Jacob Riis: An Advocate For The Homeless
As the glowing medallion in the sky descends below our peripheral vision and our lukewarm bed welcomes us, we rarely consider the people on the dank pavement that acquire cardboard boxes. Each box imperceptibly labeled “ this is my home.” Your eyes began to fade shut while the dreams begin to transpire. Jumping between worlds, for most live their lives on the edge of a terrible dream, yet few have the courage to pass. Yet, those who have these nightmares are more courageous than them all, as they can only wish to wake up with nothing but a memory. Suddenly you wake up in an alternate place. Covering your body are the remains of what were once clothes. Your appearance is almost disheveled looking. Yet, to you, it is enough. …show more content…
His photographs are part of a larger effort to address the problems of rapid industrialization and urbanization. He argues for better housing, adequate lighting and sanitation, and the construction of city parks and playgrounds for all. For years he has documented the slums of New York, what he deemed the work of the “other half,” teeming with immigrants, disease, and abuse. As a police reporter and social reformer, he became very familiar with our society and hopes to draw attention to the horrendous conditions. In 1888 he started photographing the streets and people he encountered, using black and white slides to accompany his lectures and influential text. Based off of his sights he created ‘ How The Other Half
Jacob Riis How The Other Half Lives Summary
1244 Words | 5 PagesJacob Riis in “How the Other Half Lives” is about the squalor that characterizes New York City’s working class immigrant neighborhoods. He describes deplorable conditions of these immigrants by providing specific examples, relaying them through quotation and images alike. Riis comments on the injustices that the residents of the tenements faced on a regular basis. So, with his attention to detail, Riis provided the contemporary reader with unsettling images of the poor and marginalized along with a few examples of the benefits of reform and reorganization in the poorer communities, to the benefit of residents. Another observer, Richard T. Ely, in “Pullman: A Social Study” writes about the community of Pullman, Illinois located in the suburbs of Chicago.
Off The Books The Underground Economy Of The Urban Poor Summary
1318 Words | 6 PagesIn his Book, Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor, Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh, explains that in the early-nineties while doing field work in the Southside of Chicago he gravitated to a predominantly working-poor black community near his field site (ix). Venkatesh describes the ten-squared block community as being in disrepair very much like the high-rises that were being torn down in the surrounding area (iv). In the presence of some “greystones” and “brownstones” Venkatesh noticed vacant lots, beat-up homes, and what he perceived to be inadequate city involvement in the community -streets need fixing, and trash pick-up was lacking (x). There were also closed storefronts and burned-out buildings in the area (Venkatesh, 92).
How The Other Half Lives Chapter Summaries
555 Words | 3 PagesJacob Riis, a Danish immigrant who himself could not originally find much work, hoped to expose the squalor of the 19th-century Lower East Side of Manhattan. After a successful career as a police reporter, he published a photojournal documenting these conditions using graphic descriptions, sketches, photographs, and statistics. Riis blamed the apathy of the monied class for the
From How The Other Half Lives By Jacob Riis Summary
1047 Words | 5 PagesCharities as well as financial, housing provisions might not be the best solutions to the increase of crimes: the problem had to be solved where it rooted. As Jacob Riis suggested, the cause of it is most likely because of both legal and illegal immigration: “In New York, the youngest of the world’s great cities, that time came later than elsewhere, because the crowding had not been so great. There were those who believed that it would never come; but their hopes were vain” (365). Riis also implied that community gave those people - the “other half” no other choice; yet they had more choice than most: they were living in a city much younger than others, less crowded and many of them were immigrants who moved to New York by choice - conscious choice made rather recently, to say the least. Furthermore, Jacob Riis was quick to discard the fact that having this kind of agency may have been a spark to the riots - the unquenchable desire for better lives coupled with an unwillingness to accept reality as it is.
Review Of Jacob Riis How The Other Half Lives
798 Words | 4 PagesThe writings and pictures in Jacob Riis's How the Other Half Lives offer a vivid portrayal of the poor living conditions of New York's tenement houses and illustrated the necessity for progressive reform in the late 1800s. A vicious cycle held many of the tenants in its grasps through a combination of the landlords' rent prices and a lack of sustainable incomes. To Riis, the landowners looked like “tyrants that sweeten the cup of bitterness with their treacherous poison” (166). In the destitute areas, crime grew rampant, and the poor packed themselves into the tenements. Disease and illness worked adverse to any improvement of living conditions.
Alana Semuels The Best Way To End Homelessness
170 Words | 1 PagesAtlantic Times staff writer, Alana Semuels, gives her opinion on how America can reduce the number of homeless famlies in her article “The Best Way to End Homelessness”. According to Alana Semuels, America has the largest number of homeless women and children in the industrial world. (Cite) She mentions how the government has attempted to solve homelessness by initiating many different studies and programs. " The Best Way to End Homelessness " lists initiatives such as housing choice vouchers, temporary rental assistance, time limited housing, or interventions.
How Did Americans Grow So Quickly Dbq
834 Words | 4 PagesFrom riots to invasions, many urban problems arose during the late 19th and 20th centuries. Technology was improving and it was making jobs easier and more productive but American’s were tired and weren’t working. Wage cuts were becoming more popular and economically, the U.S was falling apart slowly. Despite the problems, Americans discovered a way to replace the exhausted Americans who no longer took part in labor. Immigrants from Europe were pulled to New York in hope to find what the Americans had said they’d offer.
Gilded Age
1436 Words | 6 PagesThere is no denying that this part of history is the reason health and housing regulations are as strong as we experience today. With Riis’s novel acting as a valuable primary source documenting first-hand experiences, it is easy to conclude that life in the tenements were not desirable in any aspect. This way of life arose because there was no quicker way to deal with such a rapidly growing demand for cheap housing close to the city. Life in the tenements does not compare to anything seen in modern times. Riis’s illustrations of this life confirm what we know as history, but what many others knew as
What Is The Thesis Of John Sides La City Limits
731 Words | 3 PagesThese oral stories also help illustrate why urban areas such as Compton and south-central Los Angeles became heavily poverty ridden. The overall significance of Sides’ L.A. City Limits is to document the experiences of developing urban areas and the effect that these growing areas had on the city itself. Sides speaks on how the development of urban areas within Los Angeles contributed to the rise of the Civil Rights movement and to the 1965 Watts riots. The contribution from these developing urban areas led to increasing of opportunities for the African American community such as desegregation and better work opportunities.
Muckrakers In The 20th Century
1581 Words | 7 PagesMany of the people that read these magazine articles could not begin to imagine the conditions that the lower class were having to work and live in. The journalists would describe the most horrid conditions possible in order to promote the change that they felt was necessary. In Jacob Riss’ article he describes how the dwellings that these unfortunate people had to live in caused countless deaths that could have been avoided. According to Riss, “With the first hot nights in June police dispatches, that record the killing of men and women by rolling of roofs and window-sills while asleep, announce that the time of greatest suffering among the poor is at hand.” (Riss Source 1).
Transportation In The Gilded Age
880 Words | 4 PagesCrime was rampant, poverty was controlling the city’s people, and the immigration explosion was allowing corruption to spread by exposing them for their own purposes. But the future would only hold good things for movement of people, goods, information, and
Analysis Of Homeless By Anna Quindlen
148 Words | 1 PagesIn the passage, Homeless by Anna Quindlen the central idea is our idea of home has changed. First, homes are no longer what they used to be because now they are real estate. This sentence itself is not opinion it’s fact because homes did you used to be about living there, but now it’s about price. Next, there was a time when where you lived is where everything happened like eating,grew and buried.
Gentrification All Bad Justin Davidson Analysis
1841 Words | 8 PagesThere has to be a realistic solution that can be put into motion to benefit everyone involved. Referring again to his article “Is Gentrification All Bad?” Davidson argues that urban renewal, if done right, is not a monstrous custom that it is painted to be; nevertheless, he reasons that gentrification depends on who does it, how they do it, and why they do it. As a resident in New York, a city where gentrification is as widespread as the common cold in winter, Davidson speculates that those who go into a neighborhood with the intention to renovate houses, or abandoned buildings ought to have a good reason for it. The author points out that “Gentrification does not have to be something that one group inflicts on another…” (Davidson 349), rather, he suggests that everyone, the gentrifiers and the locals, be on the same page when it comes to developing their
House For The Homeless: A Place To Hang Your Hat Analysis
576 Words | 3 PagesHouse for the Homeless: A Place to Hang Your Hat, written by Ivana Nikolic, is an essay about the habits and behaviors of homeless people at a shelter called the Ramsey House. Through her field research Ivana learned about the homeless people’s daily rituals and behaviors. In the following paragraphs, I will illustrate for you examples of these rituals and behaviors. Their evening ritual begins standing outside the Ramsey House while they wait for the doors to open at 6:45 p.m. Next to the shelter there was a bus stop and a health care center.
Gentrification Informative Speech
1145 Words | 5 PagesTitle: Gentrifying Chicago neighborhoods. General Purpose: To inform my audience of Gentrification in the Norther part of Chicago around the 1960s. Specific Purpose: At the end of my speech, the audience will understand the meaning of gentrification, how Puerto Rican families in the Northern part of Chicago lost their homes to Gentrification, how they fought against gentrification, and how gentrification is now occurring to Mexican families in the Southern part of Chicago. Thesis: Puerto Rican families lost their homes in the 1960s when Lincoln Park was gentrified despites their best efforts, and today Mexican families are losing their homes in Pilsen to gentrification. Introduction I. Attention: What would you risk in order to continue having a home?
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