4/3/2012 – Elissa’s Reaction to Readings

“Like a wart growing on the top of a festering sore.” Ew. I can never forget this simile if I tired. I find it interesting that even with the new tenement laws in 1879 that “limited new buildings to 65% of a lot and require that every inhabited room have a window to the outside,”tenement life was still far below acceptable standards. Anbinder talks about how there still persisted overcrowding, unsanitary conditions and noise pollution which existed in the air shafts between the newly designed dumbbell buildings. Still prevalent was the lack of “tubs and running water above the first floor,” which meant people bathed a mere 6 times a year, maybe even less. After reading so much about tenements in our prior readings, conditions don’t seem to be getting much better. Although there were laws passed that attempted to fix the horrid living conditions in which residents had to face everyday, the lack of basic necessities such as running water, was still an issue. What also fascinates me is how, although human beings like everyone else in NYC, tenement dwellers were treated as animals and as an attraction, rather than people who needed help. Although Jacob Riis’ photos are excellent documentations regarding the conditions in which immigrants lived, I can’t help but imagine how the immigrants felt when their pictures were taken. If I were in their shoes (poor, living in a tenement, bathed only 6 times a year, and had to wear the same clothes for months on end) I don’t know how I would feel if someone was trying to take a picture of me for the purpose of showing the “poor” in America. I might see it as a good thing because then people will see the truth of the living conditions of the poor and maybe try to help me, or I might feel insulted, as though I am being treated as a circus attraction in which people come to see me not to help me, but for their mere entertainment.