Existing comment:
Decline of Neighborhoods:
By the late 1960s, Far Southeast suffered from a concentration of high-density residential apartment projects, many of them two- and three-story garden apartments. Much of the new construction was financed through the Federal Housing Administration's (FHA) 608 program, which guaranteed loans to developers covering 90% of the project's costs. Growth and new construction in the area was haphazard and uncontrolled.
Far Southeast also had long absorbed many new families pushed out of the central city by urban renewal initiatives. Despite the expanding population and increasing pressure on social and recreational services, local officials offered few new public facilities or infrastructure development. Schools, employment centers, police services, garbage trash removal, shopping centers, public libraries, recreational facilities, health care centers, child care facilities, and transportation did not keep pace with the demands of residents. Unemployment, drugs, and crime plagued many of the neighborhoods.
By 1970, city zoning laws designated almost 75% of the land area in Far Southeast for apartment buildings. Such zoning served to promote the interests of private investors and to encourage land speculation at the expense of community and public interests. One of the most harmful results of poor zoning in Far Southeast was to discourage home ownership in the area. High-rise and garden apartments crowded out single-family houses.
Because of deteriorating conditions, neighborhood workers, employed by Southeast Neighborhood House with funding by the United Planning Organization, helped area residents organize protests directed at city officials. Organizers focused their efforts on families living in Barry Farm Dwellings. They helped a number of groups to successfully challenge housing and welfare officials to improve some of the worst conditions. Youth groups demanded paved streets, new streetlights, and more recreational facilities. Civic, professional, and business groups in other east of the river neighborhoods also sought to improve conditions. |