The 10 Most Unequal Big Cities in America

The idea that hard work leads to prosperity is increasingly becoming an American pipe dream, in some places more than others.

New Orleans is the most unequal big city in America, according to a Bloomberg ranking. Areas with high levels of income inequality also often have diverse populations and high levels of residential segregation, according to a report last year from Mark Mather and Beth Jarosz at the Population Reference Bureau, a Washington-based non-profit group. New Orleans has both of those factors, with blacks making up 60 percent of the population in 2014 and often living in starkly different areas than whites.