FEBRUARY 2001

The last battle of the Cold War is being fought in the neighborhoods of Chicago. Echoing the demolition of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the victorious forces of freedom are tearing down the last bastion of failed New Deal and Great Society pseudo-Socialist programs - the citys infamous public housing high-rises.

Some 2,000 families of the Chicago Housing Authority's Stateway Gardens, Rockwell Gardens and Robert Taylor Homes may have to wait for the funds for new housing at their developments, according to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) officials.

Washington Park Local Advisory Council President Mary Wiggins is facing a dilemma. She is concerned and wondering, searching high and low for an answer to a question that lays heavy on her mind like a wrecking ball against a Chicago Housing Authority wall.

Many evenings I have been very apprehensive as I made my way home to the Harold Ickes development from my daily pastime of caring for my granddaughter, who lives nine miles away. Traveling north on South State Street has been a disturbing experience of watching darkness engulf the Chicago Housing Authority buildings along the State Street Corridor.

The nation's first federal appellate court ruling for public housing residents challenging the One Strike provision could lead to the abolition of the federal law which is being used to evict public housing residents in Chicago and across the country.

As a resident of the Chicago Housing Authority, I am all for redevelopment and I am sure most residents are. I also would like to say that most of the new private managers are really trying to work with residents. But when it comes to the One Strike issue and lease compliance, I and other residents I've talked with feel this policy hurts some residents who really want a better life for the residents of CHA and to be rid of drugs and gangs.

I am all for redevelopment and I am sure most residents are. I also would like to say that most of the new private managers are really trying to work with residents. But when it comes to the One Strike issue and lease compliance, I and other residents Ive talked with feel this policy hurts some residents who really want a better life for the residents of CHA and to be rid of drugs and gangs. Many Chicago public housing residents don't know about CHA's Income Disregard Policy, which could benefit working residents by keeping their rent low and giving them a chance to save money.

Mary Sistruck is a young single mother of 6 who moved out of the Robert Taylor development over 4 years ago and now lives in an apartment at 90th Street and Exchange Avenue with a Housing Choice (Section 8) voucher. Sistruck used to reside in what most of the residents called the "Hole," a cluster of Chicago Housing Authority buildings in the 5300 block of the State Street corridors that have since been demolished.

Seventy-eight residents of the Del Prado in Hyde Park are facing uncertainty and possible eviction because their landlord has opted out of a government housing program.

On Oct. 30, 1998, dozens of residents in a Flannery Homes high-rise lost all their belongings in a raging fire.

There are a number of cases currently in the courts that involve Chicago police officers who are being accused of corrupt involvement with street gang members

An Altgeld Gardens resident and longtime environmental activist says residents of other public housing developments should be concerned about potential health hazards from the demolition and redevelopment of their communities.

There is a new rapper in town and he's good. He is a positive role model for the children. He is currently making appearances at the schools promoting his CD titled READ.

The months following my return home were the longest and the most unending of my entire life. I nonetheless waited with the patience and fortitude of Job for the demise of 1931 and the birth of 1932 while pondering over and over again the ways and means by which I intended to make my way to Alexandria, where my mother lived.

Longevity has its place was a statement eloquently spoken by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in August 1965. Mrs. Gertrude Fredd, a widow, aunt, godmother, neighbor and friend who lived at 30 W. Cermak, a Hilliard Homes senior building, found that place, longevity.

Despite the mild to moderate to monumental Y2K disaster predictions, here we are, just like the rest of Chicago, safe and sound in the new millennium. Here we are with the same old new challenge of how to improve the quality of life for public housing residents and the same new old problems.