“The phrase environmental racism was coined by civil rights leader Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. He defined it as the intentional siting of polluting and waste facilities in communities primarily populated by African Americans, Latines, Indigenous People, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, migrant farmworkers, and low-income workers.” -Natural Resource Defense Council

The Bronx is a majority Black and Hispanic borough in New York City. While the whiter city center, Manhattan, has access to vibrant green space, public parks, and the waterfront to escape the city emissions, residents in the Bronx are constantly being suffocated by factory and highway emissions. Most public outdoor spaces located in the Bronx are positioned next to truck and highway routes. And unlike Manhattan, there is little access to the boroughs waterfront, especially in the South Bronx. Instead, these waterfronts are occupied by highway routes.

The following maps depict the relationship between race, specifically Black/Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC), truck routes, and green space in New York City.

Methods

Borough boundaries and geo-spatial data are represented with a shapefile that was downloaded from NYC Open Data.

Census tract boundaries and data are from the 2016-2020 5-year American Community Survey, accessed with the tidyverse R package. It was important to use Census data because as it accounts for undocumented immigrants, who make up a large portion of the cities population. Census data population categories include:

Black, Hispanic, Asian, White, and BIPOC (Black, Hispanic (non-white), and Asian)

BIPOC population is used to compare racial disparity between Manhattan and The Bronx.

Redlining data was downloaded from dsl.richmond.edu

The rest of the geo-spatial data used was pulled from NYC Open Data: park zones, playgrounds, truck routes (private and commercial use), air pollution, and asthma rates.

Results

Figure 01

This map shows how majority of the BIPOC population between Manhattan and the Bronx are located heavily in Upper Manhattan, and the Lower East Side, and the entirety of the Bronx borough. The only areas of the Bronx with a significant white population are the northwestern area (Riverdale) and east Bronx (Eastchester Bay).

Figure 02

#### Figure 03

The largest BIPOC populations in the Bronx are Black and Hispanic. These two maps show the Black and Hispanic population each between Manhattan and The Bronx.

Above are redlining maps for Manhattan and The Bronx. Redlining is the process of mapping that assigns geographical areas a Homeowner’s Loan Corporation (HOLC) Grade. The colors correspond as: green = “Best”; blue = “Still Desirable”; yellow = “Declining”; and red = “Hazardous”

These HOLC grades have a negative, strong correlation to majority BIPOC areas in both Manhattan and The Bronx.

Areas with low grades have a history of disinvestment by both the state and private sectors. This is a strong component of environmental racism the intentional positioning of polluting and waste facilities, and traffic routes in majority low-income, BIPOC communities.

Figure 04

key: red = UH34 Zones/ yellow = truck routes/ green = park zones/ blue = playgrounds

This map shows park zones, playgrounds, and truck routes within Manhattan. NYC Open Data defines park zones as “Larger NYC parks (generally >20 acres) are subdivided into smaller sections that make inspecting these parks feasible and efficient. These sections are called”zones.” Besides zones, this layer also contains sitting areas that are part of larger parks but could not be defined as zones due to their smaller size. Looking at the geographical relationship between Manhattan’s park zones and truck routes, residents of Manhattan have access around the entire island to their boroughs waterfront, which is considered public land in New York City. Playgrounds are also located adequate distance from routes to provide fresh air and a break from noise pollution. Manhattan also includes a large central green space (Central Park), with zero transportation routes running through. This allows all residents within the borough access to a large green space that allows residents the illusion of being completely removed from the city and its pollutants.

Figure 05

key: red = UH34 Zones/ yellow = truck routes/ green = park zones/ blue = playgrounds

This map shows park zones, playgrounds, and truck routes in The Bronx. Looking at the geographical relationship between the park zones and routes, residents of The Bronx do not have access to their waterfront, especially in the South Bronx, whose waterfront access is completely cut off by trucking routes. Majority of playgrounds are also located in close proximity to routes, included major highways like the Cross Bronx Expressway. The Bronx is also lacking a centralized green space, with most larger green spaces being located in the northern-most parts of the borough.

The two plots above show the annual average air pollution from 2009 to 2021. Although these graphs show higher rates of air pollution in Manhattan compared to The Bronx, there are major discrepancies that can be factored in to support that Bronx residents are more negatively affected by air emissions and pollution than residents in Manhattan. First, the proximity of parks and green space to routes impacts an individuals ability to escape highly polluted zones. Residents of the Bronx are constantly being exposed to large amounts of particulate matter, even within green park spaces. Secondly, most residents of The Bronx are long-term residents, while Manhattan is a hub for short term residents and expats. So, although residents of The Bronx may be exposed to less polluting particulates on a day-by-day basis, they are the most impacted due to long term exposure.

The plots above show asthma rates for Manhattan and The Bronx. These help show the long-term affects of consistant air pollution that residents in The Bronx face. While the relationship between air pollution and asthma is not fully understood, evidence implies that air pollution can suppress the immune system’s ability to differentiate harmless allergens from dangerous viruses or bacteria, causing an inflammatory response when it is not necessary.