Not in my neighborhood

The City of Chicago published a list of vacant lots in every ward in the early 1970s. As a result, protests erupted in many of those areas as residents thought construction of subsidized housing was about to begin in their neighborhoods. And they didn’t want it.

Despite a court order calling for scattered site, low-income housing in Chicago, city officials ended up only building the units in neighborhoods where they didn’t anticipate serious opposition.

One of those areas, in Edgewater and Uptown, came to be known as the “Kenmore-Winthrop Corridor,” a favorite site for government officials to place people who weren’t desired elsewhere.

The protesters got what they wanted.