High Rise Stories

June 3, 2013
This book—which is part of McSweeney’s Voice of Witness oral history series and which features a foreword by Alex Kotlowitz—chronicles the lives of 11 people who each lived in Chicago public housing at some point between the 1960s and the 1980s. Though some only lived in the projects for a few years, their accounts depict near-constant drug abuse and gang violence, exacerbated by indifferent law enforcement and racism. However, another common thread is community: nearly all of the speakers echo Donnell Furlow’s declaration, “My whole family is here and this is where I’m from. My history is right here.” Petty, who compiled and edited this collection, is careful to allow the subjects to speak for themselves; the only obvious evidence of editorial influence lies in the specificity of names and dates, documented in an appendix that reaches all the way back to the end of slavery to explain present-day circumstances. The book successfully avoids portrayals of physical or sexual violence for shock value alone, perhaps because the subjects have been desensitized after frequent exposure to it. The stories demand attention rather than voyeurism: though nearly all of the high rises themselves have been torn down over the last decade, the problems discussed in the book remain.

July 15, 2013
An oral history of life in the public housing projects of Chicago, where thousands of low-income black families lived from the 1950s until their demolition, which began in 2003 under an optimistically titled "Plan for Transformation." As part of a nonprofit Voices of Witness project, Petty (English/Univ. of Illinois) led a team that recorded more than two-dozen former residents of the projects, selecting 11 for inclusion here. The transcripts have been edited into coherent first-person narratives, and in some cases, the identities have been changed. The stories they tell are often alarming, filled with racial prejudice, police corruption and brutality, gang shootings, drug addiction and teen pregnancies. Though the buildings were run-down and rat-infested, many of the speakers have fond memories of a place of community, where neighbors knew each other and children played under watchful eyes. The speakers range in age from 20 to 83, and their time in the projects may have been decades or just a few years, but their voices often seem similar. Many have a common thread: feelings of displacement and regret over loss as they struggle to make new lives in unfamiliar places. Some people are on their way to a better life, studying for a career; others are finding that a prison record is tough to overcome. Following the individual narratives are a series of fact-filled appendices: a timeline of significant events in black history from 1865 to the present; a glossary of terms related to Chicago gangs, housing programs and regulations, plus a descriptive catalog of the major Chicago housing projects; an essay from Harper's on the history of the Chicago Housing Authority; an excerpt from D. Bradford Hunt's cultural history, Blueprint for Disaster (2009); and excerpts from the Chicago Housing Authority's progress report on its "Plan for Transformation." A hard look at the consequences of poverty and flawed concepts of public housing and urban renewal.

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November 1, 2013

An oral history of Chicago's iconic, and infamous, high-rise public housing projects. Ford Foundation grantee and English professor Petty interviews former residents about their lives before and after the citywide demolition of the towers.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2013
In 1999, the Chicago Housing Authority's (CHA) Plan for Transformation instigated the relocation of thousands of families and the destruction of buildings that had once held such promise, especially for families who came to the city as part of the Great Migration. In the latest book from the admirable and acclaimed Voices of Witness oral-history series, we hear from public-housing residents. The majority of the narrators, each a memorable storyteller, have mixed feelings about seeing the high rises demolished, and we feel their confusion: these besieged towers were home but also the source of so much pain and neglect. As touching, illuminating, and valuable as these personal accounts are, Petty includes much more. The incredibly useful appendixes include a time line, glossary, and commentary from scholar D. Bradford Hunt and journalist Ben Austen. Also of great interest is an excerpt from a 2011 CHA report on 10 years of relocations and demolitions. This book accomplishes its mission to give voice to public-housing residents tenfold but is equally successful as a significant work of American urban history.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)