Last Tenant Moving from Cabrini-Green Tower

Annie Ricks, who raised 7 children in Cabrini-Green, moved today from her apartment in the dilapidated old white high-rise at 1230 N Burling Street, the building just northeast of the intersection of Halsted and Division on the Near North side, becoming the last resident to move out of the infamous aged structures.  Ricks, who had previously balked at leaving, departed for an apartment at Wentworth Gardens on the South Side.


"I'm kind of excited because change is good," said Ricks' 17-year-old daughter, Rose. "...I just hope it's going to be safe."


Cabrini-Green once included 23 high-rises and housed 15,000 low-income residents.  The Chicago Housing Authority first proposed demolishing the buildings in place of mixed-income townhouses in 1994.

1230 N Burling, Chicago

The building I managed for over 4 years, Renaissance North, is a mixed-finance property in the Cabrini area, and 18 of my resident families were direct transfers from the high-rises being torn down.  I became friends with most of them, great friends with a few, and while they have their issues, all of them were loving, intelligent, capable people.  And they deserve better than to be stuck in a rotting tower.  So, good riddance and never again.