Cabrini Green: was it really little hell (Chicago, North Chicago: 2013, transport company)

[latikeriii]

Originally Posted by Chicago60614

People had stories from the 80's when the buses would go down Division and dozens of kids with water and other stuff would hurl them at the bus just as something to do. Most traffic avoided the area and those who grew up in Cabrini were really quite isolated from "the public" for living right in the middle of the city. I would have hated to be a bus going through that route every day. Lots of random shootings from up in the towers. Practice.

I lived on Division and Milwaukee and used to take the Division bus through Cabrini to Clark where my aunt lived. The water thing was so common. I remember an old lady getting soaked after coming back from church. I've been in the White buildings and all I remember was the elevators down and the urine smell everywhere. The row homes were actually relatively ok. Always were terrified of the reds.


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[urza216]

Originally Posted by Chicago60614

Yeah, cops refused to go there, firemen refused to go there and most people would avoid driving down Division. Even when I moved here in 2001 and they were still up I was always a little weirded out driving down that area of Division just based on what I heard and always seeing large groups of people hanging around near the street just staring at you. That all ended quickly after 2001 though. Not sure how it was in the 90's.

People had stories from the 80's when the buses would go down Division and dozens of kids with water and other stuff would hurl them at the bus just as something to do. Most traffic avoided the area and those who grew up in Cabrini were really quite isolated from "the public" for living right in the middle of the city. I would have hated to be a bus going through that route every day. Lots of random shootings from up in the towers. Practice.

"You can try to walk through but you won't get far, And you might get hit with an egg or a jar"

"If you visit Chicago's near north side,
here's a piece of advice, man, just don't ride
A bus or a cab down a street called division,
And if you do ride though, you've made a very bad decision!"

"Cabrini Green was a built for the low income
So the people could live a little better than bums"


Sugar Ray Dinke Cabrini Green Rap '86. - YouTube

[Drover]

Originally Posted by jmims

Cabrini Green: was it really little hell

Yes.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by eating while walking

I never was there in its heyday so I can't comment on that. I saw it only at the every end of its life, and then I was out of the country for a while so the next time I saw it was a year after it had been torn down.

Is anyone else surprised at how quickly that lot became, I don't know, pristine for lack of a better word. Looking at it even a year after the teardown there was no rubble, pavement or any sign that it had been there.

If you do a Google maps street view at Burling and West Division, and click back and forth between the two streets, you'll see what I mean. Like going through a time warp.

It really hasn't been that quick. By the mid-90s there was already some private and townhouse development around there; by the late 90s the reds started coming down and mixed-income housing was going up along Larrabee and the Dominick's shopping complex went up; by the early 2000s the whites started coming down. They only just recently knocked down the last white and vacated the original townhouses. But that was a solid 15 years after stuff started transforming around there.

[jonnynonos]

There are still a few people in the stone houses. They are about 75 percent empty but the westernmost and easternmost rows still have people in them.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by jonnynonos

There are still a few people in the stone houses. They are about 75 percent empty but the westernmost and easternmost rows still have people in them.

That's right and CHA announced they are demolishing all the rowhomes and move out the remaining tenants.

[jonnynonos]

I wonder when they will start. Right now they are all boarded up.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by jonnynonos

I wonder when they will start. Right now they are all boarded up.

Who knows, it's CHA.

[jonnynonos]

Hahahahaha... totally. But if Daley was still around he'd knock those f**kers down this week--at night, with all the residents' stuff still in 'em.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by jonnynonos

Hahahahaha... totally. But if Daley was still around he'd knock those f**kers down this week--at night, with all the residents' stuff still in 'em.

LOL!

This is the latest info I can find.

http://www.wbez.org/news/housing/cha...on-plan-103166