Closing the opportunity gap in New York City means closing the digital divide, which has emerged as a public crisis that’s been treated with Band-Aids for too long — when it’s on the radar at all.
The digital divide is a newer concept to many, but its pain and long-term effects, like a negative health condition, are felt by hundreds of thousands. It’s when families can’t afford computers and other digital tools, so kids grow up without them. Imagine being forever analog in a digital world because of the circumstances of your youth, and you’ll start to get the idea. It means being shut out economically for life, and unable to break the cycle of poverty.
Nowhere is this divide clearer than in the Bronx, where I’m from and where I work. The problem has been pointed out and documented for years, but remains unresolved. More than 184,000 households here still lack a computer. That’s why the community-centered nonprofit I lead is laser-focused on closing the digital divide and why we approach it as an economic determinant of overall well-being, just as the five social determinants contribute to overall health.
As part of those efforts we are partnering with local nonprofits, Bronx leaders, and corporate and philanthropic partners to distribute hundreds of laptops to children and families who need them most, building on earlier efforts that have already reached thousands across our borough. These are important steps.
But our goal is a device in every hand that needs it by 2030.
That’s why we are reframing closing the digital divide as a true citywide imperative. If the approach to a more equitable city, in which the essence of progressivism is that every kid has a shot no matter where they’re from, leaders should focus on energetically addressing every social determinant.
And families in the Bronx and other communities where kids live in the divide are hopeful that Mayor Mamdani will see closing the gap for every New York kid as a call to bring together the public and private sectors around an attainable goal. This goal aligns with his administration’s values.
There’s a precedent here that the mayor can build upon. Under Mayor Adams, the city took meaningful steps in the right direction. He expanded Big Apple Connect to more than 300,000 NYCHA residents; the Liberty Link program to deliver building-wide Wi-Fi to thousands of low-income households in the Bronx and Upper Manhattan; and a Digital Equity Roadmap.
For the student who can log into a class, access test prep or books, or fill out a summer job application online, or the job seeker who can finally complete an online application, closing the divide will be transformative. It gets to the core of a true equity agenda that represents real progress that Mamdani can claim. That should begin with a clear plan that puts devices in hands, while embedding digital skills training into schools, workforce programs, libraries, and community centers.
It’s also a direct contrast with the failures of the federal government, whose abrupt end to the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), pulled the rug out from under communities like the Bronx.
Mamdani launched his campaign on Fordham Road with a viral video, making affordability, access and equity the cornerstone of his candidacy, and now of his mayoralty. Uniting the city to close the digital divide and place hundreds of thousands of kids on a path towards advancement would be one of the most direct ways to deliver on a promise that started up here — and can have a legacy for decades to come.
Williams-Belfort is the executive director of The Bronx Community Foundation.