Re:Maybe they are like the Projects in US cities that I have read of,
housing projects (ie, low income housing projects, build with federal money, but administered by state/local authorities)vary greatly, not only city to city, and state to state, but even with-in a city...
NYC has some very desirable projects... they are neat, well kept, the surrounding area have middle to high income values.. etc,.. and some projects that are high rise slums, rife with crime.
When they were first build (many in the 1930, the last in the 1960's) they were very desirable and most housed working poor. my ex's parents lived in one (in harlem) when he was born and till the he was age 8 or so. FIL was an engineer for Parks Dept (he worked on both worlds fairs) MIL was a Nurse (work for non-profit 'The foundling Home', later worked for NYC Dept of Health.--doing TB treatment.)
In late 1960's, a combination of things happened, rural poor from south moved north (to Chicago, Detroit, NY, Phili) and manytimes overwhelmed the cities abilities to absorb them.. welfare was easy to get, and many projects went from being a place for working poor families, to being warehouses for displaced rural single parent families on welfare. Drug use was everywhere in the late 1960's and 1970's, but in the projects, with high density populations, and poor social outlooks, it was worse.
some projects 'failed' other projects came through not only intact, but in better shape than ever.
NYC is lucky. most people live in high rise buildings..people like me, actively chose to do so... better projects, at first glance are hard to recognize.
about 5 years ago, i was driving a intern (summer technology intern) 'home' to his place in downtown brooklyn. was we approached the brooklyn bridge, we passed the 'Alfred E Smith' housing project. the intern looked at buildings, (rather plain red bricks) and the site (in the shadow of the bridge)with, several parks and play area's visible) and expressed a desire 'to be able to live there' he found them, as viewed from the car, to be as nice as other 'building complexes' ( some luxury, some middle class)we had passed along the way.
thing is, bad housing projects get a lot of bad press, good ones don't.. everyone ends up thinking all housing projects are bad.
