‘Death of the ‘City of the Future,’ ” reads one 1974 headline about the demolition of St. Louis’ infamous Pruitt-Igoe housing projects, the subject of this bleak, clear-eyed documentary. But for the poor, largely Southern transplants who moved into the modernist buildings in 1956, the new complex was a dream come true.
One former resident, who’d previously lived in a shack, recalls rejoicing at her mom being able to sleep in an actual bed. Another fondly remembers a new Christmas record player and an impromptu dance party in the tight-knit community.
The sheen wore off quickly as maintenance work dwindled. The more the city girded the buildings against vandalism, the harder angry teens worked to defile them. Eventually, police and firemen openly refused to respond to calls at the drug-riddled, half-abandoned buildings.
Chad Freidrichs’ “The Pruitt-Igoe Myth” doesn’t offer easy conclusions. It does raise the question of how, and why, this idealistic answer to overcrowding so quickly morphed into a symbol of inner-city crime and filth, and how big a part racism played — and continues to play — in the construction and management of public housing.