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- House of Pain
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It's a question facing cities across America: when urban areas "renew" -- where do all the original residents go? Recent events in Chicago provides a startling -- and useful -- example.
The Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) is in the midst of demolishing all its notorious high-rise "projects," replacing them with mixed-income communities. The CHA's "Plan for Transformation" is one of the most ambitious urban renewal projects in recent American history, one that's the subject of intense scrutiny by cities nationwide. Yet, it's less and less clear what if anything is really being transformed.
"The House of Pain" follows residents of a condemned ten-story public housing high-rise nicknamed by gang members. Long-time building resident Andre Williams narrates as we follow the the building's last days, while families try to figure out where to go next.
"The House of Pain" was broadcast originally on Chicago Public Radio's award-winning "Chicago Matters" series in 2002. While set in Chicago, it's a story that's becoming increasingly relevant nationwide as more and more cities embark on similar urban renewal efforts.
"The House of Pain" won the 2003 Edward R. Murrow award for Best National Radio News Documentary.
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Piece Description
It's a question facing cities across America: when urban areas "renew" -- where do all the original residents go? Recent events in Chicago provides a startling -- and useful -- example. The Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) is in the midst of demolishing all its notorious high-rise "projects," replacing them with mixed-income communities. The CHA's "Plan for Transformation" is one of the most ambitious urban renewal projects in recent American history, one that's the subject of intense scrutiny by cities nationwide. Yet, it's less and less clear what if anything is really being transformed. "The House of Pain" follows residents of a condemned ten-story public housing high-rise nicknamed by gang members. Long-time building resident Andre Williams narrates as we follow the the building's last days, while families try to figure out where to go next. "The House of Pain" was broadcast originally on Chicago Public Radio's award-winning "Chicago Matters" series in 2002. While set in Chicago, it's a story that's becoming increasingly relevant nationwide as more and more cities embark on similar urban renewal efforts. "The House of Pain" won the 2003 Edward R. Murrow award for Best National Radio News Documentary.
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Review of House of PainHouse of Pain might be called the final chapter that was begun by Ghetto Life 101, & Remorse, though your guide through the Chicago Public housing pitfalls is self appointed envoy, samaritan, and recording angel, Andre Williams. This journey has no narrator but Willaims himself, as he listens and talks to residents who now find themselves having to relocate when there housing project home comes up for demolition. This piece would go well with a discussion on rapidly changing housing markets, or stories on eviction move-ins and condo conversions. It is rich with the sound of people's lives, and the voice of Chicago's central city residents. 30 minutes well done. |
Broadcast History
Broadcast originally on Chicago Public Radio's "Chicago Matters" series in 2002.
Transcript
HOST INTRO:
It’s called “The Plan for Transformation”…the initiative, led by the Chicago Housing Authority, to tear down all of the city’s high-rise public housing projects…and replace them with mixed-income communities.
Altogether 25,000 Public Housing residents will be forced to relocate. Some will go into new or renovated public buildings in the same area, while many others will have to move to different neighborhoods in the city or even to the suburbs.
Like the dreary high-rises it will replace, “The Plan for Transformation” is an experiment…the largest of its kind in the country. But it’s unclear just who or what will be transformed…the neighborhoods or the residents themselves.
Independent producers Dan Collison and Elizabeth Meister have this profile of one high-rise building that’s coming down. The program is narrated by one of it’s long-time residents.
Ta...
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Todd Melby
Posted on August 01, 2006 at 12:21 PM | Permalink
Review of House of Pain
If you've ever driven through Chicago's South Side on the Dan Ryan Expressway, you've seen the towers. The high-rise public housing that dominates neighborhoods and imprisons people. What's it like to live there? This documentary takes you there. Dan Collison and Elizabeth Meister of Long Haul Productions produced this piece, which won an Edward R. Murrow award a few years ago. The story is narrated by a man who lives there. His name is Andre Williams. When you listen to his story, you get closer to the people who lived in the place that gangbangers call "The House of Pain," also known as Stateway Gardens. This piece originally aired in 2002. (One year later, the producers returned to Stateway to find out what happened to people forced to leave. That doc is called "Movin' Out the Bricks" and also originally aired on Chicago Public Radio.) Andre is an affable guide. We meet an older woman named Gloria Dixon, who lives on the eighth floor and prays for a working lift: "Lord, let this elevator work because I'm tired and I don't feel like walking." We meet Patricia Davis, her two kids and five grandkids, who live as squatters in Apt. 703. "They keep the place pretty clean," Andre says. And so on. There's a lot of great human detail here. And it's mixed with complex public policy questions: Should the Chicago Public Housing Authority demolish a place that is home to so many people? Was it racist and wrong-headed to put all these poor people together in the first place? Did the government do enough to help the people displaced by the destruction of the "House of Pain" find a new place to live?