This documentary on Pruitt-Igoe was a very good portrayal of how poorly executed public housing is in the United States. This film brought me back to a discussion that I had in my History of Architecture class about whether housing should be a basic human right. During the discussion many of us highlighted that shelter is a necessity but the infrastructure for affordable housing is very complex when there is no profit being made. Sadly, many of the  projects similar to Pruitt-Igoe do not have the funding and government backing to grow as a community. When you think of affordable housing you also have to look at the wealth gap between many of these neighborhoods and how the decline of the St. Louis economy specifically affected the successfulness of Pruitt-Igoe.

I really enjoyed this film as U never knew that there were so many factors to consider when developing housing. It’s sad that the city would create these poorly constructed housing projects for people with lower incomes. This film definitely put into perspective how people with lower incomes have to deal with so much more oppression even when it comes to their property.

This documentary discusses the failure of the Pruitt-Igoe public housing complex. In this documentary, the film touches on the factors that lead to its failure. This film reminded me of the novel, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. I think after watching the documentary and reading the novel, I realized the complex factors that are involved in public housing. Moreover, I’ve realized how much housing affects our day to day lives. I think when we’re younger and we have housing, we can take it for granted. Housing controls so many factors in life. I think because of its importance, doing public housing correctly is next to impossible. And I think because of failures like Pruitt-Igoe, it’s made it even more difficult for low-income families to find housing which I found to be true in Evicted. Although I, myself, cannot provide a direct solution for this problem, I want to learn more about what’s being done and how I can help in the future.

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth was a heartbreaking documentary that illustrated the harsh realities of living at Pruitt-Igoe. I learned so much from this film and how structural racism affects so many aspects of life. This documentary showed the perspectives of the residents, as opposed to sticking with the dominant narrative, which blamed the residents or architecture. In reality, racism and the economy played a great role. Housing was often used to segregate neighborhoods and isolate black and poor people. The problem of Pruitt-Igoe lies in structural racism, the declining St. Louis economy, and the lack of funding from the government. It was really sad to see how hopeful residents were only to have all of their hopes crushed as the living conditions slowly started to deteriorate.  As the economy declined, there were fewer jobs and the community was greatly impacted. The government denied its responsibilities and did not properly fund the project. Pruitt-Igoe was no longer maintained and conditions grew worse: there was an overflow of garbage, pipes and plumbing were failing, and the building itself was falling apart. It was heartbreaking to see how everything fell apart. It is important to learn about these historical events and understand how they have lasting effects. I highly recommend that people watch this and learn more about Pruitt-Igoe.

Watching The Pruitt-Igoe Myth film was another interesting look into our country’s history, specifically, the housing system in the 1960s and 70s. What struck me most about the film was the inclusion of people who had actually lived in the housing complex and watched as the project eventually fell apart. Often looking back into history seems like these events are so far from the present time. However, these residents are living evidence of the Pruitt-Igoe project and the impact it had. Despite the downfall of the complex, listening to the stories of the residents was heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. Specifically, since most of them were children when they moved into their housing unit much of their youth and prime years of growth were spent at Pruitt-Igoe. Many residents shared that even today they look back at their time there as precious. They recalled moments when the residents of the complex felt like a close family. It’s sad to think how their experiences ended when they still remember their time there so dearly.

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth dealt with the misconceptions regarding a peculiar, niche incident. The film is about the Pruitt–Igoe public housing complex in St.Louis, Missouri. A once modern building (designed by the architect of the World Trade center0, the building now remains in ruins, waiting to be destroyed. The film dives deep into why it failed when the best of the best were recruited to make this housing complex. The film addresses popular misconceptions like how the moral decline of the tenants led to its demise. Instead, it focused on how societal conventions and restrictions prevented these tenants from living a better life and moving up the social ladder. It’s a great film about poverty and society, and it definitely broadened my perspective and exposure about public housing.

The Pruitt-Igoe film talked about public housing and its connection to race and financial status. A great point raised was the means by which slumlords would exploit financially burdened individuals who urgently required a home, by giving homes that had horrible day to day environments. I’m astonished at how minimal guideline there was for slumlords, and how the public authority and associations in positions to help did pretty much nothing  to advance day to day environments, despite the fact that the lodging circumstance was desperate and unquestionably required quick consideration. I think that government should take more responsibility on improving the socioeconomic status of residents.

I attended the screening of the Pruitt-Igoe Myth and I learned a lot about this housing project. From my other classes, I knew why the architecture of the building made it prone to failure, but it was nice to get some sociocultural and economic context as well. During this time, white people were leaving the area, leaving behind the poor; these people didn’t have jobs or resources and the government didn’t provide them with much assistance either. The interviews with residents really made the situation seem more real because they were able to provide personal anecdotes. I think something that resonated the most with me was that sometimes residents couldn’t distinguish between other residents versus potential robbers. This just seemed scary because home is supposed to be a safe place with familiar faces, but clearly Pruitt-Igoe wasn’t a home.

I attended the viewing of The Pruitt-Igoe Myth documentary and found the interviews with the format tenets very inspiring. The living conditions at the housing project were less than ideal, but the former residents all were seemingly cheerful when recounting their experiences. I found this inspiring considering the hardships associated with living there at the time. It was a reminder time times like this pandemic to focus on the positives rather than the negatives.

“The Pruitt-Igoe Myth” was eye-opening to me because the housing complex had so much promise, yet fell into disarray and ultimately failed. The original promotion video of Pruitt-Igoe contrasted sharply with the actual experiences of Pruitt-Igoe’s tenants. It saddened me to hear about the problems tenants faced as Pruitt-Igoe declined. The stories of murder and robbery were alarming and are something no family should have to endure. I liked how the movie looked at the issue from a wider perspective. Earlier explanations of the failure of Pruitt-Igoe talked mainly about architectural problems, but the documentary shed light on broader issues that plagued St. Louis such as the economic decline of the city, racism, and white flight. I appreciated this context because it would feel off to me to attribute decades of issues to bad building design. Overall, I hope future public housing initiatives will not repeat the mistakes of Pruitt-Igoe.

Going into this film, I had no knowledge of project housing or its implications. I had at most heard of the term in passing, but with no detail attached. Sitting down to watch this film was incredibly eye-opening, interesting, and moving. The film as a whole was an educational experience, and I feel more inclined to learn more about the topic of project housing after seeing this film. I was left feeling curious about what/if any project housing has been successful. But aside from its educational qualities, the film itself was incredibly engaging. I enjoyed hearing the historical context for the situation as a whole, as the trajectory Pruitt-Igoe took made far more sense. It was then the personal interviews that made the overall film moving and more personal. The interviews humanized the overall story, and hearing firsthand about the difficulties these people went through made it feel more tangible. The interviews also made the situation as a whole feel less like a disconnected historical event, but something  more recent.

After experiencing the film of the Pruitt-Igoe Myth, the people that lived there and suffered definitely have my sympathy, as the things that happened to them are just horrible. With the rise in racism and discrimination after the era of World War II, the housing complex of Pruitt-Igoe was subjected to a lack of attention to sanitary or structural conditions. With the white flight going on, the overall population of St. Louis was declining and maintenance of the complex was declining as well, leading to people to fend for themselves without any assistance. The implosion of the building was for the better, since living conditions there were now intolerable. After hearing the firsthand experiences of people trying to make it through life living at the building, it became possible that a person’s worst nightmares can become true for these people.

Pruitt-Igoe was once a very promising housing project. Designed by the master architect Minoru Yamasaki, the designer behind the original World Trade Center, Pruitt-Igoe was a manifestation city planners’ vision of providing affordable yet quality housing to the underprivileged. However, the community rapidly deteriorated due to unsanitary conditions and high crime rates, resulting in the project’s complete failure in merely 2 decades. Pruitt-Igoe’s quick demise has given grounds for many scholars to advocate that government control on the market is undesirable. In particular, putting money and efforts into public housing is equivalent to bracing a known failure. While this reasoning might seem sound, the film provides us ample background information to re-evaluate the Pruitt-Igoe situation, and the conclusion is not that simple.

St. Louis was a declining city in the 50s – 70s. Its economy did not rebound from WWII like some other places in the US, and at the same time, it was witnessing an outflow of population. People moved away from the city to the suburbs, driving the population in the 70s down to only half of that in the 50s. Many residents in Pruitt-Igoe also left, which drove the rent up for the remaining population. Soaring rents further fueled dissatisfaction of the poor living condition among the residents, provoking them to vandalize the community and commit crimes, and further worsening the living condition. In the end, Pruitt-Igoe became an unmanageable community free from the control of the police, and eventually a failure.

What if Pruitt-Igoe was built in a different city or at a different time period? The outcome would probably be very different. The true pitfall of this project was that public housing should be built in growing cities with dense populations, not a city like St. Louis at that time that suffers from an economic downturn. Therefore, advocating that no public housing should be built would be an overgeneralized statement. Poverty problems still need to be dealt with, and in my opinion, public housing is a great plan to start with. Future public housing projects should learn from the lesson of Pruitt-Igoe and base their decisions on a more thorough background evaluation.

Before this film, I did not know too much about the Pruitt-Igoe buildings or who lived in them. I was surprised that these buildings were created with good intentions to bring in low-income residents, but were destroyed in 1976 due to vandalism and other problems. Listening to first-hand accounts of people who used to live there, allowed me to see that many people did have good memories through all the hardships they faced. One of the reasons for these good memories was due to the tight-knit people in the community who wanted to improve the life of their children. I could not believe that the suburbs were created to pull the middle-class people away from the city, once the Pruitt-Igoe buildings were made. I was also shocked at how unethical slumlords were, the fact that their actions made the lives of the tenants much worse is terrible. Overall, this film was one of the most informative and interesting that I have seen so far.

One thing about today’s documentary that struck me was the unwillingness to adapt on the part of the government. When St. Louis began losing population at an alarming rate, it became obvious that the future that the planners of the Pruitt-Igoe development had anticipated would never come to pass. There would not be enough tenants to fill every building, and the rent from those tenants would not be enough to pay for the upkeep of the buildings. Still, instead of finding different ways to support the project, the government essentially allowed it to deteriorate to the point where it became unlivable, even though so many people still lived there.

The Pruitt-Igoe film discussed public housing and its relation to race and socioeconomic status. An intriguing point brought up was how slumlords would take advantage of economically disadvantaged people who desperately needed a home, by providing homes that had terrible living conditions. I’m surprised at how little regulation there was for slumlords, and how the government and organizations in positions to help did little (or if they did anything, acted very slowly) to improve living situations, even though the housing situation was dire and definitely required immediate attention. I think that the Pruitt-Igoe film shows how governments should work on improving socioeconomic statuses for citizens, which will decrease situations where people are desperate for a place to live but have no means to afford it or to find a better place to live.

I attended the viewing of “The Pruitt-Igoe Myth” and it brought new perspectives for me on racial division and government intervention. In order to get rid of slums in St. Louis, Missouri, the government decided to pour massive amounts of money into public housing and erected the Pruitt-Igoe project. This complex was a group of 33 buildings, which stood at 11-stories. For a few years, the buildings had enough renters to pay for maintenance and other necessities, but as people began to move to the suburbs, people began to leave and maintenance essentially stopped for the buildings. The people were living in horrible conditions and rents kept increasing.

When the project was torn down, people on the outside of the complex blamed the people within for their own issues, for the failed project. However, most of the people were merely reacting to the way they were being treated. They lived in horrible conditions, with minimal security. People who didn’t even live in Pruitt-Igoe would go into the buildings to steal, hurt, r*pe the vulnerable that lived there, it was so easy to get into the buildings. The police didn’t respond to calls from the Pruitt-Igoe area after a while. The welfare department made stupid rules for the people, like an able man couldn’t reside in the same house as a woman on welfare for dependent children. Fathers would have to hide if they wanted to stay with their families and were arrested if found. 

This is another system that failed because the people weren’t really given the tools they needed to survive. People have basic needs that need to be met and the buildings essentially just became the slums that the government was trying to get rid of. The people were prisoners in a way and they were oppressed by the government and people outside of the complex. There was such a stigma that came with living in Pruitt-Igoe that was definitely undeserved, as the conditions there were a result of the system. Now the entire 55 acre complex is just an empty plot, like the project never existed at all, but it’s an example of issues with society and its real effects on blameless people.