[Voices of Cabrini raw #102]

Raw video shot for "Voices of Cabrini." Shot between 1995-1999, it documented the Cabrini Green redevelopment project proposed and carried out by the City of Chicago. This video features preparations for a large pro-resident rally and then a failed meeting with city officials in Near North High School. The crowd gets rowdy and makes it difficult for David Tkac and Adrian Bryant to address them. Tkac compares photographs of the Cabrini-Green intersections with sketches of proposed redevelopment for the intersections. Also in the video are interviews with journalists and residents.

0:10Copy video clip URL Open to backstage havoc during a meeting between city of Chicago representatives and the Cabrini-Green community. Jesse White is on stage and Joseph Shuldiner, executive director for the Chicago Housing Authority, is behind the curtain.

0:59Copy video clip URL Alderman Walter Burnett with the microphone addresses the crowd and asks them for silence, so that they can hear the plans for the neighborhood.

1:42Copy video clip URL Adrian Bryant from the Office of the Mayor walks to the podium and addresses the crowd: “We knew that this was a topic that would create a lively discussion, but I don’t think we anticipated how lively it would be.” She thanks the crowd and details the plan for the Near North Side community. She says, “We’re talking about a $315 million dollar investment here in the Near North Community…2,500 construction jobs…a jobs training program…and nearly 900 permanent jobs…I think this is something worth working for…” She talks about how the day’s program will be organized.

3:39Copy video clip URL Cut to a resident listening to Bryant. He appears indignant. Bryant: “I’m glad you had the wherewithal to stay in the room…”

4:09Copy video clip URL Cut to David Tkac, from the Office of the Mayor, a newly zoned map for the Near North community. The crowd interrupts him: “We cannot afford this…housing…” More people interrupt him and then a woman says, “I’m tired of black people being moved out of these communities.” The man announces the ground-breaking of a new 18th District Police Headquarters.

6:18Copy video clip URL Tkac announces that the new headquarters will be at Division and Clybourn, and then details the new public schools in the community, which will also include a replacement for Byrd Academy.

7:07Copy video clip URL Cut to a slide for “New Housing.” Tkac talks about the mixed income requirements for the area.

8:41Copy video clip URL He introduces a photograph “looking west on Larrabee.” He replaces the photograph with a sketch of new public housing.

9:04Copy video clip URL Photograph from West Hobbie Street. He replaces the photograph with a sketch of “brand new low rise buildings which are much more appealing…”

9:31Copy video clip URL Photograph looking south of Division. Next slide shows another redevelopment.

10:59Copy video clip URL Tkac shows photographs of intersection of Clybourn and Division, and compares the photos with drawn images of the potential future of the intersections. Shuldiner: “We’ve got a lot of big plans, but believe me, this plan is going to work.”

11:32Copy video clip URL Another photograph looking west from Division and Clybourn, and then another slide.

12:25Copy video clip URL Photograph of new library, mid-construction, and the existing Ferguson childcare center which has “outlived its usefulness.” Then a photograph of the future site of a childcare center adjacent to Evergreen Tower.

13:09Copy video clip URL “One million dollars is going to be put in the reconfiguration of Seward Park…What do you want in the new park?” A resident says: “You should be ashamed of yourselves.”

14:07Copy video clip URL Adrian Bryant takes the stage again. She instructs the audience to break up into small teams, but a man comes on stage and demands that Bryant let the community speak.

16:48Copy video clip URL Members of the crowd stand up and shout at Bryant. She carries on, and instructs the crowd to break up and disperse into separate “break out” rooms, per the number on each person’s name tag.

20:09Copy video clip URL The crowd refuses to leave the general assembly room. The microphone is taken back stage.

21:57Copy video clip URL Attorney for the Cabrini-Green Local Advisory Council: “We’ve never in a good faith way been brought into the discussions.”

27:18Copy video clip URL Journalist talks about former Cabrini-Green resident transitioning to a new CHA space: “I can’t wait for people who have no confidence in themselves, let alone confidence in us, to drive the train.”

33:56Copy video clip URL “What is there good about the housing stock in Cabrini?…I don’t know anything good about it…if we can create an option for people in Cabrini…I think people should be standing around clapping…”

35:45Copy video clip URL Interview with two residents.

46:28Copy video clip URL Woman: “This is million dollar land.”

47:54Copy video clip URL Interview ends. Camera crew walk away and interview a real estate developer.

48:53Copy video clip URL Man: “I built 120 N. LaSalle St., a forty-story highrise…” He describes his credentials, which also include the 1996 Democratic National Convention. The interview continues as two members of the crowd behind him gets into an argument. Man: “There’s a lot of work to do, lots of changes, and that raises the anxiety levels of the community…but we feel that given the existing conditions our plan will improve the life of the neighborhood…”

52:15Copy video clip URL Director Ronit Bezalel asks him how Chicago’s redevelopment plans differ from other cities. Man: “We are partnering with private sector development. CHA is no longer building, but is acting as a financing center…to manage public housing units that are indistinguishable from market rate housing…”

53:50Copy video clip URL Man: “There are eight buildings…scheduled for demolition…but, the demolition of the four south of division on the east side of Larrabee is not going to happen until 300 plus replacement units are built. In other words, two buildings on Division are already demolished, and two others are vacant…that is our commitment to CHA and the community.”

54:51Copy video clip URL Man: “We would hope that…let’s take them [the vacant buildings] down now.”

55:38Copy video clip URL Man: “This is about redeveloping a community…”

56:13Copy video clip URL Man says that the Cabrini redevelopment is one of Mayor Richard M. Daley’s top priorities. He talks about the mayor’s vision.

57:24Copy video clip URL Cut to a panel of experts. Shuldiner explains the affordability of 3,000 units in Cabrini.

59:29Copy video clip URL Woman asks Schuldiner directly whether Cabrini residents will be guaranteed the same rent price as they do currently.

1:00:54Copy video clip URL Shot of a development map.

1:01:18Copy video clip URL Shuldiner details the housing.

1:02:20Copy video clip URL Cut to a television playing the cable access feed to the expert panel in real time.

1:02:48Copy video clip URL End of tape.