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By J. David Goodman
HOUSTON – The radically divergent tactics in which coronavirus has affected neighboring communities in Houston’s dominance, ay deficient, underscore how it amplifies inequality.
To see how the virus can greatly save a community but tear down the one next door, take a look at Bellaire, with its spacious courtyards and houses, and Gulfton, where apartment buildings bring citizens together.
“We are the last in terms of voter turnout, we are the last in terms of census participation, but we are the first in Covid,” said Edward Pollard, 35, a first-term councillor, as he walked through his Gulfton district. Loose masks. at tire shops and beauty salons on a recent Sunday this month.
“Mscaras! Free!” an assistant in Spanish, or “Masques! Free!”
“How much?” one tire shop worker replied, skeptically.
“Free!” Mr. Pollard replied.
The boy took a bag of 10.
In the Houston neighborhood of Gulfton, more than 45,000 restaurant workers and housekeepers, immigrants and refugees live close together, mostly in shadeless two-story apartment blocks. At least 965 people have been infected by the virus in the ZIP code that covers the area, far more per capita than the city as a whole; 12 people have died.
The independent city of Bellaire, on the other hand, feels suburban and is home to basically white and Asian professionals, many of whom are consistent with the titles. In the network of 19,000 people, there were 67 cases, or about one-third of The Houston rate according to the capital rate.
Juan Manuel Muñoz Soto lived with his family on the Gulfton side in a ground-floor apartment. Two adults and four children between the ages of 6 and 19 crammed into one bedroom. The family moved there in haste, after feeling unsafe in a previous apartment.
The 64-year-old was afraid of contracting the virus, but had to continue to show himself for his job as a cleaner at a cancer hospital. He was planning to retire this summer.
Then they made him sick. Fever. Cough. He was given worse and tried for days to be admitted to the hospital. He’s having trouble breathing. In early May, he was hospitalized with Covid-19.
“After she arrived at the hospital, I couldn’t sleep,” said her partner, a 43-year-old Guatemalan who asked for anonymity because she and her four children had no papers.
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