When Bill Gandy was growing up in Northview Heights in the 1970s and 80s, no one had to show identification to get in. But now there are armed guards and 200 security cameras dotted around this sprawling, isolated public housing project run by the Pittsburgh City Housing Authority. Everyone who enters has to show ID, every time.

“It just feels like a prison system to have a checkpoint in front of a neighborhood,” Gandy says. “That’s already a bad start, to tell you the truth. It’s like going into a military camp.”