Page 121 - Impact: Collected Essays on the Threat of Economic Inequality

Building a City of Equal Opportunity
119
Jennifer Jones Austin1
Economic inequality is often overly simplified . It can be appreciated as the unequal distribution of income and wealth, or the gap between rich and poor . But to truly understand economic inequality, you have to move beyond this static definition and fully assess its impact . A simple subway ride is a good place to start .
Looking at one of the richest communities in the city, in the country, the Upper East Side, and one of the poorest, the South Bronx, only separated by a short subway ride—ten to fifteen minutes— you get a clear picture . On the Upper East Side, the median household income is $101,417 . The unemployment rate is less than 7 percent .2 But in parts of the South Bronx, the median income is $20,867 and the unemployment rate is 17 .9 percent .3 Home ownership, one of the most effective means of building assets and wealth, looks vastly different in these communities . The median sales price for homes on the Upper East Side last year was 88 percent higher than those of South Bronx .
With higher incomes and higher home values come better health care access and education systems . On the Upper East Side, only 6 percent of adults over the age of eighteen self-identify as being in poor health .4 But in some South Bronx neighborhoods, 43 percent of residents identify themselves as in poor, or at best, fair health . There the HIV-related death rate is the third highest in the city .5
Sixty years after Brown v. Board of Education,6 the Department of Education’s District Two, which includes the Upper East Side and where less than one-third of the students are Black or Hispanic, had a proficiency rate of 56 percent on the English Language Arts assessments given to all students in grades three to eight .7 But in the South Bronx’s District Seven, which is nearly 98 percent Black and Hispanic, English Language Arts proficiency—defined as a 3 or 4 score—was achieved by only 9 percent of students8 in grades three to eight .9
1 Jennifer Jones Austin is the Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies (“FPWA”), a prominent New York City anti-poverty, policy, and advocacy organization with 200 member human services agencies operating throughout New York City. For more information please visit http://www.fpwa. org.
2 NYC Dep’t of City Planning, DP03 Selected Economic Characteristics 2010-12 ACS Survey 3-Year Estimates, New York City Manhattan Community Dist. 8 (Upper East Side) (2014), http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/census/puma_ econ_10to12_acs.pdf#mn08.
3 NYC Dep’t of City Planning, DP03 Selected Economic Characteristics 2010-12 ACS Survey 3-Year Estimates, New York City Bronx Community Dist. 1 & 2 (Hunts Point, Longwood & Melrose) (2014) http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/ pdf/census/puma_econ_10to12_acs.pdf#bx01and02.
4 nyc deparTmenT of healTh and menTal hygiene, communiTy healTh profiles – Take care new york: upper easT side 3 (2d ed. 2006) available at http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/data/2006chp-305.pdf.
5 NYC deparTmenT of healTh and menTal hygiene, communiTy healTh profiles – Take care new york: hunTs poinT and moTT haven 3 (2d ed. 2006) available at http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/data/2006chp-107.pdf.
6 347 U.S. 483 (1954).
7 NYC GEOG DIST # 2 - MANHATTAN 3-8 ELA Assessments (2013 - 14), http://data.nysed.gov/assessment38. php?year=2014&subject=ELA&instid=800000048410.
8 NYC GEOG DIST # 7 - BRONX 3-8 ELA Assessments (2013 - 14), http://data.nysed.gov/assessment38. php?year=2014&subject=ELA&instid=800000046647.
9 nyc deparTmenT of educaTion, progress reporTs 2012-13.
Lessons from New York City