Models present creations during the Monse and Oscar de la Renta Autumn/Winter 2017 collection during New York Fashion Week in the Manhattan borough of New York, U.S., February 13, 2017. (Photo by Brendan McDermid/Reuters)

Transgender model and musician Jessica Cortez reacts as she is prepared before walking in the CHULO underwear show during New York Fashion Week, which raised money for transgender and cisgender young women victims of violence, in New York, U.S., February 7, 2019. (Photo by Andrew Kelly/Reuters)

A model presents a creation from the Chromat collection during New York Fashion Week in New York, U.S., February 8, 2019. (Photo by Caitlin Ochs/Reuters)

American rapper and songwriter Lil' Kim performs as she presents a creation from The Blonds Autumn/Winter 2019 collection during New York Fashion Week in New York, U.S. on February 12, 2019. (Photo by Andrew Kelly/Reuters)

A dog dressed up for a show sits backstage during the 16th annual New York Pet Fashion Show on February 7, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Johannes Eisele/AFP Photo)

New York City policemen tangled with demonstrators at a subway station on the opening day of the New York World's Fair, April 22, 1964. Youths attempted to stall the train, which was headed from the city to the fairgrounds, as a form of protest on behalf of civil rights for blacks. (Photo by Charles Gorry/AP Photo)

Nina Leen, one of the first female photographers to work for Life, took pictures for the magazine from 1940 to 1972. In the mid-1940s, her essay, “City Dogs”, featured actors and artists with their pets on the streets of New York City. In late-March, Daniel Cooney Fine Art in New York City, is opening a solo exhibition of Leen’s work that features images from that essay and others. Here: author Fannie Hurst clad in mink coat, enjoying the jumping antics of her Yorkshire terrier Orphan Annie on the street. (Photo by Nina Leen/Pix Inc./The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

Drastic inequality is by no means new in New York. Jacob A. Riis was called a muckraker after he chose to spotlight the city’s poverty at the turn of the 20th century by photographing it. Here: Sweatshop in Hester Street, 1889-1890. (Photo by Jacob A. Riis/Museum of the City of New York, Gift of Roger William Riis)