As rents soared and conditions deteriorated, tenants at Waterbury’s Shamrock Ridge housing development organized and negotiated fruitlessly with the project’s owner.  They even picketed him.  Then one day they said, why don’t we build our own housing project?  The result – after a multi-year struggle with corrupt local officials -- was the Brookside land trust and housing cooperative development – still providing permanently affordable housing and a rich community life for diverse Waterbury residents.