The separate door

In an age of widening inequality, in a city with ever-more expensive rent, the “poor door” has become an outsized symbol.

Technically, it doesn’t exist yet. But earlier this month, New York City approved plans for a high-rise apartment in Manhattan that will include it: a separate entrance for the property’s subsidized tenants. The luxury condo will otherwise have more than 150 market-rate apartments. But its 55 affordable units, offered by the developer Extell through the city’s inclusionary housing program, will be separated with different amenities, different views of the city and, yes, a different front door.

A housing complex in DC soon may be trying the same.