3-D maps show NYC’s haves and have-nots

Manhattan’s gap between rich and poor is as big as a skyscraper, these 3-D infographics from artist Nickolay Lamm — cited by the New York Post — reveal.

Lamm, relying on 2010 Census data, designed a map of the city for the website MyDeals.com that represents the distribution of wealth with stacks of green cubes. The scale is one centimeter in height for every $10,000 in net worth, he told the Post.

Manhattan neighborhoods such as Tribeca, Soho, Gramercy Park and Battery Park City have elevated levels of wealth — literally, in Lamm’s rendering. The median annual household net worth east of Fifth Avenue exceeds $500,000, the Post said, leaving the area towering over the park in the depiction. Meanwhile, in Harlem, the median net worth is less than $15,000, and a bevy of households earn less than $10,000, the newspaper said.

“I’m not a socialist or a communist or anything,” Lamm told the Post. “I’m just trying to make stuff that makes people look at the world in a new way.” [NYP] – Mark Maurer