This map shows the information behind how New York State officials identified those areas both on Long Island and throughout the State meeting the final “disadvantaged community” definition as voted on by the Climate Justice Working Group on March 27th, 2023. In a process that began with the legislature’s and governor’s approval of the path-breaking Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act<\/a> in 2019, this Working Group compiled 45 indicators for which data was available at the level of the census tracts (approximately 3000 people living there) used in the 2020 census. These indicators were to help determine which communities across the state qualified for the extra benefits and resources promised by the act to “disadvantaged communities.” The map below compiles most of these indicators into a single, searchable map centering on Long Island. Along with Nassau and Suffolk Counties, it also includes the New York City boroughs on the island, Queens and Brooklyn (Kings County).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Please note that all the indicator numbers represent how a given tract compares with all others across New York State. They reflect where this tract stands in New York State percentiles, not<\/strong> raw numbers such as air pollutant levels nor<\/strong> actual percentages such as of those in a tract with incomes below the federal poverty line. Hence:<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Out of these statewide rankings, the Working Group then also developed an overall index of the differential burden from cumulative impacts\u2013environmental and climate-related as well as social and economic\u2013faced by different communities across the state. Those tracts that were highest on this synthetic index were deemed “disadvantaged communities.” 35% of New York States’ census tracts were thereby deemed “disadvantaged” versus 65% that were not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For more information on the New York State indices and indexing process, see here<\/a>. For a full-screen interactive version of this map, see here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n