Original subtitles

[SLOW JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING]

RAYMOND "SHAQ" McDONALD: It's my playground, because I play in it,

I stay in it, and I live in it.

And it's home to me.

And it's, and it's precious from right here.

[LAUGHS]

I love Cabrini.

[CHILDREN CHATTERING BELOW]

I remember living in Cabrini as a very young child.

There were kids everywhere.

There were adults everywhere.

There was a lot of greenery.

There were playgrounds, there were pools.

There was balls, and baseball, and softball.

And all kinds of games and fun going on.

It was just a cool place to be.

MARK PRATT: This is where I grew up at.

My first time coming over here when they first started the demolition...

The guys broke work for the day

right in my mother's living room.

She kept her living room, like, immaculate.

We couldn't even go and sit in there.

So just thinkin' that there was a bulldozer in the living room,

it was like, "Man, Mom would kill them."

[LAUGHS] It's hard.

I didn't think I would take it this hard, but it's hard.

It's hard watching,

you know, what once was your home...

[CONSTRUCTION VEHICLE BEEPING]

[CLATTERING IN DISTANCE]

Just being destroyed.

I just pray and hope that they replace it

with something better for the people here,

not just the people who are buying property here.

A lot of us who fought hard,

we're still here.

We're still standing.

But a lot of people fell through the cracks.

Um, there are a lot of people who don't qualify to come back.

JANET SMITH: We have a history in the United States

for pushing poor people around.

Um, you can go back to urban renewal

in the 1940s and 1950s,

where we basically said the housing conditions,

the neighborhood conditions are bad

and we want to improve them for you

so we're going to move you out.

Unfortunately, often most of those families are people of color.

And often most of those families were unable to come back.

So that's 50 years ago.

Fast forward to transforming public housing

in the United States...

Many of the same types of people

are being pushed out once again.

N[SLOW JAZZ MUSIC SCORE PLAYING]

FEMALE NARRATOR: Seventy acres in Chicago,

bordered by Halsted, North, Orleans,

and Chicago Avenues.

History seeps through these city blocks.

Just a mile from downtown,

yet in a whole nother economic dimension.

For 70 years, on these 70 acres,

stood a public housing community

known as Cabrini Green.

And anyone in their right mind

would love to live in that area...

The Lincoln Park area, Gold Coast,

Near North, Near West area...

Simply because of its proximity to the lakefront,

downtown and retail markets.

And plus, all hubs

of public transportation go through that area.

NARRATOR: Initially promoted as a housing solution

for Chicago's working poor,

by the end, Cabrini Green was labeled

one of the worst urban development disasters

in the United States.

In 1995, the Chicago Housing Authority began

tearing down Cabrini Green.

New neighborhoods called Mixed Income Communities

would replace the high-rises.

Many Cabrini residents wanted better housing,

but opposed the demolition,

fearing they wouldn't be included

in the new development.

This is some valuable, valuable land.

And it's been valuable, valuable

- for a long, long time. - WOMAN: Got that right.

RUSH: And you got folks who want...

Who've had their eyes on this land, who want this land...

They're salivating!

You know, they drooling at the lip.

'Cause they want this land.

Let me be absolutely clear about this.

Every family that wants to stay in the community

will stay in this community

regardless of their income or age.

MARION STAMPS: This is a Black fight

for the existence of Black people on the Near North Side.

You call Richard Daley's office tomorrow,

and you tell him I am a resident of Cabrini Green,

and we ain't goin' nowhere!

We don't support your plan.

A lot of these people that live here

don't have personal cars or transportation.

They don't have jobs out in the suburbs.

Most of their family and friends are here.

So to relocate people distant like that, you know,

it would be tantamount to taking someone

and dropping them off on a desert island.

STAMPS AND CROWD [CHANTING]: All I want to say is that

they don't really care about us!

BOY: But if my sister was living...

PROTESTORS: All I want to say is that they don't really care about us!

DEIDRE BREWSTER: Originally, when the plan was announced,

Cabrini local advisory council members

decided to get together and fight back.

Marion Stamps, Lillian Swope,

Carol Steele, Cora Moore.

Many strong women fought for this land.

ALL [CHANTING]: Housing!

- When do we want it? - Now!

- What do we want? - Housing!

- When do we want it? - Now!

We filed lawsuits,

we marched, we rallied.

We did what we had to do in order to have

a right to return to our community.

DAVID TKAC: This new community is not about exclusion.

It's not about kicking everybody out.

It's about a mixed income community,

an experiment in this country which is unparalleled

in any other city in this nation.

This is what you have now at your town center - [CROWD MURMURING]

If you're looking west on Division.

It's not a pretty picture, is it?

WOMAN 1: Well, I don't know what it is.

TKAC: This is what you may have in the future.

MAN: Man, we can't afford this!

TKAC: With the park as a central focus

of the new community

instead of an old dilapidated high-rise.

[VARIOUS PEOPLE PROTESTING INDISTINCTLY]

[CLEARS THROAT]

No new community would be complete

without job opportunities, job trainings, and so forth.

WOMAN 2: Let him finish what he sayin'!

Excuse me, ma'am. Excuse me, ma'am.

WOMAN 2: Be quiet.

WOMAN 3: I'm not that young, and I'm acting like that

because I'm sick of oppression

and moving black people out of these communities...

No... no opportunity,

or no community's going to succeed

without ample job opportunities.

This is the type of housing that might be... that might...

You might see in front of

- the existing buildings behind it. - [APPLAUSE]

You all put the cart before the horse.

You should've came to this community

before you broke one ground!

[LIGHT APPLAUSE, CHEERING] - Before you knocked down one bridge!

You should've came to this community to find out what we wanted.

Not bring something from the Mayor's office

or what you all want.

We have something to be in this thing too!

We wanna be here.

If you interrupt me while I'm in the middle

of what I'm talking about,

you won't hear what I'm saying...

STEVENS: You interrupted our way of life over here, lady!

WOMAN: Yes! - [LOUD CHEERING]

STEVENS: You interrupted our way of life over here!

[VEHICLE BEEPING]

NARRATOR: Despite pushback,

the CHA expanded their demolition plans.

In 2000, the CHA launched a massive ten-year plan

to demolish not just Cabrini,

but the majority of Chicago's public housing.

Called the "Plan for Transformation,"

this $1.5-billion proposal

was celebrated as the most ambitious

housing restructuring in the world.

[UPBEAT THEME MUSIC PLAYING]

MALE NARRATOR [IN FILM]: The Chicago Housing Authority

is changing the look of public housing in Chicago.

It's all part of the CHA's

historic Plan for Transformation.

The Plan for Transformation

is a comprehensive undertaking

to renew all of the city's public housing.

For CHA families,

a new day is dawning.

This is change

for the better.

MARY PATTILLO: The Plan for Transformation

is a plan to demolish

about 20,000 units of public housing.

This is the most severely distressed public housing,

almost all of which is in the high-rise kind of structure.

And to build on the place, on the land,

where this public housing had stood...

Mixed income communities.

So in theory, the most basic thing it's meant to do

is reconnect those who are living in public housing

with the rest of society.

When Mayor Daley talks about it in Chicago, he says,

"We've ended up with two Chicago's:

"One that was happening in public housing,

and one for the rest of the city."

And in some ways that was quite literally true...

Not only did you have housing that was set apart,

you had street grids that would cut off

and different from the rest of the city.

You had a separate police department,

you had separate garbage pick-up.

So you actually really had a separate set of rules,

set of homes, set of institutions for public housing.

So the basic thing Mixed Income Development

is trying to do is reconnect and say,

"We have one city for everyone."

NCan we create communities where intentionally we make sure.

Nthe people in those communities are connected with each other?

NARRATOR: Demolition in Cabrini Green

lasted from 1995 through 2011.

For 15 years, residents lived in uncertainty,

as one-by-one, the buildings fell,

people moved away,

and the community disappeared.

Raymond "Shaq" McDonald lives

in the Cabrini Rowhouses with his grandmother.

GRANDMOTHER:

My grandmother been in Cabrini Green all her life

so I'm proud to be here.

That's where all my family came from,

and that's where all my heritage is.

Mayor Daley is moving us out

to get higher-class people in... that's how I see it.

People who can pay more money.

And then it'd be weird for me because I'm not used to.

Caucasians living over here anyway.

So it'd be a whole new experience for me.

NARRATOR: Jenner Elementary sits right in the middle

of the upheaval, across from the new condos

and adjacent to what remains of Cabrini Green.

WOMAN [OVER P.A.]: Students, we hope you have a great day!

Stay focused,

and hopefully all of you

are ready to learn.

Well, how do you feel when you literally see

the buildings coming down?

It's like, the buildings have so many people,

and then to see it come down,

it's like everybody gettin' moved away.

So it's like we gettin' smaller, and smaller, and smaller.

And it's sad to see, like, everybody go

in our neighborhood.

Like, it's like it's coming to an end.

I don't see how anybody can be optimistic about it.

PHIPPS: They might place new buildings here,

but it ain't gonna be the same people.

I hope that they rebuild it

but let the residents who they moved out come back in

so we can be a community again.

If this was a community in some other place,

people would be upset.

"Oh, my God," you know.

"You're sending all the people away,."

"Oh, you're tearing down their houses,."

"Oh, you're..."

You know, there'd be a lot of upheaval about it.

This community, this historic community,

that is very resilient, very strong,

and it's gone, it's just simply gone.

[APPLAUSE WITHIN]

I would like to, um, first of all,

extend a heart-warm welcome

to our Honorable Richard Mayor Daley.

And the special guest that came in today.

DALEY: This is the largest transformation

of public housing in the world.

No one else wanted to tackle this issue.

'Cause it's very complex and it's very difficult.

And deals mostly with poverty people.

And so if you stayed with the status quo,

it would be unacceptable, because for years

this was not considered...

Public housing... part of Chicago.

It's... it was separate, it was over there.

And the idea that we have moved forward

and we continue to move forward

in regards to rebuilding people's lives.

And that's the issue, to be very frank.

[AUDIENCE CHATTER]

- What's your name? - Raymond.

- What grade ya in? - Eighth.

Eighth grade? What high school you gonna go?

- Lane Tech. - Oh, good!

PHOTOGRAPHER: Right this way, here we go.

I was just wondering, how do you think

we feel about like, the community?

Like, the buildings being torn down?

Well, I-I think, you know, there's a lot of sentiment here,

that's realistic of public high-rising.

But in the long run, public high-rises

will be taken down all over the country.

If you grew up in Cabrini Green,

would you want them to take your memories?

Yeah, but don't forget, memories are always...

Memories are always stayed within the mind.

But uh... everybody changes.

Every community has changes in Chicago.

You can't live in the past.

- No one lives in the past. - [CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING]

Thank you.

SHAQ: I feel he's like a hypocrite

because he says he cares about us,

but then people trying to get into those buildings

and they won't let them in at all.

JESSICA TROTTER: They're tearing down our buildings,

but they're building all these beautiful houses

- and whatever... - Right, that's true.

And I see condo signs everywhere.

- SHAQ: Hey, Mr. Walter Burnett. - TROTTER: Hello.

WALTER BURNETT: Hey, how you guys doing?

We're doin' fine.

Okay, as you all know, I grew up in the Rowhouses.

Used to live in there, 23, 714, 1161.

Uh, this is my home. I got family here.

My mom is here with me.

Uh, what are you all's questions?

Yeah. - How do you feel about them tearin' this down?

- Since you came here? - Since you came from Cabrini?

BURNETT: Well, you know, let me say this.

Everything changes.

When I became Alderman over here, the buildings were deteriorating.

So my thing was, "Do I want to support people

"from my community living in these inhumane conditions?

Just because it's a building?"

You know what I'm sayin'?

No, I want them to have better housing.

Was the people that moved out

gonna be able to move in some of these new houses?

BURNETT: Everyone has an opportunity to move back.

You know, but everybody gotta be lease compliant.

You know, that... that's the kicker.

Sometimes you gotta make hard decisions.

And sometimes you gotta get outta

your comfort level to do better.

Sometimes it's good to get outta the neighborhood to do better.

You know, sometimes we get stuck in the neighborhood

and scared to cross the street.

Sometimes crossing that street may change your whole life.

BURNETT: All right, thank you.

Tell your grandmothers I said hello.

- STUDENTS: Okay. All right. - BURNETT: All right.

And I'll see them in the struggle.

N[SLOW JAZZ MUSIC SCORE PLAYING]

NARRATOR: What happenednin Cabrini Green is not unique.

It is the same old same.

For African-Americans in the city,

segregation has always limited housing choices.

I think the story of racial segregation in Chicago

is the story about lines and borders and boundaries.

Beginning with the Great Migration,

which at its peak tens ofnthousands of blacks were moving

from the South to the North... moving to Chicago.

NAnd this was a time also when...

Nespecially after World War One,

and during The Depression and through World War Two...

There was very little new housing built in Chicago.

So the city was pretty stagnant

in terms of how big it would be.

And as a result, black folk really started to pile up

in the areas where they were living.

NARRATOR: To build Cabrini, the city of Chicago bulldozed

- an immigrant slum called Little Sicily. - [CAT SCREECHES]

In the early 1900s, housing codes prevented

Italians, Blacks, and Jews from living

in White-only areas.

Segregation enabled slum lords to charge high dollar rents

- for filthy, unsafe apartments. - [CHILD COUGHING]

The public was outraged about the foul

and dangerous living conditions.

By 1933, the country was crumbling

from the effects of The Great Depression.

President Roosevelt's New Deal funded

slum clearance and housing construction.

In 1937, Mayor Edward Kelly established

the Chicago Housing Authority, the CHA.

The CHA used their authority to level Little Sicily.

The people of Little Sicily were forced out.

No one knows where these families moved.

They were simply displaced.

And Cabrini Green was born on this troubled land.

Cabrini Green was built in three phases.

First, the Rowhouses were completed in 1942.

The Francis Cabrini Homes were built

as two-story apartments for returning.

World War Two veterans and their families.

The CHA offered safe, clean, large apartments

until tenants were able to afford their own homes.

The Cabrini Rowhouses were the first integrated

public housing in Chicago.

White families left Cabrini

as soon as their financial situations improved.

They had the freedom to move

into any Chicago neighborhood that they could afford.

Segregation prevented African-American families

from leaving Black neighborhoods

and housing projects, regardless of their income.

Chicago-style racism

in the 1940s and '50s was deadly.

When the CHA quietly placed African-American veterans

in White areas, locals greeted their new neighbors

with taunts, bricks, and even fire bombs.

[FIRE BOMB EXPLODES, CROWD SCREAMING]

D. BRADFORD HUNT: Those rioting really sent a signal

that racial integration was not welcomed in Chicago.

And that the Housing Authority was put on notice

by White aldermen and other... And the neighborhoods...

That their racial integration agenda

was not going to fly in Chicago.

STAMPS: We always had lines.

We always had that proverbial across the track.

There was definitely a street

that divided the have's from the have-not's.

Or divided the Soul Coast from the Gold Coast.

That street is Wells.

It was the dividing line between

the affluent White community

from the impoverished Black community.

NARRATOR: Despite all the risks,

southern Black populations flowed north

toward the promised landnof industrial and service jobs.

Once in Chicago,

these new immigrants were squeezed

into ghettos by Jim Crow segregation,

racist real-estate practices,

and the mandate from a new mayor.

NARRATOR: Chicago was facing a dire housing crisis.

Black neighborhoods were filled to capacity,

while city council members repeatedly

rejected proposals by the CHA

to move African-Americans into White neighborhoods.

Chicago's legacy of segregation continued.

The political solution was

to maintain Chicago'sncolor lines by building upwards

in over-crowded Black neighborhoods.

Twenty-three high-rises were built.

The Cabrini extensions North and South opened in 1958.

Nick-named the Reds,

the extensions were 7, 10, and 19-story high-rises.

By building up, the CHA tripled the amount of units

that the development provided.

The final phase, the William Green Homes, opened in 1962.

Nicknamed the Whites, the Green Homes were

15 and 16-story high-rises.

During the heyday of the 1950s and '60s,

over 15,000 people

lived in Cabrini Green...

99% of them African-American.

[UPBEAT JAZZ MUSIC SCORE PLAYING]

NARRATOR: Trouble started in the 1970s.

Steel mills shut,

factories and stock yards closed.

In Chicago, African-Americans suffered disproportionally.

At Cabrini Green,

rent payments dwindlednwhen residents lost their jobs.

Without rental income,

the CHA lacked the funds for routine maintenance.

Buildings were neglected.

Tenants fighting for basic services were ignored.

[LIVELY CHATTER IN DISTANCE]

STAMPS: The beautiful emerald green lawn

that was meticulously manicured

when I was coming up

was allowed to become

brown,

and stomped out,

and bald.

The playground did not get repaired.

Swings broke, and they weren't replaced.

Things were just in constant disrepair.

So that's the kind of intentional neglect

that I'm talking about.

You can repair a swing.

You can fix a pipe.

You can keep landscapers,

and maintenance people around

to make sure that the lawns are taken care of.

You can empower your residents to make sure

that they take care of the place that they live.

CHA chose not to do any of those things.

[DRAMATIC PIANO SCORE PLAYING]

NARRATOR: Even within Cabrini, nthere were haves and have-nots.

As the buildings deteriorated, families with resources fled.

Cabrini residents left behind suspected

that the CHA did not want to repair the buildings

because the CHA already had a plan to demolish them.

When families moved out, nthe CHA boarded up empty units.

It was cheaper than making repairs

and contributed to the high vacancy rates.

As the population in the towers decreased,

criminal activity increased.

[AMBULANCE SIREN BLARING]

[CHILDREN PLAYING]

MARK PRATT: This is where I saw my first shooting.

We were playing Follow the Leader.

I told the kids to follow me,

and we marched out of the playground,

and marched along the side of the building.

Got to the edge of the building...

There were two guys arguing... It was a dope deal gone bad.

But at the time I didn't realize it.

One guy pulled out a gun, the other guy started to run.

The guy shot three times,

and the other guy dropped to the ground.

He got back up and he ran off.

But he was hit... we saw the blood

squirt out of his body.

And we were just stunned, we were frozen.

We were scared stiff.

And I guess that's the uniqueness of Cabrini.

As a kid,

you grew up with a lot of memories of...

Like, now my children are playing.

And they'll remember this day,

- having a great time. - [BABY PLAYFULLY SCREAMS]

But they'll also remember waking up

in the middle of the night to a lot of gunfire.

[COUGHING]

You know, a lot of police sirens.

So, you know, it's a two-fold thing.

NARRATOR: In the 1980s and '90s,

Cabrini Green was isolated in a bubble.

It was as if the city gave up

on the people who still lived there.

Gang activity and drug related violence thrived

in the dilapidated buildings.

Residents were blamed and shamed

for the conditions in their community.

In 1993, the community came together for a forum

to discussnpersistent violence in the area

and rumors of a plan

to tear down the high-rises.

You got over 35,000 homeless people in Chicago,

and the last thing you need to do is tear down a building.

[CROWD CHEERS] - PRATT: You need to build it up!

NARRATOR: But plans for demolition

were already in motion.

And there was no turning back.

The first Cabrini Green buildings

were demolished in 1995.

[BUILDINGS CRASHING]

[LARGE CONSTRUCTION VEHICLE DRIVING]

SANDI LENT: You're standing right here,

right on Evergreen Street,

where the sales trailer is.

And today we have three for-sale homes left for sale,

out of the hundred and forty-five.

KEVIN HARDMAN: We went on a very long walk one day,

this was last June.

And we walked inside

and saw these little models,

and imagined us as little people jumping in.

And it's our community to create.

I think some of the greatest urban areas are the ones

that are very mixed and very integrated.

And though this is a new development,

we think it reconnects urban areas

back to what makes urban areas so great.

PRATT: This is the new Mixed Income Community.

And you look down the street, they're coming out now.

These are gorgeous.

RONIT BEZALEL: What are the chances of you living in one of these?

Probably, um...

ninety, ninety to one.

I think it's a long shot.

BEZALEL: Yeah, but aren't you supposed to be relocated to this area?

[LAUGHS]

That's what they tell us.

Do I believe them?

No.

Again, I don't know anybody that, that relocated over here.

Everybody I know has been relocated

to the South Side or the West Side.

["CHICAGO SHUFFLE" PERFORMED BY N. PERALTA PLAYING]

NARRATOR: Like Mark, thousands of Cabrini families

were not able to move back.

Missing their friends and wanting

to nourish their need for community,

many still returned for a weekly gathering

across the street from the new condos.

Me and about ten friends of mine that we all grew up with,

decided... we were sitting around over there

at Seward Park...

We would like to do something for the people

that we all were kids with, grew up with, fought against,

went to school with.

And I came up with the idea of Old School Mondays.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: When you come out on Mondays,

you're definitely gonna see people

you haven't seen in 20, 30, 40 years.

And it's just a joy to see them.

♪ Kick left, bring it back ♪

♪ Kick right, bring it back ♪

♪ Kick left, bring it back ♪

♪ Kick right, bring it back ♪

♪ Kick left back ♪

♪ Bring right in front ♪

♪ Then bring left in front ♪

♪ Now you steppin', Chicago two-step ♪

♪ Step, step, side to side, round and round... ♪

Here you see many generations.

Many generations.

Some five, six,

seven generations deep in this community, so...

- It's about home. - Cabrini's going to always be home.

It's going to always... Even though it's not there!

STEWART: Even though it's not physically here.

Yeah, but as long as we're around each other,

- we feeling it still. - It's the neighborhood.

- We're still feeling the Cabrini. - You feel it.

PHILLIPS: As soon as you get cover here it's like,

- "Ooh, God, it's, it's indescribable." - Yes.

Many of us fought against change,

and somewhere along the line

we understood that change is inevitable.

And so how do you prepare for change?

And that got to be the bigger picture.

How do you prepare for change?

NARRATOR: The residents fight for their right

to return was decided by the courts.

A Mixed Income Ratio was set.

Fifty percent of unitsnwere for market rate residents.

Thirty percent were fornformer Cabrini Green residents.

Twenty percent were affordable rentals.

Rents would be lower than the market rate,

but higher than the low income units.

The economy was booming.

A Black neighborhood was being cleared.

And there was money to be made.

Unlike the other condos that began to circle Cabrini,

Parkside was the first development built

directly on Cabrini Green land.

NARRATOR: Peter Holsten is the developer

of North Town Village and Parkside of Old Town.

We're in unit 314 of a 111-unit mid-rise here

at Cabrini Parkside of Old Town.

You can see it's a brand new unit.

In fact, this is a brand new building.

It's got a nice kitchen with an island and a family room.

It has two good sized bedrooms.

We'll go down the hall here and take a peak.

If this was a market rate unit,

it would go for 1,100 a month.

Uh, if it was an affordable, it would be 950.

And if it was a public housing replacement unit,

the family would pay 30% of their income... whatever that is.

So here we have a nice patio.

You can see the panorama of downtown.

See, the land in this neighborhood

is worth a lot of money.

So this land has a lot of pressure on it.

It's very, very valuable land.

Now, you can see here that you don't know who lives where.

All three of our income groups are living throughout here,

and we purposely did not make units special for public housing

or for market rate or for affordable.

Everyone lives everywhere.

And that's a very important concept

for this community.

We saw it as an opportunity to invest in real estate

that was fairly depressed in value at the time.

Getting this kind of a location, you know,

for the kind of money they were asking for,

that even if the market did take a bit of a slump,

we thought that this area was so intrinsically depressed

because of the other Cabrini Green homes being around,

that once the high-rises came down, that the values

would at least stay the same, if not go up.

I moved here from down-state Illinois,

and I was downtown,

but I was over in the Gold Coast.

And we were just driving down Orleans

and saw the "For Rent,"

and we're like, "Wow, that'd be a great view of the city."

My partner was really interested in moving into the development

because it was, it was affordable.

Um, it was in a great location.

He loves living near the downtown area.

And because he really thought that socially it was a good idea

to mix people from different social economic backgrounds.

I had some concerns that my being a black person

coming into a neighborhood

from which other people

were going to be dislocated or relocated,

I had concerns about sort of being a gentrifier.

MAN: Mike, you missed the, uh, the softball.

It's really nice to see the neighborhood change,

and seeing all the new buildings coming up around here.

And the retail,

and the commercial, and you know,

the gentrification that's happening.

It's awesome. It's good for the city.

When I grew up, you didn't see...

this type of nationality over here,

playing baseball.

You know, it was like, they didn't exist

as far as in our community when it was...

The project buildings was up.

I wanna get out there and play.

NARRATOR: Cabrini families who want an apartment

in the new Mixed Income Housing Developments

face a series of applications.

Families must agree to frequent home inspections,

drug tests, and criminal background checks.

They must show proof of employment

and that all the children are enrolled in school.

Deidre Brewster was one of

the few Cabrini Green residents who qualified

to return to the Mixed Income Communities.

She now lives at Parkside with her family.

BREWSTER: I believe the process to come back

into the new Mixed Income Development Communities,

you actually have to be...

a nun.

There is no room for mess ups.

But I think it's kind of dehumanizing

for public housing residents of Cabrini Green

to have to be subject to...

I believe it's a yearly drug test.

STAMPS: One of the ways that they made that very difficult

to procure one of the new units,

was that if there was a family,

and one of the members of that family

had a record, or brush with the law,

or anything like that,

then the family automatically got taken off the list.

Well, what was the likelihood that in Cabrini

that somebody's child would end up going to juvenile?

Highly likely!

So does that mean her other six kids got to suffer?

Absolutely, that's what that means.

BREWSTER: When my 18-year-old daughter's

background check came back,

she had a misdemeanor...

This was from her having a fight at school.

But that was something that got on her record.

We had to make a tough choice,

in order to be back in our community.

And she's now living with relatives

because she could not be a part of my lease

and live here in Cabrini,

in new Mixed Income Development.

God forbid if she ends up homeless,

what am I going to do as a mom?

Not let her come here?

I don't know.

NARRATOR: Mark Pratt moved his family from Cabrini

to the middle class Chatham neighborhood

on Chicago's South Side.

Mark and his wife could not move

into the new Mixed Income Community

because there were not enough apartments

built for large families.

- PRATT: Hey! - BEZALEL: How are you?

- I'm good, I'm good. - Good to see you.

Prior to moving out of public housing,

we were all under the impression that

we were going to move to what we considered

better neighborhoods.

The words "safe" or "safer" gets tossed around a lot.

Even though there was a lot of violence in Cabrini,

I did feel a lot safer there

simply because I knew the people

who were out there committing these acts

were aware who I was,

and who, they were aware of my family.

So even though there was a lot of random shooting,

there weren't a lot of random acts

towards innocent people.

OUSELY-PRATT: Out here, you could be standing outside

and Joe Bob got into it with Bobby Sue,

and they just drive up shooting.

And you have no clue.

Directly behind us,

on the block behind us, three gentlemen were killed.

And they wanted to placate it as if

it was the people moving...

PRATT: Like the influx of public housing people.

But it wasn't so.

I feel that we were rushed,

a lot of people were rushed into making these decisions.

As far as taking a Section 8 voucher,

or staying where they were

and just move to another unit.

N[MELANCHOLY JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: Through all the changes

in the neighborhood,

Raymond and his family are still living in the Rowhouses.

Unlike the high-rises, the Rowhouses

have not yet been targeted for demolition.

Since the buildings came down, I haven't got in contact

with my friends lately 'cause they have been scattered.

Like, I can't get in touch with them or anything.

My one friend moved to the suburbs.

I wish he had just come back.

'Cause it's been different without him.

'Cause like he was always a person

I could talk to and everything.

But most of my friends are gone.

Down!

Chopper, roll over, boy!

SHAQ:

[DOG BARKS AND WHINES]

I was going to ask them Caucasian people over there

if I could play baseball with them.

But then they got little hot Chihuahua dog... whatever you wanna call it.

My dog wanted to play with their dog,

and they didn't obviously want my dog to play

'cause they thought it was going to hurt him, but he was tied up anyway.

So then that just shows

they don't want me to be around,

even though my dog was tied up.

How was my dog gonna hurt that dog

when my dog is tied up to a tree?

That makes no sense.

They just didn't want me over there.

- And that disgusts me. - [BAT STRIKES BASEBALL]

And I don't appreciate that.

And I don't even want to play with them no more.

[AIR PUMP WHIRRING]

JAY DUFF: We're having a little block party

just to help neighbors

get to know each other

and put positive vibes around and...

I... I don't really know my neighbors that well.

I mean, I know the people in my building,

and the people in the building next to me,

and that's it.

You know, and it seems like, the subsidized folks,

they all know each other.

Like, they've known each other for years.

I originally lived in the White projects

for about 18 years.

And then me and my mom moved

right across the street to the new complex.

The only time we do really

have some kind of rendezvous

or get to see, or even know our neighbor's name,

is probably the block party.

Yeah, that's when everyone shakes hands, and "Oh, where do you live?"

"I live in apartment B over there," or "We're..." whatever.

["CHICAGO SHUFFLE" PERFORMED BY N. PERALTA PLAYING OVER SPEAKERS]

♪ Chicago two-step, Chicago two-step ♪

♪ Chicago two-step, Chicago two-step... ♪

I'd like to see more people.

You know, we kinda had a similar turn out last time.

And a similar percentage, where it was mostly

the subsidized people that showed up.

Uh, which, you know, that's fine.

I just wished there was more people

so that we could get more of a mingling, you know.

♪ Chicago two-step ♪

♪ Here we go! ♪

♪ Step, step, side to side ♪

♪ Round and round, now break it down ♪

♪ Now separate and bring it up ♪

♪ Can't get enough, can't get enough ♪

♪ Step, step, side to side ♪

♪ Round and round, watch out now! ♪

WOMAN: We asked, "Whatcha doin' with the golf club?"

They said, "Gonna play golf." "Where you gonna play golf at?"

[LAUGHS]

♪ Kick right, bring it back... ♪

DUFF: You know, I've seen those kids around before.

They live over in the 1230 Larrabee Building.

♪ Bring right in front, then bring... ♪

They come over here and they usually have

some sort of a weapon on them...

Whether it's a golf club like this time

or sticks, or bricks, or whatever.

The kids were giving the police officers

that we have working the party a hassle.

POLICEMAN: Well, we need to take those clubs away from 'em.

Get the... back!

Bye! Bye! Bye! Bye! Bye!

Bye!

BOY:

My sister came, they took the golf club

from the little boy that was tryin' destroy the party.

And she took all the golf club from them

and told 'em, "Go where they lived at."

WOMAN: And they, they not from over here,

so they not supposed to be over here. Be back there.

Say, "Bye-bye!"

PATTILLO: Class prejudice is something I think

that we need to address again, explicitly.

And start people talking about why they assume

the way that they do things is the right way to do it.

And the way someone else does things,

is the wrong way to do it.

The way that poor people do things is stigmatized.

[SLOW HIP-HOP MUSIC SCORE PLAYING]

SHAQ: I'm not certified to bena dog trainer even though I am.

And that's how I'm trying to help my grandmother to understand it.

I say, "Can I make a flyer?"

She says, "No, because you're not a registered dog trainer."

But I said, "It's not being a registered dog trainer."

It's called...

As I, as we in Cabrini put it:

On a hustle.

You don't want this harness, I'm sorry to tell you.

- VALERIE GOBOS: Why? - 'Cause it is no good. No, no.

It's the only thing that controls him.

No, it doesn't. Watch this.

He's good with 'em.

Shht! Eh.

Nice looking bulldog. How old is he?

- WOMAN: One year. - One year?

MAN: Have you ever seen him with his dog, Chopper?

VALERIE: No. Does he live around here?

Yeah.

And each time he does pull... Shht!

[SNAPS] Make him sit.

And the snap brings him outta that state of mind

of trying to pull forward and brings him back to my side.

You're good.

Good boy.

VALERIE: It's like a different dog.

[LAUGHTER]

My name's Raymond. 1-3-1-2...

BREWSTER: When I first moved back into my community,

I felt victorious.

I was like, "Yes! Back on this land!"

"We fought for it, to be here, we're here!

Oh, my God! I can see the Starbucks."

Well...

[SIGHS]

Few months down the road,

people were coming to me

with all type of complaints.

They're afraid that if they're standing

in front of their home, they could be evicted.

They're afraid thatnif they have too many visitors,

they could be evicted.

They're afraid if their TV is too loud,

they could be evicted.

It's like, "No, this is a Mixed Income Development."

Guys, we just... we're mixing it up, we're mixing in."

And they were telling me,

"No, it's... that's not what's happening."

I felt like there was a fear amongst homeowners

about seeing former Cabrini Green residents

sort of hanging out in groups.

Just because you see a lot of.

Black people hanging out somewhere

doesn't mean they're up to no good.

This is part of our community,

this is also part of a way that Black people socialize.

It just is.

ASHLEY PIMSNER: There are rules and regulations and...

For example, just parking your car.

Um... people just didn't get that, you know, parking A's...

Parking spot A belonged to the bottom unit.

B to the second unit. C to the top unit.

And when somebody violates that one,

it becomes a gigantic snowball.

And then everybody is parking in each other's spots and...

it just becomes a nightmare. Then people begin towing,

and then they begin towing vindictively.

BREWSTER: Well, I went to the condo meetings

with great intentions of it being an inclusive process.

Unbeknownst to me, some people could vote and some couldn't.

The renters and public housing residents could not vote,

but the condo owners could vote.

And I found that to be unequal

because of the issues that were being voted on.

The issues that were being voted on were security issues.

Well, security affects the whole area.

ANSARI: I saw both sides because I know both sides.

It was difficult to see how both sides

could kind of come to some sort of compromise.

As far as, you know, market rate people, you know,

understanding what the whole idea of this project is...

Which is to help diversify the neighborhood,

and bring up the people who are on welfare

by seeing what people who aren't on welfare live like,

and what the goals are... Some people get it.

Some people really understand that,

that they have to set an example for people

who don't know what it's like to earn a living

and to be proud of yourself and be proud of what you have.

There was this whole belief

that if so-called "public housing residents"...

Remember, we were very demonized...

If they moved next door to such affluent neighbors,

that would make them better people,

which was very insulting.

I think there's a rage when you,

when you grow up and you know a community,

you see that community get torn down,

and then you see new people come in

who expect things to change,

and expect you to change,

and say there's something wrong with you.

[CONSTRUCTION VEHICLE BEEPING]

[WORKER YELLING INDISTINCTLY]

NARRATOR: The Plan for Transformation

was based on the prediction

that real estate values always increase.

But then, in 2008,nthe real estate market crashed.

Housing sales dropped dramatically.

We didn't see people moving in.

But at some point, you know,

they had to honor the promises

to former Cabrini Green residents to come in.

And when Cabrini Green residents started coming in,

I heard that sentiment among homeowners of,

"Well, what's the ratio?"

That was a question I think at every board member meeting.

"What's the ratio?" "How many homes have we sold?"

There's a sentiment of, "We feel like we're being outnumbered."

And I don't know if it was more of

an outnumbered by Black people,

or if it was more just outnumbered

by people who weren't middle class.

Over here's our sales center,

which unfortunately doesn't have a whole ton of people

beating a door down.

This is a very, very tough economy

to sell condominiums and townhomes.

But we hear things are picking up a little bit.

We have heavily discounted our pricing,

and that's brought more traffic in.

But people are still having a hard time getting mortgages.

That seems to be a problem all over.

[VEHICLE RUMBLING]

Chicago has done this in...

as complicated a way as it possibly could be done.

At the speed of which the buildings were taken down originally,

before a system of supports were really put in place

to help residents relocate effectively,

before residents could've been given the preparation

to be able to navigate that type of trauma.

NARRATOR: Raymond McDonald is now in high school.

The future of the Rowhouses is unclear.

SHAQ: The Rowhouses have changed dramatically.

We can't do as much, we have security guards,

and the CHA's clamping down on everything.

They do not want us here anymore.

It has changed, to me, in the worst way possible

because it's not a community anymore.

So how's your grandmother?

- She's doing well. - That's good.

And some lady, she's part of CHA, she comes over

and like, she made me get rid of my dog

and all the other dogs.

- She inspects you all? - Right, right.

And she, and she does it with an iron fi... iron fist.

That completely stopped my dog business, my dog training business.

You had a dog training business?

Uh-huh, yeah. I started to train dogs,

and I was making money, $20 an hour.

- And I had to stop. - Why?

Because I don't have my key companion

right there to make an example.

If things don't work you just,

you know, get up and try again.

So don't give up.

Still try and do your dog training.

Maybe you could use one of the dogs you train

to be an example

to show people what you could do with a dog.

And one thing that the market rate residents do,

if they don't... if they move here, they may not have kids,

but I guarantee you, they have a dog.

So don't give up.

For most public housing families,

this is their final move.

I mean, this is, this is home for as long as they wanna stay.

So I think we're going to have longevity

on the part of the public housing folks.

On the part of the market rate, they're mobile.

Um, things change.

They may get a job offer out of town.

They may have a family and need a bigger place.

They may have a family

and have some difficulty with the schools.

Uh, the schools are a challenge here.

My son is getting to the age now where,

you know, we're looking at schools for him.

And I don't really wanna risk, you know,

not getting into one of the better public schools here.

So we're going to move to the suburbs.

We moved to Parkside to stay regardless

of whether the market would've crashed or not.

Our goal was to stay here and be a part of this community.

NARRATOR: Billions of dollars were spent

on building Mixed Income Communities.

However, the majority of public housing residents

didn't qualify to live in the new homes.

Most of the people from Cabrini Green

were dispersed into low income neighborhoods

far from their extended families,

their friends, and their jobs.

The mixed income experiment

excluded thousands of poor families

who needed safe, decent housing.

[HIP-HOP MUSIC SCORE PLAYING]

People in public housing are people.

We just regular folk.

We value life,

we value love,

we value family.

And Cabrini really was a community.

Anyone that came to visit

knew right away it was something special,

something different going on.

It has its own flavor.

It was a piece of us that was left there

on the ground, in the dirt.

In the air even.

The shared bond of living in public housing

of representing the H.Q.,

livin' on the wild end,

coming from the C.G.,

none of that exists anymore.

And I only can share that bond

with a few people that I run into every now and again.

And I say, "H.Q.!" And they'll smile, "C.G.!"

And we got...

It's just us, in the store talkin'.

NARRATOR: Seventy acres in Chicago.

A Black community for seventy years.

The Plan for Transformation

was an experiment with people's lives.

But instead of a solution

to a dire public housing crisis,

by the end, it simply reinforced.

Chicago's same old lines

and borders and boundaries.

[MARCHING BAND MUSIC PLAYING]

- This is the exact spot, the exact building. - MAN: Right.

[MARCHING BAND MUSIC CONTINUES]

MALE REPORTER: And why are you here today?

I am here to celebrate,

and mourn at the same time,

the closing of the last building standing in Cabrini.

ALL: Whoo!

BREWSTER: Each apartmentnthat's lit up represents a poem

that one of the youth from Cabrini Connections wrote

concerning how they feel about the closing of the building.

It gives the community a sense of closure

through the eyes of the youth.

[CROWD CHEERING]

Our building might be gone,

but we got better things to come.

Y'all did a great job out here tonight.

CHILDREN: Thank you!

MAN: There it is! Bring it in!

[ENTIRE CROWD "AHHS"]

BREWSTER: Cabrini will always be around.

As long as there is... are Cabrini residents

within the new development,

in the new buildings, Cabrini will always be here.

I love Cabrini.

[LAUGHS]

I love Cabrini Green, this is my home.

It will forever be my home

whether I'm here or not, whether I move,

Cabrini Green will always be getting rep'd...

Represented... by me.

No matter where I'm at.

Whether I'm famous, rich, or poor,

I will always rep Cabrini Green.

Because this is where I came from.

[SLOW INSTRUMENTAL ROCK BALLAD PLAYING]

[INSTRUMENTAL ROCK BALLAD CONTINUES PLAYING]

["CHICAGO SHUFFLE" PERFORMED BY N. PERALTA]

♪ Chicago two-step, Chicago two-step ♪

♪ Chicago two-step, Chicago two-step ♪

♪ Chicago two-step, Chicago two-step ♪

♪ Chicago two-step, Chicago two-step ♪

♪ Chicago two-step, Chicago two-step ♪

♪ Chicago two-step, Chicago two-step ♪

♪ Chicago two-step ♪

♪ Here we go ♪

♪ Step, step, side to side ♪

♪ Round and round, now bring it down ♪

♪ Now separate, then bring it up ♪

♪ Can't get enough, can't get enough ♪

♪ Step, step, side to side ♪

♪ Round and round, watch out now ♪

♪ Chicago two-step, Chicago two-step, here we go ♪

♪ Kick left, bring it back ♪

♪ Kick right, bring it back ♪

♪ Kick left, bring it back ♪

♪ Kick right, bring it back ♪

♪ Kick left back ♪

♪ Bring right in front ♪

♪ Then bring left in front ♪

♪ Now you steppin', Chicago two-step ♪

♪ Step, step, side to side ♪

♪ Round and round, now bring it down ♪

♪ Now separate, then bring it up ♪

♪ Can't get enough, can't get enough ♪

♪ Step, step, side to side ♪

♪ Round and round, watch out now ♪

♪ Everybody young and old get on the floor ♪

♪ We're steppin' out ♪

♪ Everybody young and old get on the floor ♪

♪ We're steppin' out ♪

♪ Chicago two-step, Chicago two-step ♪

♪ Chicago two-step, Chicago two-step ♪

♪ Chicago two-step, Chicago two-step ♪

♪ Chicago two-step, Chicago two-step ♪

♪ Chicago two-step, Chicago two-step ♪

♪ Chicago two-step, Chicago two-step ♪

♪ Chicago two-step, Chicago two-step ♪

♪ Chicago two-step, Chicago two-step ♪

♪ Chicago two-step, Chicago two-step ♪

♪ Chicago two-step, Chicago two-step ♪

♪ Chicago two-step. ♪