After a recent survey found that only 50 percent of New Yorkers plan to stay in the city beyond 2028, several readers wrote to Newsweek about the reasons pushing them to want to leave the Big Apple, including crime and the high cost of living.
Tony Taylor, a New York City resident, told Newsweek that the only reason he stays in the city is his daughter's education: "If I could leave now, I would," he wrote.
"New York City has become crime central, and the cost of living has skyrocketed," he added. "If it weren't for my 10-year-old being enrolled in a good charter school, and my state job with good perks, I'd be on a plane flight with my daughter to begin a new life elsewhere."
Taylor's feelings reflect those of many of his fellow New Yorkers, as shown by the first post-pandemic resident survey published last week by the nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank Citizens Budget Commission (CBC).
The survey, which included answers from more than 6,600 residents, found that only 30 percent of New Yorkers think the quality of life in the city is good or excellent, down from 50 percent in 2017 and 2008. Only half of respondents said they plan to stay in the city past 2028.
According to website RentCafe.com, the cost of living in New York City is 76 percent higher than the national average and 36 percent higher than the state average. The cost of living skyrockets in Manhattan, where it's 126 percent higher than the national average and 78 percent higher than the state average.
Read more: How To Sell Your Home
The median sale price of a home in New York City was $779,500 as of February, according to Redfin's latest data, up 2.6 percent year-over-year. The median price of a home in the U.S., at the national level, was $412,219 in the same month, up 6.5 percent compared to a year before.
A majority, 68.2 percent, of New Yorkers responding to the CBC's survey said that they didn't think the city's government was doing enough to address housing needs.
A property manager, said that he has never seen as many people moving out as in the past four years. "The main reasons are congestion, pricing, safety and the migrant issues," he told Newsweek. "This is coming from working class people as well as the extremely wealthy," he said, adding that "it's a shame what's happening in Manhattan."
A reader who described themselves as homeless called New York City "a horrible place to live" and mentioned having been robbed and suffering several car break-ins.
"Prices are too high," they said. "I have had three cars totally destroyed by rats eating my wires, it's so hard to survive in New York City."
Only 37.1 percent of residents told CBC that they were happy with the level of public safety in the city, with a stark drop in people feeling safe on the subway. While in 2008 and 2017, 86.1 percent and 81.5 percent of residents felt safe riding the subway during the day, only 49.1 percent said they feel safe doing so now. It was even worse for residents riding the subway at night: only 21.7 percent said they felt safe, down from 46.4 percent in 2017 and 44.7 percent in 2008.
Despite residents' perceptions, the New York City Police Department reported a drop of 1.1 percent in the overall crime in February compared to a year before. The number of shootings, according to the NYPD's latest report, dropped by 15.9 percent, and six fewer people were murdered, a 22.2 percent decrease.
While burglaries went down by 6.2 percent in February year-over-year, robberies increased by 4.8 percent. The number of rapes increased by 2.7 percent.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek Reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on U.S. and European politics, global affairs ... Read more
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