Could you survive in a public housing high-rise? Part I
The Tribune's Sara Olkon wrote
today on the tension between public housing residents and condo owners at Westhaven, which
I blogged about when WBEZ's Natalie Moore
covered it a few weeks back.
Same stuff - condo owners get mad because CHA residents hang out in public spaces.
We always talk about how the condo owners want it quiet and don't want people hanging around. I can sympathize with that. It's annoying to have loud neighbors. They keep you up at night. It's disconcerting to see people you don't know hanging around your building.
But here's the thing: that's only one way of looking at it.
We talk about building skills a lot with public housing residents. Educational skills, job skills, interview skills, work skills. Teaching people how to function in an environment they're not used to. But here's the thing: If we had to function in that public housing high-rise, would we know how?
We think we have all the skills to teach, but really, there are a lot of skills and strategies we don't understand ourselves.
For those condo owners, hanging around in the lobby is a nuisance. It's loitering.
But
if you lived in a high-rise, first of all, there's a lot of people
living in a small amount of space. You're going to have overflow.
Second,
knowing every person who lives on your block - knowing their face and
name, who they're related to and what they're into - is critical to
your survival. If you want to stay safe, want to keep your kids safe,
you have to know who to trust and who to avoid.
So if you
spend all your time holed up in your condo, it's not gonna be safe when
you finally have to go outside. And if you get into trouble - which so
many low-income people with poor credit and few resources do - you need
to know who you can depend on for help.
And these skills, plus
dozens of others, were finely honed over decades of living in public
housing. Just because you take people out of a situation and their
skills don't apply anymore doesn't mean their skills aren't valid.
If
someone took you out of your plush condo and put you in one of those
high-rises, the fact that you interview well and have a polished resume
wouldn't keep you from being mugged.
Why don't we look at
things this way? Because we've decided our own norms. But the problem
with norms is that we put values on them. Sitting in the lobby and
spending time with your neighbors is bad because it's disruptive. Did
you see the quote from Antwan Dobson a few paragraphs in?
But Antwan Dobson, an owner and former condo president who is
African-American, argues the problems have been more about lifestyle
differences. Dobson, who was raised by a foster parent on the West
Side, said he understands isolation and struggle.
"They've been so confined to a couple of blocks," he said of public
housing residents. "I try to teach them the socially acceptable
lifestyle."
The
"socially acceptable lifestyle." I don't think this guy's being a jerk.
I think he's telling it like it is. In this building, there are some
ways to live that are considered valid by the people in power, and some
ways that are not. It's like the guy in Natalie Moore's piece who said
he "expects everyone to live in the building the way I live in building."
We've decided
that our own social class has the "correct" values, so we allow
ourselves to look down on those who don't share them.
I'm not
saying the condo-owners shouldn't have an issue with numerous guests
and people hanging out. Those things can be dangerous and can
contribute to bad situations.
However, how does anyone expect that things will get better if we stand
around judging each other, making each other into villains, instead of
trying to understand why people do what they do and learn how to
compromise?
Could you survive in poverty? Do you have the
skills to make it? Come back tomorrow morning for a quiz that will test whether or
not you could survive as one of Chicago's urban poor
Share this entry
Recommended for you
7 Comments
frankalready said:
Your commentary is dead-on. Thanks for dissecting the shallow reporting in the trib and offering some depth and thought.
The Trib and, sadly, WBEZ stories show how shallow the mainstream media's understanding of race and class really is. Wait a second, people from different backgrounds and experiences have different norms? What?! Shocking!
lizjoyntsandberg said:
Finally! It's about time we get some balanced information about the disparities of value between public housing residents and condo owners in shared living spaces. Friction is understandable (and I appreciate that you note that here) but an assumption that the condo-owners' perspectives and skills are somehow more valuable and relevant should not be the presumptive norm - as it seems to be in so many other reports on the topic. Thanks for not staying comfortable and thanks for recognizing that the issues here are complex - meriting more discussion. Seemingly obvious - but sadly not the case in other reports. Nice work.
nmcc said:
Very nice analysis of a complicated situation. There is never just one, two or even three sides to a conflict. Keep up the good work.
Richard Wheelock said:
My question is where in this process is CHA's Ombudsman, Sandra Larry, who was hired by CHA to "represent" the interests of CHA families in CHA's mixed-income communities. CHA created this ombudsman office when CHA received permission from HUD that it no longer had to recognize public housing resident councils in the mixed-income communities. In theory, this ombudsman office was created to address the issues raised in Sara Olkon's piece.
Wendell Tucker said:
Its a matter of perspective, its difficult to ask a person to be understanding of a situation that they have no frame of reference for. Growing up in public housing, when I would go downtown, and see upper class people having expensive dinners, it would confuse me and i just couldn't understand why a person would go and pay that much for a meal. I didn't get why they would just go jogging on the lake front.
In the same breath, now that I have more options, it doesn't make sense to me when I see kids on the corner. I sometimes find myself forcing to remember that, at that age and in that situation, I didn't know about the other options.
Your communal assessment is dead on. Not knowing who's who in the projects can be a deadly mistake.
Alexander Russo said:
no doubt that surviving in poverty is no easy thing -- my time spent with low income kids and their parents in city schools tells me that much.
i like to think i could survive, but i have my doubts.
there are such things as poverty simulations, you might be surprised to know.
Megan Cottrell said:
Great comments, everyone!
This certainly is a complex situation. I think Sarah Olkon did a good job of addressing that, but we just don't often get the perspective from the other side.
The ombudsman, Rich, is a good point. How much better would this situation be if there was a resident council for the condo-owners group to interact with? And why isn't Larry intervening?
Wendell, your comments make so much sense to me and really illustrate how things we think are normal can be so strange to someone else and vice versa.
I have been through a poverty simulation, actually, when I lived for a summer in Lawndale. It was intense. I highly recommend it.
Leave a Comment?
What your comment will look like:
said: