Summer 1987, Chapter 3 Summary

LaJoe remembers the day she moved into the Henry Horner Homes at the age of four with her parents and siblings. The projects were new with some still under construction, so she was excited by the richness of the brand new bricks and clean windows. The homes were from seven to fifteen stories high and covered eight blocks. As the first family to move into their building of sixty-five apartments, it was quiet and tranquil. The project was one of many controversial publicly financed high rise housing projects sprouting in cities across the nation, typically built on the edge of existing slums. As with most public high rises, the Henry Horner homes were built with breezeways rather than walled hallways so that elevator cables constantly froze in the winter. The apartment walls were built with cinderblock and with medicine cabinets joined...