Crime Is Impacting Business in NYC

Are we surprised? With the current policies in place, things will only get worse. Midtown merchants plead with Hochul to clamp down on skyrocketing NYC crime

There is a general breakdown of law and order in Manhattan. It is happening in most or all of the Blue Cities.

Crime across Manhattan’s Midtown South district has spiked by more than 50% year to date — wreaking havoc across a crucial corridor for commuters and shoppers alike that includes Penn Station, Grand Central Terminal and the Port Authority Bus Terminal, police data show.

Meanwhile, grand larceny is up 45% on the Upper East Side, which encompasses prime shopping strips on Madison, Lexington and Third avenues between East 57th and East 86th streets. Organized rings of shoplifters who are targeting high-end boutiques are a key driver of the spike, retailers say.

That is not the kind of thing that business can absorb in the long run. Either insurance will abandon them all together, or rates for coverage of theft will become unaffordable. The net result is the same. Those businesses will close. Forever.

“The deterioration of public safety and the quality of life in Midtown Manhattan needs and deserves a solution,” the Midtown BID Coalition [a coalition of multiple business improvement districts] said in a letter to Hochul in late March on the eve of budget discussions.

Also, while the retail situation in Manhattan has rebounded some, traffic through Times Square is off 19% from 2019 levels. That is driven, at least in part, by the crime numbers the "perception" that NYC is not safe. (Hint: it isn't!)

Midtown South, the 14-block stretch from 30th to 44th streets between Ninth and Madison avenues, has been hit with a 51% surge in crime this year versus the same period a year ago, according to police data.

The real number is probably even higher, as most people don’t take the time to file a police report when they are “whacked on the head, rushing to the subway,” said Barbara Blair, president of the Garment District Alliance.

There is more, including some on drug clincs, and real changes since the pandemic started. There is a particularly nice chart of the increase in crime. Click thru.