New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) made tackling crime a central plank of his successful election campaign last November. A poll released Wednesday shows his inability to deliver is being punished by disillusioned voters.
A survey by Quinnipiac University shows crime is the top concern of 49 percent of city voters — more than triple the 15 percent of respondents who cited affordable housing and 12 percent homelessness.
However just 37 percent of city residents approved of Adams’s performance on crime, compared to 54 percent who disapproved.
This is a reversal from the 49 percent who approved and 35 percent who disapproved in a survey as recently as last February.
The divide between the mayor’s intentions and voter expectations is just as stark when party affiliation is taken into account, even as he appeared at the Met Gala this week in a suit emblazoned with the message “End Gun Violence” as Breitbart News reported.
NYC mayor Eric Adams wearing a tuxedo with the words “End Gun Violence” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute benefit gala on Monday, May 2, 2022, in New York. (Getty)
Twenty-five percent of registered Republicans approved of the new mayor’s handling of crime, compared to 45 percent of Democrats and 35 percent of independents. And along racial lines, 34 percent of white residents approved, compared to 46 percent of black residents and 33 percent of Hispanic respondents.
Adams, a retired transit cop, made law and order the cornerstone of his bid for City Hall. But violent crime has mostly worsened during his four months in office with no sign yet of an end to the violence as an overwhelming majority of voters (86 percent) support having more police officers in the New York City subway system, while 12 percent oppose it.
Police talk to a man in a Times Square subway station following a call to police from riders on April 25, 2022 in New York City. Data released by the NYPD shows felony assaults on the NYC transit system rose more than 50 percent between February and March. Mayor Eric Adams has made safety in the transit system one of the key initiatives of his administration. (Spencer Platt/Getty)
The mayor’s overall job approval also took a hit — with 43 percent of voters approving and 37 disapproving disapproving.
In Quinnipiac’s February poll, 46 percent of voters approved of Adams’ job as mayor while only 27 percent disapproved.
Such is the pressure of expectation on Adams that in March he turned to Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot seeking ideas on how to tackle crime in the Big Apple, although he did not disclose just what advice his fellow Democrat mayor delivered.
After New York City Mayor Eric Adams turned to Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot seeking ideas on how to tackle crime, many took to Twitter to mock the move. https://t.co/pqcBIjUDXF
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) March 23, 2022
“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,” said Quinnipiac Poll analyst Mary Snow, according to the New York Post.
A total of 1,249 New York City registered voters were surveyed from April 28th – May 2nd with a margin of error of +/- 2.8 percentage points for this poll.
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