poverty

The Heart Network Seeks Stories About Medical Debt

September 16, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Heart Network is seeking stories from Northern New York residents impacted by medical debt. The testimonials collected will be used to support a statewide campaign to end medical debt.

Earlier this year, the New York State Senate and Assembly passed the Fair Medical Debt Reporting Act, which would protect patients from having their credit ruined due to the reporting of medical debt to credit bureaus. Medical debt is a serious issue that affects 100 million Americans — 41% of the population. [Read more…] about The Heart Network Seeks Stories About Medical Debt

The Great Depression in New York City: A Primer

September 11, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

As the 1920s advanced, the economy soared. But with that dramatic expansion came irrational exuberance and unchecked speculation: stock prices reached levels that had no basis in reality; margin purchases were rampant; banks handed out loans lavishly and imprudently; and giddy product production resulted in a vast oversupply of goods.

On Tuesday, October 29, 1929, it all came crashing down. This is the story of the Great Depression in New York City. [Read more…] about The Great Depression in New York City: A Primer

Expelling the Poor: The Nineteenth-Century Origins of American Immigration Policy

September 7, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Historians have long assumed that immigration to the United States was free from regulation until anti-Asian racism on the West Coast triggered the introduction of federal laws to restrict Chinese immigration in the 1880s. Studies of European immigration and government control on the East Coast have, meanwhile, focused on Ellis Island, which opened in 1892. [Read more…] about Expelling the Poor: The Nineteenth-Century Origins of American Immigration Policy

Gaslight Foster: Old New York Storyteller & Social Geographer

September 6, 2023 by Jaap Harskamp Leave a Comment

Having spent three weeks in Boston where he enjoyed an enthusiastic reception, Charles Dickens arrived on February 12, 1842, in South Street, Lower Manhattan, on the packet New York from New Haven. The city depressed him.

In his travelogue American Notes, he contrasted sun-filled Broadway with the filth of The Five Points. In the district’s narrow alleys the visitor was confronted with all that is “loathsome, drooping, and decayed.” Dickens described New York as a city of sunshine and gloom. [Read more…] about Gaslight Foster: Old New York Storyteller & Social Geographer

Federal Student Loan Payment Pause Ending

August 30, 2023 by John Warren Leave a Comment

After more than three years, the Federal Student Loan payment pause ends and interest resumes on September 1, 2023 with payments scheduled to restart in October 2023.

Begun under the Trump administration in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Student Loan payment pause allowed borrowers to stop making payments on their federal student loans without penalty. The payment pause was extended by the Biden administration several times, but widespread cancellation was halted by the conservative Supreme Court.

The end of the payment pause will have a significant impact on borrowers and is expected to lead to an increase in defaults on the some $1.75 trillion total debt from some 45.3 million borrowers. [Read more…] about Federal Student Loan Payment Pause Ending

Albany’s Distressed Children & The Albany Orphan Asylum: Some History

August 22, 2023 by Peter Hess 2 Comments

In 1652, New Netherland Dutch Director General Peter Stuyvesant granted land to the Dutch Church in Albany to construct a house to shelter the poor. In 1683, English Governor Thomas Dongan convened the first representative Assembly in the Colony of New York.

One of the first laws passed by the Colonial Assembly was a law regarding the treatment of orphans. [Read more…] about Albany’s Distressed Children & The Albany Orphan Asylum: Some History

Annie Edson Taylor: Over Niagara Falls & Into The Poor House

July 26, 2023 by Jack Kelly Leave a Comment

Advancing into the later stages of life, some turn their thoughts to immortality, whether through achievement, offspring, or religion. Many more focus on simply having enough dough to sustain themselves with dignity to the end. Annie Edson Taylor took aim at both goals.

In 1901, she was approaching her sixty-third birthday. She had long fended for herself, an adventurous entrepreneur in an age when most women were still locked into dependency. But life offered scant opportunity for an aging free spirit. [Read more…] about Annie Edson Taylor: Over Niagara Falls & Into The Poor House

Caring for Albany’s Poor: Some History

June 6, 2023 by Peter Hess Leave a Comment

Albany, New York’s Dutch Church started a “Poor Fund,” probably shortly after the arrival of Dominie Johannes Megapolensis (1603–1670) in 1642. Disbursements were being made from the fund by 1647. Albany’s Patroon, Dutch merchants and others contributed to the collections of the church and the church in turn was made contributions to support the community’s impoverished residents. [Read more…] about Caring for Albany’s Poor: Some History

Jane Addams, Alice Hamilton & The Hague Women’s Congress

April 26, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Berlin, May 1915. Three feminists on an historical mission — Jane Addams and New York native Alice Hamilton from the United States, and Aletta Jacobs from the Netherlands — meet Wilbur H. Durborough. The American photographer and filmmaker had traveled to Berlin with his cameraman, Irving G. Ries, to shoot footage for his war documentary On the Firing Line with the Germans (1915). [Read more…] about Jane Addams, Alice Hamilton & The Hague Women’s Congress

Chuck Connors & Slum Tourism in Chinatown

April 20, 2023 by Jaap Harskamp 1 Comment

Dating from 1785, Edward Mooney House at 18 Bowery, at the corner of Pell Street in Lower Manhattan’s Chinatown, is one of New York’s oldest surviving brick townhouses. Built shortly after the British evacuated New York and before George Washington became President, its architecture contains elements of both pre-Revolutionary (British) Georgian and the in-coming (American) Federal style. Designated in 1966 as a landmark sample of domestic architecture, Mooney House has three stories, an attic and full basement.

The property itself and the land on which it was built are manifestations of Manhattan’s socio-political emergence. The house harbors a history of various functions that involved a diverse mix of tenants and occupants, reflecting the chaotic rise of the metropolis. [Read more…] about Chuck Connors & Slum Tourism in Chinatown