No More Poverty

This photograph, titled “A Bandit’s Roost,” by Jacob Riis is part of a vast collection of his photos documenting the lives of the impoverished in New York City in the late 19th century. Riis’s work as a police reporter, and later social reformer, helped to draw the right attention to these travesties, and change was quickly drawn about. There is no longer poverty of this nature, or at least not as widespread, in New York City today.

Many people however, still view cities as places of immense poverty and rampant crime. Many imagine a sight very similar to the photograph when they think of a city; a dark alleyway, sunlight blocked by renters’ laundry, filled with gangsters waiting to mug the next intruder. It is frustrating that so many people fear a sight like this when they enter a city, clutching their purses. That is a completely inaccurate perception of cities, and people need to start realizing that and recognize that the suburbs aren’t exactly crime free.