Today we took two tours courtesy of the Lower Eastside Tenement Museum: a tour of the interior of 97 Orchard Street, the historical tenement building that the museum has painstakingly restored using archival information about the various families who lived there; and a walking tour of the neighborhood which focused on local activism and urban change from the early twentieth century to the present.
Themes that stood out especially were the role of government policy and programs in the lives of individuals, the struggles of neighborhood groups to mold their immediate environments and advocate for themselves, and the current pressure on landowners to sell to luxury developers. The gallery and arts scene, as well as the Chinese community, have been, and continue to be, particularly important in shaping the Lower Eastside.
