The topic of my project involved looking at number of complaints per 100 people in low-income and high-income areas in the Bronx and try to look for differences in the conditions of their street lights and traffic lights, and the number of complaints for street lights being. If the visual displays show any signs of injustice against low-income areas, then the city must take action to treat both groups equally. I chose to use Riverdale and Hunts Point – Longwood because there is a big difference in their household incomes. To a lot of people that live in Bronx, this may be common knowledge, however, the map below will show the disparity in income between the two areas.

The data was collected from 2010 until now from NYC Open Data 311 Complaints and American Fact Finder.

The first map represents the median household income for theRiverdale area in the Bronx and the Hunts Point – Longwood area in the Bronx. Riverdale is one of the wealthiest areas and the Hunts Point – Longwood is one of the poorest areas, in New York City.

 

 

The map and graph show that the Hunts Point – Longwood has a higher number of complaints per 100 people compared to the Riverdale area. In the lower part of the Hunts Point – Longwood area, the number of complaints went up to 54 complaints per 100 people, while in the wealthy Riverdale area, it only went up to about 9 complaints per 100 people. I used a rate to compare for areas because there is a big difference in populations since Riverdale is suburban and Hunts Point – Longwood is more urban.

I also wanted to focus on the number of street lights out complaints per 100 people since having dark street could have an effect on crime and safe walking environments for pedestrians. These results were similar to the previous comparison. There is a large concentration of complaints in the lower part of the Hunts Point – Longwood area. The number of complaints went up as high as 38 complaints per 100 people. As for the Riverdale area, the highest number of complaints was about 7.

Further research is needed as to determine if there is causation between income and the quality of living conditions. Visually, there seems to be a relationship between income and quality of living conditions. The maps and data show that lower income census areas have a higher number of both street light and traffic light conditions complaints, and street lights out complaints. Another useful way to research this topic would be to analyze the length of time it takes for the city to fix these issues. If there seems to be a difference in how long it takes the city to fix issues in high-income areas than in low-income areas, then it could strengthen the relationship between income and quality of living conditions in New York City.