“Chicago is at the midpoint of the largest public works project since World War II,” Sudhir Venkatesh writes. He’s referring to the CHA’s demolishing of public housing and the relocation of its residents (“an urban exodus on the scale of Katrina” is how one of my friends puts it in perspective). And, as you’ll probably guess, it’s not going all that well, at least for CHA residents.
How badly is it going? “Today, as the new mixed-income communities fill up, two-thirds of the CHA families on the waiting list find their applications are being denied. The CHA has hinted that it may look elsewhere to fill the units reserved for CHA tenants. This act would be a broken promise to the tenants.“
Since this ran the day after Libby Liberty Day and just before the holiday midweekend, I wanted to point this out before it got lost in the shuffle. Venkatesh, who teaches sociology at Columbia University, cut his teeth studying the city’s public housing while at the University of Chicago, and his op-ed’s a must-read. (h/t Beachwood Reporter)