-“Often forgotten in a haze of nostalgia are the grim realities of grinding poverty and tenement life.”
To think that a television special depicted a lady playing Mrs. Santa landing in the Lower East Side at the turn of the century and renting “a well- furnished, clean and rather spacious apartment,” was a blatant insult to those who actually lived in tenements at this time. To try and make it seem as though tenement life was ideal is to essentially ignore what the immigrants at the turn of the century had to endure. Yes the conditions aren’t something appeasing to describe but they need to be acknowledged. If it wasn’t for what the early immigrants endured in tenement apartments, who is to say that the state of lower/middle class apartments would have improved to what they are today. Multiple windows for ventilation, inside toilets and showers weren’t always a given in places of residence.
-In the summer, “except when it rained, my youngest sister and I slept on the fire escape.”
After visiting the tenement museum I couldn’t grasp how such large families could all find a place to sleep. When only half of the class was standing in a tenement apartment, it was very crowded. However, after reading that some resorted to sleeping on the fire escape, this reality only made tenement life worst. How could sleeping on a fire escape possibly be safe or good for one’s health? Then in cases where a tenement didn’t have a fire escape, did people just sit up in a chair in order to go to sleep if there wasn’t any room to lie down?
-“The massive number of immigrants arriving in recent years has helped many deteriorating neighborhoods make a comeback.”
Nowadays, people seem to forget the true nature of vitality that immigrants bring to the US, when they come. However, the fact that Foner highlighted upon the neighborhoods immigrants have migrated to and thereby turned into a thriving community once again, spoke volumes. Immigrants are just as valuable to America as native-born citizens are. Immigrants not only integrate their culture and cuisine but also help to uplift the economic state of once desolate neighborhoods that natives have deserted.
