Maryam Aman

Running Head: SOCIAL STRUCTURE 1 Students Name Teacher’s Name Course Name Date GANGLAND: GANGSTER CITY (CHICAGO) 2 Gangland: Gangster City (Chicago) Gangland: Gangster City (Chicago) aired originally on The History Channel, featured America’s most scandalous gangs. As the name indicates, this series was based on the life of the gangsters and the impact they had on the lives of their victims. This video shows the gangsters of Chicago and the way they play their role as mafia who control the city and its residents. They meant to set up their merchandise openly for cocaine and heroin. Gunshots can be heard throughout the video which speaks of the kind of life the residents were leading at the hands of these gangsters. The neighborhood was a victim of organized crime and had different crime leaders for each locality. Street tax on drug deals was applied in order to let the drug dealers keep their business up and running in the neighborhood. Basically, it was a sanctuary for drug trade. The Gangster Disciples, the Vice Lords and The P-Stones were among the most feared gangs of that time which operated in different parts of the city and competed among each other so as to lead the crime world. Drug trade was the one thing they all wanted to take control of as it decided which gang was leading the world of crimes. Cabrini-Green Project was started in the name of urban renewal in order to replace the slums that depicted the horrendous situation of the neighborhood which was called Little Hell due to the degree of crimes that neighborhood witnessed on daily basis. This location was subject to all kinds of crime scenes. Cabrini-Green Project was initiated in 1940s and ended in 1960s. This project comprised of high-rise and low-rise apartment buildings for lowincome working class. This project seemed to be a success but later it saw some drastic changes and eventually turned into a slum all over again and housed all kinds of crimes including murder, robbery, drugs and so on (Chai, 2011). The project was uneconomic and not very well-maintained which resulted in failure of the project. Racial discrimination and disregard of authorities for this part of the city also played its part in decline of the neighborhood, socially as well as physically. Authorities started demolishing the buildings in GANGLAND: GANGSTER CITY (CHICAGO) 3 the name of wiping out crime from the locality. The residents agreed as they were told there would be a one-to-one replacement of residences but that did not happen as subsidized occupants started to live side by side with the ones disbursing full-market rates. The authorities, however, did not let the owners know that such arrangements have incentives to gradually drive out the subsidized occupants (Broken Promises: A Story of Public Housing's Decline, 2011). This project, however, was closed in 2009 with the demolition of the last high rise building on site. But a thriving real estate market has encouraged the authorities to once again try and rebuild the neighborhood for people living in far worse conditions. Chicago Housing Authority is planning on developing housing proposals for this site. Aim of these proposals would be to provide different options for people including retail space, subsidized and market-rate residential units for low-income people (Gallun, 2014). This redevelopment plan will be a three-phase building course. Out of these three phases, first phase is considered the most important one as it will add 970 to 1,270 housing units to the site. Private developers will be hired for the construction phase of this redevelopment plan. These residential units will have 30 percent public housing, 50 percent market rate and 20 percent affordable housing scheme so maximum low-income working class can afford these units (Biasco, 2015). GANGLAND: GANGSTER CITY (CHICAGO) 4 References Biasco, P. (April 23, 2015) Cabrini-Green Redevelopment Plan Includes Over 2,300 Homes Broken Promises: A Story of Public Housing's Decline. (2011) Strategic Practice. Grassroots Policy Project Chi, X. (2011) Redesign of a Demolished Neighborhood: Creating a Healthy, Safe and Sociable Cabrini Green in Chicago Gallun, A. (July 19, 2014) Around Cabrini-Green, the future looks bright.