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LARRY VALE: When it
comes to public housing,

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current concept of
mixed income housing

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00:00:30,790 --> 00:00:32,840
really appear very
late in the game

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00:00:32,840 --> 00:00:35,700
even though public housing
proponents were very focused

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00:00:35,700 --> 00:00:38,100
on incomes right from the start.

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Public housing was not
always for the poorest

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and has had a
complex relationship

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with ideas about neighborhoods
and neighborhood renewal.

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It's really too simplistic
to think of US public housing

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as a single failed
experiment and as something

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that's now been replaced
by mixed income housing.

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I like to think of it
as really a three faced

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00:01:01,620 --> 00:01:03,480
social experiment.

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There's a first phase that
lasted I think from about 1935,

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00:01:07,720 --> 00:01:11,240
when the program started,
up until 1960 or so.

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00:01:11,240 --> 00:01:14,260
And it was not about finding the
poorest people from the worst

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00:01:14,260 --> 00:01:16,310
slums and re-housing them.

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00:01:16,310 --> 00:01:18,630
It was more about
finding the worst slums

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00:01:18,630 --> 00:01:22,120
and tearing them down
but not really re-housing

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00:01:22,120 --> 00:01:25,110
large numbers of the displaced.

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00:01:25,110 --> 00:01:27,680
Rather, it was a
chance to seek out

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00:01:27,680 --> 00:01:32,730
large numbers of the barely
poor and to build public housing

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00:01:32,730 --> 00:01:37,310
communities selectively
from those people.

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00:01:37,310 --> 00:01:39,940
We don't call them low
income because they probably

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had incomes between 50% and
80% of the area of median,

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00:01:45,930 --> 00:01:47,980
but they're not very low
income and they're not

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00:01:47,980 --> 00:01:50,180
extremely low income
the way that we

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00:01:50,180 --> 00:01:52,880
would talk about it today.

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00:01:52,880 --> 00:01:58,810
But by 1960 or so, and
lasting until 1990 at least,

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00:01:58,810 --> 00:02:01,150
public housing really
took a different attitude

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00:02:01,150 --> 00:02:03,230
towards those who
ought to be housed.

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00:02:03,230 --> 00:02:05,540
By the mid and late
1960s, public housing

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00:02:05,540 --> 00:02:09,960
was predominantly serving a
very low income constituency.

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00:02:09,960 --> 00:02:13,990
And by the 1980s, an
extremely low income

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00:02:13,990 --> 00:02:18,090
constituency, meaning that
it went from 50% or 60%

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00:02:18,090 --> 00:02:22,820
of the area median into
between 30% and 50%

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00:02:22,820 --> 00:02:26,550
and then all the way
down to about 15% or 20%

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00:02:26,550 --> 00:02:31,430
of the median income
by the 1990s or so.

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00:02:31,430 --> 00:02:36,970
And so that's the phase
of welfare housing

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00:02:36,970 --> 00:02:41,070
that we think about
as a second phase.

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00:02:41,070 --> 00:02:44,490
And since 1990 or
so, there's really

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00:02:44,490 --> 00:02:47,040
been a third face, a
series of initiatives

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00:02:47,040 --> 00:02:49,900
to return more of public
housing to that first phase

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00:02:49,900 --> 00:02:56,030
of selectivity to really try
and find again the people who

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have less extremely low incomes
to give work preferences

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00:03:00,920 --> 00:03:05,340
and things like that and to
engage in mixed income housing.

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00:03:05,340 --> 00:03:08,500
And that's really had
a lot of demolition,

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00:03:08,500 --> 00:03:10,690
new communities that are
built with different income

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00:03:10,690 --> 00:03:12,960
structures, and rule structures.

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00:03:12,960 --> 00:03:15,600
The images that you
see show three phases

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using Chicago's Cabrini
Green as an example.

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I'm not going to talk
much here about Cabrini,

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but when we get to class, it'll
be one of the key case studies,

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especially since I've
recently completed a book that

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features this place.

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But you can see it's a slum.

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The blueprint's to build
high rise public housing

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that you see in the middle.

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And more recently, the
demolition that that

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has occurred.

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A lot of people have
had different responses

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to public housing.

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And I think it's worth
looking at three of them.

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First is that
journalists and scholars

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did have some initial
enthusiasm for the program

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and then a lot of controversy,
leading to a second phase

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that one might call the design
in decline and fall literature,

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where everybody seemed to be
telling a story about failures

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of one kind or
another, whether it's

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a failure of design or
management or something else.

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But since the late '90s,
2000 or so, there's

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been a series of
revisionist efforts,

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to really rethink the
complexity of public housing

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and the values of
what has taken place.

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And not see everything
as a complete disaster.

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I tend to go really far
back in thinking about it.

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And you don't have to do
it entirely to the 1600s

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to make sense of this.

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00:04:43,060 --> 00:04:44,990
But I think it's
important to talk

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about ideology and institutional
origins of public housing

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00:04:48,570 --> 00:04:51,740
and not treat this as simply
something that emerges

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00:04:51,740 --> 00:04:54,040
in the 1930s out of nowhere.

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00:04:54,040 --> 00:04:56,980
You may not want to go all
the way back to the 1630s

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00:04:56,980 --> 00:04:59,625
as I tried to do in my book.

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00:04:59,625 --> 00:05:02,250
And you certainly don't need to
do that if you come from places

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00:05:02,250 --> 00:05:04,960
that are very distant
for many Puritans,

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00:05:04,960 --> 00:05:07,110
but I see a long
continuity in housing

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00:05:07,110 --> 00:05:10,870
over questions of
really moral judgment.

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00:05:10,870 --> 00:05:13,650
On the one hand, there's
a reward tradition,

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a sense that the government
can help low income

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people in ways that reward them
for certain kinds of behaviors.

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So in the upper right, you can
see an African American family

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taking advantage
of the Homestead

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Act in the mid 19th century.

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The system that enabled you
to get entire plots of land

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if you would promise
to work and live on it

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00:05:42,812 --> 00:05:45,020
and then it would become
yours after a certain number

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00:05:45,020 --> 00:05:45,770
of years.

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00:05:45,770 --> 00:05:48,050
So there's a tradition
that goes with pensions

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for veterans and other kinds
of reward that tie housing

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to good behavior
and particularly

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good working behavior.

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00:05:58,954 --> 00:06:00,370
And then there's
another tradition

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that I might call
the coping tradition.

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00:06:02,184 --> 00:06:03,850
If you look at the
bottom right, there's

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a picture of one of the
[INAUDIBLE] houses in Boston.

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This one's from
about 1800, designed

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by Charles [INAUDIBLE], the
same guy that did the State

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House just a few years earlier.

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And it had a wing for men and
a wing for women and a chapel

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in between.

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And this was the
place where people

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went if they really couldn't
afford to live on the town.

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00:06:24,612 --> 00:06:27,070
They didn't have friends or
family that could support them.

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00:06:27,070 --> 00:06:30,040
So the state built
a grand edifice

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and built a lot of them.

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So you have on the one
hand, certain housing

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that is given as a reward
for certain behavior

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and then another
tradition that's

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really about coping with
a set of people that

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are not behaving as needed.

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By the end of the
19th century, you

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get one of my favorite books.

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This is called Civilizations
Inferno-- Studies

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in the Social Cellar by a man
named Benjamin Orange Flower.

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It's the equivalent of the Jacob
Riis book about New York, How

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the Other Half Lives.

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But this one's about Boston.

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And if you look
at it, it's a kind

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00:07:11,350 --> 00:07:14,510
for the society, the
frontispiece piece of the book

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00:07:14,510 --> 00:07:15,250
here.

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00:07:15,250 --> 00:07:18,060
It shows the happy,
wealthy people

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00:07:18,060 --> 00:07:21,450
in the top dancing
in their town home

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while increasingly
levels dire circumstances

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of poverty lurking below them.

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The immediate next lower level
are the well intentioned men

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00:07:33,140 --> 00:07:34,660
that are out of work.

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00:07:34,660 --> 00:07:38,930
The Depression of
1893 was happening.

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00:07:38,930 --> 00:07:42,930
And they were people for
whom no fault of their own,

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00:07:42,930 --> 00:07:44,810
they were out of
work, in trouble,

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00:07:44,810 --> 00:07:46,710
and poor for that reason.

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00:07:46,710 --> 00:07:49,510
And then there's a
second deserving poor.

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The widows and
orphans that you can

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00:07:51,560 --> 00:07:54,940
see in the third lower level.

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And those two were a piece of
the poor of a city like Boston.

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00:08:01,910 --> 00:08:04,200
But then there was
the social cellar.

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They the undeserving poor.

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The criminals, the
misbehaving masses tht

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00:08:09,210 --> 00:08:10,810
couldn't quite be trusted.

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00:08:10,810 --> 00:08:15,030
And this is the
kind of thing that

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made it very
complicated to decide

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00:08:17,310 --> 00:08:19,180
what is the role of
the government when

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00:08:19,180 --> 00:08:20,600
it comes to housing.

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00:08:20,600 --> 00:08:22,180
So when you get
housing authorities,

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and here's a picture
of the men who

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00:08:24,670 --> 00:08:29,840
formed the five person
Boston Housing Authority,

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00:08:29,840 --> 00:08:34,130
meaning the board of the
authority in the 1940s,

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00:08:34,130 --> 00:08:37,909
you had a sense of judging
poverty in a different sense.

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00:08:37,909 --> 00:08:41,919
They wanted to make
sure that the people who

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came into public housing were
from that second and third tier

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00:08:45,900 --> 00:08:48,370
and not from the fourth tier.

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00:08:48,370 --> 00:08:50,440
And even better,
they wanted to find

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00:08:50,440 --> 00:08:53,660
people that were ready
to move up into the top.

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00:08:53,660 --> 00:08:56,290
That were not going to
be employed very long

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00:08:56,290 --> 00:09:01,390
and were not just deserving
poor, but actually

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00:09:01,390 --> 00:09:03,900
ready to move onward
into the middle class

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00:09:03,900 --> 00:09:06,730
and wouldn't need public
housing very long.

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00:09:06,730 --> 00:09:12,260
So you can see if you look at
a variety of graphic imagery

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00:09:12,260 --> 00:09:16,610
from all over the country,
the different housing reports

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00:09:16,610 --> 00:09:20,050
and other city agency
reports were setting

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00:09:20,050 --> 00:09:22,750
a contrast between
public housing and slums

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00:09:22,750 --> 00:09:26,490
that was really very important.

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00:09:26,490 --> 00:09:28,630
The 1930s and '40s
were a time when

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00:09:28,630 --> 00:09:31,390
people focused on sub
clearance and employment

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in the building trades.

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00:09:33,070 --> 00:09:36,660
And so when you got to
the Housing Act of 1937,

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00:09:36,660 --> 00:09:39,640
it linked all new low rent
housing to slum clearance.

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00:09:39,640 --> 00:09:45,609
It mandated an equivalent
elimination agreement.

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00:09:45,609 --> 00:09:47,400
In other words, public
housing construction

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00:09:47,400 --> 00:09:50,970
had to be accompanied by
what they called elimination

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00:09:50,970 --> 00:09:54,120
by demolition or condemnation
or effective closing

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00:09:54,120 --> 00:09:56,690
or the compulsory
repair and improvement

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00:09:56,690 --> 00:09:59,330
of unsafe or insanitary
dwelling situated

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00:09:59,330 --> 00:10:01,700
in the locality or
metropolitan area.

192
00:10:01,700 --> 00:10:04,720
And that that was going to be
substantially equal the number

193
00:10:04,720 --> 00:10:07,310
to the number of newly
constructed dwellings

194
00:10:07,310 --> 00:10:08,675
provided by the project.

195
00:10:08,675 --> 00:10:10,050
So in other words,
public housing

196
00:10:10,050 --> 00:10:17,120
was intended not to compete with
anything in the private sector

197
00:10:17,120 --> 00:10:21,210
because it wasn't going to
make any gains in the low rent

198
00:10:21,210 --> 00:10:22,720
housing stock.

199
00:10:22,720 --> 00:10:28,710
Even if elimination was achieved
by rehabilitation rather than

200
00:10:28,710 --> 00:10:30,540
demolition, the
improved properties

201
00:10:30,540 --> 00:10:33,930
were probably going to
cost a lot more and demand

202
00:10:33,930 --> 00:10:37,450
substantially higher
monthly rentals.

203
00:10:37,450 --> 00:10:41,430
So what this did was to
require or at least encourage

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00:10:41,430 --> 00:10:43,940
public housing construction
in inner city neighborhoods

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00:10:43,940 --> 00:10:47,040
rather than the more
affluent peripheral areas.

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00:10:47,040 --> 00:10:49,340
So it was almost a form
of neighborhood renewal

207
00:10:49,340 --> 00:10:51,460
in the form of
replacement housing

208
00:10:51,460 --> 00:10:53,250
even though many
other neighborhoods

209
00:10:53,250 --> 00:10:55,270
were cleared for
other purposes that

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00:10:55,270 --> 00:10:59,960
included more private purposes
rather than public ones.

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00:10:59,960 --> 00:11:02,910
So the Newark
example, the green one

212
00:11:02,910 --> 00:11:06,790
near towards the bottom
right, is a pretty good one.

213
00:11:06,790 --> 00:11:11,020
It's a booklet that shows
the changes between people

214
00:11:11,020 --> 00:11:13,800
in the slum in the
upper left side of it

215
00:11:13,800 --> 00:11:18,310
and the public housing
in the bottom right side.

216
00:11:18,310 --> 00:11:21,090
It's almost a
environmental determinism

217
00:11:21,090 --> 00:11:24,800
from badly behaved people
that need the police

218
00:11:24,800 --> 00:11:29,360
and sit on stoops and don't
do the things they're supposed

219
00:11:29,360 --> 00:11:35,080
to do to the Boy Scouts
and the happy woman

220
00:11:35,080 --> 00:11:37,600
at her sink and
the people playing

221
00:11:37,600 --> 00:11:43,930
in their yard and the sunshine
and the lighter colors

222
00:11:43,930 --> 00:11:46,200
that predominate.

223
00:11:46,200 --> 00:11:49,940
It's almost implying
that the new appliances

224
00:11:49,940 --> 00:11:52,260
are leading to new behavior.

225
00:11:52,260 --> 00:11:56,630
But it's really in practice
more changing of people

226
00:11:56,630 --> 00:11:58,050
rather than changing in them.

227
00:11:58,050 --> 00:11:59,730
At least it's worth
thinking about.

228
00:11:59,730 --> 00:12:02,580
It may be just a
different set of people.

229
00:12:02,580 --> 00:12:08,350
I was struck by that constantly
when I looked at this.

230
00:12:08,350 --> 00:12:13,340
So slum clearance had multiple
forms of justification,

231
00:12:13,340 --> 00:12:19,180
mostly having to do with
issues of crime and health.

232
00:12:19,180 --> 00:12:23,344
Chicago, in this
brochure, depicted itself,

233
00:12:23,344 --> 00:12:25,260
meaning the housing
authority, depicted itself

234
00:12:25,260 --> 00:12:28,340
as having what they
called a dirty backyard.

235
00:12:28,340 --> 00:12:31,840
And it is a very
revealing evidence

236
00:12:31,840 --> 00:12:36,670
for how one thinks about the
relationship between the haves

237
00:12:36,670 --> 00:12:40,330
and the have nots and the sense
that the dirty backyard had

238
00:12:40,330 --> 00:12:45,600
to be cleaned up for the benefit
of those that were valuing it.

239
00:12:45,600 --> 00:12:48,580
The goal was to deal
with what were called

240
00:12:48,580 --> 00:12:52,460
streets of dreariness and
the dangerous people that

241
00:12:52,460 --> 00:12:53,750
lived in them.

242
00:12:53,750 --> 00:12:58,040
It's a sense that these
were a menace to themselves.

243
00:12:58,040 --> 00:13:01,330
So they did charts
like once that compared

244
00:13:01,330 --> 00:13:03,660
the prevalence of
fires and tuberculosis

245
00:13:03,660 --> 00:13:07,580
and violence and juvenile
delinquency between slum areas

246
00:13:07,580 --> 00:13:09,150
and non slum areas.

247
00:13:09,150 --> 00:13:12,630
And there's a
picture on the left

248
00:13:12,630 --> 00:13:16,390
of a family that has a
caption and another place that

249
00:13:16,390 --> 00:13:18,900
makes clear that this is
supposed to be telling you

250
00:13:18,900 --> 00:13:21,900
about the evils of broken
families in the slums

251
00:13:21,900 --> 00:13:26,960
because the husband has run
off and abandoned these women

252
00:13:26,960 --> 00:13:29,960
and girls in that place.

253
00:13:29,960 --> 00:13:36,140
So these attitudes towards
the slums of people and places

254
00:13:36,140 --> 00:13:40,380
to get rid of were
implied largely

255
00:13:40,380 --> 00:13:42,640
to do with things like disease.

256
00:13:42,640 --> 00:13:46,840
The health risks of bad housing
were promoted constantly

257
00:13:46,840 --> 00:13:49,030
in all the brochures
and annual reports

258
00:13:49,030 --> 00:13:52,680
and report-- and other
documents that came out

259
00:13:52,680 --> 00:13:55,420
during the '30s and '40s.

260
00:13:55,420 --> 00:13:57,900
The health risks were paramount.

261
00:13:57,900 --> 00:14:05,180
But there was also a set
of rewards that were still

262
00:14:05,180 --> 00:14:07,170
part of the tradition.

263
00:14:07,170 --> 00:14:09,320
The public housing
had really inherited

264
00:14:09,320 --> 00:14:12,890
from both sides of that reward
and the coping mechanism.

265
00:14:12,890 --> 00:14:14,320
For the most part,
in the '40s, it

266
00:14:14,320 --> 00:14:17,060
was still part of
the reward tradition.

267
00:14:17,060 --> 00:14:20,390
It was used to reward
returning veterans,

268
00:14:20,390 --> 00:14:24,100
like you can see in the
upper left in Los Angeles.

269
00:14:24,100 --> 00:14:30,360
It's an effort to, as
the middle one says,

270
00:14:30,360 --> 00:14:34,590
make juvenile gangsters
take a back seat.

271
00:14:34,590 --> 00:14:36,880
And it's still that
19th century sense

272
00:14:36,880 --> 00:14:40,850
of public housing as a
reward for good behavior

273
00:14:40,850 --> 00:14:44,410
and an accompanying mistrust
for many of the poor.

274
00:14:44,410 --> 00:14:50,100
It really is constant
across the country.

275
00:14:50,100 --> 00:14:52,560
Here's one of my
favorite examples.

276
00:14:52,560 --> 00:14:55,780
In Boston, the Boston
Housing Authority

277
00:14:55,780 --> 00:14:59,670
used dramatic photographs
in their annual report.

278
00:14:59,670 --> 00:15:02,010
This is from the 1940s or so.

279
00:15:02,010 --> 00:15:04,890
And these binary juxtapositions.

280
00:15:04,890 --> 00:15:08,160
Out of the shadows,
into the sun.

281
00:15:08,160 --> 00:15:10,350
It says, if you
can't quite read it,

282
00:15:10,350 --> 00:15:14,910
after they built the first
eight of these projects,

283
00:15:14,910 --> 00:15:18,870
the housing authority wanted
to take stock in the 1940s.

284
00:15:18,870 --> 00:15:22,780
And they said it beheld eight,
clean shining developments

285
00:15:22,780 --> 00:15:26,350
rising fresh to the sun where
once, in dreary dirt filled

286
00:15:26,350 --> 00:15:28,930
dilapidation, slum
dwellings had shambled

287
00:15:28,930 --> 00:15:33,650
in contaminating hopelessness
against a gray and somber sky.

288
00:15:33,650 --> 00:15:37,100
So even the weather was going to
get better from public housing.

289
00:15:37,100 --> 00:15:38,740
But something's
really missing here,

290
00:15:38,740 --> 00:15:40,530
or at least it's
very misleading.

291
00:15:40,530 --> 00:15:43,270
The implication of
the text and the image

292
00:15:43,270 --> 00:15:45,390
is that the children
from the shadowy alleys

293
00:15:45,390 --> 00:15:47,640
are being rescued
by transporting them

294
00:15:47,640 --> 00:15:50,960
into the sunshine and the
openness of public housing.

295
00:15:50,960 --> 00:15:52,580
But I guarantee you
none of those kids

296
00:15:52,580 --> 00:15:55,030
in the left picture ended
up being the happy kids

297
00:15:55,030 --> 00:15:57,290
in the sunshine in the right.

298
00:15:57,290 --> 00:15:59,120
Or at least it's very unlikely.

299
00:15:59,120 --> 00:16:02,200
When I looked at the records,
I saw that of the first four

300
00:16:02,200 --> 00:16:06,910
public housing developments
in Boston, between 50% and 80%

301
00:16:06,910 --> 00:16:09,360
of the people
actually sought entry

302
00:16:09,360 --> 00:16:11,430
into them that were
the ones completed

303
00:16:11,430 --> 00:16:14,640
under the Housing Act of 1937.

304
00:16:14,640 --> 00:16:17,170
But when I actually examined
the lists of tenants

305
00:16:17,170 --> 00:16:21,090
in these places, I found
that only between 2% and 12%

306
00:16:21,090 --> 00:16:23,660
of the projects
had actually gained

307
00:16:23,660 --> 00:16:27,790
a place-- the people gained
a place in the project.

308
00:16:27,790 --> 00:16:29,440
And this is not atypical.

309
00:16:29,440 --> 00:16:31,230
I've seen statistics
for New York that

310
00:16:31,230 --> 00:16:35,790
showed that all the way
up to 1957, only about 18%

311
00:16:35,790 --> 00:16:38,130
of the former residents
of public housing sites

312
00:16:38,130 --> 00:16:40,800
were re housed in the
new public housing.

313
00:16:40,800 --> 00:16:43,340
If the patterns were
consistent around the country

314
00:16:43,340 --> 00:16:46,570
as I think they may have
been, it's more evidence then

315
00:16:46,570 --> 00:16:49,320
that the goals of public
housing were not really centered

316
00:16:49,320 --> 00:16:52,730
on serving the people who
were displaced to create it.

317
00:16:52,730 --> 00:16:54,580
There was just intense
scrutiny about who

318
00:16:54,580 --> 00:16:56,530
was wanted in public housing.

319
00:16:56,530 --> 00:16:58,690
You had to have a head
of the household that

320
00:16:58,690 --> 00:17:01,750
was a US citizen, it
was segregated by race,

321
00:17:01,750 --> 00:17:04,900
it had family sizes that
had to be between two

322
00:17:04,900 --> 00:17:09,290
and nine persons so you
couldn't be a single person.

323
00:17:09,290 --> 00:17:12,079
You couldn't have a large
family or an extended family.

324
00:17:12,079 --> 00:17:15,910
You certainly couldn't be
a gay or lesbian couple.

325
00:17:15,910 --> 00:17:17,619
There were no rooming
houses available,

326
00:17:17,619 --> 00:17:21,400
no living with friends, nobody
without a stable employment

327
00:17:21,400 --> 00:17:22,829
to pay the rent.

328
00:17:22,829 --> 00:17:28,670
It was a very selective effort
to find a public citizen.

329
00:17:28,670 --> 00:17:33,960
And I like this image in the
upper left of the young child

330
00:17:33,960 --> 00:17:36,130
and his picket fence
in the new Norfolk,

331
00:17:36,130 --> 00:17:38,690
Virginia public housing
called a citizen

332
00:17:38,690 --> 00:17:41,580
of Norfolk's Merrimack Park.

333
00:17:41,580 --> 00:17:43,560
They were very pleased
with the people

334
00:17:43,560 --> 00:17:47,110
that they got, whether
it was toddlers or teens.

335
00:17:47,110 --> 00:17:51,620
In the upper right,
the caption says

336
00:17:51,620 --> 00:17:54,660
boy meets girl in a
Brentwood Park home.

337
00:17:54,660 --> 00:17:56,680
All three look nice.

338
00:17:56,680 --> 00:17:59,170
That's the thing
that was going on.

339
00:17:59,170 --> 00:18:03,290
But if you look at the bottom
chart also from Norfolk,

340
00:18:03,290 --> 00:18:06,880
it's an analysis of
who really is intended

341
00:18:06,880 --> 00:18:08,870
to receive public housing.

342
00:18:08,870 --> 00:18:11,910
They said they've
got 47,000 dwellings

343
00:18:11,910 --> 00:18:16,450
and only 17,000 of
them are substandard.

344
00:18:16,450 --> 00:18:20,789
But of those 17,000
that are substandard,

345
00:18:20,789 --> 00:18:22,330
which would seem to
be the good place

346
00:18:22,330 --> 00:18:25,030
to look for public
housing residence,

347
00:18:25,030 --> 00:18:28,880
they found that 4,000 earn
too much for public housing,

348
00:18:28,880 --> 00:18:33,250
meaning they really
weren't all that poor.

349
00:18:33,250 --> 00:18:36,650
But 7,000 earned too little.

350
00:18:36,650 --> 00:18:39,680
In other words,
only 6,000 of 17,000

351
00:18:39,680 --> 00:18:41,440
were the target audience.

352
00:18:41,440 --> 00:18:45,480
What does it really mean to earn
too little for public housing?

353
00:18:45,480 --> 00:18:47,050
It means that they
were targeting

354
00:18:47,050 --> 00:18:51,620
not the lowest of the
incomes, but a near poor group

355
00:18:51,620 --> 00:18:53,330
of people.

356
00:18:53,330 --> 00:18:57,320
And not worrying so much about
the people at the bottom.

357
00:18:57,320 --> 00:18:59,620
They were more interested
in seeing public housing

358
00:18:59,620 --> 00:19:01,790
as a social progression.

359
00:19:01,790 --> 00:19:04,890
In many cases, all the way
from a slum by way of public

360
00:19:04,890 --> 00:19:08,350
housing up to home ownership.

361
00:19:08,350 --> 00:19:13,650
This thing appears repeatedly,
whether in text or in graphics.

362
00:19:13,650 --> 00:19:17,280
The upwardly mobile working
class were intended.

363
00:19:17,280 --> 00:19:20,294
Built in a mixed
income community,

364
00:19:20,294 --> 00:19:21,460
if you want to call it that.

365
00:19:21,460 --> 00:19:24,650
It's just that nobody was very
rich and nobody was very poor.

366
00:19:24,650 --> 00:19:27,390
The assumptions were there
about upward mobility

367
00:19:27,390 --> 00:19:29,830
towards home ownership.

368
00:19:29,830 --> 00:19:32,550
Race is undergirding
all of this, of course.

369
00:19:32,550 --> 00:19:40,650
This is a Miami example of
the situation prevailing

370
00:19:40,650 --> 00:19:45,319
in what they inelegantly called
the central negro district, not

371
00:19:45,319 --> 00:19:47,610
the central business district,
but you can see that off

372
00:19:47,610 --> 00:19:48,693
to just the right of that.

373
00:19:48,693 --> 00:19:52,550
But actually an area that
was seen as a district

374
00:19:52,550 --> 00:19:54,720
defined by race.

375
00:19:54,720 --> 00:19:57,270
And really vilified by race.

376
00:19:57,270 --> 00:20:00,320
If you look at the bottom right
the section of the Coconut

377
00:20:00,320 --> 00:20:03,970
Grove negro area
as they called it,

378
00:20:03,970 --> 00:20:06,800
the blocks are
classified by what

379
00:20:06,800 --> 00:20:10,030
was called the
block median penalty

380
00:20:10,030 --> 00:20:14,430
score, with red and black
being-- red and brown

381
00:20:14,430 --> 00:20:17,239
being the worst cases.

382
00:20:17,239 --> 00:20:19,030
And so you could see
a lot of it was there.

383
00:20:19,030 --> 00:20:21,850
And that had to do with
lending and the things that

384
00:20:21,850 --> 00:20:27,000
were going on and a way of
self-fulfilling a prophecy

385
00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:30,440
of disinvestment in the place.

386
00:20:30,440 --> 00:20:34,730
So this kind of a situation
where white and race were tied

387
00:20:34,730 --> 00:20:37,230
into it were really important.

388
00:20:37,230 --> 00:20:40,370
And there certainly were efforts
going on into the '40s and '50s

389
00:20:40,370 --> 00:20:44,890
to cope with white
racism and deal

390
00:20:44,890 --> 00:20:49,890
with the extent to which
public housing still

391
00:20:49,890 --> 00:20:55,400
needed to be seen as entering
into a segregated city.

392
00:20:55,400 --> 00:20:59,280
The right side is the
Baltimore urban league's effort

393
00:20:59,280 --> 00:21:04,330
to try and downplay the fears
of a changing neighborhood.

394
00:21:04,330 --> 00:21:07,570
But those things were
very much a part of it.

395
00:21:07,570 --> 00:21:10,920
And so public
housing gets built.

396
00:21:10,920 --> 00:21:16,000
And after a short while where
many people were very positive

397
00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:19,710
about it, you enter into
decline and fall literature,

398
00:21:19,710 --> 00:21:24,130
where a lot of the scholarship
from the 1970s and '80s

399
00:21:24,130 --> 00:21:27,660
was just relentlessly
negative about public housing.

400
00:21:27,660 --> 00:21:31,720
Lee Rainwater's book Behind
Ghetto Walls from 1970

401
00:21:31,720 --> 00:21:37,200
about Pruitt-Igoe, written just
before the demolition of it.

402
00:21:37,200 --> 00:21:42,230
Or the book by
Arnold Hirsch, Making

403
00:21:42,230 --> 00:21:46,150
the Second Ghetto in the 1980s.

404
00:21:46,150 --> 00:21:48,830
And then by the 1990s,
Alex Kotlowitz's book,

405
00:21:48,830 --> 00:21:51,770
There Are No Children Here,
about the impossibility

406
00:21:51,770 --> 00:21:56,190
of childhood in the Henry
Horner Homes of Chicago.

407
00:21:56,190 --> 00:21:58,435
Those things were happening.

408
00:21:58,435 --> 00:22:00,330
But what I find
really interesting

409
00:22:00,330 --> 00:22:03,200
is that there have been
revisionist lenses that

410
00:22:03,200 --> 00:22:04,140
really do matter.

411
00:22:04,140 --> 00:22:07,126
Since about 2000,
new ways of looking.

412
00:22:07,126 --> 00:22:11,320
Thinking about what success
has been or could be,

413
00:22:11,320 --> 00:22:14,240
taking the role of tenants
much more seriously.

414
00:22:14,240 --> 00:22:18,090
And also really thinking
about the role of design.

415
00:22:18,090 --> 00:22:21,100
So if we say a little
bit about each of those.

416
00:22:21,100 --> 00:22:24,640
In 2008 and 2009,
I was fascinated

417
00:22:24,640 --> 00:22:29,090
to see two books with almost
diametrically opposed titles

418
00:22:29,090 --> 00:22:31,060
come out.

419
00:22:31,060 --> 00:22:34,490
Brad Hunt wrote about Chicago
with the title Blueprint

420
00:22:34,490 --> 00:22:38,510
for Disaster-- The Unraveling
of Chicago Public Housing.

421
00:22:38,510 --> 00:22:40,850
At almost the same
time, Nick Bloom

422
00:22:40,850 --> 00:22:43,960
is writing a book called Public
Housing That Worked-- New

423
00:22:43,960 --> 00:22:46,840
York in the 20th Century.

424
00:22:46,840 --> 00:22:49,510
Now, one could think it's
just the time period.

425
00:22:49,510 --> 00:22:53,420
The middle volume here, When
Public Housing Was Paradise

426
00:22:53,420 --> 00:22:55,810
is a book about
Chicago in its first 20

427
00:22:55,810 --> 00:22:57,770
years of public housing.

428
00:22:57,770 --> 00:23:00,330
But Bloom's book
says public housing

429
00:23:00,330 --> 00:23:03,730
worked in the 20th century,
meaning all the way up

430
00:23:03,730 --> 00:23:06,200
until pretty recently.

431
00:23:06,200 --> 00:23:09,350
Since 2000, I think there's been
a lot more publicity for New

432
00:23:09,350 --> 00:23:12,940
York and [INAUDIBLE] problems.

433
00:23:12,940 --> 00:23:18,280
And it suggests that some
places, including the city that

434
00:23:18,280 --> 00:23:20,960
has the most public
housing, is very far

435
00:23:20,960 --> 00:23:23,290
from the worst case situation.

436
00:23:23,290 --> 00:23:26,710
But Chicago was probably
the worst for the longest.

437
00:23:26,710 --> 00:23:29,470
Though several other cities
had lawsuits and receiverships

438
00:23:29,470 --> 00:23:34,460
and HUD takeovers and all
sorts of things like that.

439
00:23:34,460 --> 00:23:37,860
In Boston, for instance,
there was a receiver, really

440
00:23:37,860 --> 00:23:43,750
the first of this who took
over in 1980, Harry Spence.

441
00:23:43,750 --> 00:23:48,600
And the court put him in charge
and told him to try and fix

442
00:23:48,600 --> 00:23:50,500
a very broken system.

443
00:23:50,500 --> 00:23:53,150
The Boston Globe
magazine cover here

444
00:23:53,150 --> 00:23:58,110
says that, I think, in some
really interesting ways.

445
00:23:58,110 --> 00:24:00,270
Think about what
you're seeing here.

446
00:24:00,270 --> 00:24:02,200
What is this
suggesting about how

447
00:24:02,200 --> 00:24:05,350
positive change comes about?

448
00:24:05,350 --> 00:24:07,810
Can this man save
public housing?

449
00:24:07,810 --> 00:24:10,310
Is that the right question?

450
00:24:10,310 --> 00:24:12,420
What is it actually asking?

451
00:24:12,420 --> 00:24:15,230
I want to return to this
image when we get to class

452
00:24:15,230 --> 00:24:17,840
and talk about it and
try to deconstruct

453
00:24:17,840 --> 00:24:19,040
it a little bit more.

454
00:24:19,040 --> 00:24:19,850
So think about it.

455
00:24:19,850 --> 00:24:21,640
Think what you're seeing here.

456
00:24:21,640 --> 00:24:24,770
I think that picture
and that sentence

457
00:24:24,770 --> 00:24:30,020
is encoding the whole history
of American housing very neatly

458
00:24:30,020 --> 00:24:33,130
in a single composite image.

459
00:24:33,130 --> 00:24:36,660
So think about what
you're seeing here.

460
00:24:36,660 --> 00:24:39,050
It's not the only picture
like, that strangely.

461
00:24:39,050 --> 00:24:42,830
A decade later, another
housing authority in crisis,

462
00:24:42,830 --> 00:24:44,690
another newspaper,
Sunday Magazine,

463
00:24:44,690 --> 00:24:46,740
is asking a similar question.

464
00:24:46,740 --> 00:24:50,730
Can this man save the CHA,
the Chicago Housing Authority.

465
00:24:50,730 --> 00:24:54,770
This time, the man is the
head of the CHA, Vincent Lane,

466
00:24:54,770 --> 00:24:56,460
a former developer.

467
00:24:56,460 --> 00:24:58,670
And at least he gets to pose
on top of the buildings,

468
00:24:58,670 --> 00:25:00,240
it's Cabrini Green.

469
00:25:00,240 --> 00:25:03,130
I'm not sure that's
an advantage, though.

470
00:25:03,130 --> 00:25:07,020
Is he dwarfed by the challenge
or is he on top of his world?

471
00:25:07,020 --> 00:25:08,810
You can make your own guess.

472
00:25:08,810 --> 00:25:12,360
He didn't last very long
despite making some very highly

473
00:25:12,360 --> 00:25:14,870
publicized interventions
of the mixed income

474
00:25:14,870 --> 00:25:16,800
housing at Lake park place.

475
00:25:16,800 --> 00:25:19,240
The anti-drug sweeps
that brought him national

476
00:25:19,240 --> 00:25:20,570
and international attention.

477
00:25:20,570 --> 00:25:28,450
And by 1995, the CHA was
taken over by HUD from '95

478
00:25:28,450 --> 00:25:29,860
until 1998.

479
00:25:29,860 --> 00:25:32,730
And then they launched the
famous Plan for Transformation

480
00:25:32,730 --> 00:25:36,870
in 2000, which we'll talk
about a bit in class.

481
00:25:36,870 --> 00:25:39,710
So there's a very mixed
record of achievement

482
00:25:39,710 --> 00:25:44,150
from the successes to the
failures to the ambitious plans

483
00:25:44,150 --> 00:25:48,480
to try and turn failure
back into success.

484
00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:50,510
But one of the things
that I find so striking

485
00:25:50,510 --> 00:25:57,420
in recent years is that there's
a latter day revaluation

486
00:25:57,420 --> 00:26:03,160
and revaluing the activism of
the tenants, the residents.

487
00:26:03,160 --> 00:26:05,000
It's really a change
in the scholarship

488
00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:06,240
about public housing.

489
00:26:06,240 --> 00:26:08,470
More of it has become
tenant centered.

490
00:26:08,470 --> 00:26:12,590
It's not just about public
politicians and housing

491
00:26:12,590 --> 00:26:13,890
authority leaders.

492
00:26:13,890 --> 00:26:15,800
But it's about the
coping mechanisms

493
00:26:15,800 --> 00:26:19,630
of tenants who've had to
endure terrible conditions.

494
00:26:19,630 --> 00:26:23,010
It puts people like
Thelma Smith, who's

495
00:26:23,010 --> 00:26:27,320
in the middle picture, a tenant
leader at Boston's Franklin

496
00:26:27,320 --> 00:26:29,960
Field development, it puts them
at the center of the picture

497
00:26:29,960 --> 00:26:32,210
and not shunted to the margins.

498
00:26:32,210 --> 00:26:35,520
Rhonda Williams's
book about Baltimore,

499
00:26:35,520 --> 00:26:38,120
The Politics of Public
Housing, is one.

500
00:26:38,120 --> 00:26:40,040
Roberta Feldman
and Susan Stall's

501
00:26:40,040 --> 00:26:44,440
book, The Dignity of Resistance,
about women tenant activists

502
00:26:44,440 --> 00:26:47,050
at Chicago's Wentworth Gardens.

503
00:26:47,050 --> 00:26:53,610
Sudhir Venkatesh's complex view
of the complexities of gang

504
00:26:53,610 --> 00:26:56,450
culture and politics and
economics at Robert Taylor

505
00:26:56,450 --> 00:27:01,960
Homes in Chicago, American
Project, a project that is now

506
00:27:01,960 --> 00:27:04,590
demolished and we'll
talk about what's

507
00:27:04,590 --> 00:27:07,120
happened to that as well.

508
00:27:07,120 --> 00:27:10,660
My own reclaiming public
housing book about the 50 year

509
00:27:10,660 --> 00:27:12,960
struggles of three
communities in Boston

510
00:27:12,960 --> 00:27:16,700
to try and get past
dire conditions

511
00:27:16,700 --> 00:27:19,504
and return to
desirable communities.

512
00:27:19,504 --> 00:27:21,170
And I think a lot of
people have started

513
00:27:21,170 --> 00:27:23,990
asking the question that's
posed in the title of the book

514
00:27:23,990 --> 00:27:27,290
by Larry Bennett, Janet
Smith, and Patricia Wright,

515
00:27:27,290 --> 00:27:29,660
Where Are Poor People To Live?

516
00:27:29,660 --> 00:27:31,890
It's not so obvious
as public housing

517
00:27:31,890 --> 00:27:34,360
itself has come to change.

518
00:27:34,360 --> 00:27:37,060
The last of the
real changes that I

519
00:27:37,060 --> 00:27:41,030
think is starting to take
place is a more complex view

520
00:27:41,030 --> 00:27:44,450
about the role of design.

521
00:27:44,450 --> 00:27:47,470
More of the thinking
and the writing

522
00:27:47,470 --> 00:27:50,610
has emphasized the
importance of design.

523
00:27:50,610 --> 00:27:53,760
There was always a long
history emphasizing

524
00:27:53,760 --> 00:27:57,610
the negative consequences
and design was always

525
00:27:57,610 --> 00:28:00,990
a key part of that.

526
00:28:00,990 --> 00:28:02,800
The fact that it
was initially built

527
00:28:02,800 --> 00:28:06,490
to emphasize the distinctiveness
of public housing,

528
00:28:06,490 --> 00:28:09,940
not to just be bare and
austere and off putting,

529
00:28:09,940 --> 00:28:13,630
but to appear as a security
and safe and modern alternative

530
00:28:13,630 --> 00:28:17,820
to the wooden fire traps
of the aging slums.

531
00:28:17,820 --> 00:28:21,030
You can see in the middle of
the picture of the Orchard Park

532
00:28:21,030 --> 00:28:24,080
development built in 1942 in
Boston, although the pictures

533
00:28:24,080 --> 00:28:27,255
from 2000 and then a picture
just a few years later of Hope

534
00:28:27,255 --> 00:28:30,510
Six redevelopment
of Orchard Gardens.

535
00:28:30,510 --> 00:28:34,630
Pretty much the same
spot in the place.

536
00:28:34,630 --> 00:28:39,160
But there have been other
aspects to the conversation.

537
00:28:39,160 --> 00:28:43,940
When I see the design centered
revisionism that's taking place

538
00:28:43,940 --> 00:28:48,160
has often taken, again, a
environmental determinist

539
00:28:48,160 --> 00:28:49,430
stance.

540
00:28:49,430 --> 00:28:54,010
There was a book that is little
remembered now by [INAUDIBLE]

541
00:28:54,010 --> 00:28:56,390
and the better known
Christopher Alexander,

542
00:28:56,390 --> 00:29:01,680
called Community and
Privacy, that's 1965.

543
00:29:01,680 --> 00:29:08,470
But it also had the attack on
project centric mentalities

544
00:29:08,470 --> 00:29:13,360
that was much more wildly
and widely influential

545
00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:16,190
by Jane Jacobs in 1961.

546
00:29:16,190 --> 00:29:19,760
And then by 1972, there
was Oscar Newman's work,

547
00:29:19,760 --> 00:29:23,690
Defensible Space-- Crime
Prevention Through Urban Design

548
00:29:23,690 --> 00:29:25,420
that really was
trying to suggest

549
00:29:25,420 --> 00:29:29,760
that it was possible to
use design and urban design

550
00:29:29,760 --> 00:29:31,420
to shape behavior.

551
00:29:31,420 --> 00:29:34,760
It was about crime reduction
and showed early cases

552
00:29:34,760 --> 00:29:37,940
of how public housing
projects could be retrofitted

553
00:29:37,940 --> 00:29:41,630
and redesigned to make them
safer through residence

554
00:29:41,630 --> 00:29:46,220
by encouraging a territoriality.

555
00:29:46,220 --> 00:29:50,020
And it was fascinating to
me in the mid 1990s the way

556
00:29:50,020 --> 00:29:54,020
HUD embraced Oscar Newman's
defensible space ideas

557
00:29:54,020 --> 00:29:59,930
and had him author an
entire manual in the 1990s.

558
00:29:59,930 --> 00:30:05,070
And soon after that, HUD
embraced the new urbanist wing.

559
00:30:05,070 --> 00:30:07,560
You can see a
co-authored publication,

560
00:30:07,560 --> 00:30:10,360
Principles for Inner
City Neighborhood Design

561
00:30:10,360 --> 00:30:11,420
at the left.

562
00:30:11,420 --> 00:30:15,440
And particularly emphasizing
the neo traditional development

563
00:30:15,440 --> 00:30:17,370
side of new urbanism
and was really

564
00:30:17,370 --> 00:30:20,380
trying to rethink the whole
overall image of public housing

565
00:30:20,380 --> 00:30:21,930
developments.

566
00:30:21,930 --> 00:30:24,900
So rather than public housing
being this deliberately

567
00:30:24,900 --> 00:30:26,880
different looking
modernist alternative

568
00:30:26,880 --> 00:30:30,080
to decrepit and ill provisioned
rows of wooden or brick

569
00:30:30,080 --> 00:30:34,590
townhouse that that seem to
signify mid century blight

570
00:30:34,590 --> 00:30:38,070
and slum conditions, the
new urbanist paradigm wanted

571
00:30:38,070 --> 00:30:40,120
to sanitize an
update the reputation

572
00:30:40,120 --> 00:30:43,610
of the pre modern urban models
and make future public housing

573
00:30:43,610 --> 00:30:46,740
look much more like
private sector neighbors.

574
00:30:46,740 --> 00:30:50,300
Not standing implacably, in
part from the [INAUDIBLE],

575
00:30:50,300 --> 00:30:52,230
the colors in the
Orchard Garden look

576
00:30:52,230 --> 00:30:54,400
pretty different
than anything you'd

577
00:30:54,400 --> 00:30:58,990
find in that part
of the neighborhood.

578
00:30:58,990 --> 00:31:02,420
It still stands out, but it
stands out in a different way.

579
00:31:02,420 --> 00:31:06,040
The goal if you take defensible
space and new urbanism

580
00:31:06,040 --> 00:31:10,190
together is a tableau of
middle class Americana, that

581
00:31:10,190 --> 00:31:12,980
normalizes the appearance
of public housing

582
00:31:12,980 --> 00:31:15,420
to a point where it really
could be accepted again

583
00:31:15,420 --> 00:31:19,344
into the fabric of existing,
market friendly neighborhoods.

584
00:31:19,344 --> 00:31:20,760
And that's pretty
necessary if you

585
00:31:20,760 --> 00:31:23,460
want to start thinking
about mixed income.

586
00:31:27,660 --> 00:31:30,810
But it raises a question.

587
00:31:30,810 --> 00:31:34,710
Does Hope Six and HUD's
program with its picket fences

588
00:31:34,710 --> 00:31:38,600
and pastel facades, it's a
new look for public housing

589
00:31:38,600 --> 00:31:43,130
and it's buried within a
larger concept of mixed income

590
00:31:43,130 --> 00:31:46,260
housing, it's managed
by private firms rather

591
00:31:46,260 --> 00:31:48,810
than the public sector,
but is it actually

592
00:31:48,810 --> 00:31:51,770
displacing the poorest again
just like they were displaced

593
00:31:51,770 --> 00:31:54,110
from the slums to build
public housing back

594
00:31:54,110 --> 00:31:56,980
in the '30s and '40s?

595
00:31:56,980 --> 00:31:58,630
There's a book by
Edward Goetz that's

596
00:31:58,630 --> 00:32:04,640
coming out in 2013 called New
Deal Ruins-- Race, Economic

597
00:32:04,640 --> 00:32:06,250
Justice, and Public
Housing Policy.

598
00:32:06,250 --> 00:32:09,820
And I had a chance to look
at an advance copy of it.

599
00:32:09,820 --> 00:32:13,270
And it's an entire book about
public housing demolition.

600
00:32:13,270 --> 00:32:17,290
And it really strongly critiques
the extent of displacement

601
00:32:17,290 --> 00:32:20,740
caused by Hope Six and
suggests that displacement

602
00:32:20,740 --> 00:32:23,250
has been disproportionately
born and has

603
00:32:23,250 --> 00:32:26,000
had a disproportionately
negative impact on African

604
00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:27,520
Americans.

605
00:32:27,520 --> 00:32:32,370
My own book, which is
also due out in 2013,

606
00:32:32,370 --> 00:32:35,390
is called Purging the Poorest--
Public Housing and the Design

607
00:32:35,390 --> 00:32:37,400
Politics of Twice
Cleared Communities.

608
00:32:37,400 --> 00:32:39,660
And despite its
title, it's probably

609
00:32:39,660 --> 00:32:43,340
a little more evenhanded
than the Goetz book,

610
00:32:43,340 --> 00:32:44,860
but it's attempting
to understand

611
00:32:44,860 --> 00:32:46,500
why the leadership
of some cities,

612
00:32:46,500 --> 00:32:48,480
particularly
Atlanta and Chicago,

613
00:32:48,480 --> 00:32:50,960
has been so intent on
introducing mixed income

614
00:32:50,960 --> 00:32:53,070
communities to replace
the public housing

615
00:32:53,070 --> 00:32:55,120
projects of the past.

616
00:32:55,120 --> 00:32:57,520
So really, what I've
wanted to do here

617
00:32:57,520 --> 00:33:01,070
is to frame some of the current
challenges of mixed income

618
00:33:01,070 --> 00:33:01,874
housing.

619
00:33:01,874 --> 00:33:03,540
I hope you're going
to keep in mind some

620
00:33:03,540 --> 00:33:07,110
of these deeper cultural issues
that I've been discussing here.

621
00:33:07,110 --> 00:33:10,470
It's not just public
housing about our attitudes

622
00:33:10,470 --> 00:33:14,020
towards the housing
that is important.

623
00:33:14,020 --> 00:33:17,680
It also matters what we mean
by the public in public housing

624
00:33:17,680 --> 00:33:20,510
and which parts of that
public are expected

625
00:33:20,510 --> 00:33:22,990
to benefit from
housing redevelopment

626
00:33:22,990 --> 00:33:26,970
and what form those
benefits ought to take.

627
00:33:26,970 --> 00:33:29,220
And those are the
things that I hope

628
00:33:29,220 --> 00:33:31,920
you'll think about in
the days up to class

629
00:33:31,920 --> 00:33:35,150
and we'll get a chance to
talk in person very soon.

630
00:33:35,150 --> 00:33:36,700
Thanks.