Apartment buildings were seen as futuristic living spaces when designed by architects like Le Corbusier for European cities. People appear happy and efficient living in tiny compartmentalized spaces in Tokyo. But in America, high rise apartment buildings were conscripted for future purposes also, but in the sense of state-run reservations where the working class and poor people were regarded.
The high rise apartment building uses a minimum development of acreage. This confined border is supposed to save on facility maintenance. In regard to Chicago’s public housing, a court case proved that even more money on development was saved by using sub-par construction materials. The fact that Cabrini-Green stood for as long as it did was a testament to the experienced contractors who built those towers with the crappy materials they were provided.
As poverty overcame the public housing communities in Chicago the crime rate rose exponentially. Cabrini-Green closely resembled a dilapidated prison bloc before it was finally razed by the Chicago Housing Authority. Unemployment and poverty still dominate the rolls of public housing residents in the Windy City. In an attempt to reduce the crime rate within it’s properties the Chicago Housing Authority is implementing a controversial program for it’s residents.
Chicago Housing Authority Wants to Require Drug Testing for Residents
This new policy is said to give reassurance that the new mixed-income developments the CHA is building won’t have the same culture that plagued the previous projects. But as long as poverty remains and the housing authority specifies shoddy construction materials then we’ll witness another reservation in the sky.
