The same story of community destruction and high-rise hells would play out in African-American neighborhoods across the country: East Harlem, Central Avenue in Cleveland, Desoto-Carr in St. Louis, Bronzeville in Chicago. In St. Louis, the high-rises of the Pruitt-Igoe projects won an architectural award when they opened in 1956—and were literally imploded in 1971.
Editor’s note: The following essay is adapted from a speech delivered by the author at the Center for Urban Renewal and Education’s annual conference in Washington, D.C. on October 4. https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/progressives-grand-plans-subsidized-housing-harmed-african-americans THE COMING STORM TO CLASH WITH THE ALREADY HIGH NUMBER OF HOMELESS IN NEW YORK CITY!! Let’s start by going back to the Franklin Roosevelt administration and the National Housing Act of 1937. The progressives of the New Deal were convinced that the private housing market was doomed to fail the majority of the population—and that government should step in to build and manage replacement housing called public housing. First lady Eleanor Roosevelt pushed especially hard for housing projects for African Americans, convinced that the segregated Black neighborhoods of that era needed to be replaced. She even came to Detroit to cut the ribbon on the first public housing project, named for Frederi...
