When I first started my research on New York inequality, I didn’t know what to expect. There were so many articles on the subject that it almost made my head hurt. A part of me was really excited to jump on the topic however, because I love reading and learning new things, especially when it concerns the area that I live in. Over the course of several weeks, I began reading and annotating articles on Hurricane Sandy, Mayor Bloomberg, and Brooklyn. Slowly, I managed to gain a greater understanding of the growing imbalance between citizens. My preconceptions on the inequality surrounding New York was that it wasn’t such a big deal. I thought it was going to be easy to write about, considering the fact that I worked with FEMA. I didn’t think it was that serious, and I can even say that I took this situation very lightly. Now I see that the issue is much bigger than I assumed. Inequality affects everyone living in the New York state. It is very complex, and has been that way for many decades. All this research allowed me to realize that Hurricane Sandy made the gap between the rich and the poor so much clearer. It’s amazing how much I’ve learned from this event.

A couple of weeks into November, I began working in Brooklyn with my step-father. We found out we were hired due to the Hurricane Sandy disaster which left thousands all over New York City without power and homeless, with many accessories such as cars damaged in the process. Each time I had to wake up at 4AM, but only on Saturdays and Sundays since I was trying to balance work & school. As soon as I woke up, I had 30 minutes to get ready, eat, and leave the house because a van would be waiting for us a couple of blocks from my house. The van usually took 10-15 minutes to arrive and inside was always packed. I was surprised to see females willing to work as I heard the labor was going to be quite difficult. But it turns out that most of the people in the van were immigrants and spoke little to no English. I would always sit in the back with my headphones plugged in so no one would bother me with senseless conversation. The ride to Brooklyn from the Bronx took nearly two hours. I didn’t know what to expect my first day on the job. Once we got there, we were made to give our information regarding pay, such as social security, name and so on. After that we put on some suits that resembled hazmat suits and immediately the boys were separated from the girls.

I worked at Brighton Beach Avenue to be specific, within the Oceana Condominiums. I noticed that a huge portion of it’s residents were Russian, Polish, Ukrainian and from other parts of Europe. They always looked at us funny like we were inferior to them. They didn’t like us being there and said nasty things to us in their native language. Yet the truth was they were immigrants just like us, which I found ironic. Our first task was cleaning this huge parking lot and ‘till this day I can’t even count how many cars were totaled. A couple of days before we got there, the mud was seriously up to the ceiling. So the males in the group were made to sweep up the mud while the women held up garbage bags where we dumped the mud into. The bags were tied and thrown into a dumpster and of course I was responsible for launching them.

The entire experience consisted of us picking up mud from parking lots, cleaning filth off of cars so they could be towed & replaced, trying to scrape yellow fluid on walls with a broom, more sweeping, and several demolition projects. Now that I look back at it, I realize my boss was extremely racist. All he did was discriminate against my co-workers, most notably making fun of the way they spoke. He treated people with no respect and for that we all resented him. I was treated slightly better than others because I knew English. But I didn’t let that get in the way of work.

Overall, it was pretty refreshing to work with people I’ve never met in my life. Although we were all of the same race, I felt like I didn’t fit in. They spoke in slang I couldn’t understand and my Spanish itself was pretty rusty. I found it hard speaking to my co-workers considering the fact that they were way older than me. They were married, divorced, had children, struggled to pay rent, etc. All of which I haven’t deal with.. yet. It was nice to receive the occasional “talk of wisdom” from these older folk. I doubt I’ll be seeing them again, but it was an interesting experience. I felt like I really put myself to the test.

( “So what?” )

New Yorkers need to realize the ongoing inequality between each other. It’s getting worse with every day that passes by, and a vast majority of the public is still oblivious to this economic prejudice.

"New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposed ban on super-sized sodas drew a tidal wave of national media attention late this past spring. An official city government report on New York's super-sized incomes issued the week before the soda move, by contrast, drew virtually no national attention at all."