by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action
Like millions of other people across America, I grew up watching the TV show 'Good Times.' The show featured a series of sky scraper housing projects, a concrete jungle full of despair, poverty and trauma. We always hoped that James (the father) would get the good job that got the family out of their situation, but something always went wrong. When they finally made it out of the projects, the show came to an end.
In hindsight, I can't help but presume that the housing development 'Good Times' was modeled after was the Cabrini-Green Projects. Unfortunately, like the Evans family on 'Good Times,' many Cabrini-Green residents don't get to leave the projects until their lives are over. While there was a time when the projects were considered to be a good thing for people of color, that day has long passed.
Cabrini-Green became the house where violence lived, where one horrible crime after another made the community seem to be an unsafe and unimaginable place for any child to grow up. There is now just one more building left in the massive set of high rises, and the community has been replaced by townhouses and additional forms of development. We can now see that those who ran from the inner-city 20 years ago are now realizing that the land has tremendous value.
No comments:
Post a Comment