Cabrini-Green!!!

            Last week’s class was a quite interesting one I must say. A lot of mixed feelings arouse from the walking tour of new townhouses that were constructed in place of Cabrini-Green. I understand that the new homes were needed in order to provide a higher quality of living for many families; however, what I did not understand is why city planners and government officials did not really put that much effort in making sure that these families were temporarily housed.  Mr. Haller did mention that many of the families from Cabrini-Green left the area and not all of the residents of Cabrini-Green even live in these new townhouses. Why is that? Why did they live? What I have concluded is that some of these city planners and government officials did not really take into consideration where these families would go while deconstructing Cabrini-Green.  Even when the new townhouses were built not many families from Cabrini-Green came back to live in the new homes. This really bothers me and makes me realize that a lot of people are just really selfish. I understand people want to make money and get ahead, but come now we have to really think about what is going on here and how this an affect families.

            Another part of the walking tour that really struck me was the “City Farm.” Close to the remains of Cabrini-Green, there was a “City Farm.” As we were walking past the farm, Mr. Haller mentioned that the farm was going to be completely gone in a little bit. Even though Mr. Haller informed us that it would be moved to another part of the city, it still struck me because why was the farm being moved in the first place? My immediate reaction to Mr. Haller’s statement upset me and made me realize that Burnham would have not been okay with this move. Burnham talked about how there needed to be more parks and green places so people could relax and enjoy nature, so moving the farm to another place in the city did not fly with me. The more I thought about it the more I realized that the space where the farm is currently located at will be transformed into another kind of space. The kind of space I’m referring to is “knowledge-based, service and high-tech world of business and commerce,” which means more restaurants, more Starbucks’ (even though there were already two Starbucks’ across the street of the new homes), more banks, and etc, (Koval & et al, 2006, p.11). This transformation makes me dislike Chicago city planners and local government officials even more because instead of being concerned with providing homes for people from the original Cabrini-Green, they are more concerned in making profit.