The New Face of Urban Renewal: The Near North Redevelopment Initiative and the Cabrini-Green Neighborhood

The Cabrini-Greenpublic housing development, located just a mile north of Chicago&s;s downtown "Loop", is a complex of over seventy buildings erected in three principal phases between World War II and the early 1960s. Cabrini-Green is a community dense in social ties and the home of many committed residents. After World War II, the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) committed itself to high-rise building construction, as reflected in the Cabrini Extension, as well as the final segment of Cabrini-Green, the William Green Homes. For the CHA and city of Chicago, the NNRFs principal selling point is its adherence to new urbanist city planning principles. The Near North Redevelopment Initiative (NNRI) proposes to reshape the Cabrini-Green area through the construction of over two thousand units of new housing, commercial development along Division Street, and a number of public projects, such as a recently opened branch library on Division Street. Cabrini-Green has achieved legendary status among public housing projects in the United States.