Stop the exodus, Eric: New Yorkers need results on crime
May 25, 2022
From its low tax burden to its popular seasons, Florida is a great place for New Yorkers. Record numbers of New Yorkers are fleeing the city for the Sunshine State amid high crime, Covid hysteria and dysfunctional schools
Not good news for Mayor Eric Adams: New data show New Yorkers are still fleeing to Florida despite the reopening of schools and restaurants and the lifting of COVID restrictions.
An analysis of Florida Department of Highway Safety data shows a 12% increase in the number of New Yorkers swapping their driver’s licenses for the Sunshine State’s over the first four months of this year. That’s 55% higher than same period in pre-pandemic 2019, and the drain is mainly from the city. (Suburbs, too, including a similar 9% rise for New Jersey.)
That’s not all: A recent Empire Center for Public Policy analysis found a record number of federal income-tax filers and their dependents moved from New York to other states from 2019 to 2020. And the average income of the exiting NYers topped $100,000 — with many above $200,000.
Florida was the second-leading destination — just slightly behind New Jersey — for out-bound NYers between 2019 and 2020.
In January, city Department of Education enrollment figures showed traditional K-12 programs fell 5.6% this year to roughly 821,000 students (excluding pre-school programs and public charter schools). Over the last five years, 120,000 families left city public schools.
It will take more than policy recommendations from a “‘New’ New York blue-ribbon panel” headed by ex-Bloomberg development czar Dan Doctoroff and Robin Hood Foundation CEO Richard Buery to convince businesses, commuters, office workers and families that New York City is back.
While COVID hysteria, rising street homelessness, traffic congestion, the high cost of living and (of course) high taxes also drive the exodus, crime is the key. Yet the surge isn’t abating, with now-regular broad-daylight homicides in the subway, on busy streets and near schools.
Adams has to go beyond cheerleading for the city; swagger’s not enough. He won office vowing to make that Job One; at the least, the public should see him working on it daily, without leaks from his entourage about some presidential run or stories of him glamming it up in Los Angeles.
How about a moratorium on fun trips out of town until New Yorkers feel safe again?
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