10. Make All Neighborhoods Healthy Places
Despite widespread improvements in health throughout New York City, health status varies dramatically among neighborhoods, and the residents of some neighborhoods remain, on average, much less healthy than others.
Neighborhoods are complex environments in which economic, social and physical factors combine to influence health. Characteristics such as homes in disrepair, infestations of rodents and cockroaches, inadequate access to healthy foods, too few safe places to play and exercise, and aggressive marketing of tobacco and alcohol are disproportionately concentrated in certain neighborhoods. These conditions are often related to racial segregation and poverty, and contribute to an environment that negatively and profoundly affects health.
The highest disease burdens and shortest life expectancies in the city consistently occur in low-income neighborhoods with high proportions of black and Hispanic residents. For example, fewer supermarkets are located in low-income neighborhoods than in high-income neighborhoods and lack of access to healthy foods available in supermarkets is associated with higher rates of diet-related conditions, such as diabetes and obesity. Hospitalization rates due to pedestrian injuries among children are also highest in neighborhoods with the lowest incomes.
DOHMH: District Public Health Offices
DOHMH: Rat Information Portal
DOHMH: Window Falls Prevention Program
DOHMH: Lead Poisoning Prevention Program
