That New York City is one of the most segregated cities in the country should come as no surprise to anyone who has ever lived here. The 2000 census data confirms this fact, but who needs to study the hard numbers when you can simply look around your own lobby? The streets and subways may offer a wonderful blend of culture and diversity, but while we all ride the same trains, the numbers suggest we get off at different stops.

Although it’s still too early to process the new data, by almost every account, we are witnessing the tail end of a huge boom in new residential construction. Yet rental prices continue to rise, and the vacancy rate remains below 1 percent. In Manhattan, a decent one-bedroom apartment runs just over $2,500 a month, so a typical landlord will want a tenant to earn $100,000 a year. But where I come from, a $100,000 salary is supposed to get you a lot more than decent and typical. And if a $100,000 salary gets you decent, how will a salary of $35,000 a year house you?

The sales side of real estate is just as daunting and begs the question: How many Wall Street bonuses does it take to justify a new condo project? Whether it’s in Long Island City, Williamsburg or the Financial District, half a million seems to buy you a standard one-bedroom. There isn’t a neighborhood left in Manhattan that hasn’t been inundated with new construction of some kind or another. And as the majority of these new projects (if not all of them) are not considered great news for low and middle-income families (unless you count the union jobs that they produce), what will this new New York look like in 10 years? The myth of the great melting pot is running out of steam and starting to sound more like a bygone era fairy tale. As the city builds and finds more and more room for millionaires, what will these new condos and luxury rental properties mean to an already segregated city?

When asked how minorities fit into the recent housing boom, real estate agent “Philip” (a pseudonym) responded, “They don’t. Period. They don’t … This is something I’ve noticed: white women steer neighborhoods. If a white woman can come home at night in that neighborhood, that neighborhood gets a thumbs up. That is the determining factor of how successful a neighborhood’s gentrification can become, and how quickly.” Philip foresees bigger problems in the outer boroughs as housing becomes too expensive in Manhattan. “Williamsburg, Bushwick, Bedford-Stuyvesant, a portion of Clinton Hill … what’s going on out there, it’s preposterous. And the type of discrimination on both ends is just … it’s ridiculous.”

The creeping gentrification accompanying this outward expansion of new housing appears almost inevitable. Tenant attorney, Lynn Armentrout said, “One of the things that we see as the city becomes overrun by millionaires and multi-millionaires buying million-dollar apartments is that neighborhoods are getting gentrified right and left.”

A simple ride on an uptown A train offers a fair indication. Without noticing the passing stations, something becomes pretty clear when you arrive at 181st Street—the number of white people exiting the train is suddenly impossible to ignore. Bear in mind you have just passed 125th and 145th Streets. I lived in Washington Heights before and after its transformation, at which point it became affectionately known as “Hudson Heights.” It was interesting to watch a gentrification in the making as each year the numbers expanded and more of the white middle-class began getting off the train as far south as 168th Street. That, along with the new “downtown” style restaurant, the pharmacy’s make over, the new coffee shop and a gourmet market announced the successful completion of the neighborhood’s turnaround. It was all very swift and startling. I was curious, and asked one of my younger Dominican friends who grew up there what he thought of the changes. He was rather diplomatic: “It’s alright, but I don’t like any of these new assholes telling me to keep it down on my own street corner.” The Dominican family across the hall from me left shortly after that for a more affordable neighborhood east of Broadway.

I never thought of New York as a segregated city—it didn’t dawn on me until I became a real estate agent. My own experience as a rental agent in Manhattan isn’t a terrible place to begin. In four years of renting apartments all over Manhattan, I have rented exactly one apartment to an African-American. It doesn’t appear to be an industry oversight as the rental business is far too competitive to be discriminatory. In other words, if you have the money and need a place, most agents will be glad to charge you for their services, regardless of race or ethnicity. Of the three rental agents with whom I spoke, this was one issue that they all agreed on. If you can pay the rent and the fee, we’re happy to do business.

My next-door neighbor “Todd” left real estate a few months ago and had a similar experience. When asked how many African Americans he rented to in his time in the business he answered, “none.” He had rented to one Latino. When I asked him for some explanation, he said, “I worked primarily in Manhattan. Most people who can afford an apartment below 96th Street tend to be rich and white. I don’t think the reasons are very complicated. Race and class are often related. I noticed it, and it bothered me.”

One agent, when asked about experiences renting to minorities, said he was personally insulted by the question. More than a few people declined to participate at all, and had no interest in talking about the subject. “Charlie,” retired agent, said he didn’t see the problem either. When asked how many minorities he rented to over the years, he answered, “As many as walked into my office and needed a place.” But that was sort of what I was getting at; almost all of the people, whether renters or buyers, who have walked into my office over the years were white. 

Maria Bayne, a 46-year-old African-American woman, has lived on Ocean Avenue in Brooklyn for the last six years. She never thought of using a real estate agent: “We didn’t come across any.” She looked for an apartment close to the people she knew and found her place through a friend. When asked if she thought New York was segregated, she replied, “Yes, it’s segregated, but not by law or regulation, but by earned and expendable income, culture and language, education, association and relations. The difference is mind blowing.

“What I have seen, in my time in Brooklyn, is that entire families would live for decades in the same apartment building.” Though she is fearful of the future: “Slowly, the development is displacing the financially challenged.”

It’s obviously not an easy topic to wade through, as some could argue that it is simply the down side of capitalism.

When real estate prices are solely determined by market rates, the issue immediately becomes an economic one. From an economic dilemma, it then shifts to an employment problem, and then to an educational crisis. But, of course, education is directly tied back to real estate through property taxes and school funding. So how then do you begin a discussion on race and real estate in New York City after the boom?

We started with Dr. Andrew Beveridge, a professor of sociology at Queens College and the chair of the department. He said, “New York is actually increasing in segregation. Because once you have a pattern, it’s hard to get rid of. It’s like Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village. They were originally segregated. Also, Levittown, on Long Island, was set up not to take any blacks. And you can still see the results today.”

Craig Gurian, the Executive Director of the Anti-Discrimination Center of Metro New York, echoed Dr. Beveridge ‘s sentiments, “People often say New York is so diverse, but it’s not a diverse city at all. It’s wildly segregated.”

On its website, the affordable housing advocacy group Housing First! claims that the high cost of living in New York City has reached a crisis level. Having myself just this week looked at a $2,900 studio in a doorman building on Union Square, I would have to agree. The organization also claims that New York is losing workers and young people faster than any state in the nation. In an update to a 2001 article, the group went on to say, “Although New York City is one of the most ethnically diverse places on earth, housing discrimination persists, and our neighborhoods remain unduly segregated by race, ethnicity and class.”

The Furman Center at NYU reached a similar conclusion in its 2005 State of The City Report. The study demonstrated that over the course of the three-year period leading up to 2005, there was a sharp decline in affordable rental housing throughout the city. Both the Furman Center and Dr. Beveridge have constructed almost identical maps that illustrate and clearly define the large areas of Manhattan below 96th Street as predominantly white neighborhoods with only pockets of the outer boroughs and parts of Upper Manhattan (Harlem) that could be legitimately classified as black neighborhoods. Other areas show high concentrations of Latinos and Asians. While looking at the maps, what struck me most was how clearly defined these areas actually are.

Segregation is not something most people associate with this grand metropolis. It seems more people are concerned with fair and equal housing as opposed to creating racially representative neighborhoods. Earlier this year, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in conjunction with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, rolled out a $7.5 billion plan to build and preserve 165,000 units of affordable housing by 2013. But, as Dr. Beveridge points out, this will do little to create more racially diverse neighborhoods.

Jennie Laurie is the director of The Metropolitan Council on Housing, a membership organization dedicated to preserving and expanding New York City’s supply of decent, affordable housing. She explains that there are a good number of housing programs in effect, but they don’t necessarily promote integrated housing. “The city has different programs to develop housing; it’s not necessarily integrated housing. There’s nothing but the standard anti-discrimination laws operating there. In other words, there’s no attempt to make them more integrated.”

Nevertheless, integration didn’t seem a major concern to everyone we spoke with.  Lawrence Braithwaite is a young African-American financial analyst for a real estate investing firm. Back in December 2004, he purchased a three-family brownstone in Stuyvesant Heights in Brooklyn as an investment property. “That part of Bed-Stuy is beautiful,” said Braithwaite. “The brownstones are large, and the streets are quiet. I see a huge upside to investing here.” Of his three tenants, two are black, and a young white couple just moved in. None of them paid a fee or used an agent. When asked if he viewed New York as a segregated city he said, “Yeah, sure, but no more than any other city in America. People want to live where their friends live. It’s no secret that if you’re a young black college graduate, chances are you’re going to know people in Harlem and Brooklyn and that’s where you are going to go.”

After graduation, Lawrence moved to Harlem where a friend’s father owned a building. He already knew people there and it was cheap. He also agreed that price has a lot to do with it, “Price definitely plays a part. I knew a lot of white college friends who received support from their families. That’s not always possible for black families.”

Yuriel Layne moved to Harlem for a similar reason. A graduate from the University of Pennsylvania who works as a project manager for a financial services company, he and his girlfriend found their current apartment on the Internet and did not pay or use a broker. “I think in many ways, New York is a segregated city,” said Layne. “While diversity has increased, there are still large pockets that are totally concentrated. I’d like to see more diversity—that’s what New York is, and the neighborhoods should reflect that. My general feeling is that overall, minorities are struggling for affordable housing in this city.”

The New York Building Congress recently announced that construction spending had reached a record $18.8 billion in 2005 and is expected to reach $20.8 billion by the end of 2006. But, in the midst of these triumphant announcements, as of this writing, a major housing lawsuit is being prepared by the Fair Housing Justice Center.

Pamela Sah, legal director for the FHJC said, “We imminently plan to file one and possibly two federal lawsuits alleging race discrimination in housing, both in NYC, both concerning rental opportunities—we expect this week, perhaps as early as tomorrow.”

Additional reporting by Doug Black.