Final answer:
Urban renewal initiatives aimed at improving living conditions in cities frequently displaced poor and minority residents, leading to overcrowded public housing projects associated with segregation and crime. Despite some successes, many urban renewal efforts failed to provide adequate new housing and created segregated, untaxable wastelands. The high-rise projects intended to provide efficient living spaces often became new slums, worsening the urban plight.
Step-by-step explanation:
The urban housing design that was once considered a helpful innovation ended up exacerbating problems in the cityscape by becoming a dangerous blight. This happened through a series of urban renewal initiatives that stemmed from legislation such as the National Housing Act of 1949, which aimed to improve living conditions in dilapidated inner-city areas by clearing slums.
However, these efforts often led to the displacement of poor and minority residents without providing adequate new housing, leading to overcrowded and poorly built public housing projects known as "projects," which became synonymous with segregation and crime.
In some cases, urban renewal was successful, with new businesses providing good-paying jobs and new housing arising from the razed old buildings. Nevertheless, in many instances, the cleared land was used for highways, parks, or commercial developments rather than for new housing, further decreasing the living space available for those displaced. The result of these redevelopment efforts was often a landscape of empty lots where vibrant neighborhoods once stood, dissecting communities and creating untaxable wastelands.
The high-rise public housing projects that were built with the intention of offering clean and efficient living spaces quickly became new slums with conditions often made worse by the cities cramming more people into smaller areas, leading to increased crime rates and social dysfunction in areas like St. Louis' housing projects and Chicago's Robert Taylor Homes. This clash between the idealistic urban renewal objectives and the harsh realities faced by the urban poor showcases the complexities and often unintended consequences of top-down planning in city environments.