Journal # 8
Lower East Side and Chinatown
As every class, we met @ Penn station, only this time is the last class. Mike took attendance and discussed the plan for the day: Lower East Side and Chinatown. From Penn Station we took the F train to the Delancey Street to Lower East Side, which is the southern part of Manhattan Island.
Mike explained that with the persecution of the Jewish community in Europe around 1880s, most of them ended up coming to America and settling here in Lower East side among other communities escaping famines. What I learned was that such tenements were like apartments with almost no ventilation, where entire families lived in small rooms, often they had no running water, toilets or heat. Having the water wells outside next to the outhouses created unsanitary conditions and cholera infections spread killing many peoples. A reporter, Jacob Riis, exposed the situation of the living conditions where immigrants lived, enabling grounds for few tenements laws to change the way houses were being built, like to add more windows to every room to allow for air exchange, to have running water and toilets inside, fire escape stairs.
We as immigrants have suffered in this country, but I cannot put myself on the shoes of the first immigrants from Europe. I have learned about all their suffering, living in the tenement buildings. It must have been very tough, but I am sure they had it worse back in Europe.
According to ENY p. 66, “despite the disadvantages they faced, the Jews of the lower east side managed to make their mark on NYC, importing their own institutions and cultural traditions to the city”. Here you could find Yiddish newspaper and more than 500 synagogues. We stopped by Kossar’s Bialys and had bialys for breakfast. The bialys represent the Jewish culture and is must-stop shop in the Lower East side.
Few block away we found a small park where we sat to eat the bialys, just to find out from Jim (tour guide) that this called “Seward Park” and was the oldest public park in the city of NY, because in the early 20th century green space was scarce in lower Manhattan. Seward Park opened in 1903 becoming the first municipal playground in the nation. ENY p.70.
As we walk around, passed by the Henry Street settlement (265 Henry Street), and as a future nurse it really strikes a chord in me. Here is where the visiting nurse service took care of the sick in 1903, when Henry Schiff donated the settlement to Lilian Ward (nurse). According to ENY p.69, the idea of bringing healthcare to individuals into their community was a radical idea at the time.
Later we walked to the next neighborhood called Chinatown, and I learned about the Exclusion Act of 1882, where the Chinese population was denied admission to United State because of the misconception that they will take other citizen jobs. It was until the immigration act of 1965 that really allowed for Chinese immigrants to be admitted without restrictions and this helped to increase the population of Chinatown in Manhattan.
Mike explained that with the persecution of the Jewish community in Europe around 1880s, most of them ended up coming to America and settling here in Lower East side among other communities escaping famines. What I learned was that such tenements were like apartments with almost no ventilation, where entire families lived in small rooms, often they had no running water, toilets or heat. Having the water wells outside next to the outhouses created unsanitary conditions and cholera infections spread killing many peoples. A reporter, Jacob Riis, exposed the situation of the living conditions where immigrants lived, enabling grounds for few tenements laws to change the way houses were being built, like to add more windows to every room to allow for air exchange, to have running water and toilets inside, fire escape stairs.
We as immigrants have suffered in this country, but I cannot put myself on the shoes of the first immigrants from Europe. I have learned about all their suffering, living in the tenement buildings. It must have been very tough, but I am sure they had it worse back in Europe.
According to ENY p. 66, “despite the disadvantages they faced, the Jews of the lower east side managed to make their mark on NYC, importing their own institutions and cultural traditions to the city”. Here you could find Yiddish newspaper and more than 500 synagogues. We stopped by Kossar’s Bialys and had bialys for breakfast. The bialys represent the Jewish culture and is must-stop shop in the Lower East side.
Few block away we found a small park where we sat to eat the bialys, just to find out from Jim (tour guide) that this called “Seward Park” and was the oldest public park in the city of NY, because in the early 20th century green space was scarce in lower Manhattan. Seward Park opened in 1903 becoming the first municipal playground in the nation. ENY p.70.
As we walk around, passed by the Henry Street settlement (265 Henry Street), and as a future nurse it really strikes a chord in me. Here is where the visiting nurse service took care of the sick in 1903, when Henry Schiff donated the settlement to Lilian Ward (nurse). According to ENY p.69, the idea of bringing healthcare to individuals into their community was a radical idea at the time.
Later we walked to the next neighborhood called Chinatown, and I learned about the Exclusion Act of 1882, where the Chinese population was denied admission to United State because of the misconception that they will take other citizen jobs. It was until the immigration act of 1965 that really allowed for Chinese immigrants to be admitted without restrictions and this helped to increase the population of Chinatown in Manhattan.