Jacob Riis Houses

As part of my series of "Day Trips Outside (formerly Near) the East Village", I ventured way up North, to Fifth Avenue and 103rd Street, to the Museum of the City of New York!

Why, you ask? Why would I travel so far outside of the East Village? To see the exhibition on Jacob Riis!

East Villagers know the name Jacob Riis from the housing project by the same name, between Avenue D and FDR Drive, and East 8th and 13th Streets:

Location of Jacob Riis Houses.

Here is a picture:

Jacob Riis Houses, at East 10th Street.

In case you can't read the sign, here's a closeup:

Close-up.

According to the New York City Housing Authority web page, the Jacob Riis Houses are named after:

Jacob August Riis (1849-1914) – Danish-born American journalist and reformer whose reports on living conditions in city slums led to improvements in housing and education. His stories in newspapers about slum dwellings and abuses in lower class urban life were collected in "How the Other Half Lives (1890)." Riis dwelled on the city's slum tenements and how the people there lived. His vivid descriptions, often depicted on slides, caused audiences at his lectures to moan, shudder and even faint.

Today, East Villagers revel in the conditions that were once decried — but those who do have a lot more money!

21st-century slumming… in the East Village Today!

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