How your community determines health

By Ariadne Morales

On Long Island, health quality disparities among the various towns are prevalent. More specifically, food options, air quality and infrastructure impact the health outcomes of those who reside in neighborhoods that are majority people of color.

To understand why there are health disparities impacting people of color on Long Island today, it’s important to understand the history as to how it all started. In 1947, Levittown, in the middle of Nassau County, became the first post-World War II mass produced suburb in the United States. Anyone who was not of the caucasian descent was not allowed to live or purchase property there, including Jewish people.

This restriction was due to the restrictive covenants that were implemented. The covenants became illegal in 1948; however, the subtle discrimination still exists today.

This act of separating towns by race and socioeconomic status makes Long Island one of the most segregated suburbs in America today. Essentially, the drastic racial barriers on Long Island still exist.

With these barriers, the health of the people residing in their respective towns is affected. Towns on Long Island like North Amityville and Massapequa, which are neighbors to each other, have extreme racial disparities.

According to the U.S. Census, North Amityville consists of 53% Black residents, 32% Hispanic residents and 9% white residents. Massapequa consists of 1% black residents, 8% Hispanic residents and 90% white residents.

Rolman Guardado, Hofstra University undergraduate student, lives in Amityville. “My parents have to skip out on our local supermarket C-Town for Lidl, a supermarket in Massapequa, for more access to cheaper and healthier food options,” said Guardado.

Dr. Veronia Lippencott is the associate director of the Center for “Race,” Culture and Social Justice at Hofstra University. “All of these things have really sort of brought to the surface these ongoing health and healthcare disparities that we have in this country. They are a reflection of those long-standing, systemic inequalities, structural inequalities, that are rooted in discrimination and racism,” Lippencott said.

Inequality in neighborhood conditions such as number of trees and more asphalt are factors that also have an impact on people’s health. Fewer trees creates a hotter environment in the community and makes it damaging to those who are exposed to extreme heat.

A community like Garden City, which is a majority-white, high-income neighborhood, has an abundance of trees compared to its neighboring town, Hempstead, which is a low-income neighborhood and has a majority of people of color, with little to no trees.

Dr. Martine Hackett is an associate professor in the Department of Population Health at Hofstra University. Hackett has conducted research into the history of suburban development, public health and race.

“Communities that are majority people of color and low income are exposed to greater concentrations and more kinds of harmful chemicals through the air in their neighborhoods due to their proximity to local sources of pollution. Neighborhoods that were redlined in the 1930s and considered ‘dangerous’ have higher levels of harmful air pollution today,” said Hackett.

“Within Nassau County, the highest number of Covid deaths did occur in communities of color. That was true not only in Nassau County, but also true in a place like New York City. If we understand where people live and the ethnicity of the people who live there has a factor, we start to understand the fuller picture,” said Hackett.