ET IN THE SUN

by Woody Klein ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 19, 1964

Woody Klein is a reporter for the New York World-Telegram & Sun; his byline has led off many stories on New York's housing problems. To dramatize the part housing must play in the War on Poverty, he has composed the biography of one ""new-law tenement,"" built in 1906 on what has latterly come to be known as ""the worst block"" in New York City. Number 311 East 100th Street -- in East Harlem -- has changed owners many times, and into its 33 apartments have been crowded representatives of many ethnic groups. Several hundred violations have been scored against it by City and State health, safety, and social agencies. It has been on and off demolition schedules and in and out of the news over and over again -- yet it still stands in 1964. ""How did it become a slum? Who is to blame for this crime against civilized society?"" asks Klein in his Preface. He traces ""the inevitable link between housing and politics,"" and recounts the history of poor planning, poor law enforcement, rent control, absentee landlordism, and corruption under the City's one-party rule. He speaks also of the inability of some new tenants who migrate to New York from nonurban backgrounds to adopt city-living habits. He concludes that all parties are to some extent guilty of the spread of slums but that the prize for responsibility must go to government. It is their job to assume new powers to undo the damage it has done.

Pub Date: Oct. 19, 1964

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: acmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1964

Categories: NONFICTION