Good Old Lower East Side

The New Law Turns 100 by Jason Anderson

May 03, 2001

One hundred years ago, Lawrence Veiller, in the progressivist spirit of the times, organized an exhibit exhaustively documenting the squalid living conditions in the Lower East Side?’s tenements with over one thousand photographs, maps, charts, diagrams, and models. The exhibit sparked widespread public outcry and an emphatic demand for the improvement of existing housing and higher standards for future designs. The following year, Veiller authored the Tenement House Act of 1901, commonly known as the ?“New Law.?” While far from perfect, the New Law was a comprehensive attempt to legislate housing design, significantly reforming the existing design requirements for housing in New York. It established standards for light, ventilation, and sanitation in residential buildings that not only governed subsequent development but also forced landlords to retrofit their existing buildings in order to bring them into compliance. It was the New Law that first mandated that every room must have a window to provide light and fresh air, and required that every building provide at least one toilet for every tow families. Prior to the New Law, whole tenement buildings, sometimes multiple tenements had shared a single outhouse and water source. The overall effect of the New Law was a radical improvement in the quality of housing in the LES and throughout New York.
Although revised considerably over the years, the New law still stands alongside the Multiple Dwelling Law and the zoning laws as the regulatory basis for housing design. In the past one hundred years, the LES has changed immensely; the housing concerns of 1901 are not ours today. It is inconceivable to us that we might have to share one bathroom with the rest of our building, for instance. This is the legacy of the New Law and other housing laws. But New Yorkers, in the LES and throughout the city, still must contend with an overwhelming collection of housing-related problems: the expanding stock of illegal, substandard housing; an acute shortage of affordable, well-designed dwellings; increasingly exorbitant rents; lack of space; intimidation from landlords; predatory development practices. The regulation of design standards and development practices, or, in some instances, the lack thereof, has a profound impact on the lives of all New Yorkers.
Our homes, our neighborhoods, our commutes, our jobs?—every aspect of our lives is to some extent determined by the way in which housing in our city has evolved. Laws like the New Law were written to protect tenants and to improve our quality of life by establishing tenants rights. As a tenant, it is important to know these rights, and to make sure that yours are being acknowledged and upheld.