Cabrini-Green/"Good Times" Question (Chicago, Robinson: section 8, best neighborhoods, apartment complex)

[Tat2d Bald Dude]

Ok, totally oddball question, I know, but I'm curious about the reality of this....

I happened to be watching an episode of the hit 70's TV series "Good Times" last night, which many people know was "implicitly based" in Cabrini-Green. Throughout the episode, every single time one of the characters on screen opened the door of the apartment to leave or arrive, you could hear constant gunfire, shouting, breaking glass or all of the above. I thought to myself "My God...Was Cabrini-Green really like that in the mid-late 70's or any time in its "hey day" or was that the result of the writers and producers going a little overboard on the sound effects of the property? Did it really sound like a war zone outside every night to the point where you would wake up in the morning, get your tail to work, come straight home and then lock yourself in your apartment all night crying yourself to sleep, praying for a better life soon or was it pretty much like just living at an apartment complex where the neighbors are noisy and cause a bunch of ruckus?

[Ace_TX]

i dont live in chicago, but i can tell you that (then, now anywhere in america)

when you build "housing projects" and insert a bunch of poor people into them

there WILL BE alot of crime and violence going on

another thing to keep in mind is that people only know what they know and what they are used to

if you are a kid and grow up around a certain environment that is "normal' to you, you dont know anything else... you only start to realize things arent "normal" and that is not the way things are supposed to be until when you grow a little older and develop..then things that didnt bother you before really bothers you now because your perception has changed.


people who grow up in a home all their lives and always had a meal, clothes, allowance and all that other good shht like that think that is the "normal" and brains cant really process that other lifestlye

it is was it is

[thefallensrvnge]

I'm sure Good Times over did it a little bit, but Cabrini-Green was an absolute disaster. The housing project's tough image was cemented more so after Good Times when mayor Jane Byrne moved into the building to prove her commitment to making Cabrini-Green safer. She lasted a whole 3 weeks... and that was with police and security backup. Not to mention the rear entrance being welded shut for security purposes.

[Tat2d Bald Dude]

Originally Posted by thefallensrvnge

I'm sure Good Times over did it a little bit, but Cabrini-Green was an absolute disaster. The housing project's tough image was cemented more so after Good Times when mayor Jane Byrne moved into the building to prove her commitment to making Cabrini-Green safer. She lasted a whole 3 weeks... and that was with police and security backup. Not to mention the rear entrance being welded shut for security purposes.

Oh yeah, I'm well aware of that story. It ended up inspiring gang-related residents there to barricade the rear entrances of their units too.

[mjtinmemphis]

Every time I hear stories from people who actually grew up in the projects in Chicago it makes me sad.

How can we expect people to have normal lives growing up in a environment like that.

I do know some who have come out of Cabrini green and developed a good support structure and have good lives now. But they are incredibly strong people with rock solid principals.

[ChicagoMeO]

Could be the sound of a lot of kids playing outside the buildings, as there were a lot of kids there. So you definitely would have the sound of a lot of kids playing.

I think one of the most depressing aspects of it was the wire fencing that was like a cage on all the balconies. What a view (NOT). would make you feel like a caged animal, but it kept people from falling off the high balconies.

I am not kidding either. and the hallways smelled like pee and many of the elevators were broken and graffitti all over the walls, imagine yourself having to trudge up and down stairs with groceries and if you were elderly having to put up with all that.

[SoHoVe]

I agree when you are raised in a culture of drugs violence and/or abuse its simply reality from your perspective.

I don't know much about Cabrini, but the Robert Taylor homes on the Southside were a real horror show

Its a shame these projects turned so bad originally they were intended as an affordable housing opition once the rents went from flat rate to a sliding scale based on income people who had decent income levels (and were at all upwardly mobile) moved out as they could do better elsewhere now paying the same amount or maybe even less.

At was at this point that the extreme concentration of poverty in Chicago's projects begain.


Interestingly enough even in the worst of times there was a sense of community in the projects. Perhaps a twisted an perverted sense (in the eyes of outsiders) but it exisited none the less. By the 90s there were residents who came from generations of project dwellers...it was the only life they knew and they viewed the projects as their communities.
Some residents had to be forced into leaving.

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by SoHoVe

I agree when you are raised in a culture of drugs violence and/or abuse its simply reality from your perspective.

I don't know much about Cabrini, but the Robert Taylor homes on the Southside were a real horror show

Its a shame these projects turned so bad originally they were intended as an affordable housing opition once the rents went from flat rate to a sliding scale based on income people who had decent income levels (and were at all upwardly mobile) moved out as they could do better elsewhere now paying the same amount or maybe even less.

At was at this point that the extreme concentration of poverty in Chicago's projects begain.


Interestingly enough even in the worst of times there was a sense of community in the projects. Perhaps a twisted an perverted sense (in the eyes of outsiders) but it exisited none the less. By the 90s there were residents who came from generations of project dwellers...it was the only life they knew and they viewed the projects as their communities.
Some residents had to be forced into leaving.

You speak of it in the past tense but we still have the projects. Only we call them troubled neighborhoods now and they are funded through Section 8 vouchers, which are still overseen by the CHA. A few details may have changed but that's about it. The "projects" are simply horizontal now versus vertical.

[Tat2d Bald Dude]

That's the thing...there was actually resistance from the remaining tenants of Cabrini-Green to move because they had, in the own way (whether it was surrounded by joy or by sleepless nights of crime and horrific living conditions), built a life there and it was all they had ever known. However, I'm willing to bet that, as soon as the relocation of residents began, there were 3 times as many rushing to stand in line to move as soon as possible as there were people who sat back and said "Meh...you want to move? (Shrug) Be my guest. I'll stay here, because, hey, if the shoe ain't broke, why fix it?"

[mstyler169]

There is crime every where, even in some of the best neighborhoods. I believe that good times was really trying to say to the audience there are descent people who live in the projects. My mother once told me, " its not where you live that describes an individual, its how you live. Think about it. The Frederick Douglass projects brought forth, diana ross and the Supremes, Smokey Robinson and many more wonderful Motown artist. Just think, if there were no Frederick Douglass projects, there really wouldn't have been a Motown because no one would have never known each other. So that's a big positive for us, straight from the projects.