Could you survive in a public housing high-rise? Part I

The Tribune's Sara Olkon wrote today on the tension between public housing residents and condo owners at Westhaven, which I blogged about when WBEZ's Natalie Moore covered it a few weeks back.

Same stuff - condo owners get mad because CHA residents hang out in public spaces.

We always talk about how the condo owners want it quiet and don't want people hanging around. I can sympathize with that. It's annoying to have loud neighbors. They keep you up at night. It's disconcerting to see people you don't know hanging around your building.

But here's the thing: that's only one way of looking at it.

We talk about building skills a lot with public housing residents. Educational skills, job skills, interview skills, work skills. Teaching people how to function in an environment they're not used to. But here's the thing: If we had to function in that public housing high-rise, would we know how?

http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/one-story-up/2009/06/could-you-survive-in-a-public-housing-high-rise-part-i.html

Lived in one until I was 7, then we moved to a house on the other side of the island.

Anyone from Hawaii will recognize the name of Kuhio Park Terrace.

just wondering; did you live in close proximity to 'the other half'? did it cause any tensions?

Anyone from Hawaii will recognize the name of Kuhio Park Terrace.

KPT is no one's idea of "Paradise"!

expensive houses (mc mansions) started going up in the empty field across the road. Now the people in the mc mansions started complaining because the kids in the apartment complex DARE play outside where they can be seen!

However, how does anyone expect that things will get better if we stand around judging each other, making each other into villains, instead of trying to understand why people do what they do and learn how to compromise?

Yesterday's post was on the skills public housing residents often have that the rest of us don't.

We're used to talking about CHA tenants as the needy ones, but in reality, they're able to survive conditions many of us can't even imagine.

Do you have what it takes? Here's a quiz to test your skills. It comes from Ruby Payne, author of the book A Framework for Understanding Poverty.

How many of these skills can you honestly say you have?


I know which churches and sections of town have the best rummage sales.
I know which rummage sales have "bag sales" and when.
I know which grocery stores' garbage bins can be accessed for thrown-away food.
I know how to get someone out of jail.
I know how to fight and defend myself physically.
I know how to get a gun even if I have a police record.
I know how to keep my clothes from being stolen at the Laundromat.
I know what problems to look for in a used car.
I know how to live without a checking account.
I know how to live without electricity and without a phone.
I know how to use a knife as scissors.
I can entertain a group of friends with just my personality and my stories.
I know what to do when I don't have money to pay the bills.
I know how to move in half a day.
I know how to get and use food stamps or a government debit card for benefits.
I know where the free medical clinics are.
I am very good at trading and bartering.
I can get by without a car.

How many did you get?


I can tell you mine. Zero, if I'm completely honest.


http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/one-story-up/2009/07/could-you-survive-in-a-public-housing-highrise-part-ii.html

This is why the idea of mixed income building and neighborhoods are such a bad idea.

It is counter-intuitive, isn't it? Don't we want to lived in a multicultural place with diversity?

No.

Poor people, middle class people and rich people have different needs. They need different goods and services.

If you put a Whole Foods in the middle of the West Side of Chicago it would be useless. Pooer folks don't need two dollar tomatoes.

Likewise there is no need for a Goodwill or other thrift store in fancy neighborhoods.

I lived in what may be the most diverse neighborhood in the nation (if not the world) - Uptown in Chicago. It sucked. Nobody was happy and nobody got along. Poor folks throught us middle class folks looked down on them and were gentrifying (ha!) the neighborhood so they had to move. As a middle class person I objected to the three murders in a week on my block. Silly me.

Even people who "celebrate" diversity don't. They want to live with people with the same interests and wants. College towns are perfect examples of monoculture. People's skin color may be different but their values are the same.