By Ben Joravsky
In the next few years ABLA probably will disappear, squeezed out of existence after being written off by urban experts as a social experiment that failed. But Farley doesn’t see it that way. He thinks society failed ABLA, not the other way around. “They took a good neighborhood and let it die,” he says. “You can’t call that progress. It’s something, but it ain’t progress.”
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The CHA was under the command of Elizabeth Wood, a liberal reformer determined to provide low-income units for all eligible families (black and white) and scatter them throughout the city. But attempts to move black families into all-white neighborhoods were greeted by violence, and eventually the city’s Democratic leaders, fearful of a white backlash at the polls, turned against Wood. She was ousted, and the CHA embarked on a strategy more politically acceptable to white voters: the agency began squeezing black families into high-rise projects built in all-black wards.
According to ABLA residents, Farley was the quintessential good neighbor. Using supplies he bought on his own, he painted doorways, mowed lawns, replaced burned-out bulbs, cleaned up broken glass, and strung Christmas lights in December. For his efforts he was profiled on Harry Porterfield’s TV feature “Someone You Should Know.”
Farley kept making repairs at the complex long after he retired from the post office. But more and more he felt he was fighting a losing cause. The CHA had adopted a policy approaching benign neglect. It stopped making repairs and did not attempt to fill vacant apartments. By the early 90s, over half the units were boarded up. The playground fell apart. The famous animal statues started to chip and break.
Bey stopped by to say hello. They sat in the grinding heat, waiting for a breeze that never came, and watched children splash in a plastic pool. “There’s not much for me to do,” Farley continued. “My kids have grown and moved away. They come back to visit. They say, ‘You’re going to be proud of us.’ I say, ‘Don’t worry about me. Just be proud for yourself.’”
