How Did New York Become So Unequal? | The Nation

New York City transformed over the past half-century from a hub of New Deal social democracy into a landscape of stark economic inequality, driven by shifts in policing, education, and housing policy, according to a history examined by The Nation.

In 2013, historian Mason B. Williams published City of Ambition, detailing how federal dollars during the New Deal powered Fiorello La Guardia’s municipal vision. Federal funds built the subways, highways, public housing, and parks that defined generations of New York life.

Now, Williams returns with a new book, City of Fortune, which chronicles a very different trajectory. The Nation reported that the volume examines how the post-1970s fiscal crisis replaced the local New Deal order with a New York version of neoliberalism.

New York Crime Strategies Targeted Minority Communities

Like many American cities in the 1960s and 1970s, New York faced escalating crime and dwindling police department funding. By the mid-1970s, basic property crimes often went uninvestigated.

Under Mayor Ed Koch and subsequent leaders, new crime-fighting strategies reshaped the NYPD. Officers aggressively combated minor acts of disorder through “broken windows” theory and stop-and-frisk tactics, which disproportionately targeted African American and Latino men.

How Did New York Become So Unequal? | The Nation

“Stop-and-frisk became the favored mode of policing, a practice both deeply racist in disproportionately targeting non-white men for searches without legitimate cause and a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment,” The Nation reported.

In 2011, the department recorded 685,724 stops, occasionally exceeding neighborhood populations. Despite falling crime rates, the department remained largely impervious to reform.

Rent Limits Changed as Vacancy Decontrol Increased Costs

Established as a legacy of World War II price controls, rent limits protected working- and middle-class renters for decades.

Governor Nelson Rockefeller and the State Legislature instituted vacancy decontrol in 1971, allowing landlords to raise rents on vacated apartments.

By 2011, the median New York rental household became officially rent-burdened, spending over 30 percent of its income on rent, while a third of households paid more than half.

The Power of Albany and Party Continuity

Williams emphasizes two overarching dynamics shaping these outcomes. First, state politics holds ultimate sway over the city. Albany controls rent regulation laws, tax-abatement programs, charter school authorizations, and income tax rates.

Current Mayor Zohran Mamdani found his administration constrained when attempting to raise taxes on wealthy residents. State leaders ultimately rejected proposals for higher income and corporate taxes.

Second, public policy maintained continuity across different political parties and mayoral administrations. The fundamental structures governing policing, education, and real estate persisted regardless of who occupied City Hall.