York City Neighborhoods Research Articles

Identifying New York City Neighborhoods at Risk of Being Overlooked for Interventions.

Public health agencies are often faced with difficult decisions about where and how to allocate funding and resources. This question of resource allocation is central to public health policy; however, decisions related to resource allocation are sometimes made via informal or subjective approaches. We walk readers through a process of identifying needs across different neighborhoods in New York City (NYC) by examining community district–level health outcomes using data from published Community Health Profile reports released by the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) in 2015. In NYC, community districts are represented by community boards that provide a forum for addressing the needs of the community, making them a useful geographic unit for examining health information and turning data into action. We examined prevalence estimates and 95% confidence intervals of health indicators in each community district to identify significant disparities and calculated relative disparities in rates or prevalence to understand the relative magnitude of each disparity. Lastly, we demonstrate an application of this approach by identifying a cluster of neighborhoods with a high chance of being overlooked for public health interventions by conventional methods because of the relative number of disparities that exist in these neighborhoods. We present information on the disparity profile (number of disparities and relative disparity) for each neighborhood within the cluster and discuss potential public health implications. This approach can be applied to other jurisdictions to inform public health planning and resource allocation.

The differential impact of COVID-19 across demographic groups: Evidence from NYC

In this paper, we explore different channels to explain the disparities in COVID-19 incidence across New York City neighborhoods. To do so, we estimate several regression models to assess the statistical relevance of different variables such as neighborhood characteristics and occupations. Our results suggest occupations are crucial for explaining the observed patterns, with those with a high degree of human interaction being more likely to be exposed to the virus. Moreover, after controlling for occupations, commuting patterns no longer play a significant role. The relevance of occupations is robust to the inclusion of demographics, with some of them, such as income or the share of Asians, having no statistical significance. On the other hand, racial disparities still persist for Blacks and Hispanics compared to Whites, although their magnitudes are economically small. Additionally, we perform the same analysis over a time window to evaluate how different channels interact with the progression of the pandemic, as well as with the health policies that have been set in place. While the coefficient magnitudes of many occupations and demographics decrease over time, we find evidence consistent with higher intra-household contagion as days go by. Moreover, our findings also suggest a selection on testing, whereby those residents in worse conditions are more likely to get tested, with such selection decreasing over time as tests become more widely available.

Policing Gentrification: Stops and Low–Level Arrests during Demographic Change and Real Estate Reinvestment

Does low–level policing increase during gentrification? If so, are police responding to increased crime, increased demand by new residents, or are they attempting to “clean up” neighborhoods marked for economic redevelopment? To address these questions, I construct a longitudinal dataset of New York City neighborhoods from 2009 to 2015. I compile data on neighborhoods’ demographics, street stops, low–level arrests, crimes, 311 calls to the police, and—using a novel measure—property values. Maps, spatiotemporal modeling, and fixed effects regressions compare changes in stops and low–level arrests to changes in several measures of gentrification. I find, on average, calls to the police increased after a neighborhood's middle–class population grew. Calls did not translate into more stops or low–level arrests, however. Net of crime and spatial autocorrelation, police made more order–maintenance and proactive arrests following real estate market growth, suggesting development–directed policing. Property value growth in wealthy and already gentrified neighborhoods was not associated with an increase in arrests, underscoring policing's role in early–stage urban “renewal.” The article includes an analysis of three sources of property value data.

Women's Perspectives on Reproductive Health Services in Primary Care.

Primary care providers (PCPs) are increasingly offering reproductive health (RH) services to help address patients' unmet contraceptive needs and improve pregnancy outcomes. We sought to understand patient perspectives on receipt of RH services in primary care settings. We used a purposeful stratified sampling approach to recruit women aged 21 to 40 years into focus groups (FGs) and in-depth interviews (IDIs). We held all four FGs in two New York City neighborhoods and all 18 IDIs in two upstate NY suburban/rural neighborhoods (each with half of the neighborhoods above and below the median county income in each setting type). We explored participants' preferences for RH services from PCPs, including their feelings about being asked about pregnancy intentions. We also asked their opinions on three distinct pregnancy intention screening and reproductive health needs assessment questions. Data analysis involved an iterative process of excerpt coding and interpretive analysis to identify key themes. We conducted four FGs and 18 IDIs with a total of 39 women. Participants were receptive to the availability of RH services in primary care and the benefits to streamlining this care, provided clinicians approach these services in a manner that respects patient autonomy and reproductive desires. They discussed a lack of preconception care counseling and concerns about primary care providers' training and/or comfort with RH, as well as time spent with patients. Participants had the most positive response to the proposed question "Can I help you with any reproductive health services today, such as birth control or planning for a healthy pregnancy?" based on its open-endedness, inclusiveness, and promotion of reproductive autonomy. The findings of this study support the continued expansion of RH services in primary care settings. Future research should test the preferred RH service needs question to understand how it may affect service delivery, patient satisfaction, reproductive autonomy, as well as unmet contraceptive need and indicators of maternal and child health.

\u201cFor a Younger Crowd\u201d: Place, Belonging, and Exclusion among Older Adults Facing Neighborhood Change

Cities are gentrifying, yet we know little about the experience of older adults aging in gentrifying areas. Most research has focused on a shortage of affordable housing and threat of eviction for low-income residents but has paid less attention to age. This trend neglects a fuller understanding of place’s heightened significance for older people and how commercial gentrification threatens their possibilities to connect in non-institutional, intergenerational spaces. Drawing on five years of ethnographic fieldwork among older adults in a gentrified New York City neighborhood, this paper examines the significance of “third places” for longtime residents. I find that features of establishments such as proximity (distance from study participants’ residences), cost, physical design and layout, and surveillance shaped how different neighborhood places facilitated face-to-face interaction and a sense of ownership that supported participants’ independence as they aged in place. This paper contributes to limited scholarly knowledge about older people’s experiences of gentrification and neighborhood change, an understudied area of growing concern as population aging converges with the increasing desirability and cost of living in urban areas.

Demographic Determinants of Testing Incidence and COVID-19 Infections in New York City Neighborhoods

New York City is the hot spot of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. This paper merges information on the number of tests and the number of infections at the New York City zip code level with demographic and socioeconomic information from the decennial census and the American Community Surveys. People residing in poor or immigrant neighborhoods were less likely to be tested; but the likelihood that a test was positive was larger in those neighborhoods, as well as in neighborhoods with larger households or predominantly black populations. The rate of infection in the population depends on both the frequency of tests and on the fraction of positive tests among those tested. The non-randomness in testing across New York City neighborhoods indicates that the observed correlation between the rate of infection and the socioeconomic characteristics of a community tells an incomplete story of how the pandemic evolved in a congested urban setting.

Demographic Determinants of Testing Incidence and COVID-19 Infections in New York City Neighborhoods

New York City is the hot spot of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. This paper merges information on the number of tests and the number of infections at the New York City zip code level with demographic and socioeconomic information from the decennial census and the American Community Surveys. People residing in poor or immigrant neighborhoods were less likely to be tested; but the likelihood that a test was positive was larger in those neighborhoods, as well as in neighborhoods with larger households or predominantly black populations. The rate of infection in the population depends on both the frequency of tests and on the fraction of positive tests among those tested. The non-randomness in testing across New York City neighborhoods indicates that the observed correlation between the rate of infection and the socioeconomic characteristics of a community tells an incomplete story of how the pandemic evolved in a congested urban setting.

The Impact of Violent Crime on Obesity

Dwelling in a violence-plagued neighborhood may amplify obesity by engendering psychological distress or by cultivating a sedentary, homebound lifestyle. This relationship is speculated to be especially relevant for black and Hispanic citizens because they are much more likely than whites to live in violence-beleaguered neighborhoods. Results from two multilevel analyses of 12,645 residents living in 34 New York City neighborhoods show that, while the violent crime rate does not have a direct effect on obesity, it does condition the relationships between race, ethnicity, and obesity. As the violent crime rate rises in a neighborhood, the probability of both a black and Hispanic resident being obese increases, controlling for both individual and neighborhood factors. The BMI of black and Hispanic residents is also higher in neighborhoods beset by violence. These findings suggest that violent crime may be a salient but unappreciated factor in explaining both racial and ethnic differences in obesity.

Relationship to Place for Older Adults in a New York City Neighborhood Undergoing Gentrification: A Discourse Analysis

While many older adults live in neighborhoods undergoing gentrification, research rarely explores their narratives about the gentrification process and their relationships with gentrifiers. This study uses discourse analysis of ethnographic data in Queens, NY, to identify repertoires in older adults’ narratives about the meaning of place and gentrification. Five distinct repertoires emerged: (1) gentrification brings a discussion of losses; (2) talk of the insider versus outsider claim to space; (3) social connectivity phrased as a strength during gentrification; (4) statements about adaptation strategies used to buffer change; and (5) language about neighborhood change as good—even during gentrification. These repertoires show older residents seek to understand and validate their role in a changing place. Their individual dialogues echo discussions and power differentials in their larger social worlds. Older persons’ repertoires illustrate the struggle to contextualize gentrification and not simply homogenize the process or create only limited, stereotypical insider–outsider arguments.

Evaluating the impact and equity of a tobacco-free pharmacy law on retailer density in New York City neighbourhoods

BackgroundIn 2018, New York City (NYC) implemented a tobacco-free pharmacy law as part of a comprehensive policy approach to curb tobacco use. This study models the reduction in tobacco retailer...

Location of Pre-exposure Prophylaxis Services Across New York City Neighborhoods: Do Neighborhood Socio-demographic Characteristics and HIV Incidence Matter?

Despite an increasing pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) use among populations at highest risk of HIV acquisition, comprehensive and easy access to PrEP is limited among racial/ethnic minorities and low-income populations. The present study analyzed the geographic distribution of PrEP providers and the relationship between their location, neighborhood characteristics, and HIV incidence using spatial analytic methods. PrEP provider density, socio-demographics, healthcare availability, and HIV incidence data were collected by ZIP-code tabulation area in New York City (NYC). Neighborhood socio-demographic measures of race/ethnicity, income, insurance coverage, or same-sex couple household, were not associated with PrEP provider density, after adjusting for spatial autocorrelation, and PrEP providers were located in high HIV incidence neighborhoods (P < 0.01). These findings validate the need for ongoing policy interventions (e.g. public health detailing) vis-à-vis PrEP provider locations in NYC and inform the design of future PrEP implementation strategies, such as public health campaigns and navigation assistance for low-cost insurance.

First person profile: Larry Norton, MD: A world-renowned breast cancer researcher, Dr. Norton has used his passion for music and math to revolutionize oncology.

First person profile: Larry Norton, MD: A world-renowned breast cancer researcher, Dr. Norton has used his passion for music and math to revolutionize oncology.

P28 Qualitative Study: User Experiences with Platano, a Dietary Self-Monitoring App for Underserved Patients with Type 2 Diabetes

Background Dietary self-monitoring is a key strategy in diabetes self-management and may be facilitated by mHealth. However, smartphone applications are typically designed for high resource audiences and may exacerbate health inequity if they fail to meet user needs in underserved groups. Objective We aimed to understand user experiences with a dietary self-monitoring smartphone application designed for patients with Type 2 diabetes in a New York City neighborhood with high levels of health disparity. Study Design, Settings, Participants As part of the Personal Informatics Technology for Engagement in Community Health (PI-TECH) study, we applied user-centered design to develop Platano, a self-determination theory-based app that promotes self-tracking of diet and blood glucose in diabetes via motivationally-tailored user interfaces. During an ongoing pilot evaluation, we conducted face-to-face, in-depth interviews with English-speaking users (n = 9, age range = 28-61, 88% female, 89% non-white, 88% household income Measurable Outcome/Analysis Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim; data were managed in NVivo 12. Two authors coded interviews using Thematic Analysis, resolving differences through consensus. Results Five themes emerged: a) context: external circumstances (e.g., food insecurity, cultural norms) were central to participants’ user experience; b) flexible tool: participants used Platano for both self-discovery and accountability, reporting benefits including learning their personal glycemic response to specific foods and maintaining self-discipline in making dietary choices; c) empowerment: users attributed dietary changes, weight loss, and improved patient-provider communication to Platano; d) individual characteristics (e.g., nutrition literacy, motivation, self-efficacy), and e) in-the-moment barriers (e.g., social pressure) both influenced app usage and diet goal adherence. Conclusion Findings suggest Platano was well-received and viewed as a supporting tool for diabetes self-management among underserved urban adults. Further, findings reinforce the need for more comprehensive and personalized solutions to reduce barriers to engaging in dietary behavior change to improve diabetes outcomes.

Cardboard Cities, Real Mathematics: Employing Quantitative Literacy to Study Gentrification in NYC

Gentrification is a complex issue with very real repercussions for urban youth. Games make learning fun and provide a way for students to explore complex systems through recursive play. We describe a board game designed to help students explore ratios and proportional reasoning while simultaneously engaging the causes and effects of gentrification. Situated within a multidisciplinary first-semester learning community course, the game provides a model for later experiential learning opportunities as students are asked to study the effects of gentrification in one New York City neighborhood.

A Semantic and Sentiment Analysis on Online Neighborhood Reviews for Understanding the Perceptions of People toward Their Living Environments

The perceptions of people toward neighborhoods reveal their satisfaction with their living environments and their perceived quality of life. Recently, there is an emergence of Web sites designed for helping people to find suitable places to live. On these Web sites, current and previous residents can review their neighborhoods by providing numeric ratings and textual comments. Such online neighborhood review data provide novel opportunities for studying the perceptions of people toward their neighborhoods. In this article, we analyze such online neighborhood review data. Specifically, we extract two types of knowledge from the data: (1) semantics, or the semantic topics (or aspects) that people talk about regarding their neighborhoods, and (2) sentiments, or the emotions that people express toward the different aspects of their neighborhoods. We experiment with a number of different computational models in extracting these two types of knowledge and compare their performances. The experiments are based on a data set of online reviews about the neighborhoods in New York City, which were contributed by 7,673 distinct Web users. We also conduct correlation analyses between the subjective perceptions extracted from this data set and the objective socioeconomic attributes of New York City neighborhoods and find similarities and differences. The effective models identified in this research can be applied to neighborhood reviews in other cities for supporting urban planning and quality of life studies.

Prevalence of multiple chronic conditions in New York State, 2011-2016.

IntroductionTo design effective policy and interventions, public health officials must have an accurate and granular picture of the state of multiple chronic conditions (MCC) in their region. The objective of this research is to describe the prevalence and distribution of MCC in New York State.MethodsWe performed a secondary data analysis of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) from 2011 through 2016 for New York adults (n = 76,186). We analyzed the self-reported prevalence of individuals having 0, 1, 2, or ≥ 3 chronic conditions by sex, race/ethnicity, age, health insurance type, annual household income, and whether respondents lived in New York City. We also examined the most common condition dyads and triads. Finally, we assessed the prevalence of MCC (2 or more chronic conditions) by county across New York State, and neighborhood within New York City.ResultsDuring 2011–2016, 25.2% of adults in New York State had zero chronic conditions, 24.1% had 1 condition, 18.4% had 2 conditions, and 32.4% had 3 or more. The most prevalent dyad was hypertension and high cholesterol in 17.0% of individuals. The most prevalent triad was hypertension, high cholesterol, and arthritis in 4.5% of individuals. County prevalence of MCC ranged from 42.6% in Westchester County to 66.1% in Oneida County. The prevalence of MCC in New York City neighborhoods ranged from 33.5% in Gramercy Park—Murray Hill to 60.6% in High Bridge—Morrisania.ConclusionThis research contributes to the field’s understanding of multiple chronic conditions and allows policy and public health leaders in New York to better understand the prevalence and distribution of MCC.

Assessments of residential and global positioning system activity space for food environments, body mass index and blood pressure among low-income housing residents in New York City.

Research has examined how the food environment affects the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Many studies have focused on residential neighbourhoods, neglecting the activity spaces of individuals. The objective of this study was to investigate whether food environments in both residential and global positioning system (GPS)-defined activity space buffers are associated with body mass index (BMI) and blood pressure (BP) among low-income adults. Data came from the New York City Low Income Housing, Neighborhoods and Health Study, including BMI and BP data (n=102, age=39.3±14.1 years), and one week of GPS data. Five food environment variables around residential and GPS buffers included: fast-food restaurants, wait-service restaurants, corner stores, grocery stores, and supermarkets. We examined associations between food environments and BMI, systolic and diastolic BP, controlling for individual- and neighbourhood-level sociodemographics and population density. Within residential buffers, a higher grocery store density was associated with lower BMI (β=- 0.20 kg/m2, P<0.05), and systolic and diastolic BP (β =-1.16 mm Hg; and β=-1.02 mm Hg, P<0.01, respectively). In contrast, a higher supermarket density was associated with higher systolic and diastolic BP (β=1.74 mm Hg, P<0.05; and β=1.68, P<0.01, respectively) within residential buffers. In GPS neighbourhoods, no associations were documented. Examining how food environments are associated with CVD risk and how differences in relationships vary by buffer types have the potential to shed light on determinants of CVD risk. Further research is needed to investigate these relationships, including refined measures of spatial accessibility/exposure, considering individual's mobility.

“Sometimes da #beachlife ain't always da wave”: Understanding People’s Evolving Hurricane Risk Communication, Risk Assessments, and Responses Using Twitter Narratives

AbstractThis article investigates the dynamic ways that people communicate, assess, and respond as a weather threat evolves. It uses social media data, which offer unique records of what people convey about their real-world risk contexts. Twitter narratives from 53 people who were in a mandatory evacuation zone in a New York City neighborhood during Hurricane Sandy in 2012 were qualitatively analyzed. The study provides rich insight into the complex, dynamic information behaviors and risk assessments of people at risk, and it illustrates how social media data can be collected, sampled, and analyzed to help provide this understanding. Results show that this sample of people at significant risk attended to forecast information and evacuation orders as well as multiple types of social and environmental cues. Although many tweeted explicitly about the mandatory evacuation order, forecast information was usually referenced only implicitly. Social and environmental cues grew more important as the threat approached and often triggered heightened risk perceptions or protective actions. The results also reveal the importance of different aspects of people’s cognitive and affective risk perceptions as well as specific emotions (e.g., fear, anger) for understanding risk assessments. People discussed a variety of preparatory and protective behavioral responses and exhibited multiple types of coping responses (e.g., humor) as the threat evolved. People’s risk assessments and responses were closely intertwined, and their risk perceptions were not continuously elevated as the hurricane approached; they exhibited different ways of interpreting, coping, and responding as they accessed and processed evolving information about the threat.

Associations between mass incarceration and community health in New York City.

Incarceration has escalated over the past four decades in the United States, creating a number of negative consequences for individuals, families, and communities. This study seeks to identify the associations between mass incarceration and health behaviors/perceptions on a neighborhood level. This study uses the cross-sectional design. Using the street intercept method, we collected in-person survey data from residents in two New York City neighborhoods (one in the South Bronx and the other in Northern Manhattan) with similar levels of social disadvantage but significantly different rates of jail admission. Respondents in both neighborhoods self-reported similar ratings of their physical health. Significant differences between neighborhoods include incidence of fast food consumption over the past week, alcohol use over the last 3 months, and perceptions of the occurrence of teen pregnancy in the neighborhood. This study hopes to inform future researchers and interventionists about associations between mass incarceration and health-related behaviors/perceptions to facilitate consideration of this increasingly common social factor as a determinant of community health in future research.

The Urban Soundscape: Analysing the Spatiotemporal Distribution of Acoustic Events and its Influence on the Racial/Ethnic Composition of New York City Neighbourhoods

Past research has shown that the effects of prolonged exposure to urban acoustic noise are both detrimental to mind and body. In recent years, studies have also indicated that the socially disadvantaged are more susceptible to environmental hazards such as noise pollution. This paper aims to fill a gap in literature through the evaluation of urban soundscapes by analysing the spatiotemporal patterns of acoustic events within selected New York City (NYC) neighbourhoods and comparing the datum to the socio-economic data of the urban environments. In this paper, the author aims to address this question, ‘Does racial/ethnic composition of each neighbourhood influence how acoustic events are distributed, and in what way does this relate to the socio-economic status of each location?’ This study focuses on seven neighbourhoods within the New York City metropolitan area, each location representing one of the seven levels of noise metadata found on NYC’s 311 noise map. The ambient soundscape of each location was recorded for 30 minutes over four different time intervals across three days, comprising in a total of 45 hours of raw data. Acoustic events were extracted and annotated for saliency and classed according to soundscape components, which were then compared against the racial/ethnic demography of NYC. The findings in this study partially aligned with past research in which communities of lower socio-economic status with higher proportions of non-Caucasian communities were susceptible to higher levels of noise exposure. Additionally, this study also aligned with the hypothesis that high numbers of acoustic events negatively correlate to the socio-economic composition of neighbourhoods.