Half of New Yorkers say they're barely getting by financially, according to a recent poll.
The new survey appears to show the city divided into haves and have-nots, echoing the "tale of two cities" Mayor de Blasio campaigned on.
Residents of the Bronx and Brooklyn are struggling the most and have the least confidence in local government and police, in contrast with the rest of the city. In those two boroughs, three in five residents said they felt insecure financially, The New York Times and Siena College poll found.
People in the Bronx were especially concerned. Half of respondents in the borough said a young person growing up in their neighborhood would go on to abuse drugs or alcohol, and 37 percent said a young person would join a gang. Thirty-six percent of Bronxites said that they didn't have enough money to buy food for their family at some point in the past year. The prospects of landing a job was also a major concern.
“If it was true that we had opportunities for advancement, then all of us wouldn’t still be here 20 years from now.” 20-year-old Camila Thomas from the Bronx told the Times.
Residents of Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island were less likely to report economic insecurity, but plenty were still concerned: in Manhattan, three in 10 said they were just getting by. But 58 percent of respondents in Manhattan said they were doing alright or thriving financially — the highest response of any borough.
Surprisingly, those who were less financially secure expressed the most positive outlook for the future. More than a third of Brooklyn and Bronx residents said their neighborhood was getting better.
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Those living in Manhattan and Staten Island were the most likely to say things were getting worse. Pessimism on Staten Island might be the result of a sharp rise in heroin abuse in the borough, as well as high reported rates of vandalism and theft. Still, Staten Islanders were confident that their children would graduate from high school and that the borough was a great place to raise kids.
As a whole, the city was optimistic. A third of New Yorkers said their neighborhood was getting better and 65 percent said that New York was still the greatest city in
For the survey, 1,961 adult New Yorkers were interviewed by telephone.
