Worlds apart – the neighbourhoods that sum up a divided America

'The contrasting fortunes of New York's South Bronx and Upper East Side highlight a growing gap between rich and poor' (from The Guardian (UK) here)

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They are barely a mile apart, separated by a few gritty streets and a thin muddy stretch of water known as the Harlem river. They are in the same city and have experienced the same recession.

But New Yorkers living in the city's 14th and 16th congressional districts – electoral districts with populations of around 600,000 each – often occupy completely different worlds. Their lives provide a shocking example of growing inequality in America, where the rich are leaving a growing mass of the poor completely behind.

The numbers are stark enough. Last week a census report revealed that 46 million Americans live in poverty, the highest number ever recorded. At the same time, the richest 20% of Americans control 84% of the country's wealth. Indeed, just 400 families have the same net worth as the total of the bottom 50%. America's Gini coefficient – which measures inequality of income distribution – now nears that of Rwanda.

The Gini figure is just a number – but to walk the streets of the 14th and 16th districts is to see that story of growing inequality in terms of people living almost next to each other but separated by education, job prospects, health, race and class.

The 14th occupies a chunk of Manhattan and Queens. Not all of it is wealthy, but at its heart lies the Upper East Side, by Central Park, a neighbourhood that is home to New York's moneyed classes. It is here that the titans of finance, whose recklessness brought on the near collapse of the American economy, live and play. They raise their families in gigantic apartments, send their children to the best private schools and patronise the pricey bistros that dot the street corners. Old money New York has long considered the Upper East Side its natural home, viewing Central Park as its backyard and Manhattan as a private playground. . . .

[I]f you hop on the number 6 subway line and travel a few stops south to the Upper East Side, food stamps are not an issue. The streets are crowded, luxury shops sell the latest fashions and French restaurants are doing a roaring trade. There is anger at the recession here, too. Certainly Sam Durant is furious. He runs a high-end jewellery store on Madison Avenue and his trade is down as Wall Street bankers are now often paid bonuses in stocks not cash.

Durant knows where the blame lies. "People are not spending," he said "That asshole in the White House has taken away their bonuses. He doesn't want them to have what he doesn't have," he said. His disapproval of Barack Obama is fierce. "He's the most hated president in history, did you know that?" he said.

Politics inspires worry in the South Bronx, too. But in a different way. In St Ann's church, the Rev Martha Overall watched last week's Republican debate in dismay, especially the attacks on government. She fears the impact that enormous government cuts are already having, let alone the sort that any Republican president might bring in. "It's social Darwinism. It's people being pitted against people. I also believe it is un-American. I don't believe this country was founded on a sense of every man for himself. It was founded on community," Overall said.

Rather than fretting over Wall Street bonuses, Overall is scared about reports that the local post office, a major employer in the area, might shut "It is also kind of a social centre here," she said. . . .