GOOD OR BAD: WE MUST MOVE FORWARD

     Who is to blame for the failure of Pruitt Igoe? The truth, maybe we are all to blame. If human history, war, terror, climate change, and the "otherness" are to be believed, wherever humans go, destruction, greed, corruption, and selfishness will inevitably follow - the only difference is how well we hide it. As white residents fled the Pruitt Igoe project to the suburbs, they thought it was for a better life. Then suburban sprawl has catalyzed an entirely different collection of environmental and social problems. We are beings without content. 

    The architect simply designed the buildings - he has no say in how it is used. Is he to blame? The project was a vast collection of identical buildings without a tree, park, or moment of respite in sight. No individuality. No creativity. No adaptability. From my perception of the design characteristics of Pruitt Igoe, it appears almost communistic - those modernists and their universality. The architect is to blame. 

    The landlords and financiers paid for the project! They gave a gift, it's not their responsibility to do everything for everyone. Are they to blame? They threw a group of financially absent individuals into a massive collection of structures and expected them to afford its maintenance. They restricted half of each households income by not allowing men to live there. The sponsor is to blame. 

    The residents simply lived in the conditions provided to them, and they cannot be responsible for how it is maintained or how other people treat the facilities. The residents are ultimately the ones responsible for damaging the property in the first place, and wiping their hands clean of its maintenance or recovery. The human thing to do when breaking a light bulb is to replace that light bulb - not leave it for someone else. Just because a few people trash and vandalize the facilities does not mean it can become widespread. The lack of community, togetherness, identity, and respect for each other and the situation everyone is in exacerbated the problem. The residents are to blame. 

    The maintenance crews were just doing their job, it's not their fault they faced an impossible task. The solution to the vandalism was to implement systems that "could not be destroyed," and facing that impossible task prevented the work from getting done. In a collective community, people come together to solve a problem regardless of who is to blame. It doesn't matter whose fault it is, just fix it and move on. The maintenance crews are to blame. 

    The police should not be responsible for responding to calls in dangerous zones if they feel their life is at stake. That is their job. If there is a crime problem in a particular area, the police should be pulled away from traffic stops, speed tickets, and donut shops, regardless of their financial implications, and should be refocused on those areas. Forget Mildred going five miles per hour too fast, and join your comrades to save a life and protect the residents. Otherwise, get off the force. The police are to blame. 

    We are simply observers years after the fact. Pruitt Igoe is torn down, there's nothing more for me to do. The problems these disenfranchised people faced are still very prevalent today. They may not be as unified in one location, but they exist. Pruitt Igoe should be an eye-opening example of everything we all did wrong, and we should learn from it in order to rectify our own actions. Thousands of people are living in conditions no better than the ones at Pruitt Igoe, and it is very easy for us to stand from afar and judge, criticize, or ignore. We are just as much to blame.