Thirty Percent of Brooklyn Doesn’t Have Internet Access
The digital divide in New York–the gap between the New Yorkers who have access to things like high-speed Internet and, really, computers at all and those who don’t–is wider than you might think. A new report from City Controller Scott Stringer’s office, “Internet Inequality: Broadband Access in NYC,” found that 27 percent of New York City households lack access to high-speed internet. Brooklyn was the borough with the second-worst access overall: Thirty percent of Brooklyn homes don’t have access to high-speed internet.
That’s a serious gap, and some of the neighborhoods in Brooklyn with the worst access are some of the fastest gentrifying: Bushwick, Crown Heights, and Bedford-Stuyvesant all have a high percentage of households without broadband access. But the greatest numbers of homes in the borough without access are in Coney Island, Sheepshead Bay, and Borough Park.
“New Yorkers who don’t have online access lack the tools they need to improve their education, employment and business opportunities,” Stringer said. “Just as the subway powered New York’s growth in the 20th century, high-speed broadband will power our City’s economic competitiveness in the 21st century. If we are to remain the global city, we can’t allow our peers to speed by while New Yorkers are left on the shoulder of the information superhighway. Slow and steady does not win this race.”
[via Sheepshead Bites]