Chicago street artists flip the script on Housing Authority
Posted May 29th, 2005 by eliot
A friend in Chicago emails us with news of an audacious action by a group of street artists against the Chicago Housing Authority:
Yesterday a group of cunning criminals who wanted to correct the record about Chicago’s public housing changed out over 12 large size bus shelter ads, put up hundreds of advertisements on the trains, released a newspaper of information and reproductions of the bus shelter designs, and launched a mock/mirror site about public housing at chicagohousingauthority.net
The action was in response to a sinister and cynical ad campaign the real Chicago Housing Authority launched with the help of corporate ad scum Leo Burnett and public space privatizers JC Decauex (who own all the ad-laden bus shelters).
The public intervention they pulled off is impressive as hell, and the website has a ton of great information. In addition to the posters themselves, definitely check out Resident Voices and the list of resources directing the site’s visitors to grassroots organizations working on housing issues in Chicago.
