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A new poll released Wednesday shows the majority of New York City voters disapprove of how Mayor Eric Adams has handled surging crime in his just over four months in office.
Across all political parties, races, genders, age groups and boroughs, crime is viewed as the most urgent issue facing the Big Apple, according to a Quinnipiac University poll of registered New York City voters.
Overall, 49% of voters said crime is the most urgent issue, compared to the 15% of respondents who said affordable housing and 12% who viewed homelessness as the most urgent issue. Of the 10 issues voters could choose from, no other issue broke into double digits.
The majority of voters – 57% – disproved of Adams’ handling of crime, compared to the 37% of respondents who said they approved of how the mayor is addressing the public safety issue. That was significant change from the last poll’s results in February, when 49% of New Yorkers said they approved of how Adams was handling crime and 35% of voters said they disapproved.
Eric Adams, mayor of New York, participates in a panel discussion during the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, May 4, 2022.
(Lauren Justice/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Mayor Adams gets a positive score on his job performance, but it’s tepid. The biggest weight on his numbers: crime. It’s by far the most urgent issue and voters are holding him accountable,” Quinnipiac University Polling analyst Mary Snow said. “In the wake of April’s mass shooting on the subway along with an increase in major crimes, confidence slips in the mayor being able to reduce gun violence.”
An April 12 shooting attack that unfolded on a subway train and at the 36th Street station in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, during weekday morning commuting hours left 10 people suffering from gunshot wounds and more than a dozen others also injured. The lone suspect, Frank James, was apprehended 30 hours later near a Manhattan McDonald’s following a massive manhunt.
New York Mayor Eric Adams is seen arriving at the 2022 Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 2, 2022.
(Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images)
The majority of respondents – 53% – answered that they were either not so confident or not confident at all that Adams will succeed in reducing gun violence. That’s a drastic flip from the February poll results that showed 58% of voters were either very confident or somewhat confident in Adams’ abilities to drive down the number of shootings plaguing the city where he once served as a police sergeant.
As the poll results were released Wednesday, Adams was in Los Angeles to participate in a panel discussion at the Milken Institute Global Conference. Earlier in the week, the mayor attended the 2022 MET Gala donning a suit with the words “End Gun Violence” emblazoned on the back.
“New Yorkers are rightly worried about crime, which is why public safety has been Mayor Adams’ top priority since day one,” Adams’ press secretary, Fabien Levy, said in an email Thursday to Fox News Digital. “The mayor launched the new anti-gun unit to focus on getting dangerous guns off the streets, he helped deliver public safety reforms in Albany that many thought were impossible, and he has worked with partners in the federal government to stem the tide of dangerous guns flowing into New York City from other states. But reducing crime in the city won’t happen overnight.”
Levy pointed to how the most recent NYPD citywide crime statistics for April released this week showed that homicides, shootings, rapes, and hate crimes are all down compared to the same period last year.
“Mayor Adams is laser-focused on reversing the failures of the previous administration while fighting back against failed reforms to the state’s justice system and irresponsible laws that flood our city with out-of-state guns,” the mayor’s press secretary added.
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The poll also showed 56% of voters disapproved of how Adams was handling homelessness, compared to the 31% of respondents who approved. On his handling of relations between the police and the community, 49% approved of Adams, while 43% disapproved. That compares to February when a larger majority of 57% of voters approved of Adams’ relations between police and community, while 29% disapproved.
More than seven in 10 voters think New York City is doing too little to help homeless people, the poll said.
