yourself!

[1LLNO1ZE]

what up Illslogic, not stalkin u or nothin but I just got into these pretty much today, and it looks like the same shit that interest u interest me, and again im from the Ickes also, by the way ( have a JOB and i've never personally been on WELFARE and i'm from the projects. Anyway, you tell those tight asses down at city hall to create some equal opportunities, equal education, etc, shit like that and people will go to work. )i'm the same way and completely agree.

[RocANigga]

Not the Stateway hi-rise but that other brown building you were showing us, are they breakin that down to?

[artistmac]

The Rosenwald? Supposedly some developers bought it and are going to turn it into condos. Of course, it'll probably happen a lot faster with someone else besides Tillman as 3rd Ward alderman. She's been a roadblock to doing anything with the Rosenwald besides tearing it down. But then, she didn't even come to Chicago until '65, so she doesn't know or care about its history in Bronzeville going back to the late '20's.

[gangstagrillz16]

you gone put sum new vids up soon

[artistmac]

Oh, yeah. I've got some great footage of Dorothy Tillman; it's just a matter of editing it down. And I'm taking film of Robert Taylor every few days as they demolish it.