The Subway Above Ground

Brian Foo

Income inequality is a defining characteristic of New York City, but it is easy to be unaware of it. Many New Yorkers use the subway to get around, rendering the above ground conditions of the places we travel through largely invisible. In this piece, I use music as a metaphor and measure of inequality, and the subway as a means of following the data through space and time. The result is a meditative piece in which the dramatic contrasts of a song echo the dramatic differences of income in the city. 

Here you can stream or download one of 22 media files that loosely follow full rides along 22 of the MTA subway lines. Once you start to play the file, find your station, and listen to the song in the background as you ride the subway. The quantity and power of the instruments at any given moment in the song correspond to the median household income of the neighborhood that you are passing through. If you start in the outer boroughs, the song may sound quiet and repetitive at first, but the instruments begin to swell as you near higher income areas such as midtown or the financial district. 

Click here to select a train line to listen to

To accompany this piece online, you can also interact with the data in a 3D map. This map makes income inequality visible along the NYC Subway by literally making the subway lines rise above ground: the higher the household income of the area the train is passing through, the higher the line rises. The result is a warped subway map that resembles a roller coaster amusement park, exposing the dramatic differences of income in the city.

Click here to view the map

DATASETS
2010 Census Tracts, Department of City Planning
Subway Stations, Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)
Median household income by census tract, 2017 ACS 5-year estimates (B19013), US Census Bureau