The Last Days of Cabrini-Green

by Ben Austen, Harrison David Rivers

In 1992, the deadliest year in Chicago’s history, 7-year-old Dantrell Davis was shot and killed in front of his elementary school inside the public housing complex Cabrini-Green. What happened to Dantrell led to a truce among Chicago’s gangs, but it also ignited a national panic about poverty and violence in America’s cities. Dantrell’s name would soon be used to demolish all of Chicago’s high-rise public housing, displacing tens of thousands of low-income families.
Through first-person accounts, original reporting, and dramatized scenes, The Last Days of Cabrini-Green tells the story of Dantrell Davis and his mother Annette Freeman and how Cabrini-Green’s rise and fall changed the course of American public housing.

Please note: The Last Days of Cabrini-Green has some fictionalized accounts of real events, including violence.

This is a co-production from AT WILL MEDIA & Campside Media.

©2024 AT WILL MEDIA (P)2024 Audible Originals, LLC

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Audiobook, True Crime, Crime, American History

Audible Audio

Published November 14, 2024

About the author

Ben Austen has written for numerous publications, including the New York Times Magazine, Harper’s Magazine, The Atlantic, GQ, and Wired. He lives in Chicago.

Reviews

[Jeanette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting storyline - nonfiction. I wish it was longer, more Indepth, but for the length it gave a really good historic description of what Cabrini-Green meant to the residents. I didn't think I would like the interspersing of a narrator and a play, but it worked very well. I've read a few other books about Cabrini-Green, but they were fiction. I also know people who grew up there in the 70s-80s and what is explained in this book is true to what they have shared with me. I would recommend this book highly.

[Cassandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

The audio was done well. I didn’t care for the dramatization but the story was interesting, sad, and eye opening.

[Nora Benson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A deep-dive into a pivotal moment in Chicago’s history, The Last Days of Cabrini-Green brings the story of 7 year old Dantrell Davis’s death to life through a unique combination of in-depth reporting, first-person interviews, and dramatized reneactments. It explores how his death became a turning point for Cabrini-Green and public housing across Chicago, while exploring broader themes of poverty, violence, and systemic change. Important storytelling that left me wanting to read High Risers.

[David Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favorite Quote =“Cabrini is down but not out. Have no doubt.”

[Sarah Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life in Cabrini-Green in the 80’s and 90’s was riddled with gang violence and kids caught in the crossfire. One female resident successfully appealed to the gang leaders for a truce in 1992. She also came up with a plan to put more resources into public housing to improve the lives of residents. She did more for the residents than any politician at the time. Mayor Daly and Senator Joe Biden instead promoted “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” and pushed a tough on crime stance and were seen by many as white colonizers who reversed the progress that the residents themselves proposed. The result was that the treaty fell apart.

[Meredith · Rating 4 out of 5]

5 stars for the main portion of the book. 3 stars for the dramatized portions which were fine but I didn’t think they added that much. Time could have been used for additional historical context.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the re-enactments were a bit odd, but overall a very interesting though heartbreaking history.

[Danielle Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow!! It’s really crazy to learn that the Candyman story has so many ties to the real life story of displaced Black people in Chicago.

This story keeps happening in every city across America. Gentrification as a means to try to erase African-Americans from the city to build something better.

First the local government put these people in public housing in the city because white people want the suburbs. Then they want to destroy that housing to for luxury condos and apartments WHENEVER white people want to move back to the city.

Such an evil race of people to ALWAYS look for ways to mistreat all people with melanin. Disgusting!

[Norma · Rating 4 out of 5]

( Format : Audiobook )
"Everyone knows Cabrini-Green."

The accidental death by shooting of a,seven years old boy on his way to school with his mother initiated a response corrected essentially against the whole area which was supposed to make it better, saved but which, in reality, benefited almost everyone except the residents of the time. It looks beyond the immediate to the wider issues of financial and social poverty.
A little clunky at times but mostly well told with multi person participation in the telling of this really sad story. Very much recommended and free to download from the Audible Plus programme.

[Missy]

Ben Austen's The Last Days of Cabrini-Green is not a book that I can give a rating to as its a true story about the death of a child which lead to the demise of the Cabrini-Green housing project in Chicago. How can you give a rating to a story which is about court documents, retellings of the death of a child, and a mother's pain.

I found it interesting to learn about what happened to the housing projects in the city. I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago around the time of the murder of this child and during the dismantling of the housing projects but didn't know the backstories behind why they were being dismantled. I just knew about the "projects" and how dangerous they were.

[Kevin McAvoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short review of life and death in the Cabrini Green apartments complex.
Dramatised in parts and the voice acting is good.
Some recordings of the real people involved too.
There are some other books that address the problems that Chicago residents lived through, very corrupt police officers being a major one.
A quick intro to a major social nightmare including openly admitted racial discrimination.

[Oscar Lilley · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's to have a better understanding behind the real setting for urban bogeyman Candy Man and how it served as a microcosm for the dysfunction and generational trauma of public housing. But I felt that there was more time allotted to complaints without tangible solutions. It seemed wildly different strategies implented to solve the problem were all met with derision. I'd like to see the author become HUD secretary for a 4 year hitch and see if anything is any better.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed listening to this. Pieces of history we don't hear about because it's the feeling of something so local. I was just a child when this happened so, if my parents saw it on the news, I never was exposed to it. As an adult now, learning about this story and about the people that it affected was an emotional thing to sit through. I felt it was very well done and worth the time spent listening to it.

[Brenda Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story was interesting - especially since I was completely unaware of it. I appreciated the 'behind-the-scenes' interviews and different perspectives represented. Unfortunately, the scenes that were 'acted' fell flat with me. I'm sure they were meant to provide more of a sense of what the experience was like for those involved, but it just distracted from the storyline to me.

I am a fan of Ben Austen's work, and would love to hear more from him.

[John Geddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting microhistory of the effects of the housing crisis and affordable housing. It's got an impressive amount of first person accounts, although it paints sort of a rosy, utopian perspective on certain players and events. Even so, definitely interesting.

[Leticia Rice · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very well written…you smile and feel sad with this. If you are from Chicago and you know the projects you can relate even if it’s not Cabrini Green. It’s a little bit
nostalgic. I actually listened to it twice.

[Dan Ferrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not exactly a book, it very much worth a mention and a listen. Free on Audible as of 01/08/25. A great story of Cabrini-Green and 1990s Chicago’s public housing. Includes interviews with many who lived there for years.

[Jen Fish · Rating 4 out of 5]

A documentary about Chicago’s public housing and the multiple failed efforts to make it safe for its vulnerable residents.

I found it to be very moving and informative. Asks a lot of hard questions and, sadly, doesn’t have any of the answers.

[Niki · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the true story or the neighborhood in Chicago called Cabrini-Green. This was an older neighborhood in the north side of Chicago that was made of several large buildings where the very poor people lived. There were murders and drugs everywhere so there was so much to overcome.

[Amy Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know what the answer is to housing projects. This was a good description of the politics around it though.

[Melissa Wagner · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

[AttackGirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dramatic story but… BUT why do we have PUBLIC HOUSING.

[Kimberly Alowitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

lots to this... and powerful lived experiences

[Tracy Hollen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 stars

[Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

This audio-book recounts the final years, months, and days of what was once the most infamous housing project in America: Chicago's Cabrini-Green. There is much valuable information here and a number of first-hand accounts from those involved in shutting Cabrini down--including those who lived there. There are two problems that stick out here especially.

The first is the reenactments of events and conversations--they are a jarring mishmash that takes the listener into a make-believe and less serious mental space. Some of the voice actors are compelling, others are cartoonish. They should have abandoned this and stuck to archival audio and interviews/oral histories with the primary sources.

The second is the author's clear bias--and an odd one given that the hook premise at the top is the despicable murder (which the author suggests is unsolved to this day in spite of a conviction and confession) of a child in a crime-ridden community full of gangs, shootings, drug addiction, and unemployment. Austen does whatever he can to redeem the kind of life people lived in Cabrini--essentially because it had nice views of the lake and downtown and was cheap--while pretending the deeper issues at play at Cabrini were a mere matter of municipal neglect and under-resourcing. In normal circumstances, people don't live in places where they cannot find work--they move away in search of jobs. That doesn't happen in the case of heavily subsidized housing, because you've created a situation of moral hazard, where it might make more sense to some to stay in what would otherwise be untenable conditions. There is no discussion of this phenomenon and all arguments against public housing projects are treated usuriously, suspiciously, and as strawmen to be knocked over. This is not compelling and leads to what might otherwise be a very good exploration to be about average.