High Rise Stories: Voices from Chicago Public Housing (Voice of Witness)
In 1999, the Chicago Housing Authority’s (CHA) Plan for Transformation instigated the relocation of thousands of families and the destruction of buildings that had once held such promise, especially for families who came to the city as part of the Great Migration. In the latest book from the admirable and acclaimed Voices of Witness oral-history series, we hear from public-housing residents. The majority of the narrators, each a memorable storyteller, have mixed feelings about seeing the high rises demolished, and we feel their confusion: these besieged towers were home but also the source of so much pain and neglect. As touching, illuminating, and valuable as these personal accounts are, Petty includes much more.  The incredibly useful appendixes include a time line, glossary, and commentary from scholar D. Bradford Hunt and journalist Ben Austen. Also of great interest is an excerpt from a 2011 CHA report on 10 years of relocations and demolitions. This book accomplishes its mission to give voice to public-housing residents tenfold but is equally successful as a significant work of  American urban history. --Annie Tully