Final Blogs.

The neighborhoods of cities in the 19th century show how race/ethnicity and economic status are divisive forces in how people live.  The income maps that were given show how although there are subtle differences in income within some neighborhoods, there they are pretty much at the same income level, with no real high income people nor poverty-stricken people near them.  And when compared to the race/ethnicity maps, the neighborhoods line up quite well, with the income and racial divisions almost being at the same place.  

Because of the massive amounts of people that were moving to urban areas in the 19th century, especially immigrants moving into low income housing, there was low amounts of public space to go out and meet other ethnicities.  This is why many ethnicities then kept to themselves, and true mixing only occured where it just happened to occur, like where one group has to walk past another to get to their own neighborhood.

The Addams' Motivations

Wow, long break between posts.  So much for turning over a new leaf...

The religious/spiritual nature of the work that Addams did is one of the more common themes in Christianity of "helping your neighbor".  Addams came from a time when Christianity was prevelant, and I believe that it was said that she was a Quaker.  I believe that she took much of that to heart when she decided on opening up her houses.  And I think that combining her devotion and the almost literal translation from one of the core tenets of Christianity, it is hard to make the case that she wouldn't be religiously motivated.