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Kelsey Hansen
Cultural Geography
Dr. Danielson
18 November 2013
Landscapes of Power and Inequality
New York City has become “the most unequal major city of the world’s most unequal
major nation” (Inequality.org 2012). Income inequality has been a subject of examination for
many years now, especially in Manhattan, New York. Within the state of New York, Manhattan
has one of the largest income disparities (Hill 2002). This inequality affects everyone,
excluding the wealthiest. The only way to understand income inequality is to find out where it
came from, determine how it affects people, and lastly define ways to make policy changes that
will make a difference for those affected by it.
The Figure 1 thematic maps show that certain neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York
County are financially better off than other parts of the county. The maps are divided into

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separate census tracts within New York County, where the shade of black signifies the poorest
tracts, and white represents the wealthiest tracts. The center piece of these maps is Central Park.
The map on the left, Figure 1A, displays the average income of White non-Hispanics, and the
map on the right, Figure 1B, displays the average income of African Americans. Note that, in
Figure 1A, most tracts surrounding Central Park are light gray or white. In that map, tracts of
these colors are located in Upper West Side, Upper East Side, and Midtown, which are the
neighborhoods surrounding most of Central Park. Only the wealthiest can afford housing that
has a majestic view of Central Park. Upper Manhattan, Harlem, East Harlem, and parts of Lower
Manhattan are dark gray or black. In Figure 1B, almost all tracts are dark gray or white. There
is not a single white tract to denote wealth for the African Americans. Also take note that in
Figure 1B, there are certain tracts missing. The reason some of these tracks are missing is
because African Americans do not live in those tracts, or African Americans living within those
tracts refused to complete the American Community Survey (ACS).
Among the five boroughs of the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and New York
City, Manhattan experiences the greatest income inequality by race. “Latino and Black
households earn just one third that of white households” (ALIGN 2011). Where this income
inequality originated was “legalized discrimination.” Often through violence, blacks were barred
from owning property, they were excluded from fire departments, the police force, and unions,
they were not granted loans to be business owners, and they were not allowed access to
mortgages in order for them to own a decent home. That history helps explain the concentrated
pockets of poverty that persists in many of today’s rural and urban communities, including
Manhattan, and it explains the wealth and income gap between whites and blacks. The
frustration and shame that came from not being able to provide for one’s family and the lack of

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economic opportunity among black men both contributed to the disintegration of black families;
it created anger. “Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue
to define their worldview in fundamental ways.” Anger distracts attention from solving real
problems; it is not always productive. The African American community needs to bring about
real change, but the anger prevents it from building these alliances. This anger is genuine and
powerful. The gap of misunderstanding that exists between the races will only widen if we only
wish the anger away, or if we criticize it without understanding its origins (Callahan and Lynch
2008).
In fact, within segments of the white community, a similar anger exists. “Most working-
class and white Americans don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race.”
As the Figure 1A map shows, there are great income disparities among non-Hispanic Whites.
These people have experienced the “immigrant experience;” as far as they are concerned, they
built their lives from scratch and no one had handed them anything to assist them. They have
labored hard all their lives, many times only to see their pension dumped after a lifetime of work
or to see their jobs shipped overseas. They are in an era of “stagnant wages and global
competition.” Resentment slowly builds over time when they hear that an African American is
getting a good spot in college or an advantage in landing a good job because of an injustice that
they themselves never committed, or when they are informed that their fear about crime in urban
neighborhoods is somehow prejudiced, or when they are told that their children have to be
transported to a school across town. White resentments, like black anger, has proved
counterproductive, distracting attention from the true perpetrators of the middle class squeeze—a
corporate culture rampant with questionable accounting practices, inside dealing, and short-term

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greed; a Washington dominated by “economic policies that favor the few over the many”
(Callahan and Lynch 2008).
New York City heads the nation in income inequality, and this income gap is still
growing (Arden 2006). Many people metaphorically consider New York as a tale of two cities,
meaning that it is a divided urban center in which the middle and working classes, or the 99
percent, struggle with lack of affordable housing and unemployment, while the very wealthy, or
the one percent, earn 44 percent of the city’s income (Mathur 2013). If the Manhattan borough
was a country, the income gap between the poorest 20 percent and the richest 20 percent would
be equivalent to that in African countries such as Lesotho, Sierra Leone, and Namibia. In
America’s largest city, the human cost of this inequality cannot be played down. In New York
City and Manhattan, there are neighborhoods that do not have grocery stores, access to transit,
daycare, or quality schools (Vanden Heuvel 2013). When individuals do not have the means or
opportunity to leave the working class and enter a prosperous class, inequality becomes
insupportable (Mather 2013).
If public-policy decisions aided in creating the inequality that defaces American society,
we are also capable of choosing another path and undoing this inequality. Equalizing
institutions, once characterized by our mixed economy, need to be restored. These consist of
social investment, regulation of the market’s misrepresentations, and progressive taxation.
Restoring these agendas has been part of the policy discourse for some time, and they would
increase economic equality. The challenge includes politics and policies. One agenda is to
increase minimum wage. By increasing earnings, its purchasing power can be returned to the
level it reached prior to 1980. By exploiting the vulnerability of immigrants, employers have
learned how to hold wages and benefits down for all workers. We need a more realistic policy of

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legal immigration with full rights and a broad legalization program for current undocumented
workers. A second agenda is making it possible for working and poor Americans to develop
assets, since asset inequality is greater than income inequality. One example is that for every
child born in America, poor and working Americans should be able to create child savings
accounts for them (Rapoport and Smith 2004). A third agenda would be raising taxes on the
wealthy, setting these taxes back to the levels that the city put in place after 9/11 (Vanden Heuvel
2013). A fourth and last agenda would involve social investment. Accessible and affordable
child care would benefit and support working families and reduce this large out-of-pocket cost.
“Public schools need far more adequate funding, and high-quality education needs to be
extended to 3- and 4-year-olds.” (Rapoport and Smith 2004). Perhaps the best embodiment of
the nation’s failure to meet its own doctrine of equality opportunity is America’s straggling
educational system. (Marther 2013)
Numerous options exist that can help deter income inequality in Manhattan regarding
voter participation. Inequality is the product of deliberate political choices and “can only be
mitigated and ultimately reversed by reclaiming democratic politics.” One way to fix the
problem is to make it easier for people to register and vote. For example, a holiday should be
made out of election days to encourage voter participation, especially for those who lack the
capability or means to get to a ballot station due to daily obligations. Expanding the period of
time for voting could encourage participation. An additional way to mend the problem is to
restore voting rights to those with criminal offenses; nationwide, more than four and a half
million citizens are prevented from voting because of this. Another option to aid in resolving the
issue is to end redistricting abuses, such as gerrymandering. Lastly, by embedding forms of
intentional democracy in governmental processes at all levels, and by stimulating community

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organizing, we could encourage democratic participation throughout the year (Rapoport and
Smith 2004).
In an unequal developed country, Manhattan, New York, has become an unequal major
city. Income inequality is a large problem in Manhattan, but there are many steps that can be
taken to reduce this inequality. Making changes will not be easy because of our history of
discrimination of both African Americans and immigrants. We are capable of making the lives
of everyone better, though it may take time to change policies regarding things such as child
care, education, or voter participation. Now that we understand the source of the inequality, how
it affects people, and how to create change concerning the issue, we need to proceed to the next
phase and begin implementing steps of change for those who matter.

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Works Cited
ALIGN. 2011. “Poverty in New York City: Analysis of Data from the US Census Bureau 2010
American Community Survey.” The Alliance for a Greater New York (ALIGN). Sept
2011. Online PDF. 14 Nov 2013.
Arden, Patrick. 2006. “New York Leads Nation in Income Inequality.” Metro New York. 26
January 2006. Access World News. 14 Nov 2013. Pg 11.
Callahan, Maureen, and Stephen Lynch. 2008 “Obama in Black & White.” New York Post. 23
March 2008. Access World News. 14 Nov 2013. Postscript. Pg 28.
Hill, Michael. 2002. “Gap Between Rich and Poor Gets Wider.” The Union. 06 Aug 2002.
Access World News. 14 Nov 2013. Pg A1.
Inequality.org. 2012. “New York, New York, A Most Unequal Town.” Inequality.org. 12 July
2012. Web. 14 Nov 2013. <http://inequality.org/york-york-unequal-town/>.
Mathur, Raj. 2013. “Bill de Blasio Ideas Similar to OWS Cause.” UWIRE Text. 19 Sept 2013.
Academic OneFile. 17 Nov 2013. Pg 1.
Rapoport, Miles and David Smith. 2004. “Solve Inequality with Democracy: The Agenda Will
Change Only When Ordinary People Take Control of It.” The American Prospect. June
2004. Academic OneFile. 14 Nov 2013. Pg A22.
Vanden Heuvel, Katrina. 2013. “Inequality Enters the Mayor’s Race.” The Nation. 13 June
2013. Web. 14 Nov 2013. < http://www.thenation.com/blog/174782/inequality-enters-
mayors-race>.