Park Slope Largely Weathers Coronavirus, Data Shows

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — Park Slope glows a tranquil shade of blue amid a sea of purple covering the rest of Brooklyn in a map of citywide coronavirus cases.

The blue represents zip codes where COVID-19 patients number below 453 — roughly the statistical median for all of New York City.

The purple zip codes burn hot with coronavirus. Patients in each number rise above the median reach into the thousands.

Most of Brooklyn smolders.

But Park Slope's two zip codes — 11215 and 11217 — do not. They have 350 and 316 cases as of this week, according to NYC Health Department data.

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Their coronavirus counts rank as 113th and 124th among the city's 177 zip codes.

Why is that?

Health officials likely will look at the outbreak's affect on city neighborhoods for years to come, but they've so far noticed some trends.

One is that it appears rich neighborhoods have fewer cases. That divide can be seen in Brooklyn between zip codes covering affluent Prospect Heights and poorer sections of Crown Heights.

Park Slope, for its part, has a median income of $114,890, according to the U.S. Census. That's roughly twice as much as the whole of Brooklyn.

And there's a related, more troubling trend.

People of color accounted for more than half of New York City's coronavirus-related deaths, according to state data. The breakdowns as of Monday are:

• Hispanic - 34 percent
• Black - 28 percent
• White - 27 percent
• Asian - 7 percent
• Other - 4 percent

Park Slope's overall population is 62 percent white, 14 percent Hispanic, 9 percent Asian and 8 percent black, according to U.S. Census data.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, who incidentally hails from Park Slope, long-delayed the release of coronavirus data on race, citing a need to get accurate information. He since said on CNN that it confirms the coronavirus amplifies social and economic disparities.

"This disease, unfortunately, it amplifies the horrible health disparities that already exist and it does very clearly cut by income and by race and the communities that, for a long time, people have not gotten the health care they deserve and need are hitting it by this very, very hard," he said.

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