The Pruitt-Igoe Myth

In the middle of St. Louis, Missouri, just northwest of the Gateway Arch, is a vast and indolent fifty-seven-acre woodland. Oak and hickory trees be slowly reclaiming ground and overtaking the stint remains of thirty-three eleven-story apartment buildings, which once comprised the Pruitt-Igoe frequent lodgement analyzable. completed in the mid-1950s before construction of the Arch even began, Pruitt-Igoe was one of the largest low-in summate public hold projects in the country.For nearly a decade, the complex distinguished the St. Louis metropoliss sensible horizon and received praise for its innovative modernist architecture that incorporated the broadcastning principles of a radiant city. Yet just eighteen years after residents locomote in, state and federal administration demolished the towers with explosives and abandoned the site. What caused this immense ill fortune in urban planning and public housing? This critical straits is at the center of Chad Freidrichs nons ubjective, The Pruitt-Igoe Myth An Urban History.The documentary claims that three incorporate issues account for Pruitt-Igoes collapse. First, the economy essentially abandoned Pruitt-Igoe. After World struggle II, midwestern cities like St. Louis were flooding with poorer minorities from the southern states farms, where technology in market-gardening displaced laborers. When these minorities arrived, the white middle class moving to the suburbs was nearly complete.Coincidentally, the same suffice that made Pruitt-Igoe possible also fueled this suburbanization via expanded Federal housing Administration (FHA) loans that made houses on the citys outskirts more affordable. The documentary makes it clear that the drop dead to the suburbs was problematic because it caused the de-population and de-capitalization of Midwestern urban centers, where public housing initiatives were netherway and premised upon go on urban growth, demands for high density living, and available jobsall trends that did not come true.The Pruitt-Igoe myth was confirmation of whites disinterest in accepting minorities into their communities. For example, the whites exodus to the suburbs ( cutting extraneous from b lack people) began reversing itself when some minorities began to move into the suburbs and some whites moved back to the city. end-to-end St. Louis history, we see countless number of incidents like these in terms of gentrification. Homes are taken away from minority families through gentrification forcing families to leave their only habitats and accessible support with services and other needs.The history of Pruitt-Igoe sheds light on todays challenges the city of St. Louis faces in regards to racial disparities. Second, the documentary finds fault with the laws that built and maintained the complex. Pruitt-Igoe was a product of the 1949 Public Housing Act, passed to address mounting problems in urban low income neighborhoods by providing safer houses and eliminating p rofit making landlords.When it first opened, residents dreamt that Pruitt-Igoe could be a poor mans penthouse, offering beds for all family members, privacy, and healthier living conditions. However, as the documentary maintains, it was a naive assumption on the legislatures that better housing only could fix the broad societal problems that gave rise to the ghettos in the first place. Further, occasion residents assert that one of the main reasons Pruitt-Igoe fell was the failure of authorities to plan for the future and secure funds for maintaining the large housing complex.Last and not the least, segregation and racism effectively eliminated any meaningful opportunities remaining for the residents of Pruitt-Igoe. From the beginning, authorities planned to officially segregate the complex and use public housing as a tool to prevent what was termed negro de-concentration. When Pruitt-Igoe opened, though, the Supreme Courts termination that same year in Brown v. Board of Educatio n (1954) necessary a change of plans, but white residents simply left, which resulted in perpetuating the make of segregation.Moreover, white public housing authorities attempted to control the preponderantly African American inhabitants with moralistic rules, such as restricting grownup men, single or married, from living in Pruitt-Igoe. This resulted in broken families and no role model black male figures to help guide the two-year-old ones.The residents of Pruitt-Igoe brought these and other numerous issues like sanitation, water, heat and electricity problems to the city and housing officials but to no avail. The City and housing officials failed the residents of Pruitt Igoe. The people were living under deplorable conditions and concentrated poverty but because of the color of their skin they couldnt get any meaningful help or attention. Today, the Pruitt-Igoe issues in St. Louis whitewash exist.Houses and complex apartments may not be demolished, but the constant negligenc e and lack of support from St. Louis City and housing officials is quite stunning considering were living in the year 2018. Its so unfortunate that the Pruitt-Igoes racial issue and the affects are still present today.