Pruitt-Igoe

    Last night I dragged Robin to a showing and panel discussion of the film "The Pruitt-Igoe Myth".  Pruitt-Igoe was a housing project in North St. Louis that went from being touted as the solution to public housing to destruction in 20 years. All in all, I thought it was a very interesting film. They talked to several different residents of the buildings with very different perspectives, and filled in with history and commentary.
    Urban planners thought St. Louis would reach 1 million residents by the 1970s, and Pruitt-Igoe was built with that in mind. When white flight happened to the suburbs, it meant the move of jobs out to the suburbs as well, and no people to fill the large buildings. In St. Louis there is consistently discussion of the problems with decreasing population and a decimated tax base.
     Pruitt-Igoe was an interesting example of political discord contributing to destruction as well. Business interests wanted the slums destroyed, so they supported the building of Pruitt-Igoe as well. However, conservatives would not support the provision of federal funding for maintenance on the buildings. This meant the buildings had to rely on rent income for upkeep - fine when the residences are filled and the tenants can find jobs, not so fine when jobs have moved to the suburbs along with half of the anticipated residents.
    Okay I don't actually mean for this to be a history lesson, I just thought it was fascinating how we face many of the same issues with population concerns, demonization of public housing, racism and classism today.  Pruitt-Igoe is not an isolated case, and it's not really behind us. Systems and policies contribute to or combat social problems, and it sure seems we haven't done a great job of combatting. One of my favorite quotes of the night was one of the panelists, a resident of Pruitt-Igoe, who stated: "the only time you should look down on someone is when you are pulling them up". Not a new thought, but I love that idea.