Very interesting. Thank you for sharing. I live in America too, now, but I haven’t ever actually seen the projects and the ones in The Wire aren’t quite what I was thinking of. Those look ugly and run down.
The mid-rise courtyard+playground styles I see in central and northern Europe today, on the other hand, are pretty much ideal for family life. Just enough density to support a walkable daily life with lots of serendipitous social encounters, eyes on the street, a view on the kids playing with enough proximity to intervene if something goes wrong, and the opportunity for first-floor private garden space and aesthetic personalization throughout.
Not only that they used those projects as a way to punish independent political adversaries in the city government. Everyone who originally conceived of the programs tried to build mixed density communities spread throughout the city that were only partially social housing, but racism & power politics prevented that.
Then the city doubled down & didn’t provide services appropriate for the number of people now densely packed in one place.
The book “Blueprint for Disaster” outlines the history of this very well.