Our website is made possible by displaying online advertisements to our visitors. Please consider supporting us by whitelisting our website.

About 59% of New Yorkers say their lives would be better off if they fled the city

About 59% of New Yorkers say their lives would be better off if they fled the city 2

A startling 59 per cent of New Yorkers now say they would be better off leaving the city on the back of soaring crime rates and the high cost of living, according to a new poll.  

The poll asked 840 registered New York City voters if they agreed with this statement: ‘My family would have a better future if we left New York City permanently.’ 

Advertisement

The breakdown of poll respondents was 25 per cent saying they ‘strongly agree’ with the statement, while 34 per cent said they ‘somewhat agree’, or 59 per cent in total. 

In comparison, just 15 per cent ‘strongly disagreed’ and 26 per cent ‘somewhat disagreed’ for a total of 41 per cent.  

Crime was the leading issue on voters’ minds, with 41 percent of respondents saying public safety was the most pressing issue, while 19 percent cited inflation and the high cost of living in New York. 

Advertisement

The poll results come as figures show crime has risen 44 per cent since the start of 2022, despite Mayor Eric Adams’ promise of a crackdown.  

The Fontas Advisors and Core Decision Analytics poll found 59 percent of respondents agreed with the statement: 'My family would have a better future if we left New York City permanently'

The Fontas Advisors and Core Decision Analytics poll found 59 percent of respondents agreed with the statement: ‘My family would have a better future if we left New York City permanently’

Crime was the leading issue on the voters' minds, with 41 percent saying public safety was the most pressing issue while 19 percent cited inflation and the high cost of living in the city

Crime was the leading issue on the voters’ minds, with 41 percent saying public safety was the most pressing issue while 19 percent cited inflation and the high cost of living in the city

Advertisement
The overwhelming majority of respondents backed New York Mayor Eric Adams' policies to crackdown on crime, but they want to  see the city do more

The overwhelming majority of respondents backed New York Mayor Eric Adams’ policies to crackdown on crime, but they want to  see the city do more

More than half of the respondents also took issue with the overall quality of life New York, with 23 percent rating it poorly and 36 percent as only ‘fair’. 

About 32 percent said quality of life was good, and just 9 percent said it was excellent. 

Advertisement

While crime and cost of living make up 60 percent of resident’s top concerns, with  homelessness coming in at nine percent and housing at eight percent. 

Other issues like health care, police reform, education, job creation, and the pandemic made up the remaining percentage.  

Matt Lien, vice president at Core Decision Analytics, said that the poll showed New Yorkers wanted the high crime rate addressed. 

Advertisement

‘Crime is the cloud hanging over New Yorkers’ heads right now,’ Lien said. ‘New Yorkers are unsure of their future here and want to see change in their neighborhoods. 

‘Address crime and you will change New Yorker’s current outlook.’

Violent crime continues to rise in New York City, with overall crime up more than 44 percent

Violent crime continues to rise in New York City, with overall crime up more than 44 percent

Advertisement

Felony assaults are up by more than 19 percent as the New York Police Department reported 5,673 cases so far this year, compared to 4,763 in the same time last year. 

The number of shooting victims also soared this year with 332 victims reported so far compared to the 290 last year, a 14.5 percent rise 

Rape has also seen a worrying increase of nearly 16 percent, with 410 cases reported so far in 2022. 

Advertisement

Robberies have seen the most troubling uptick, with police reporting 3,945 cases so far, a more than 47 percent increase from last year. 

Murders, however, have gone down by about 8.6 percent, with police reporting 96 cases for far compared to 105 last year.  

New York City workers said they were fed up with the rise in crime and homelessness in the city, according to a recent poll of more than 9,000 employees. Of those polled, 84 percent said conditions in the city have worsened in the last two years

New York City workers said they were fed up with the rise in crime and homelessness in the city, according to a recent poll of more than 9,000 employees. Of those polled, 84 percent said conditions in the city have worsened in the last two years

Advertisement
About 40 percent of those working in Manhattan wanted to move away due to rising crime (left) while 48 percent of those working in the other four boroughs agreed (right)

About 40 percent of those working in Manhattan wanted to move away due to rising crime (left) while 48 percent of those working in the other four boroughs agreed (right)

Fontas Advisors and Core Decision Analytics’s poll echoed a similar poll conducted by Morning Consult, which found that of 9,386 adults who work in the city 40 percent said they want to leave the city.

According to that poll, 74 percent of respondents said that safety has gotten worse in the city since the start of the pandemic lockdowns in March 2020, with 82 percent saying homelessness has also worsened. 

Advertisement

Overall, 84 percent of respondents said conditions in the city have gotten worse over the past two years, with more than half agreeing that conditions have greatly deteriorated. 

‘Safety, homelessness, and mental illness rank as top issues for New York City’s private sector employees,’ Morning Consult wrote in its findings to Partnership, whose more than 300 members employ more than 1 million people in the city. ‘They are resisting return to the office until something is done to address them, particularly on public transit.’  

Fontas Advisors and Core Decision Analytics’s poll also found that an overwhelming majority of residents supported Adams policies on crimes and wanted to see it expanded. 

Advertisement

About 95 percent of voters approved increasing penalties for gun traffickers, and 92 percent supported giving judges more discretion to impose bail on defendants. 

The poll also found that 85 percent of respondents endorsed the creation of the city’s new anti-gun unit, 80 percent approved removing homeless encampments, and 77 agreed that the police should be used to remove homeless individuals from the subway system.  

The latter refers to the Subway Safety Plan initiative Adams launched in February to send 1,000 officers with health care partners to crackdown on homelessness in the city’s transit system. 

Advertisement

Adams echoed the need to tackle crime in the city on Monday after 12-year-old Kade Lewin was shot in Brooklyn.

‘Just think about this for a moment. What the family said while we spoke just really resonated with me – Whose child is next? Whose child is next? This could have been your [children’s] sneakers – My son’s. Whose child is next? This story just strikes at the heart of the trauma in our city and out country,’ Adams told reporters outside the grieving mom’s home in Brooklyn. 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams held up the sneakers of a 12-year-old boy shot dead last week and vowed that the city would use every resource to find his killers

New York City Mayor Eric Adams held up the sneakers of a 12-year-old boy shot dead last week and vowed that the city would use every resource to find his killers

Advertisement

Adams has also said he wants to see changes in bail reform laws and other criminal justice measures, claiming they will bring down crime rates in the city and reduce gun violence.

In February, Adams proposed his plan to  revamp city bail laws that often allow  suspects to roam the streets – sometimes within hours of an arrest. 

‘Let’s remove the cash bail system, because one should not be able to get out of jail just because you can pay bail. Let’s take that away. Judges should look at the case in front of them and say, ‘This person has two gun arrests, and he’s continually saying to the people of the city that I don’t care about the safety of you,’ the mayor said.

Advertisement

‘That judge should have the right to make the discretion that this person just be held.’ 

What offenses are ‘bail-eligible’ in NYC? 

In 2020, a new law took effect that limited the kinds of crimes judges could set bail for.

The law was meant to stop people from languishing in jail just because they couldn’t pay, but some have criticized it for allowing criminals to run loose.

Advertisement

Offenses that are still eligible for bail include:  

– Any violent felony

– Robbery aided by another person 

Advertisement

– Burglary where property is defined as a ‘dwelling’ 

– Witness intimidation or tampering 

– Any felony sex crime or offense and some misdemeanor sex offenses 

Advertisement

– First and second degree money laundering 

– Child sex crimes

The law was amended that same year to include misdemeanors involving harm to a person or property and felonies committed while on probation or supervised release.

Advertisement

Sources: new-york-lawyers.org; NY State

Advertisement

However, Adams can’t do much to amend the current bail laws since they have to be changed by the state Legislature. 

Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, who faces an election in November after taking over for her disgraced predecessor Andrew Cuomo, has received stiff resistance from progressive members in her party about changing the controversial bail laws. 

Meanwhile,  Hundreds of New York City  prosecutors have left their jobs because of low pay and high workloads in recent years, putting more stress on an already overburdened justice system as crime continues to skyrocket in the Big Apple. 

Advertisement

Assistant district attorneys are burned out because of two laws that took effect in January 2020, right as the pandemic was about to send crime soaring. 

The laws require prosecutors to quickly share evidence with defense attorneys in order to ensure a speedy trial. 

But the high volumes of paperwork – sometimes hundreds of pages per case – combined with a load of up to 100 cases at once and low starting pay have sent prosecutors fleeing for the private sector, the New York Times reports.

Advertisement

So far this year, 36 prosecutors in Brooklyn have quit, along with 44 in Manhattan, at least 28 in the Bronx and nine on Staten Island.

The low morale and dwindling workforce adds to the soft-on-crime approach of Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, who has vowed that armed robbery would be treated as a misdemeanor if the firearm didn’t ‘create a genuine risk of physical harm.’

Meanwhile, a 2020 law that ended cash bail for most misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies has returned more criminals to the street. 

Advertisement

The law, meant to stop people from languishing in jails just because they can’t make bail, is now meeting pushback from high-level city officials, including Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell and Gov. Kathy Hochul.  

According to Hochul’s plan, perpetrators of gun crimes, as well as subway and transit crimes, would become eligible to be detained and held for bail if the plan is enacted.

The laws would allow cops and judges to bypass Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, who has been widely criticized for his soft-on-crime stance, which involves only applying cash bonds in the most serious cases. 

Advertisement

Meanwhile, crime continues to go up in a trend that began during the worst days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

On Friday, a 72-year-old tourist was tripped after she left a lunch with her daughters in Manhattan.

Cyndi Gradwell of Ocean City, Maryland, arrived in NYC with her two daughters on Friday. 

Advertisement
Cyndi Gradwell, 72, of Ocean City, Maryland, was left with a black eye, a chipped tooth, and bruises after criminal Kelvin Winfield intentionally tripped her as she and her daughters walked down Ninth Avenue in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen district

Cyndi Gradwell, 72, of Ocean City, Maryland, was left with a black eye, a chipped tooth, and bruises after criminal Kelvin Winfield intentionally tripped her as she and her daughters walked down Ninth Avenue in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen district

Her daughters gifted her a trip to New York City as a Christmas present and the ladies were walking down the street with their suitcases after enjoying a nice lunch together when Winfield started yelling at Gradwell's daughters before cutting her off and tripping her

Her daughters gifted her a trip to New York City as a Christmas present and the ladies were walking down the street with their suitcases after enjoying a nice lunch together when Winfield started yelling at Gradwell’s daughters before cutting her off and tripping her 

As the trio was walking down Ninth Avenue between 35th and 36th streets in Hell’s Kitchen with their suitcases after enjoying a nice lunch, Kelvin Winfield started yelling at Gradwell’s daughters.  

Advertisement

Surveillance footage, obtained by the New York Post, shows Gradwell trying to move to go around him when he sticks his foot out and trips her, causing her to fall flat on her face, hitting her teeth. 

Gradwell suffered a black eye and bruises, and said she had several of her teeth ‘knocked [loose],’ causing her to only to be able to eat mashed potatoes, eggs, and ‘spaghetti strands one at a time.’ 

Another tourist was shot multiple times in the leg and groin on March 18.

Advertisement

French-born Pierrick Jamaux, who is visiting from Hong Kong , was getting out of an Uber  with his Australian model wife, Sarah Watts, 26, and another person at their hotel in Midtown when a man approached them and demanded Jamaux hand over his Richard Mille watch, the New York Post reported. 

Jamaux, 33, is a French-born cryptocurrency expert visiting from Hong Kong with his wife, Watts, an Australian-born model

Jamaux, 33, is a French-born cryptocurrency expert visiting from Hong Kong with his wife, Watts, an Australian-born model

Pierrick Jamaux, 33, (pictured inside the ambulance)  was shot multiple times in the legs and groin during an attempted robbery outside his hotel in NYC

Pierrick Jamaux, 33, (pictured inside the ambulance)  was shot multiple times in the legs and groin during an attempted robbery outside his hotel in NYC

Advertisement
The attacked occurred on March 18 as the couple and another woman got out of an Uber outside the Fifty Hotel and Suites in Manhattan

The attacked occurred on March 18 as the couple and another woman got out of an Uber outside the Fifty Hotel and Suites in Manhattan

Jamaux told police the man then opened fire before he could react, striking his legs and groin and causing him to fall to the ground as the man tried to rob him. 

Police said the other person with the couple, a 25-year-old woman, jumped on the gunman’s back to try and stop him before the shooter pushed her off and fled. 

Advertisement

New York Police Department officials said five shell casing were recovered from the scene and that Jamaux had multiple entry and exit wounds on both legs. He was taken to the nearby Bellevue Hospital where he was reportedly in a stable condition.

Advertisement

About The Author