Survey: Half of New Yorkers Planning To Leave

Nearly half of New York City say they plan to leave over the next five years, according to a poll released Tuesday by the Citizens Budget Commission.

The poll, the first taken by the nonprofit since the COVID pandemic, and publicized by Newsmax also found:

  • Only 30% rate the quality of life in NYC as excellent or good, down from 50% in 2017 and 2008; 33% rate the quality of life as poor.
  • Half of those surveyed rate the neighborhood they live in as excellent or good.
  • Only 37% rate public safety in their neighborhood as excellent or good, down from 50% in 2017.
  • Only 24% rate the quality of government services good or excellent, down from 44% in 2017.

The poll also revealed New Yorkers feel only marginally safer riding the subway during the day now as they felt on the subway at night in 2017, and this was before several recent high-profile violent incidents were reported in the NYC subways.

CBC President Andrew Rein said, “It’s important to consider context — coming out of the pandemic, employment just recently returning to pre-COVID levels, and increasing affordability challenges — but what New Yorkers’ responses crystalize the stark reality that they clearly rate the quality of life and quality of City services as not good.”

In a report on the poll, CBS 2 News said the respondents reporting the best quality of life were Cobble Hill and downtown in Brooklyn and West Village in Manhattan. Those reporting the worst include Jackson Heights in Queens and Kingsbridge in the Bronx.

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) seized on the safety finding to post on X, formerly Twitter, “People should feel safe in their own communities and yet that’s not the case for almost 80% of NYC residents. #NY17 families are concerned for their safety because of the rising crime in NYC. Soft-on-crime policies like cashless bail are a disaster.”

Newsmax said the survey, conducted among 6,600 New Yorkers from September 2023 through December 2023, has a margin of error of plus or minus one percentage point.