Cabrini-Green Site Could See More Public Housing

CHICAGO, IL - What for years was considered possibly Chicago’s most troubled area is on the rebound, and the city wants to see that continued with more development.

The city and Chicago Housing Authority have asked developers to submit proposals to develop 65 acres of vacant land in the Cabrini-Green area, according to Crain’s Chicago. The plan, in part, is to develop about 900 units of mixed-income housing (some of which would be public housing) on 17 vacant acres that were once home to high rises long-known for criminal activity.

Both the city and CHA want to see more than 2,000 total units developed in its place.

Cabrini-Green’s connection to notorious violence and crime has been well known.

Two Chicago police officers were killed there in 1970, and 22 years later 7-year-old Dantrell Davis was shot and killed while walking to school with his mother.

Some remember in 1981 when then Chicago Mayor Jane Byrne moved into a Cabrini-Green apartment to draw attention to the problems there, but the dangers were so great she had to move out within weeks.

In popular culture, the housing complex was the site of the television show “Good Times” during the 1970s and the basis for the horror movie “Candyman” in 1992.

The last high-rise was torn down in 2011, and the area has improved since with the addition of a Target store at Larrabee and Division and the NewCity development that opened last year at Clybourn and Halsted.

Some rowhouses that complimented the notorious high rises remain in place, surrounded by some of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Chicago.

Crain’s reports the latest plan for more than 2,000 total units is expected to occur in three phases, and that responses to the city’s request for proposals are due in April.