one of Greensboro's public housing projects converted to a new neighborhood

[cityboi]

Morningside Housing apartment projects, located about 2.5 miles east of downtown was notorious for drugs, prostition and other crime. It was also the site a the well known Nazi KKK shootings in 1979 which made national news. The old project were torn down and here is the public housing and homes for low income citizens that has replaced the delapitaded Morningside Homes project. Its now called Willow Oaks. The same architects that designed Southside, designed Willow Oaks. Lower income citizens are now living in much better homes and a much better neighborhood with virtually no crime. The design of Willow Oaks is patterned on a city planning movement called New Urbanism, which draws on close-knit pre-World War II neighborhoods. New Urbanism emphasizes neighborliness and includes features that encourage neighbors to interact: front porches, sidewalks and homes built close to the street. Public space will be an important feature of Willow Oaks. A combined childcare center, recreation center and life long learning center will be a focus of the community. There will also be a small amount of retail space to serve neighborhood needs.

Believe it or not, this is a low income neighborhood! This is Southside qaulity!

[nowensone]

I dunno, still has a suburban, disconnected kind of feel to it, that, and my brain wants to picture it more rundown/aged and with numerous people everywhere, hanging out in the streets, etc., but not necessarily in a good way. Maybe it was a movie I saw recently...

The 10th picture down is a good angle, and makes the neighborhood appear a certain way, but to me the rest of the photos tell the real story. I would really like to see this as Row Housing, 3 floors in height, maybe even 4. I like porches, but there are good and bad ways to do them. OK, so I realize this is all just my wacky opinion, but man I do love some brick row houses though...

[twincity]

looks like a nice neighborhood! thanks for sharing.

[krazeeboi]

Great for a low-income neighborhood. I'm sure the turnaround was pretty significant.

[cityboi]

Great for a low-income neighborhood. I'm sure the turnaround was pretty significant.

very signifgant. the old housing project looked awful. The rest of the projects in the city need to be done in this similar fashion

[blburton]

I've driven through the development before and I love it. It is actually very diverse and is a wonderful change from what used to be there. The homes remind me of Meadowmont in Chapel Hill without the condescending, antiseptic feeling you get there. Thanks for sharing! I think what I like about it also is that it connects well to the existing streets that had been there and has few cul-de-sacs (if any), so it actually shys away from the "suburban" subdivision feel.

[suburban george3]

I am all for rehabilitation of public housing. Part of the problem with the crime and "dirtiness" of older projects were they fact you crammed people into big ugly cookie cutter blocks of buildings. There were no porches, nothing to promote community. People would come home and scurry inside as fast as possible letting whatever occur outdoors. With these new designs, residents usually take much more pride in where they live and help raise the quality of life in the communities they live in.

[cityboi]

I am all for rehabilitation of public housing. Part of the problem with the crime and "dirtiness" of older projects were they fact you crammed people into big ugly cookie cutter blocks of buildings. There were no porches, nothing to promote community. People would come home and scurry inside as fast as possible letting whatever occur outdoors. With these new designs, residents usually take much more pride in where they live and help raise the quality of life in the communities they live in.

I think the fact they are creating a community center in the neighborhood is also great. It helps keep teens of the street and from falling victim to the problems that plague lower income teens such as drugs. This is a great project and the people behind it should be applauded. I mean these are nice homes and they rival alot of middle class homes. The homes are very close to the streets which also makes it look more like an urban neighbohod as opposed to a suburban neighborhood.