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The Slums In New York City

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The Harsh Life of the Slums in New York City
During the end of the 19th century, there were a lot of economic and social problems between the government, rich, the poor, and businesses. The poor received a lot of those problems. Some of the problems were poor work conditions, child labor, and unsanitary living conditions that might have caused an increase in crime and drinking. The rich and government did not acknowledge those problems about the poor. Thus, come upon the Progressive era. The Progressive era helped with finding different solutions to get America out of economic and social problems especially with the government and businesses. During that era, a lot of muckrakers, journalists who “expose real or alleged corruption and scandal …show more content…

In addition, he photographed various pictures of the life of the poor to make readers feel pity for the poor. With exposing the problems of the poor with photographs and solutions it can help change the lifestyles of the poor in New York City and the slums in different states.

Problems of the Slum Life
The pervasive problems of slum life are the living condition and the corruption of the tenements that increase in deaths, arrests, and drinking. The majority of the time, Jacob Riis focus on the tenements and how it causes problems for the poor. Jacob Riis listed out the problems of the tenements. He states that there is “swelling crowd of wage-earners,” the homeless are not “housed decently,” “housed here for the present is impracticable,” “pays high enough rents to entitle it to be so housed,” “slothfulness is in the way of so housing it,” people demand for “security” on “sanitary, moral, and economic grounds” of housing, people will pay for it if they add that …show more content…

He states that the “three effective ways of dealing with the tenements in New York is: law remodeling and making most out of the old houses, and building new, model tenements” (Riis 147-148). With this it can help change the environment that the poor are living and give the “security” that most of the poor people wanted. In addition, Riis’s book help created the “New York State Tenement House Act” of 1901 which help “set minimum size requirements for the spaces” and have “windows opened and mandated that one bathroom be installed inside the building for every two families.” It also made the “Tenement House Department to inspect these buildings and enforce the new regulations” (Tenement). Riis’s exploration of the problems of the tenements and solutions help made the government realize that there is a problem for the poor and that it needs to be fixed. That is why the act was made to help change the living conditions for the poor. With his explanations of the living conditions and the tenements, he also includes pictures to help move the readers of the conditions of the

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