New York City dwellers think the quality of life is going downhill fast, a new poll finds.
A Quinnipiac University survey released Thursday shows just 33 percent of city voters say the quality of life in the city is "very good" or "good," the lowest number ever measured, while 48 percent say it's gotten worse in the last few years; 32 percent that say it's about the same.
"The quality of life in New York City isn't good and it's getting worse, many voters think," said Quinnipiac University Poll Assistant Director Maurice Carroll. "It's not just newspaper hype about the return of the bad old days, New Yorkers say. Many are seeing more homeless people on the streets and encountering more panhandlers."
Concern about crime is at an all-time high, the survey finds, with 46 percent saying it's a "very serious" problem, while 44 percent it's "somewhat serious." The concern mirrors an uptick in
multiple shootings during 2015.
The New York Observer reports
crime in the city is lower today than in 1999, however, when 672 homicides were reported compared with just 328 homicides in 2014.
Voters are also skittish about the homeless population, the survey finds, with 53 percent saying they see more homeless now than a few years ago, and 49 percent saying they've encountered more homeless people panhandling.
The poll comes just a day after Mayor Bill de Blasio took a hit in a separate
Quinnipiac poll, logging his all-time-lowest approval rating, at 44 percent.
Thursday's poll finds de Blasio’s approval rating on his handling of crime is 40 percent, and his approval rating for handling the police department is just 36 percent. The survey shows he earned a 38 percent approval rating for his handling of police-community relations, an area he'd vowed to improve during his campaign.
De Blasio critics have accused him of being soft on crime, and Republican opponent Joe Lhota ran ads during the 2013 mayoral campaign warning that de Blasio would take the city "backwards."
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