When Public Housing was Paradise: Building Community in Chicago

(Hardback)

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This collection of 79 oral histories offers a remarkable window into public housing's past in Chicago through the voices of its former residents and staff. Public housing was once a paradise of good housing, positive community, and careful managementa past that offers a blueprint for public housing's future. As John Hope Franklin suggested, Fuerst has given us something about which to ponder quite seriously. Fuerst offers a collection of 79 oral histories of former public housing residents and staff in Chicago. The voices remember a time between 1938 and 1960 when public housing offered low-income families desirable and attractive housing, a strong sense of community, and a supportive environment for children and families. Public housing also served as an engine of upward mobility into the middle class and beyond, particularly for African Americans. Repeatedly and emphatically, former residents describe positive experiences, communal feeling, and real gain from project life. They attribute much of this success to careful management by the program's early administrators, several of whom are interviewed. The remarkable and surprising stories toldabout project life, about family and work, about race and communityoffer a window into a time that has largely been forgotten, as the more recent decline of public housing has overshadowed the history of success documented here. Yet this past must be remembered, because the policies in place when public housing was paradise offer a path for revitalizing a much-needed program. As John Hope Franklin points out, Fuerst has given us someting about which to ponder quite seriously. Or, as Studs Terkel notes, Fuerst, who was there from the moment of creation, has put together a marvelous book. It is a collage of memories from those who recall the beauty that was there and the something bleak that has been manufactured. This work is full of heroes, the tenants of public housing today. It should be must-reading, especially for young journalists who would seek the truth of what we patronizingly call 'the inner city.' An important resource for scholars, students, professionals, and interested readers concerned with urban life in America.

Reviews

"Fuerst lets inhabitants and former-inhabitants of public housing tell their story, and much of it is a positive story about which we do not often hear or read. This deserves telling; and I can think of no one better prepared to tell it, through personal experience and interest, than Jim Fuerst."-John Hope Franklin, James B. Duke Professor of History Emeritus, Duke University
"Jim Fuerst, who was there at the moment of creation, has put together a marvelous book. It is a collage of memories of those who recall the beauty that was there and the something bleak that has been manufactured. This work is full of heroes. It should be must-reading, especially for young journalists who would seek the truth of what we patronizingly call 'the inner city.'"-Studs Terkel, Author & Pulitzer Prize recipient
"Jim Fuerst's exploration amounts to a journey of recovery, unearthing basic truths lost, strayed, or stolen. The very good news he brings is that well-designed, well-managed low-rent housing works. Indeed, it is essential in creating, building, and sustaining community life in this country. The people in this book grew up with each other in the 'projects' and built their lives there. Their vivid first-person accounts add up to a book of revelations, a text for American democracy."-M.W. Neumann, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for the Chicago Daily News, Chicago Sun-Times, and Chicago Tribune
[I]n the beginning, public housing was paradise. Inept management is to blame for the fall, and now it is the time for a resurrection....The problem is not the building or even the architecture, argues Fuerst, it is bad managers....The conversations in Fuerst's book remind us of the possibility of a brighter future-even in Chigago public housing.-Hyde Park Herald
[O]ptimistic in view as well as an easy read. One can enjoy reading it while finding out a great deal about the link between the contextual and the community levels: the way various factors on the macro-level tend to turn everything upside down in a neighbourhood and ruin the vision of many.-Journal of Housing and the Built Environment
Fuerst is on a mission. He wants to show how public housing helped lift thousands of families out of poverty, that there is nothing inherently wrong with high-rise public housing living....If only we could peek ahead 50 yearws, to the nest oral histories. Will they also call it paradise Only time will tell.-Chicago Sun Times
Having jettisoned its social mission, public housing stands today as a bulwark for segregation and the shelter of last resort for improverished minorities. If that accounts for why the projects are coming down, Fuerst can still, at the least, help us catch a glimpse of why they went up.-Chicago Tribune
The promise and demise of public housing in Chicago is explored in this insightful book. The book's main substance comes from in-depth interviews with past and present residents of several Chicago public housing projects. The residents' recollections provide a roadmap for what makes a good housing policy....Recommended. General readers and upper-division undergraduates and above.-Choice
"In the beginning, public housing was paradise. Inept management is to blame for the fall, and now it is the time for a resurrection....The problem is not the building or even the architecture, argues Fuerst, it is bad managers....The conversations in Fuerst's book remind us of the possibility of a brighter future-even in Chigago public housing."-Hyde Park Herald
"Optimistic in view as well as an easy read. One can enjoy reading it while finding out a great deal about the link between the contextual and the community levels: the way various factors on the macro-level tend to turn everything upside down in a neighbourhood and ruin the vision of many."-Journal of Housing and the Built Environment
"[O]ptimistic in view as well as an easy read. One can enjoy reading it while finding out a great deal about the link between the contextual and the community levels: the way various factors on the macro-level tend to turn everything upside down in a neighbourhood and ruin the vision of many."-Journal of Housing and the Built Environment
"[I]n the beginning, public housing was paradise. Inept management is to blame for the fall, and now it is the time for a resurrection....The problem is not the building or even the architecture, argues Fuerst, it is bad managers....The conversations in Fuerst's book remind us of the possibility of a brighter future-even in Chigago public housing."-Hyde Park Herald
"Fuerst is on a mission. He wants to show how public housing helped lift thousands of families out of poverty, that there is nothing inherently wrong with high-rise public housing living....If only we could peek ahead 50 yearws, to the nest oral histories. Will they also call it paradise Only time will tell."-Chicago Sun Times
"Having jettisoned its social mission, public housing stands today as a bulwark for segregation and the shelter of last resort for improverished minorities. If that accounts for why the projects are coming down, Fuerst can still, at the least, help us catch a glimpse of why they went up."-Chicago Tribune
"The promise and demise of public housing in Chicago is explored in this insightful book. The book's main substance comes from in-depth interviews with past and present residents of several Chicago public housing projects. The residents' recollections provide a roadmap for what makes a good housing policy....Recommended. General readers and upper-division undergraduates and above."-Choice

Author Bio

J. S. FUERST is Emeritus Professor of Social Welfare Policy at Loyola University and former Assistant Director of the Graduate Program in Urban Studies. He was Director of Research and Statistics for the Chicago Housing Authority for 10 years.