Skyline Tower, 'Ghetto in the Sky': Race, Class, and Housing in the Twin Cities

This is the history of Skyline Tower, the largest single-building housing project in the United States west of Chicago. Built in a neighborhood with a scarred past ? just blocks from one of Minnesota?s wealthiest neighborhoods ? on a precipice overlooking a major interstate highway, and constructed and managed by a for-profit corporation receiving government subsidies during most of its history, the story of Skyline Tower demonstrates how the confluence of disparate trends produces a situation of relative advantage/disadvantage in racially hierarchical systems such as the United States. These trends include changes in the public reputation of the building including significant social and demographic shifts, and transformations in the role of government, public discourse, and capitalism in the United States.