Chicago - Cabrini Green (1989-02) 

I am a life long Chicago resident and it was crazy how the Gold Coast and Cabrini Green were separated by a street. The Richest neighborhood and the poorest neighborhood next to each other. It was unreal

That smart little boy called senque selvey is now 42 and a professional contractor for a concrete company . He’s also building projects where 1 of the buildings once was

That 10 year old is too wise for his age. And very well-spoken. I hope he was able to make it out.

I lived in Cabrini Greens Projects ( 1121 N. Larrabbe St. #'s 205 and 508) from 80 - 86 and IT WAS HELL. I was eleven years old when i first encountered being recruited by gangs. I had to know everything about the different gangs, HAD to even dress like them, learned everything from them in order to survive. It was very hard to play on the playgrounds let alone walking to the store seeing people getting shot or stabbed. There was violence inside the buildings as well i almost was shot trying to get in the door from the rain of bullets. Fighting everyday bcuz i HAD to even if i ask to go after i declared that i was neutral meaning not in a gang & didn't want trouble. Guys didn't care they wanted to hurt people so there's a rule that you can call it how YOU WANT IT meaning that since i had no weapons i called H👊NDS and handled my business. There's situations where i did that and still got shot at. Even going to see other relatives that lived in another building was dangerous. If they didn't know you, guns in Yo face while others are running out the building with guns. I remember when Mayor Bryne moved into Cabrini Greens in 81 and things still was bad, but she DID get the gangs to TRUCE which was the BEST time bcuz i wasn't getting guns in my face, but people was still fighting until June 26 when one gang didn't want to abide anymore and attacked 1158 N. Cleveland St. building in which i SAW it all go down. The WORST 4th of July EVER having to light fireworks @ 5:30 in the afternoon..... Due to The War that was to come that night and had to fight to light MY OWN STUFF... Having to live with 🐁s, 🪳s, 🐀s even though we KEPT IT A1 clean and I DON'T MISS the horrible smell of dead bodies, pest spray, blood, pissy elevators and stairwells filled with graffiti, bullet casings, needles, and the sounds of gunfire all day long.

So glad to see a mother put her kids first and a father being a father. Well wishes to them all!

Mark Johnson spoke the truth because that’s exactly how it went. After Cabrini was long gone the same issues still exist

Now the gangs have descended upon every neighborhood in the city. Crime in Chicago is still terrible. Nothing has changed.

My heart goes out to those kids. Seeing more of the misery and crime than then they’ve had to. They’re being deprived and cheated of a happy, safe childhood.

Dude died as they got him into the elevator, May his Soul Rest in Peace

I'm a life long Chicago resident..and I can tell you this place was a whole different animal.

Little guy is real smart,and articulate.I truly hope he has thrived in the positive

I worked in the poorest schools in the Los Angeles school district…Watts,Compton,etc..Some schools that were in the projects looked like prisons. Saddest thing is, the kids are just kids like anywhere else in the world, but by the time they hit 6-7th grade they’re all at risk to be recruited by gangs, if not earlier. And a huge chunk of them had parents who were currently still banging, and older brothers and sisters too. I’m far from Mr. White Savior, but these kids really don’t stand a chance for the most part. I hated watching those kids grow up and go from sweet little dorks as kids should be, to little hardened adults by the time they’re 12, but by that time most of them don’t really know any different. I came from a broken home, and my mom was a crazy coke then crystal addict. Thank god I had my dad and his side of the fam to show me what a lil hard work and discipline can achieve. Otherwise, I very well coulda fallen into that trap.

when i moved to chicago in 2000-2001, i lived in little italy and would go on long runs around the city. one time running through cabrini green, I heard a woman's voice yell from a window, "ooh they watchin' you!" i didn't run through cabrini again

My husband's grandmother taught at a school, in south Chicago. She volunteered to teach at the, it was very dangerous (this was the 1970's) and she remembers gun fire, even walking a block to her car. She volunteered (for the job) because she wanted to try and give the children a chance. She was a principal and went back to teaching at the school.

I mentored several kids and substituted at a school in that community for nearly 6 years. Literally dodged bullets more times than I care to remember.

It’s heartbreaking to watch a snapshot of the last moments of that young man’s life and his mother’s shock and horror. It’s a reminder that these statistics are real human beings cut short forever. I don’t have solutions and it is still happening today.

They made it a prison, then abandoned it and then razed it to dust. Perfect metaphor for anything government does.

The ghetto was created don't ever forget that. This was by design.

Cousin use to live in Cabrini greens. I used to go there on the summer time to visit my family. It was like a nightmare.. worse than a nightmare. Even when you had a moments of peace you still felt this aurora of despair and just evil all around that place. It was depressing. It's truly hard to describe with words how bad it really was. I'm so glad of the people that make these type of channels and videos because I need this to help me remember... Just how bad it use to be. They call it Chiraq but really I know for a fact it was worse before Chicago was given that nic name...

It's not where you're from, but where you're mentally at. My friend came from this place and when he turned 17 he left and went into the marines in 1984. He's 57 alive and doing well today. He was smart enough to know that he needed to get the heck out of there. I thank God he did because I would've never met him. And he's a beautiful man.

Living in Chicago, I was shell shocked seeing the FIREFIGHTERS getting shot at just trying to extinguish a fire

Damn my heart hurts listening to that little boy… My young brother

I used to live in Chicago, I didn't grow up in Cabrini but my father worked in Cabrini green, he was also sent to work in other projects of Chicago. A friend of mine grew up in Cabrini Green, and she has plenty of stories.

Born and raised in this Death Trap... Not 2 mention Serial Rapist Haunted and Stalked these Projects for years Alot of Abuse and Mental Trauma 😕

The fact that Cabrini Green was such a failure is not entirely the fault of government. The people living there have some responsibility for how dangerous it is there, the graffiti etc.

Jesus that poor lady about her son 🥺

Father Bill is amazing and still going. He is the exception to alot of these Catholics in leadership positions, and I should know because I work for the Catholic church

@4:30 when that little boy said "I run" to the question of hearing gunfire, it broke my heart. No child should have to live that way.

My Dad is from Chicago, and I have a brother I haven’t seen since the 90s from there. And my girl is from Chicago but I’ve never been. I was born in LA and live here all my life but the Chi has always been interesting because of family ties. Bless all my people in Chicago 🙏🏾

I grew up on Division Cabrini greens was my backyard I cannot express enough how important change is from within I pray my ppl wake up 🙏🏽

Amen to the men and women who made the transition to the new homes hope and pray all is still working out for you and your loved ones.

Man Chicago still hasn't changed and the government doesn't gaf. That lil boy is already traumatized. Sad to see but nothing has changed

Lil Johnny breaks my heart. That lil Boy has a strong spirit. I really pray his life has turned out well

I did this mentorship Big Brother kind of thing at Cabrini Green way back. The boy I worked with was a little kid called Donte…forgot his last name. Anyways I One day I was dropping him off and and he invited me up to his families apartment. Omg, first of all the hallways and elevators were something I can’t begin to describe how awful they were. Graffiti covered the walls like wall paper! and the elevator ride…I couldn’t imagine having to do this everyday as a resident. When I went inside Donte’s families apartment I was in shock! His mother, grandmother and 5 kids all lived in this one bedroom apartment that felt like a large jail cell. Mattresses on the floor, the stove things were all lit and burning to heat the room and the broken windows…I can still see those broken windows. Then it time to go and I had to go down 5 floors out to my car alone…I took the stairs! Anyways I always wonder how/what Donte is doing now some 28 years later. He’s got to be around 40 years old. Hope he’s well

I once had a classmate,in Westmillbrook middle school In NC,he was from there,and boy oh boy,he was so happy to get up outta there 🤞🏽

When they tore these down the gangs just spread out more. Cabrini and the Robert Taylors where horrible.

Damn.....a little kid like Johnny shouldn't have that kind of knowledge. Amazing.

That was a big mistake tearing down Cabrini Green High Projects because now the gangs has spread into the joining neighborhoods that's happening now in 2022 .

That little boy's story at the beginning is so heartbreaking. He's seen something at that age that most of us will never have to see.

Why do you keep having kids in that environment or one like it??

I'm just amazed how beautiful black women looked back in the early '80s. They were natural and wellspoken. Even the lady who was yelling my baby had a sense of beauty to her.

The only thing worse than public housing projects was tearing them down and giving them vouchers to go out to the suburbs and destroy the beautiful peaceful suburbs, that was a bigger disaster.

This was crazy having dead homies at 7 years old that kid is like 8 years old and knew already 4 kids his age killed

lived in da greens. was born there. I have 2 dvds featuring the buildings on channel. This was good documentary

That kids eyes makes me wanna cry when the interviewer ask how often are shootings and he says “too often” 😔

Good times anytime you need it baby!! Good times anytime you need a friend. Not getting hassled. Not getting hustled. Y’all know the rest

My heart goes out to these people who can't help what they are in.

12:32 u can see the suffering in the lil mans eyes when he asked him if he would like to live somewhere else and he said Beverly Hills cuz there no violence I hope he grew up and moved out of the south side of Chicago and became successful 🙏🏼

Really hope the little boy at 1:16 was able to make it out and have a better life. No kid deserves this life

Cabrini Green has been demolished .....and that area has been revitalized and that area looks amazing since it's part of downtown.

Them kids were more grown than most men.

Them kids were precious as they could be... I'd like to hear what happened to those kids.

All those poor frigging kids. Some of them were talking like they were in their sixties from the trauma they already went through in such a short time. More than most of us would see in our whole lives.

I used to deliver food to cabrini back in da mid 90s. I never had any problems with the people outside. Inside the building was an intense smell of piss, but every apartment I was invited into looked and smelled very clean and nice. There was very good people in the ghetto but they all got an undeserving bad reputation. God bless all the good people of the world.

You a beast for these footages 💯💪🏼

I remember in like 1979 I was 18 and went to a concert in Chicago and we got lost on the way home in CG. All we heard were rocks and sticks hitting the car, this was like midnight... I said 'turn around and hit anyone in the way'!

It’s heartbreaking to see a community destroyed like this when the residents there took pride in the apartments they had and worked so hard to keep them and the surroundings nice, especially for their kids.

Be nice to see this country get its act together.

12:30 That sweet little boy never had a chance 😔 hopefully he got away and found safety and happiness in his life instead of getting pulled into the gang trap, i grew up in the City but moved to a rural area when i was 18 and never looked back. Most of my friends who stayed in the city are dead or in prison, people born in bad neighborhoods are stuck in a trap and most of them will never be able to afford to escape those neighborhoods, i wish them luck 🤞

I stayed there when I was young I was so scared for my life I had a gun when I was eight yrs old I got out and got educated but I will never forget where I come from it made me stronger in life

That part where the son died in the elevator…………SHIT!!😳

That 7 year old that was killed by a sniper, that wasn't a stray bullet that was done on purpose. How low and evil do you have to be to kill a child. That was done because he knew NOTHING would be done about it.

*The 90's Windy City Anthem* 🎵This is the land of broken hearts & shattered homes ..🎵 🎵babies that splatter domes..🎵 🎵loners that scatter bones & hide corpses in catacombs..🎵 🎵BDs & Foe's.. VLs , GDs & Stones..🎵 🎵LKs , 13's & Unknowns.. some kids & some grown..🎵 🎵highrises & viaducts... Police don't try enough..🎵 🎵dead cops get bag pipers..🎵 🎵 rooftops... we got snipers..🎵 🎵red dots..rivals get laid down...🎵 🎵headshots right on the playground🎵 🎵got kids so terrified🎵 🎵that their too scared to run &hide🎵 🎵Welcome to "The City"🎵 🎵the home of Frank Nitty🎵 🎵where gangster's show no pity🎵 🎵 ain't a damn thing pretty!!!!!🎵

This hurts more everytime I watch it and I still watch ,

I left Chicago after some trouble in 1996 moved to Waukegan then from there to Kenosha, Wisconsin for a job.Moced to NC a few years later for a job and after a brief stop in Chgo. After NC Somehow ended up back in Wisconsin. Have to say Yes to the right change when it comes your way. God somehow got my entire family out of Chicago. Not just immediate family but cousins, aunt's , uncle's 100s of people little by little..Not as close a family as we once were but we're alive and able to see each other. I have lost a few family but overall God has blessed us.

I hope most of those people was able to have a good life after leaving there. ❤

I couldn't imagine if Cabrini Green existed during the start of drill.

And here we are today and Chicago still Remains the Same

It's crazy to say it but these young 10 and 11 year olds that were interviewed in this program show a lot more intelligence than these social media rappers and gang members today. These idiots today on social media rapping about killing each other make themselves look so ignorant, showing you how ignorant they really are. And these young boys that are getting interviewed on this program are highly intelligent, I was actually astonished how these young boys articulated their words, and how intelligent they spoke. I really hope they went on to become someone like a doctor or a lawyer, and went to college and have a great career instead of these punks today that want to call themselves rappers flashing big stacks of cash, that they piss through on over priced garbage jewelry that looses more than half it's value the minute they put it on and walk out of the store, making the jewlers rich, while they're making complete fools of themselves while they're all high on lean, perc 30's Fentanyl, Xanax etc.. And lastly you can actually understand these boys, they're not mumbling like they do today and showing their true colors of how stupid and ignorant they really are. I really pray to God that these kids in this video went on to become something, anything but the proverbial NBA player, or rapper.

And after all these years, things have only gotten worse.

The story of Cabrini-Green, is the story of public housing all over the USA. When you put an overwhelming percentage of poor/low-income people in public housing (especially underserved communities of Black, Latino, AAPI and Native American residents), don't do any regular maintenance/upgrades, and allow the properties to fall into squalor and disrepair, you create an environment that breeds anarchy, lawlessness, illegal activities and entrenched poverty. Mix that with the cocaine/crack epidemic of the 80's and 90's, and you have a stewing crock-pot of residents doing whatever they can to survive. Public housing authorities all across the USA are almost always embroiled in scandals like this, because there's no profit in it: they have no incentive to give the most vulnerable citizens a decent a safe place to call home, because their mindset is that a tenant receiving government assistance/Section-8 vouchers, will not appreciate nice things the way a market-rate tenant will (often true, sadly). The fact that people are still being allowed to live in these surviving row houses, crumbling and rotting as they are, is a testament to this.

Where the buildings were tore down is now a park I take my young son there often and it’s nice. It’s crazy to think of what used to happen here seriously.

When my parents came here from Mexico in the late 80’s we lived in the projects for 1 year and thankfully my parents worked hard to get us out. Both 2 full time jobs helped us grow in the burbs. Now I’m my option, I own 2 businesses thanks to that change

I was born in Cook County and raised in Cabrini Greens until I was 8. I still remember the piss or sometimes feces on those elevators. People think Chicago is bad now but it was extremely dangerous in the 70s and 80s. After my mother was robbed by a guy😮 with a knife while holding my hand we moved to Peoria which was no better. My dad stayed in Chicago. Besides all of that I had a childhood I sometimes wish I could live again.

I worked @ cabrini green. It was a war zone. 2 police officers were killed walking across the property. No matter how many police and security it didn't matter. They said it changed when other for the worse when single parents were allowed to in charge apartments

Young man, whoever you are, there's planes, trains, buses, and automobiles leaving your city every single day. Hop on one and don't look back. Better days are ahead.

That boy is more wise than a lot of people I know I wonder what happened to him

I WAS BORN IN RAISED UP IN CABRINI GREEN THAT WAS MY HOOD IM PROUD OF MYSELF THAT I MADE IT IM LIVING IN GREEN BAY WISCONSIN OUT ON MY OWN IM 55 I HAVE MY OWN PLACE I GOT OUT OF THERE WHEN I GOT A CHANCE I WISH THE BEST FOR MY PEOPLE THAT'S STILL THERE IF I DID IT THEY CAN DO IT IF THEY WANT A CHANCE IN LIFE ITS NOT THAT HARD

Really hoped some of the youth in this video were able to have a positive outcome.

Would be interesting to have a follow up on some of the residents featured on here

God bless that priest who put his life on the line.

Really good compilation, thanks for making this.

(2023 Review) Ive been watching multiple these news stories from 70's 80's and 90's across the country about 'gangs' 'urban warfare' 'inner-city' crime (Chicago,LA, NO, NY, Philly, etc) its all the same. A bright spot in each is the (often times overlooked) are people in these communities keeping hope alive through action. Questions rarely asked or answered in news stories like this: who profits from these situations? From guns, drugs, low income housing regressing, children being tried as adults, poverty and wage gaps deepening, communities being labeled and related to 'warzones', etc? It seems like the 80s was really a war against the black youth. Every system and institution there to help them failed or turned on them; cops, schools, housing, job market, justice system, news and media. It's 2023 and the nation is still at 'war'. Maybe the systems never failed or broke. Maybe this is how it's supposed to be? time is revealing the truth.

Hold tf up, at the council meeting they are drinking wine coolers!!

I remember Cabrini! I moved to Texas in 96, I believe the had already closed Cabrini and other areas. I wonder what happened to all these cute kids!? Hopefully they grew up less scared in a better safer area!

It's a damn shame babies have to see violent crime at a early age it literally breaks my heart😢

It was already bad in 71, I was there @ 14 years old. We had to walk spread out like they did in the war.

Id be interested in seeing a follow up with Larry and Sherri, and the couple that Purchased.

These kids grow up fast

I respect the mother that took the new home and left her husband, that must of been hard but her children are better off in a safer place, but still its sad how hard it is to afford housing in this country

We lived there , My Mother got Married to a Wonderful Army Man ( who Retired) hmmm 👏🏾 and we got TFUCCC OUT‼️.. Moved to CHICAGO heights area.. nice spacious home, we all graduated, everyone alive w/our families and animals.. My brothers a Barber/ASIA works at post office & I have a Retail business.. Let’s go 💨

That 10 year-old little boy breaks my heart. I hope he grew up and has a great life.

I worked for a private ambulance company in 1991, doing 9-11 overflow in Chicago. Cabrini green was always a shit box. The elevators had chicken wire for a ceiling, and whenever people in uniforms showed up (like us) the natives would throw 40 Oz bottles of piss and shit down the elevator shaft, showering us in excrement. Meaning when we’d get there, we’d walk the stairs up. Meaning by the time we got to the 5th floor, that kid that found Dad’s gun? He’d be good and dead by the time we got there. It was a joke: trying to provide trauma care for those people. They really didn’t want it, and we didn’t wanna be there.

Then mayor Daley knocked the buildings down sent them to the burbs and then the burbs declined

Why would someone shoot at a child walking with his mother? Whoever shot at him was behind a scope and targeting them....makes no sense. Self hate

Those people who where living in that Area was living hell on earth . No child deserves to live in those treacherous conditions.

I hope that little boy is alive and doing well 💙

They like to build science experiments and then interview the test subjects.

Those look like wine coolers on the housing authority table lol.