You don’t need a city report to know the truth—just drive around. In wealthier neighborhoods, the streets are smooth, the sidewalks are safe, and the drains don’t overflow every time it rains. Streetlights shine bright, trash pickup is on schedule, and water runs clean from the tap. But in too many Black and working-class neighborhoods, the story is flipped. Potholes linger until they tear up your car, ditches flood and breed mosquitoes, and broken streetlights make it easier for crime to take root. Even the pipes underground are often older, rustier, and slower to get replaced.

This is not bad luck—it’s decades of unequal investment. City governments fix what’s visible to money and influence first, leaving every- one else waiting. The result? Black families pay the same taxes, but get le

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