The Last Robert Taylor Homes Hi-Rise Demolition

[sonick808]

i know they were torn down for good reason, but it still feels like it's not Chicago without them and Cabrini on the skyline driving

[playmistics]

Was Robert Taylor mainly GD's & 4CH's?

[rarobins17]

Watching this building go down as the last of the Robert Taylor Homes is somewhat devastating. All the memories and the history. Whole neighborhoods were established in these places. I used to live in 4101 S. Federal (10th floor) and 4022 S. State (9th floor) and I did not become a gang member nor am I a drug addict. there were positive upbringings here. Like I said, unfortunately...some of this could have been preserved.

[GOONSQAD100]

MANE IM FROM LOUISIANA U HRD MEH,,,DEZE CRACKERZ DIZ WUT DEY DO,,,,,FIGURE OUT WAYZ 2 DA DESTROY DA BLACK,,,,N DA POOR,,DEY COLD TRIPPN

[shauntampa]

@GOONSQAD100 what language is that?

[qwandiddy]

Was that by 51st/ State?? I know that one was the last one remaining few years after all other ones along State st. been demolished.

Now about time that Inkies Projects on Cermak/ State are going down, only 1-2 remaining as current.

[artistmac]

It was just south of 51st St. on Federal, a block west of State.

[TheEvilOyo]

where did they send all those people, the stateway and RTH were like cities in and of themselves

[artistmac]

Most of the former residents moved out over the years. You could tell how vacant the buildings were getting by all the boarded-up and fire-charred windows. Those who were still there when the government tore the buildings down got Section 8 vouchers for housing in other neighborhoods and in the suburbs.

My next-door neighbors worked, saved their money for a house, and got out of Robert Taylor in the late 60's before things got out of control.

[ChicaGOrilla4CHN]

@qwandiddy WTF is INKIES? you mean the harold ICKES?

[MysteryManoLove]

I remember watching parts about "Gangleader for a Day" and describing this area. What happened to all the people?

[artistmac]

They moved to other city and suburban neighborhoods, using mostly Section 8 vouchers. But many of the apartments in these buildings were vacant for years before they finally closed.

[MysteryManoLove]

Thanks for the info, I hope that there is alot of good that came out of the situation. I hope that the people that moved out did so because they were making a better living and whatnot.

[Skeptic121]

These buildings were terrible places, but please remember they were not built to help poor black people. They were built for the benefit of politically connected construction companies and union construction workers who get out the votes for the democratic party machine.

These buildings were poorly designed and built by people who cared nothing for those who might live in them. Only a government construction project could afford to show such contempt for its tenants.

[myjoint2]

5100 for life "GD"

[TLSB43]

I wanna be marginal and live in public housing and collect foods stamps then trade them for weed

[mrwoods22]

No more food stamps. It's a Link Card.

[growncontrol]

WEST-SIDE

[mrwoods22]

NO. South side.

[Youradumbassbarnes]

South side buddy

[qwandiddy]

Thats by South State and 51st. by Dan Ryan.

[ZwierskiRafal]

no carsh noob

[nikkotg13]

why cant they implode it

[jtutch]

In toronto where I live there are all kinds of high rise apartment buildings, mostly built in the sixties. Some are government housing and are not nice places, with the same problems, although problably not nearly as bad as chicago. I remember being in cuba and seeing there high rise apartments. They looked like something out of a nightmare. I sypathize with anyone living in those conditions.

[lemonschild]

4946 s. state wheres that video

[artistmac]

Was that one of the red buildings? I took stills back in 2003 (they were already tearing them down), which I put into a video on this channel. Take a look at "Robert Taylor: The Red Buildings".

[chi4947]

every 1 can say what they please. I am from ROBERT TAYLOR homes and it made me who I am now so 2 all yall haters G D N BITCH (4947)VCG 4 LIFE

[DLFerrariFan]

and you are bragging this? I would never brag about being a dumb nigger from the projects

[kytyria]

Well, I let people know all the time that I am from Robert Taylor Projects... Although I have not lived there in 27 years...It's not about bragging but showing how far one has come... I now reside in another state with a Master's Degree. I would not take anything away from growing up in the projects in the late 1970's and early '80s, As a matter of fact, I spent the best years of my childhood there.

[ethicomm]

Yet you like Wesley Willis.

[kytyria]

I am also from Robert Taylor 4947 S. Federal Apt 601...Although I haven't lived there in 27years...I can reflect on how it use to be before CRACK came... The late 1970's and early '80s were the best years of my life in the projects...However, it was time for them to come down.

[Flankitto04]

Glad my taxes payed for that garbage and your sorry ass life. Shoot yourself, you welfare bitch

[ethicomm]

Detroit also welfare bitch

[RatchetSouth]

artistmac i agree to what you are sdaying. they could have turn this into a museum in remembrance of what used to be the biggest project in the world

[Flankitto04]

Ratchet,

I think that is a great idea. Let's leave one of those monstrosities up, along witht he welfare queens, crack users, drug dealers and the welfare and poverty pimps in a museum-like setting so that NO ONE EVER forgets the disaster wrought by the Democrat party and the horrible ideas brought to you by LIBERALISM. Let's demonstrate how Democrat-led welfare systematically destroyed the black american family. Glad to pay taxes for the project

[artistmac]

Um... Didn't they start planning and building the project high-rises during the Republican Eisenhower administration? And didn't they start tearing them down during the Democratic Clinton administration? Just asking;-)

By the way, Presidential Towers, a privately-developed, upscale high-rise development west of the Loop, was built partially with federal government funding. There's welfare and then there's welfare;-)

FYI, there IS going to be a Public Housing Museum in Chicago.

[Flankitto04]

They social experimentation started during Truman's administration in DC and NY. Having said that, it's not about GOP vs Dems, it's about liberalism vice conservatism. I would think that somewhere in the late 60's when the evidence was in that the black family was being decimated by the welfare state, the libs would have halted the construction of those monstrosities and the welfare state. They were very good for crimianls, but not much for decent folks wanting to get out of the hole.

[artistmac]

Hi-rises, by themselves, weren't the problem. If they were, Bunker Hill in LA, Park Avenue in NY, and North Lake Shore Drive in Chicago would be slums. The problem was city housing authorities who were basically absentee slumlords during the 60's, 70's and 80's.

By the late sixties, public housing construction in Chicago had stopped, and would not start again until early in this decade.

As for the "welfare state", in sheer numbers, there are more whites on welfare than blacks.

[artistmac]

Wonder where all those poverty-stricken white families would be if it wasn't for the "libs" :-)

[Pygmonicus]

boo G and minister torrance legacy right down the toilet dawg, word life homie G

[blacksilverjose]

iwonder if there ever!going start doing this in nyc ithink its long overdue.

[pookie5326]

the hole where im from i dont miss the violence but i miss the memories roaches and rats never u could eat off my moms floor and she worked 9*5 went to school chicago state at night those building made me the INDEPENDENT WOMAN...I AM i know how 2 appreciate things in life...thanks ROBERT TAYLOR........

[tbonemagnum]

5135 S. FEDERAL

[2020blind]

I wouldn't want to be in any new buildings they make there. With all the killings, theres gonna be evil entities all over.

[dja2816]

I just wonder why they didnt implode it instead of chipping away at it.

[sjheathwood]

that would have been one of the most boring and gayest YouTube video i have ever seen.

Fuck you, and everyone else you know.

I've given it 1 star!

QUEER

[artistmac]

Wow, you've got issues. Why don't you make your very first YouTube video and show us all how it's done, sj?

[sjheathwood]

MAKE ME!

NIGGA!

[artistmac]

Nothing like intelligent conversation;-)

[AQUEMINI331]

To CRUCYFIDE:

They moved to Iowa and Wisconsin, right next door to your ignorant ass. I have a white coworker from Iowa City who said she can't get over how many black people have moved to that city and how those people are having a difficult time dealing with poor black people coming straight out of the S and W sides of Chicago, and I just laughed. I said, "deal with it the way everybody else has." She said, "how?" I said, "we don't. We just lived with it."

[AQUEMINI331]

i don't like the idea of poor people being kicked out of their homes, and yet these projects were so horrible I don't know if the city had any other choice. RT was so deep in the hole in the end I think the demolition was the best thing they could've done for the community.

[sombrekarma]

Just hope that the people that moved out will have the chance to have a quiet life, and a happy future

[artistmac]

I'm right with you on that sentiment.

[milky1041]

ur white ass better watch out Alkida

[boopowers2]

to yo mama's house

[AQUEMINI331]

The city is MUCH better off for tearing them down. With the South Loop and near south side quickly gentrifying and attracting more business, the land that RT used to sit on will become valuable in 10 to 20 years, if not sooner.

[artistmac]

We'll see. They're already building new homes just south of the railroad viaduct at 40th St, but with the housing market imploding, they'll need Lee Iacocca and Donald Trump to sell them.

[AQUEMINI331]

The housing market is in a slump but it'll bounce back eventually, that's the nature of the economy, it goes up and down all the time. When it does, I'm convinced that gentrification will take place all the way down MLK from the Loop down through Bronzeville and onward to U. of Chicago / Hyde Park. I live in Bronzeville, though the neighborhood is still a little rough around the edges, I believe gentrification is right around the corner.

[goonie50]

you posed to be happy they tored them down. the projects in new orleans had real good value to them too but when they tore them down, that was the happiest day in our lives brah. it was just a run down dump. we was living better but you know what happen

[musikfanat]

Those projects were just an inner city prison...

[Drope131]

boy am i glad those ugly things arent around anymore!

[danielsalex2]

thank you for that ,that is 48.7 metres

[danielsalex2]

how tall was that building?

[artistmac]

16 stories -- about 160 feet.

[ludocrat]

How in the world did they get those JCBs on the roof?? But, more to the point, why?! Did they not feel like blowing the thing up? However, the main thing is that it is happily going to go the way that many hundreds of failed diabolical 60s hi-rise experiments have gone all over the cities of my country. Back down to earth, (gradually, in this one's case,) with a big bump. Although a few of the more interesting ones have been saved...and 'listed' (some of them 'Grade 1)!!

[artistmac]

The bobcats were lifted up to the roof with the crane you'll see in subsequent videos in this series.

They did implode the CHA's Lakefront buildings, which were identical to this one. But they were the first CHA buildings to be torn down (1998), so the implosions were more symbolic than anything else.

Every CHA teardown since then has been done with the wrecking ball. And doing it the old-fashioned way did provide certain demolition companies with a whole pile of money;-)

[cwence]

probably also a concern of dust entering the Dan Ryan too.

[artistmac]

Funny you should mention that. The demolitions didn't create that much dust, but on part of the old Robert Taylor property near 43rd St., IDOT has set up a concrete-crushing operation for debris from the Dan Ryan rebuilding. The dust from that gets blown everywhere.

[FREEJEFFFORT]

just went there today and took some pics. its feb 7th and i counted they still have 13 floors. still alot of work to go. but i just cant belive all but one are gone. its very sad.

[FREEJEFFFORT]

thats just sad.

[FREEJEFFFORT]

im gonna go snap some quick pics tomorrow

[artistmac]

Still standing. The roof's completely gone, and they're wailing away on the top and the back. Should be about halfway demolished by election day, which I suspect was the plan all along.

[gangstagrillz16]

is that still standing today or is it completely demolished

[doggdadd]

Very droll commentary, artistmac! A Public Housing museum...we'll have to keep our memories in our hearts and heads. Remember when Royko alarmed the Sox fans by writing how a sniper could pick off a fan in the seats from Robert Taylor Homes? Well, now they can cheer in peace. sheesh!!!