Chapter 11 of Tyler Anbinder’s book talks about changes in the slum of Five Points. Some positive changes were made towards improvement in this area. This included new building codes for the tenements and declines in the negative activities associated with Five Points, like prostitution.
Despite working towards making the area better, living conditions were still bad. There was still overcrowding and living in the tenements was unsanitary. Anbinder mentions the diseases and high death rates in Mulberry Bend, one of the worst tenements.
Jacob Riis’ How the Other Half Lives exposed a lot of what was going on in the tenements at the time. Although people speculate he may have been exaggerating I think it was important for him to document what was going on. People outside of Five Points needed a wake-up call to prompt change. I think Riis’ overall goal was to get people to notice and care about people they normally might not. Instead of participating in activities like “slumming” and simply making an adventure out of a day trip, those with money could actually do something to help make a positive change in the lives of the immigrants of Five Points. The immigrants were already dealing with enough struggles. They had left their home behind to start a better life in a foreign country and while they had endured hardships back home, no one deserved to live the way they were forced to. Therefore, although there may have been improvements, many people were still living in very bad conditions which had to be brought to the public’s attention in order to be fixed.
