Talk:Robert Taylor Homes

Deleted
Deleted "Arguably, the most famous person to come from the project was baseball superstar Kirby Puckett (1960-2006), who played with the American League's Minnesota Twins from 1984 to 1996." ... a rather fuzzy statement, and Mr. T took Conan O'Brien to the site of his former home in the Taylor projects.

Problems with History Section
There are some major problems with the history section of this article. The main issue is tense; the section refers to the "prime years" in the present tense, even though that was a long time ago. It references "a recent weekend" but when was that? There are no citations for any of this information, and most of it is clearly copied from the "www.findarticles.com" link listed at the bottom of the page. Also, there are many grammatical and continuity problems.


 * The section reads like an essay as well, which isn't really appropriate. Natalie 23:50, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

Another Problem with History Section
There's some issue about the naming. Clarence Williams' article (MIT -- linked in the external sites section) says that the projects were named after MIT alumnus (class of 1892 -- first Black to graduate from MIT), Robert Robinson Taylor. The current article states that the projects were named after a Robert Taylor who sat on the Chicago Housing Authority board in the 1950s. MIT alumnus Taylor died in 1942 so the naming would have been posthumous -- though Robert Taylor (even Robert Robinson Taylor) is probably a common name. Can someone clear this up? Coincidence (CHA board member Taylor and MIT alum Taylor sharing the same name) or an error somewhere?

Chris (talk) 21:18, 17 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Added citation to Illinois State Historical Society paper.  --John Nagle (talk) 15:36, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

Copyright Violation?
The latest edit seems to add a significant amount of text directly from the CNN article posted yesterday: http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/08/taylor.homes.ap/index.html

And there's a lot of lifting from: http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7002&page=1 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Brycen (talk • contribs) 06:51, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

Article reverted to previous revision. Msolson 21:12, 9 October 2006 (UTC)


 * Please remove this link as a source on the page, as it is no longer valid. 216.47.133.135 18:27, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

Quality
There's a lot of rumour in this article. Maybe it should be put on some solid ground and be partly rewritten. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kaffeeringe.de (talk • contribs)
 * Agreed. Much has been written about the Robert Taylor Homes. I added one good citation to a historical study. There are entire books on the subject. --John Nagle (talk) 15:50, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

Sudhir Venkatesh
Discussion of the veracity of his research should go on his page, but re: this one, it's worth noting that in the chapters of Freakonomics, the gang mentioned is the Black Disciples (an actual gang, but with a different history than that portrayed), whereas apparently in Mr. Venkatesh's new book the same group is called the Black Kings (which doesn't appear elsewhere in online discussion of Chicago's gangs (the actual gang was the Black King Cobras)). More research/other sources are probably needed. -114.91.67.205 (talk) 10:45, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

300 Shootings
found some possible proof. http://books.google.com/books?id=_8ADAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA14&lpg=PA14&dq=robert+taylor+homes+300+shootings&source=bl&ots=9OgiGhVUY-&sig=PhUco3VRQLTMlGwUeQjx5jSdrWk&hl=en&ei=Qc4lS8zUE4SENMWN8OQJ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CA4Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=300&f=false —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kiernansanders (talk • contribs) 05:37, 14 December 2009 (UTC)

Dated, no history, shows methodological bias
Although several excellent contemporary studies are cited, the article nervously refuses to discuss what those books say caused the housing project's failure. Nobody doing urban ethnic studies today, on any part of the political spectrum, tries to blame it on poor architecture! Go back to the books cited and report more accurately what their conclusions were. For a sense of history, start with Jane Jacobs, and the classic American novel NATIVE SON, whose first chapters take place in a redlined Chicago before the now-despised projects. Like other progressive Columbia College students, I worked, in 1963-4, as a housing inspector in NYC Single Room Occupancy (one bathroom per floor) slums later replaced by housing projects. Those row houses from the 1800s had so many rats in them, our job was warning mothers not to leave milk bottles in babies' mouths, or the rats would bite the babies to get the milk. The projects were a huge step up in sanitation. Like the Chicago projects, they became war zones for cultural reasons. All studies acknowledge that now, to prevent it in the future. The article is so nervous about making some kind of politically incorrect faux pas, it isn't quoting them. Profhum (talk) 08:02, 28 December 2012 (UTC)