The Lower East Side
Mulberry Street
The Lower East Side is something I examine in my classroom as we look at tenements, neighborhoods, working conditions and the Progressive Era. Today fit perfectly with all of this. We walked near Mulberry Street and back through layers of time where Irish and Germans came in the first large wave, then southern and Eastern Europeans and finally Asian and Latino immigrants. Churches are a fascinating place to witness the changing of the guard as new immigrant neighborhoods replaced old. It was fascinating to hear Ed O’Donnell explain the fears of native-born Americans concerned about immigrants haven’t changed much over the past 200 years. The words of Ben Franklin concerned about our nation becoming “too Germanic” were nearly identical if you switched just 5-6 words you could hear the same concerns voiced today by Lou Dobbs and our nation becoming “too Hispanic”. O’Donnell also pointed out that nativism flowed from anti-German, anti-Irish, anti-Polish, Anti-Catholic, Anti-Jewish, Anti-Asian, Anti-Hispanic. At some point I guess you realize that if we are anti-everything there will be no one left. There is a great resource on this- it is old! And it is definitely 1970s- 1971! But it is Bill Cosby on prejudice and he starts listing all the groups of people he has a problem with, and basically when he’s done there is no one left. This movie is powerful tool for immigration or even the holocaust. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0364994/
The Tenement House Museum http://www.tenement.org/
Ed O'Donnell
What a great place to observe life in the city for immigrant families and the process of assimilation into the United States. The issues of tolerance, prejudice, fear, money, religion, cheap labor, gentrification, affordable housing, government intervention all intersect in these neighborhoods on the Lower East Side and make for fascinating discussion and debate in the classroom. I like to have my students read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in the fall as we are getting started because it helps them visualize tenement house life, immigrant life, the importance of public education to new immigrants, culture, food, religion, taboos from 1900-1920s.
My favorite activities in class are discussion, debates and trials. The Lower East Side tour and the Tenement Museum added some provocative issues that I can bring to my classroom to discuss and debate.
Working conditions, where do laissez faire, unions, government intervention fit in? What is the balance that helps the most? Works the best? Works the least? Costs? Benefits?
Gentrification and the cost of living: Who gets to live in the city- the highest bidder? The everyday person? Rent control?
Again eminent domain issues arise. If a city is sinking into a slum, do the benefits of providing parks for immigrant families-some 50,000 people in the neighborhood outweigh the costs of displacing 2,000?
City codes, too much bureaucracy, or just enough health, safety and welfare? What is the right role? Somewhere between pure capitalism and pure welfare state, but what does that look like?
Sweatshops, tenement living, cholera, outdoor plumbing, indoor plumbing, water supply, all raise interesting and complicated issues to be worked out as the city is on the rise.
Do you change the conditions of squalor because it is the right thing to do? Do you change the conditions of squalor because you don’t “want disease sewn into the linings of our jackets” as Jacob Riis declares.
Where do the bottom line and the right thing to do intersect and how can doing the right thing actually benefit more than it costs?
This was a great day and the Tenement Museum Bookstore was a delightful find!
Katz’s Deli
Katz's Deli
As Dana mentioned in her blog, food tells a great story too! Katz’s Deli is an example of that. Around since 1888, if this deli could talk! This was a wonderful eating experience and my first ever taste of pastrami on rye- Thumbs up!
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- Mulberry Street
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- Fearless Leader Ed O’Donnell
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- Katz’s Deli
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