Revelers dressed as Santa Claus drink outside at a bar during the annual SantaCon event December 10, 2011 in New York City. SantaCon is a mass gathering of revelers dressed as Santa Claus who take to the streets in cities across the country before Christmas. (Photo by Allison Joyce/Getty Images)

(L-R) Ke$ha and James Franco attend the 2nd Annual amfAR Inspiration Gala at The Museum of Modern Art on June 14, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images)

A model presents a creation from the Liu Bolin Debut collection during New York Fashion Week in the Manhattan borough of New York City, U.S., September 10, 2017. (Photo by Amr Alfiky/Reuters)

Pride rally 2017 on fifth avenue in Manhattan, New York, June 25, 2017. Thouands cheered as members of LGBT community danced and marched under a bright summer sun. Many participants carried political themed signs as President Trump's adminstration has angered some in the LGBT community. (Photo by R. Umar Abbasi)

Wasibi, (r), yawns at backstage before the Algonquin Hotel’s Annual Cat Fashion Show in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., August 1, 2019. The theme of this year's show was “It's a Small World”. The cats represented countries including Ireland, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. (Photo by Jeenah Moon/Reuters)

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)

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)