A Long Weekend

"Last weekend I spent a month as a resident of Bankhead Courts," wryly observed Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson. Bankhead is a $10 million public housing project where 2,646 low-income black people live. Though the project was completed only four years ago, it started falling apart almost immediately; Jackson spent a weekend there as the guest of a widow and her seven children as a way of drawing attention to the wretched living conditions.

Jackson wandered around the proj ect for most of the two days. He found rats feeding on garbage, noticed a number of light fixtures and heating vents that did not work, and came across 16 apartments that were uninhabited be cause they become flooded whenever it rains. He listened to residents complain about marauding gangs. "We wonder why people get mad living there," he said later, promising federal funds and more city services to improve Bankhead.

"I only spent one weekend there and I'm mad already."

Jackson's visit was attacked as opportunistic by some black leaders and by the architects who planned the project, who declared that the basic problem at the Courts "is not bricks and mortar [but] flesh and blood." On the other hand, one of his frequent critics, the Atlanta Constitution, felt the visit was worthwhile as a symbolic act. The news paper reserved judgment about its effectiveness, however, noting: "It will be interesting to see if conditions are much better at Bankhead Courts six months from now."

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