By Philip Bernstein

The Effect on Wealthy NYC Neighborhoods

Walking out of my house in Brooklyn during the coronavirus crisis brings a strange sight. Although the perception of New York City turning into a ghost town during this outbreak is true of many neighborhoods across the city, my neighborhood of Park Slope is reacting differently. While the majority of businesses are closed, everyone sports masks and dirty looks when someone comes too close on the street, and applause for health care workers fills the air at 7 pm, there is still a sense of normalcy here. On a sunny day, Prospect Park is packed with people and social distancing is enforced loosely. It might seem that with such crowded streets and parks, Park Slope would be hit hard with COVID-19, but compared to other neighborhoods around the city, the wealthy, largely white neighborhood does not have it bad at all. This lack of panic is not unique to Park Slope: many other wealthy places in New York City are acting in a similar manner. This shines a light on another effect of income inequality in the city: differences in health based on wealth and race.

The Effect on NYC as a Whole

New York City has seen a shocking 170,000 COVID-19 cases with around 19,000 deaths (New York Post, 2020) — and these are only the reported and confirmed cases — meaning there are undoubtedly many more. Therefore, this one city has more coronavirus cases and deaths than most other countries. However, the percentage of cases is not even close to being distributed evenly across all parts of the city. As seen in this graph (Time Magazine, 2020), the distribution of COVID-19 cases are heavily skewed towards people with lower incomes. Since poorer neighborhoods are home to a higher percentage of minorities, the coronavirus affects minorities much more than it affects white people. 

Residential Inequality in NYC

Why do so many minorities live in poorer communities? This racial inequality is not just true of New York City; it exists in most places in the United States. 

Starting in 1933, the Federal Housing Administration gave loans to privileged whites while using redlining to deny these services to minorities. With these loans, white people were able to buy more expensive houses, which then appreciated in value. They then had more money to pass along to their children. On the flip side, since the Federal Housing Administration denied members of minority groups these loans, and areas with high proportions of minorities were deemed financial risks, they either could not purchase their own homes, or their houses depreciated in value because they were living in them. Consequently, they did not have as much money to hand down to their children. This income inequality perpetuated a cycle of further inequalities. Businesses would leave the poorer areas to move to the richer ones. This lowered the tax base, which caused a lack of money invested into schools in these neighborhoods, causing them to deteriorate. Rising poverty and inequality naturally led to an increase in crime. The wealth and racial segregation seen in New York City and around the country today is due to this educational and residential segregation (NPR, 2017).

The Effect on Poor NYC Neighborhoods

Why is it easier to catch COVID-19 and harder to recover from it in poorer communities? In Park Slope and other wealthy neighborhoods, a lot of residents can comfortably work from home and have enough money to stock up on food and other necessities. Therefore, residents here do not have to travel to work and take public transportation, such as the subway, as much as people do in poorer neighborhoods. This drastically affects the likelihood of contracting the disease. Similarly, residents here have enough money to buy a ton of food, toilet paper, etc. so they do not have to make nearly as many trips outside to grocery stores as people who do not have a large amount of money at their disposal. Additionally, it is harder for residents in poorer neighborhoods to afford hand sanitizer, lysol wipes, and other disinfectants which are extremely helpful in keeping the disease at bay. Most of all, in less wealthy communities, there are fewer testing sites, doctors offices, hospitals, etc. which obviously influences the rate of infection on a large scale.

Future Pandemics

This, along with the majority of topics studied in sociology, is not simply being written to simply for the sake of knowledge. Just because this is the way things are right now does not mean it is how it always should be. If we are aware of the problems that our countries, cities, and communities face, then hopefully we can fight against racial and wealth inequality with rent control, investing more in all schools (not just the ones in rich neighborhoods), put testing sites in poor neighborhoods, and much more to reduce unfair outcomes, such as the difference in who the coronavirus affects.

Sources

Eligon, John, and Audra. “Black Americans Face Alarming Rates of Coronavirus Infection in Some States.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 7 Apr. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/us/coronavirus-race.html.

Feis, Aaron. “NYC Coronavirus Cases Reach Nearly 170,000, Death Toll at over 18,000.” New York Post, New York Post, 3 May 2020, nypost.com/2020/05/03/new-york-city-coronavirus-cases-reach-nearly-170000/.

Gross, Terry. “A ‘Forgotten History’ Of How The U.S. Government Segregated America.” NPR, 3 May 2017, www.npr.org/2017/05/03/526655831/a-forgotten-history-of-how-the-u-s-government-segregated-america.

Wilson, Chris. “How Coronavirus Hit Low-Income Communities Harder in NYC.” Time, Time, 15 Apr. 2020, time.com/5821212/coronavirus-low-income-communities/.