{"id":344306,"date":"2021-09-25T22:44:28","date_gmt":"2021-09-25T19:44:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/jacob-riis-reporting-may-have-made-life-harder-for-todays-poor\/"},"modified":"2021-09-25T22:44:28","modified_gmt":"2021-09-25T19:44:28","slug":"jacob-riis-reporting-may-have-made-life-harder-for-todays-poor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/jacob-riis-reporting-may-have-made-life-harder-for-todays-poor\/","title":{"rendered":"#Jacob Riis&#8217; reporting may have made life harder for today\u2019s poor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;<strong>#Jacob Riis&#8217; reporting may have made life harder for today\u2019s poor<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n        <\/aside>\n<p>Some crises never seem to change, and in New York, it\u2019s our housing crisis. For those of low income, there simply isn\u2019t enough that\u2019s affordable. We declared a housing emergency after World War II \u2014 that\u2019s when rent control started \u2014 and, as a matter of law, it officially continues.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But, memo to incoming Mayor Eric Adams: We can\u2019t subsidize our way to affordable housing. Only more supply will do it \u2014 and that means returning to a formula we\u2019ve forgotten: small buildings on small lots. Density and lots of it. We used to be good at it; that\u2019s what the thousands of attached houses in Brooklyn rely on. But somewhere along the way we convinced ourselves that private builders could never adequately serve the poor.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a mistake that dates back more than a century \u2014 and can be traced to one of the city\u2019s housing heroes, muckraker Jacob Riis.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It might seem like heresy to raise questions about Riis. The legendary reformer cast his camera\u2019s spotlight on the seedy tenement life of the Lower East Side in his 1890 photojournalism classic, \u201c<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/How-Other-Half-Lives-Tenements\/dp\/1614279136\/?tag=nypost-20\">How the Other Half Lives<\/a>.\u201d When the New-York Historical Society announced it had purchased a first edition of the book, with the author\u2019s own annotations, it lauded the immigrant Danish one-time carpenter as one who \u201cdocumented the systemic failure of tenement housing alongside greed and neglect from the wealthy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/jabob-a-riis.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024\" alt=\"Jacob A. Riis was a social reformer, who advocated for change among New York City's poorest.\" class=\"wp-image-19571946\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/jabob-a-riis.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/jabob-a-riis.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/jabob-a-riis.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Jacob A. Riis was a <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">social<\/a> reformer who advocated for change among New York City\u2019s poorest.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Museum of the City of New York<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Now that Riis lives on in the name of a public housing project in a system that comprises the city\u2019s worst current slums, a good case can be made that he went too far. He chose to see only the worst of the city\u2019s poor neighborhoods and their private property owners. In doing so, he set the country on an ill-conceived path \u2014 the belief that only government can provide housing for the poor.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>There is no doubt that the late 19th century Lower East Side was crowded, dark and dirty, as some 700 residents per acre crowded into apartments. For Riis, this was a scandal, writing of one building: \u201cThe wolf knocks loudly at the gate in the troubled dreams that come to this alley; a horde of dirty children play about its dripping hydrant. These are the children of the tenements, the growing generation of the slums.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Some building code changes, which Riis advocated for, were warranted. \u201cNew law\u201d tenements would later put an end to new buildings where sunlight never penetrated. But Riis overlooked a great deal. As his recent biographer, Tom Buk-Swienty, put it: \u201cThere was more to the slums than abject poverty. Hundreds of thousands of families lived relatively normal lives. They worked, although usually under deplorable conditions, paid rent, fed their children and had hopes and dreams for the future. For a large number of immigrants .\u2009.\u2009. life in the tenements was an improvement on their old lives, offering a more dignified existence.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<div class=\"inline-slideshow\" data-component=\"inlineSlideshow\">\n<div class=\"inline-slideshow__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"inline-slideshow__slides\">\n<div class=\"inline-slideshow__slide\">\n<figure class=\"inline-slideshow__slide-figure\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"878\" height=\"585\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/cold-children.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=878\" class=\"inline-slideshow__image\" alt=\"Three young street kids huddle together for warmth on Mulberry Street in New York.\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/cold-children.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1756 1756w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/cold-children.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1317 1317w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/cold-children.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=878 878w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/cold-children.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=439 439w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/cold-children.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 878px) 100vw, 878px\"\/><figcaption class=\"meta meta--caption\">\n                                    Three young street kids huddle together for warmth on Mulberry Street in New York.                              <\/figcaption><span class=\"inline-slideshow__credit meta meta--byline\">Jacob A Riis\/Getty Images<\/span><br \/>\n                                                    <\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"inline-slideshow__slide\">\n<figure class=\"inline-slideshow__slide-figure\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"878\" height=\"585\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/new-york-slum.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=878\" class=\"inline-slideshow__image\" alt=\"New York slum district, 1890.\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/new-york-slum.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1756 1756w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/new-york-slum.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1317 1317w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/new-york-slum.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=878 878w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/new-york-slum.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=439 439w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/new-york-slum.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 878px) 100vw, 878px\"\/><figcaption class=\"meta meta--caption\">\n                                    New York slum district, 1890.                               <\/figcaption><span class=\"inline-slideshow__credit meta meta--byline\">Jacob Riis<\/span><br \/>\n                                                    <\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"inline-slideshow__slide\">\n<figure class=\"inline-slideshow__slide-figure\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"878\" height=\"585\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/junk-man-living-quarters.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=878\" class=\"inline-slideshow__image\" alt=\"(Original Caption) Portrait of a junk man's living quarters in the cellar of a New York City tenement house. Photo by Jacob Riis, 1891.\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/junk-man-living-quarters.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1756 1756w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/junk-man-living-quarters.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1317 1317w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/junk-man-living-quarters.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=878 878w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/junk-man-living-quarters.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=439 439w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/junk-man-living-quarters.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 878px) 100vw, 878px\"\/><figcaption class=\"meta meta--caption\">\n                                    Portrait of a junk man&#8217;s living quarters in the cellar of a New York City tenement house.                               <\/figcaption><span class=\"inline-slideshow__credit meta meta--byline\">Jacob Riis<\/span><br \/>\n                                                    <\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>This truth is absent in \u201cHow the Other Half Lives.\u201d Indeed, Riis\u2019 book includes no voices of the poor themselves. The slow daily ascent of the city\u2019s least fortunate did not interest him.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Before he gained renown as a reformer, Riis was a sensationalist police reporter for the New York Tribune, with headlines that blared \u201cA Body Entirely Nude,\u201d \u201cMurder\u2019s Strange Tools,\u201d \u201cThe River\u2019s Unknown Dead.\u201d As Riis himself would write: \u201cDeath and mayhem sold papers.\u201d Along with his flash photographs, he <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ealed not to the poor, but to the wealthy with stories and images that shocked.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>His readers had no way of knowing that the Lower East Side was not a life sentence \u2014 it was a way station. By the 1930s, Lillian Wald of the Henry Street Settlement House would remark on the large numbers of \u201cempties\u201d on the Lower East Side, as immigrants and their children had moved up and out \u2014 across the Williamsburg Bridge to their own row houses, later to Brownsville or the Grand Concourse.\u00a0<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-nypost-small-post\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"231\" height=\"347\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/the-poor-side-of-town.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=231\" alt=\"The Poor side of town\" class=\"wp-image-19571957\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/the-poor-side-of-town.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=462 462w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/the-poor-side-of-town.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=347 346w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/the-poor-side-of-town.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=231 231w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/the-poor-side-of-town.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=116 115w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/the-poor-side-of-town.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 231px) 100vw, 231px\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>We still live with the fallout from Riis and his implicit theme: Poor neighborhoods are bad neighborhoods. This ideology led to the urban renewal wrecking ball that cleared many thriving, working-class neighborhoods across America. Today, the city\u2019s massive public housing construction has left the present-day poor in conditions far more abject than those of the Riis era, because so many live in terror of violent crime without dreams of improvement.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This is not to say that government should never intervene to improve the living conditions of the poor. The city\u2019s actions during the Riis era provide a better model than replacing private ownership: Public baths offered hygiene for those without their own bathrooms; well-maintained public parks gave places other than alleys for children to play; public schools actually educated students. These are what economists call public goods \u2014 the type of infrastructure that really improves the lives of those of modest means.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>There is no doubt that Jacob Riis is an important historical figure. His work deserves to be preserved by the Historical Society. But that doesn\u2019t mean he was right.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>This excerpt has been adapted from Howard Husock\u2019s \u201c<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Poor-Side-Town-Why-Need\/dp\/1641772026\/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid&amp;sr&amp;tag=nypost-20\">The Poor Side of Town \u2014 And Why We Need It<\/a>\u201d (Encounter Books), out now.<\/em>\n                        <\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/09\/25\/jacob-riis-reporting-may-have-made-life-harder-for-todays-poor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#Jacob Riis&#8217; reporting may have made life harder for today\u2019s poor&#8221; Some crises never seem to change, and in New York, it\u2019s our housing crisis. For those of low income, there simply isn\u2019t enough that\u2019s affordable. We declared a housing emergency after World War II \u2014 that\u2019s when rent control started \u2014 and, as a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":344307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/young-girl-baby.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[116559,81958,5378,12156,4953,67820],"class_list":["post-344306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-9-25-21","tag-affordable-housing","tag-history","tag-housing","tag-new-york-city","tag-photography"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}