Inequality is hazardous to New York City’s health.
That’s the finding a new report from advocacy group Transportation Alternatives which declared that New York City’s public space is distributed highly inequitably on racial, ethnic, and income-based lines, a phenomenon leading to alarming disparities in health, environmental quality, and public safety.
The report, created in conjunction with Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, includes a new online tool called Spatial Equity NYC analyzing publicly available data, found apparent connections between a lack of non-automotive public space and poor public health outcomes, like high rates of asthma or traffic injuries.