The Last Robert Taylor Homes High-rise

A drive up Federal St. from 54th to 43rd Sts. Except for churches, schools, a derelict strip mall and a fieldhouse, everything from 39th to 54th Sts. has been leveled. No, not quite.

One vacant, windowless high-rise still stands at 51st. And the city allowed a rock-crushing operation for the Dan Ryan rebuilding to open on part of the vacant land. (Very dusty in the surrounding neighborhoods last summer.) Another vacant parcel has become a roost for flocks of Canada geese.

All you urban planning students, take note. This is exactly how not to plan. In the late 1950's, the Chicago Housing Authority wiped out a vibrant neighborhood (including my uncle's grocery store)and built Robert Taylor Homes, a forest of 28 red and white 17-story high-rises that, with 28,000 people, was the nation's largest public housing project. A few years later, they changed the rent rules so that the middle-class residents moved out. The rest is history.

Now the city wants to rebuild this area. The drawings we've seen show houses, two-flats, and low-rise apartment buildings with first floor-stores. Just like what they tore down in the '50's to build Robert Taylor. Sheer genius.

Yes, the CHA was a lousy landlord. And the last residents, for the most part, were lousy tenants. A plague on both their houses. And on Alderman Dorothy Tillman, in whose Ward most of this city's public housing, including this mess, is located.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Chicago
• Housing
• Authority
• CHA
• south
• side
• southside
• robert
• taylor
• homes
• highrise
• project
• Robert
• Taylor
• urban
• renewal

[Imerica1]

I just came back to Cali from visiting my hometown, CHicago for 5 days. I had so much fun!I got a chance to visit 47th street and drive around the adjoining areas...King Drive, State, Michigan and see my old high school, DuSable!

[artistmac]

Glad you had a chance to come back and see Chicago. Bronzeville's looking so much better now we have an alderman who's responsive to what needs doing.

You know that shopping center that's just south of your former building? That's where her office is.

[applezboo112]

my grandmama did everything to get us up out there and now we live in some damn wild 100'z wat kind of shit is thatthey tearing them down for nothin i loved it there but u shold always try to get up out the ghetto

[artistmac]

Do you think you might move back into the replacement houses? They've already got a few built on 40th Street just south of the viaduct.

[jakelee16]

Is the stretch of empty land beside the road in the first part of the video once occupied by the now demolished (except for one block) Robert Tayler Homes?

[artistmac]

It was all Robert Taylor Homes, from the beginning to the end. Even the part at the end where the bad pavement and the rock-crushing operation is. The rock-crusher is for debris from the Dan Ryan Expressway rebuilding one block west.

[saturdayskids]

I agree with you to a point. The new generation of black people have it just as good if not better than the new generations of white people, but a large majority aren't taking advantage of what they could have.

Sorry, I'm guilty of not being born a minority.

[cleanarab]

dem apartments remind me of new jack city

[onethousandideas]

Wow. Creepy. You have some fantastic videos man.

[alcoholic40s]

That was my sentence. The fact that you contradicted yourself. I could have worded it differently, but I wanted sound more sarcastic.

Anyway, you contradicted yourself on your key point. That casts doubt on all of your points.

Thanks for joining us chibanging, but I'm afraid you lost. We have some lovely parting gifts for you though.

[chibanging]

i'm sorry i didn't write a proper essay on a youtube comment box and that i needed to do so to be taken seriously.

[chibanging]

you cut off the sentence. honeslty, a comma isnt a period. So how did you end the sentence there?

[alcoholic40s]

Anyway, on with the show.

I am copying and pasting your text exactly.

"I didnt say that since the white man is the cause of motive of black decisions" then "i mention the white man causing the motive "

Well, I guess you contradicted yourself there.

[alcoholic40s]

Seriously chi, in order for anybody to take you or your points seriously, you're going to have to learn to make them with clear and logical statements. These sentence fragments that you sputter out with no regard for basic writing conventions are doing you no favors.

[chibanging]

I didnt say that since the white man is the cause of motive of black decisions, then it really means that the white man PERFORMED the decision. u reasoned it out wrong. i mention the white man causing the motive because black america didnt have a clean slate here and their choices were burdened which were caused by white political negligence such as making blacks cant vote 2 prevent equality. and i LISTED nat. americans second, but not RANKED it second. you are the bigot.