Nearly third of New Yorkers want to move out, fed up with crime, housing costs, poor schools and more: poll

Escape from New York!

New Yorkers are so worried about crime, sky-high housing costs and struggling schools, 27% percent of state residents said they want to move away in the next five years, a survey revealed Wednesday.

A stunning 30% of respondents — who also cited inept political leadership and soaring taxes as reasons for wanting to flee — said they already longed to live somewhere else, according to a Siena College Research Institute quality of life poll.

Nearly a third — about 31% —  plan to leave the Empire State when they retire while even more said they believe it’s not safe for kids.

Angela Gutierrez, 38, of East Harlem, is one of the many New Yorkers who will soon ditch the state.

“We’re going to Pennsylvania at the end of the month,” the home health aid and mother of three told The Post.

“We moved twice in the last 3 years! We moved out of the Bronx and it is better here but still not safe,” she said, adding “all the crazy people” have driven her family away.

“And everything is expensive! They’re raising the rent again and we can’t. It’s going up almost $800 a month so we are moving down where my sister-in-law lives,” she said.

A total of 40% of respondents said New York is not a good place to raise children — including an alarming 61% of black respondents — and 26% said the overall quality of education is fair or poor as a statewide debate rages over opening more charter schools. 

The widespread urge to hit the road is distressing for New York, which hemorrhaged residents during and after the worst of the coronavirus outbreak.

“These are high numbers. These are take your breath away numbers,” Don Levy, SCRI’s polling director said of the number of New Yorkers wanting to leave. 

Three of New York City’s five counties — Queens, Brooklyn and The Bronx — saw some of the largest population declines in America last fiscal year, with only Manhattan bucking the post-COVID trend, according to US Census data released Thursday.

Many suburban and upstate counties, including Westchester, Suffolk and Nassau, also saw populations plunge, as residents said adios while few moved to the areas.

Survey respondents said they want to leave for the following reasons:

• A staggering 67% of residents said New York wasn’t affordable, while only 33% said it was.
• 49% of respondents rated New York fair or poor when asked if it is a place where they feel safe from crime. Only 51% gave an answer of good or excellent. Crime surged during the pandemic as New York’s bail and discovery laws were softened.
• 60% said New York is not a good place to retire, while only 38% said it was. 
• 57% said the political system doesn’t work for them, compared to 38% who said it did. Democrats rule New York politics.
• Only 60% of respondents said NY was a good place to raise a child, 39% said it wasn’t — including 41% of Big Apple residents and 61% of black residents.
• About one-third of residents rated New York’s quality of life negatively, while 67% rated it positively.
• About 40% rated New York’s environmental quality poorly, while 60% rated it positively.

A total of 40% of respondents also gave a cloudy assessment of New York’s weather, while 62% said they liked the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter.

Overall, New York has among the highest combined tax burden in the country, and even Gov. Kathy Hochul said crushing housing costs are causing people to leave and is pushing a plan to reverse the exodus.

One policy analyst said New York’s spendthrift political leaders are largely to blame for residents fleeing the state.

“New York’s affordability challenge is, to a great extent, a self-inflicted problem stemming from tax and regulatory policies. Everything from healthcare to energy to homeownership is more expensive than it needs to be,” said Tim Hoefer, CEO of the Empire Center for Public Policy.

“One of the top things people consider when they’re deciding where to live is the quality of the schools. New York spends over $25,000 per student but we don’t get the sort of results that kind of money should buy us. That’s because many state officials are focused more on what the teachers union want than on what children and families need,”  Hoefer said.

The New York City Department of Education is now spending nearly $40,000 per student amid dwindling enrollment and lackluster academic results, according to an analysis released Tuesday.

Residents’ views of New York’s quality of life has worsened since a similar Siena survey was conducted in 2017. In that poll, 82% of residents said they were satisfied where they lived and 67% felt they lived in a safe neighborhood.

Levy, the Siena pollster, said, “New York is a nice place to live — if you can afford it.”

“Most say that there’s a lot to love here in New York – other New Yorkers, the quality of both education and healthcare, the availability of quality leisure activities and the opportunity to be successful – but two-thirds give the state a poor grade on affordability, and half of all New Yorkers, and about 60% of lower income residents, those over 50, Blacks and Republicans say that as a place where you feel safe from crime, the state is only fair or poor.”

Overall, Big Apple residents gave higher quality of life grades in the survey than their suburban and upstate counterparts. By contrast, in the 2017 survey, suburbanites and upstaters felt more positive about where they live.

The survey of 398 residents was conducted between March 6 and 9 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.