New-York tribune., 1902-02-23
HOUSING CITY POOR.
THE RESULTS OF AN INYESTIG ALTON
OF CONDITIONS IN THE LARGER
CITIES OF THIS STATE.

Now that New York City has amended
and improved tenement house law which will
forbid the erection of any unsanitary
abodes for the poor. her citizens can raise the
finger Of warning and shake It freely in the face
Of sister cities up the State. The narrow bound
aries of Manhattan from east to west furnished
some reason for the start Of the Old tenement
house e-il. but cities like Buffalo. Rochester.
Syracuse Albany and Troy have not even that
excuse. Nevertheless the overcrowded, i'll
lighted and I'll ventilated tenement house is find
Ing foothold there.
in an article on the housing conditions in the
principal cities of New-York state which Ed
ward T. Devine contributes to Charities" he
discusses the housing conditions in Buffalo
Rochester, Syracuse Albany and Troy. The
writer says about Buffalo:
From a survey then of eli the conditions as
they exist in the city of Buffalo it would seem
that there is no necessity whatever of the exist
ence or the tenement house system. There is
plenty Of room for houses Of moderate height.
easily accessible from all parts of the city by the
present means of Transportation. and there is
room for very much larger growth under the
same conditions. II seems possible therefore,
by the enforcement Of sufficiently strict regu-
lations to gradually exterminate the evil as il
exists and TO prevent its development in the
future.
In Rochester many poor people live in cot
tages which face alleys. and many live In
solidly built brick blocks which Mr. Devine
thinks resemble the double decker tenement
house OF New-York. In one rear two-room
apartment the writer found the tenants to
be a woman and six children. They lived there
at rental Of 81 30 a week Here were to be
found most of the conditions so roundly and
justly denounced in the report of the Tenement
House Commission existing on a large scale
solely in the city of tenements There were the
many flights of stairs, -he dark Railways. the
cIamped quarters. the absence CT Fairgrounds
for children, the sole opportunity aside from the
public street being a narrow balcony probably
intended chiefly a fire escape; the high rent.
the absence Of attractive outlook and the utter
absence Of any of the elementary characters
tics Of American home"
The detached cottages are not always ideal
living places. One row of such cottages
found which faced upon a narrow alley directly
across which a barnyard. and in front Of
another cottage found a pile of garbag ge.
Another feature Of Rochester's housing cond-
tions is the cheap lodging house of the type
Familiarity associated with the Bowerv. The
Bowery lodging house" says the writer. is a
curse in New-York. Elsewhere It is an excres-
cence and a needless insult to humanity" 1t
must not be supposed that the brick block the
house typical Of the conditions under which
the working people OF Rochester live. The
greater part live in good apartments These
homes are healthfuI but the living conditions Of
the poorest and least fortunate bad and the
condition is sufficient to arouse thoughtful ap-
prehension and earnest solicitude."