Tenement housing laws could not overcome underlying urban poverty

Evidence

The exhibition, like Riis’s book, played on the fears and the heartstrings of the public. In 1900, too, the legislature appointed a new commission to investigate, and a major housing law was passed in 1901.65 But the slums, of course, did not disappear. The underlying problem was poverty, not architecture; the slums survived, because the army of immigrants kept coming, to join the native poor in the airless, windowless barrios of New York City. — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 2651

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the recurring course theme that law addressing surface conditions (here architecture) fails when the root cause is material inequality — parallels the noise-pollution thread where the problem is poverty, not soundproofing alone. — connects to: Federal aid conditioned local housing codes on workable anti-slum programs — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 227; A single housing code standard cannot serve both slums and conservation areas — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 236; Poor neighborhoods harm development independent of family circumstances

Broader Connections

• Poor neighborhoods harm development independent of family circumstances #corroborates (0.75)