Lakeview Terrace

Lakeview Terrace is a 2008 American thriller film directed by Neil LaBute, written by David Loughery and Howard Korder, and co-produced by Will Smith, and starring Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington. Jackson plays a prejudiced LAPD police officer who terrorizes his new next-door neighbors because they are an interracially married couple. The film was released on September 19, 2008. The film's title is a reference to the ethnically-mixed middle class Los Angeles neighborhood of Lake View Terrace.

Plot

Abel Turner (Samuel L. Jackson) is a twenty-eight-year veteran of the LAPD. A single and widowed father, he is particularly strict with his two children, Marcus (Jaishon Fisher) and Celia (Regine Nehy). As his kids leave for school, the new neighbors begin moving in next door. They are a young interracial couple, Chris and Lisa Mattson (Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington), who are recently married and buying their first home.

Chris’s first exchanges with Abel have somewhat hostile undertones, with Abel making comments about Chris’ smoking (which Chris hides from Lisa) and listening to hip hop music. The following night, Chris and Lisa have sex in their swimming pool. Unknown to them, Abel's children are watching. Abel arrives home to see this spectacle and is upset, so he repositions the home security floodlights so they shine into Chris and Lisa's window, keeping them awake. When Chris confronts him, Abel claims that the lights are part of his security system to prevent crime and says that it is a complex process to shut down the system and the lights.

Lakeview Terrace (Cleveland)

The Lakeview Terrace Apartments is a set of row houses, apartments, and a high-rise residential building in the Ohio City neighborhood of Cleveland that was started in 1935 and culminated in the opening of the 1973 high-rise apartment tower. The apartment tower is 208 feet tall and contains 19 stories. The complex is notable for being one of the first public housing projects in the country.

History

Public housing was vital following the rising population of Cleveland in the 1920's and 1930's. Overcrowding in the central areas of city was decried and it was reasoned that the local government must intervene in some way to minimize the negative effects of this overcrowding. This demand led to the planning and development of what would become the Lakeview Terrace complex. It was commissioned by the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority's first director Ernest J. Bohn in 1935 to supplement the declining availability of low-cost housing in the metropolitan area of Cleveland, the complex would include a community center to engage residents in issues relating to neighborhood safety and education. It is also worthy of mention that Lakeview was one of the first attempts to offer lower cost housing for poorer residents in the urban center. The formula regarding the establishment of public housing that Cleveland pioneered would be adopted by the urban cities of Chicago, Detroit, New York City, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Philadelphia and many others. In fact, many cities have their own either mini or mega versions of Lakeview. At the time of its construction, Cleveland was praised for being on the cutting edge of urban dwelling planning. The entire complex was designed by Joseph L. Weinberg, William H. Conrad, and Wallace G. Teare and was entirely fireproofed throughout.