Give people in the underclass the chance to run the aging tenements and public projects in which they live, and they might turn their wretched housing into relatively pleasant homes. Such is the lesson of five mammoth public housing complexes. All are in St. Louis' blighted neighborhoods of abandoned shops and factories and acres of rubble bulldozed in the name of urban renewal. "It looks like a war was held here," says Richard Baron, an attorney and public housing tenants' consultant. But by now some ghetto dwellers can claim a measure of tactical success, if not long-range victory over their environment.
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