6—The Daily Collegian Tuesday, April 7, 1981 Byrne's new home: troubled • • By SHARON COHEN Associated Press Writer CHICAGO (AP) Cabrini-Green. The words mean trouble. Trouble for young children forced to join gangs for protection and security in the spawling housing project and carry guns and ammunition when they're just 10 or 11 —sometimes to school. Trouble for old folks unable to fight back when young robbers prey on their infirmity or demand protection money —sometimes setting fire to their apartment doors when no one answers. Trouble for young mothers•who have no man in the house. They can't fight either, and they can't afford to move out. And trouble for the unfortunate, like Ronald Carthen. In the chilly darkness of a January night, Ronald and his mother returned to their apartment in the brick towers of Cabrini-Green. Minutes later, a shot rang out, • three men fled the apartment and Ronald was dead. He was 9. Ronald was the youngest victim in the latest wave of violence, gang warfare and terror to grip the public housing project and the 14,000 people who live there. While shootings and other violent crimes are not new to Cabrini-Green or other large public housing projects in this city, the scope of the latest rash of shootings, rapes and extortion last week stirred Mayor Jane M. Byrne to announce that she will move into Cabrini- Green. It was a gesture designed to demonstrate the city's determination to wipe out gang activity and violence in the project, where joblessness is pervasive and poverty is a partner in crime. Ten people all of them black and most of them young have been gunned down within nine weeks. At least 35 others were wounded. Some of the killings were acts of senseless violence, but police say others were part of a gang war for control of drug traffic. The mayor said that simply by announcing her intention to move to Cabrini-Green she forced the gangs to evacuate. "There's been a complete dropoff of criminality associated with gangs," said Lt. Robert Jones, head of a special police patrol at the 23-building high-rise project. "There is a feeling of peace and security that was not here before." The mayor has promised to push troublemakers out of the project with evictions if they're found with weapons or drugs or don't pay the rent. Twenty-four families were evicted on Friday three for antisocial behavior. But Jones says the calm is probably only temporary. "This has happened before," he said. ". . . It's going to be dead. And then there will be a resurgence. There always is . . . The fire is'smouldering. It's not out." Renault Robinson, a member of the Chicago Housing Authority; agrees. The gangs will resurface, he says, when' the police leave. "These kids aren't crazy. They can't stand around and take care of their trade with the spotlight around them. What the gangs hay . e done is shifted their trade to other places nearby. "They're all laughing. As soon.as the mayor leaves and the TV cameras leave, they'll go back." • In the last year, police say, two black street gangs the Black Gangster Disciple Nation and the Cobra Stones —have wrested control of Cabrini-Green from its inhabitants and the city with operations as sophisticated as an army. There are generals, lieutenants and foot soldiers. There are chiefs and enforcers. The Disciples control all but five of the project's 23 buildings, some of them 19 stories tall, _says Phil Watzke, a tactical officer who has worked in the area for a decade. But turf isn't the main concern. These gangs are TONIGHT at the iio..,••___ ,-. . ....• . , •i rod•Y)Ezoc. ..) w...... 0. . 4 111 1 / 2 E Beaver Ni f ie • 0 a o . 0 • 0 Night -- 1 --::-.- and • ' i • 1 • .. , ,•,• Red Rose 11 Cotillion AR,,,,„ ho usfoF Fl N E Beef 237.0361 "The Arena is Giving Away Steaks" 130 Heister St. with the purchase of an Arena all you can eat Salad Buffet for '5.95 - the Arena will ,treat you to a FREE sirloin steak dinner. offer good Monday & Tuesday =ET fighting to control narcotics, Robinson said. "If you're able to be the main supplier of drugs, you have to be able to walk around without harassment from other gang members." Police say there are about 600 gang members at Cabrini-Green and some 2,000 collaborators, who store weapons and allow members to snipe from their apart ments. Older gang members "use juveniles to do things." says John Gill, CHA chief of security at the project. "Juveniles snatch purses, rob, shoot in windows. How much can (the law) do to a juvenile?" More than 9,000 of the project's residents are under 21.0 f some 3,500 households, less then 300 are two parent families, while 2,750 are headed by , a single parent most of them women. And most cannot escape. The median income for a family of four at Cabrini-Greeh is $4,580 a year about half the official poverty level. More than 3,000 house holds rely solely on public aid, Social Security or pensions. Idle young men hang out on street corners and graffiti-splattered hallways and stairwells. That's where most of the trouble begins. "A substantial number of guys, they don't have jobs," said Elton Barrett, the project's housing man ager. "They ante up, they drink wine and smoke reefer and then they have the nerve to say and do a lot of things they normally wouldn't do." But Robinson said the city has to share the blame. "The entire city bureaucracy doesn't work," he said. "The sanitation trucks pass right by. The police keep going. Everything does not work well in public housing. You can't deny Cabrini-Green everything and expect it to be all right." She later said she and her husband would not live in the project full-time, but instead would use the apart ment as an "in-town" apartment. 4:00 - 9:00 Arena 130 Heister St. next to Cinemas MEI , ~.ii. j 1. 1 . , 11 El 6:3 Uiii qt Tim Cullen Public Affairs Director, World Bank, Wash., D.C. "American Attitudes Toward Developing Countries" Thurs., Apr. 9 8 p.m. 112 Kern phi Chicago Mayor Jane M. Byrne is seen in this file photo leaving a Cabrini-Green apartment building after a brief inspection of the complex. The ghetto housing project has been the site of gang fighting and several murders. The State College Area School District Instrumental Music Department Presents Jazz Trumpeter CLARK TERRY "": and his NEW BIG BAD BANU Wednesday, April 8 8:00 Westerly Parkway Junior High' Auditorium All Tickets $5.00 Available at the Door ,% - _ , .:iii . i.' LI. FREE! v,flr,l_ AND COLLOQUY T ARUM Present Builder has eye to the sun .1337 JANIS BURGER they all combine aspects of low energy design and 4%.;Daily Collegian Staff Writer aim at a constantly shifting ideal. Many people believe solar power is a thing of "I wanted to create a building or space that ;;the future, but Ted First, who builds homes that requires as little energy as possible, whether it be ?Fuse solar energy, won't wait for the future. wood, electric or solar, before even thinking about ;•: Over the past seven years, First has built 25 putting on a solar collector or heat back-up," he s•;:house,s in the Centre Region. The houses use said. "Using more insulation and making the • If„yarying degrees of solar technology. house airtight is more economical and establishes • "Doing solar energy and houses is a natural," a lower base for further heating." 4he said. "It became a question of relating the The home of Robert and Kathryn Hume is an ~-,design of the building to the local environment." example of First's early designs. Completed three • Widespread interest in solar or energy-effi- years ago, the house features a 580-square-foot ••'' •-:e • ient homes is relatively new, First said. There flat-plate solar collector. Water is heated as it yas no ready market in 1973, when First came to trickles over black corrugated metal, then goes this area. into a 500-gallon storage tank. The tank serves a --; "Being a university town people were curious, dual purpose, Mrs. Hume said. It heats the air but the price of oil did 'not mandate that they had that is circulated through the house and preheats • 'td become•curious-at that point." • their hot water, she said. • • First added that many central Pennsylvania In winter, when the collector does not keep the ,tesidents believe there is "not enough sun . ' h&c. to tank warm enough; the burn wood in theft; make solar • energy worthwhile. However, the 'fireplace. The fireplace is water-jacketed and the • ;1973-74 oil embargo changed a lot of minds, he near-boiling water that flows around it is used, to :said. raise the temperature in the storage tank. '• "It was inevitable that as the price of oil went "This is the, least promising area of the coun ' lip that alternative energy would become not only try for a solar house," Mrs. Hume said. "But for more attractive but very necessary," he said. us, at least financially, it has worked." First said his involvement with energy came Records for the first winter showed that con 'out of a sense of personal committment. ventional heating cost them $lOO, Mrs. Hume said. • "It was a process of trying to evolve low They also used three to four cords of wood, most •-1) energy homes that could- make us more indepen- of which was from their own lot. • dent of large power sources, be they foreign or The Hume house was bermed on the north side nuclear." to let the ground act as insulation against the • First's earliest designs use collectors, or ac- wind. This is one idea First carried over to his tive systems, but his later homes emphasize later houses, another was south-facing windows. '.passive means of conserving energy. However, "If all the windows in this country faced south , • The home of Robert and Kathryn Hume, above, uses a 580-square-foot solar collector and other "passive" features to take advan tage of the sun's energy. Kathryn Hume, left, pulls up the thermal shades in their green house. Ted First, right, who built Hume's house, has designed and built 24 other energy efficient homes in the area. it wouldn't cost anybody anything but it would save a lot of energy," he said. Hume's house also has a greenhouse which traps warm air and vents it into the centralized living area. First continued with a modification of these passive ideas in his later designs. The home of Greg and Diane Knight has a two story solar collector that functions oimilarly to the greenhouse. When the collector/solarium gets above a preset temperature a thermostat turns on a pump which pumps hot air from the top of the collector to the basement to •be stored. In the basement, which is insulated to avoid heat loss to the soil, the heat is stored in ducts of cinder blocks laid side by side. From the basement the heat radiates up through the collector deck. All the living areas of tbc,.howg are, ,arr.apged ,ajqpg Aw.9Rtgaq,ir solariUm to take advantageof its warmth, circu lated by convection. So far the solar system plus a wood stove has supplied all the heat Knight's need, offering them the independence from conventional energy sources they wanted. Heat for this winter, from Thanksgiving to March, cost $9O, the price of one and a half cords of wood, Mr. Knight said. It is this independence that First said he is aiming for in his house designs. Combining pas sive features like southern orientation, super insulation, a heat exchanger to preheat incoming air, and an airlock as a buffer zone at entrances can provide an 80 to 90 percent energy savings over standard construction, First said. 'ln the' future houses will probably use photo electric cells, he said. But these cells, which convert sunlight directly to electrical current, are now too expensive and inefficient for widespread use. "But given this combination of a super-insu lated, airtight house with a passive orientation and solar cells, we'll be able to achieve a zero independent home with no back-up," he said. Achieving this independence is largely a local problem, he said. "A lot of energy is lost in producing electricity in large central power plants and transmitting it," First said. "I think our challenge today is to take our technology and bring it down to an individual level," he said. The question of what should be down about energy and construction has been put off because it is politically unpopular, he said. "There is no decision that is not going to hurt someone, whether, it be regional or taxing some one's pocketbook. "Change and progress are inevitable," he said. "But it will mean a lot of pain if some of us try to hold on to what we're accustomed to. "It has to change," First said. "If the inertia continues it will just make for larger pain in the future." Greg Knight, left, has incorporated a two-story solarium/solar collector into his family's home. The solarium acts as a collector since the heat it absorbs is pumped from the ceiling into the basement to be stored. In the insulated basement, above, the stored heat radiates back up through the deck of the solarium. The Daily Collegian Tuesday, April 7, 1981— Photos by Janis Burger
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