Letting in the Light: Jacob Riis’s Crusade for Breathing Spaces on the Lower East Side/
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ArticlePublication details: Sage, 2020.Description: Vol 46, Issue 4, 2020 ( 775–793 p.)Online resources:
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Journal of urban historySummary: During the twentieth century, Jacob Riis’s once-widely-acknowledged role as father of the urban small-parks movement receded in historical significance in favor of his contributions to journalism, photography, housing reform, and settlement work. This pattern overlooks the central importance that Riis himself placed on parks and playgrounds activism in his broader social agenda, at one point calling it “the logical sequel to ‘How the Other Half Lives.’” This essay examines how Riis, through his efforts to provide New York’s tenement districts with “breathing spaces,” refashioned eminent domain from a rhetorical concept into a potent tool for reformers to assert control over working-class urban spaces. It also considers the impact of these projects on the working-class denizens of Riis’s proposed park sites, who viewed their homes in a markedly different light.
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Library, SPAB | Reference Collection | v. 46(1-6) / Jan-Dec 2020 | Available |
During the twentieth century, Jacob Riis’s once-widely-acknowledged role as father of the urban small-parks movement receded in historical significance in favor of his contributions to journalism, photography, housing reform, and settlement work. This pattern overlooks the central importance that Riis himself placed on parks and playgrounds activism in his broader social agenda, at one point calling it “the logical sequel to ‘How the Other Half Lives.’” This essay examines how Riis, through his efforts to provide New York’s tenement districts with “breathing spaces,” refashioned eminent domain from a rhetorical concept into a potent tool for reformers to assert control over working-class urban spaces. It also considers the impact of these projects on the working-class denizens of Riis’s proposed park sites, who viewed their homes in a markedly different light.
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