"Oscar Newman is an architect and city planner known internationally
for his work in community planning, assisted housing, crime prevention,
and racial integration. His defensible space concept has helped communities
in St. Louis, Dayton, and elsewhere redesign neighborhoods for greater
safety." If the above-linked Defensible Space Theory overview interests you, check out how Defensible Space is created in real-world case studies via Newman's report to HUD.
Cochran Gardens was a public housing development in St Louis, comparable to Pruitt-Igoe in design although it was controlled by tenants through much of its life. This not only created habitable space, but also jobs and solutions to other problems affecting the area. This 1988 NYTimes article gives background from a point when tenants were considering buying the buildings from the feds, after a new law was signed into effect by Ronald Reagan.