The Mayor in the Projects

During spring 1981, one of my favorite persons at the time, Chicago mayor Jane Byrne, made the announcement that she and her husband were going to move into my old neighborhood: the Cabrini-Green housing projects. Cabrini-Green was one of the most infamous, notorious projects to live in.

This was not because there were so many people with deviant behavior present there but rather because there were a few who made life miserable for the rest of us. I could hardly believe it when the news reports announced that the mayor wanted to leave her home and come live with us in the projects as…