Hacker Cinema
The Pruitt-Igoe Myth
2012 · Film · documentary · 79 min
Directed by Chad Freidrichs
Destroyed in a dramatic and highly-publicized implosion, the Pruitt-Igoe public housing complex has become a widespread symbol of failure amongst architects, politicians and policy makers. The Pruitt-Igoe Myth explores the social, economic and legislative issues that led to the decline of conventional public housing in America, and the city centers in which they resided, while tracing the personal and poignant narratives of several of the project's residents. In the post-War years, the American city changed in ways that made it unrecognizable from a generation earlier, privileging some and leaving others in its wake. The next time the city changes, remember Pruitt-Igoe.
4 positivefrom 4 commenters
Where to watch
No streaming data for this title.
5 comments on Hacker News
This is called out as concretely happening in the "The Pruitt-Igoe Myth" documentary.
> Welfare policies made things worse by denying benefits to families with adult males in residence. Fathers and husbands had to leave — or hide in the closet when social workers came to check. (quoted from a review [1])
[1] https://www.npr.org/2012/01/19/145343942/in-st-louis-an-urban-renewal-experiment-gone-bad
It's important to keep in mind that there have been significant policy decisions that diminish the positive impact of social programs by taking into account the marital status of those receiving them.
The documentary 'The Pruitt-Igoe Myth' provides a nice case study on the societal impact of otherwise banal policy and funding decisions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pruitt-Igoe_Myth
I also recommend this documentary on the Pruitt-Igoe public housing project in St. Louis >> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pruitt-Igoe_Myth
and also this youtuber (donoteat01) has some excellent commentary >> https://youtu.be/xqJbE1bvdgo
If you would like to see a housing project deteriorate there's a documentary on Amazon Prime called 'The Pruitt Igoe Myth'. tdlr; It was low income so the rents were not sustaining the maintenance costs, and the city chose not to allocate appropriate funds to that effect (some racism was in play here).
Just want to chime in and recommend two great documentaries I recently saw regarding inner-city housing in the seventies. It's not hard to imagine the war on drugs stemming from the same racism which caused white flight.
The Pruitt-Igoe Myth
Let the Fire Burn