I've been documenting this neighborhood for a very long time, but I'm posting photos I have handy.  The transformations in this neighborhood are so amazing, you might just want to live here.

 

Cabrini Green is a neighborhood located just west of downtown Chicago.  Filled with numerous highrise housing projects, the neighborhood is notorious for crime and gang activity.  At its peak, the neighborhood had 15,000 residents, but is now down to about 5,000. 

 

Most of the highrise buildings have already been demolished to make way for townhomes and midrise condo buildings.  I was very fortunate to get some shots of the last few standing because this housing project was HUGE.  It will be a mixed income community which means that units will sell at regular market prices to those who can afford them, while costs will be subsidized for low-income families and former residents of the projects.  It may sound strange to some that a wealthy young professional is willing to buy a townhome in a neighborhood with such troubled history, especially when his or her townhome shares a wall with former residents of public housing.  However, ALL of the units sold out before they were even built.

 

 

 

The gates have closed on the last of "The Reds" of the Cabrini Green Housing projects. 

 

 

929-939 N. Hudson, nicknamed "The Headquarters"

 

 

Front of Headquarters

 

 

The brown line in the background acts as a psychological barrier between Cabrini Green and Gold Coast/River North neighborhoods

 

 

Demolition of 1015-1017 N. Larrabee aka "The Boulevard"

 

 

Front of the Boulevard

 

 

Front of the Boulevard 2 years ago

 

 

Back of the Boulevard this past summer.  Shiny new condos stand in the background.

 

 

New townhomes now house former residents of public housing projects that once stood in their place.

 

 

A much brighter image for an area that has had a dark past.

 

 

Ah. Psychological barriers. The "other side of the tracks". At least there's are elevated :) I bet these investors are making a fortune. Lots of people moving right outside of downtown right now.

It's good to see the transition of an area that was a hellhole for many years! For me, a small-city midwesterner, it was hard to imagine people living in those conditions.

 

 

 

 

 

the CB was the "worst neighborhood" in america for many years if my memory serves me correctly.

That or Pruitt-Igoe.