New Report Reveals N.Y.C. Areas Most Hurt by Environmental Inequities

The Background: A project years in the making.

In 2017, a new law required the city to publish a data-driven study and mapping tool that identifies areas with disproportionate levels of pollution, as well as contributing socioeconomic factors.

Seven years later, it’s here.

Mayor Eric Adams said that the report and mapping tool would help locate “the communities that have been most impacted by environmental inequities.” And those insights, he added, will help guide government policies.

The Findings: Low-income communities of color are the hardest hit.

Nearly half of the city’s population lives in what the report describes as an “environmental justice area.” (It determined these areas, which typically have histories of societal neglect resulting in elevated levels of pollution and health issues, using census data.)

Polluting infrastructure, like high-emitting power plants and hazardous waste generators, tends to anchor these neighborhoods, many of which also lack green space and public transit. Several of the areas are near highways and warehouses, which can expose residents to contaminants.

Structural racism and poverty contribute to hardships for residents, who also battle a disproportionate amount of challenges related to housing and climate change, such as lead paint exposure and high heat.

Within these areas, 27 percent of residents are Black and 43 percent are Hispanic; almost a quarter have incomes below the poverty level.

The Bronx has the most environmental justice areas — nearly the entire borough qualifies for the designation. Affected neighborhoods in other boroughs include East Harlem, central and eastern Brooklyn, the North Shore of Staten Island and southern Queens.

Why It Matters: The data underscores needs.

The report and interactive map can equip environmental justice areas with the kinds of data and information that can be useful in, say, applying for federal funding, said Elijah Hutchinson, the executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Climate & Environmental Justice, which announced the project Friday.

“In order to look forward sometimes you have to look back, to address the harms of the past,” Mr. Hutchinson said.

Investing in disadvantaged neighborhoods is crucial while the city works to meet the state’s ambitious climate goals, which include decreasing greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030, Mr. Hutchinson continued. “In order to achieve these, we can’t leave anyone behind.”

The Numbers: Park access is low. E.R. visits are high.

The Bronx has the highest rates of food insecurity and diet-related diseases (39 percent of residents in the South Bronx have high blood pressure). The borough also has the highest percentage of residents who have difficulty paying their energy bills (36 to 38 percent in some areas), yet neighborhoods in the Bronx dominate a list of those where households lack air-conditioning.

Of the New Yorkers who live in neighborhoods with histories of discriminatory housing practices (known as “redlining”), 67 percent also find themselves in environmental justice areas, and more than half are people of color. And Black New Yorkers are twice as likely to die from heat stress as white New Yorkers.

In Erasmus, Brooklyn, public park space is scant: For every 1,000 residents, there is about a tenth of an acre. In Elmhurst, Queens, and Parkchester in the Bronx, there is about half an acre.

In some environmental justice areas like East Harlem, adult emergency room visits from exposure to particulate matter from sources like truck exhaust and smokestacks can be as high as three times the citywide average.

East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, has 10 waste transfer stations, the most in the city. Hunts Point, in the Bronx, has seven, and there are five in Jamaica, Queens.

What Happens Next: Sounds like a plan.

“The report puts context to the data that the city has collected and gives a snapshot of what communities are experiencing,” said Peggy Shepard, the executive director and co-founder of WE ACT for Environmental Justice, a nonprofit in Harlem involved in the project.

The next step, which is also required by law, is for the city to work with the public to develop a plan for addressing and repairing these social inequities. It will involve “a robust community engagement process across the five boroughs,” Ms. Shepard said.”

Read more from The New York Times.