Rising crime and social ills are causing New York City’s Upper West Side to empty out

It’s been in the news over and over this year: New York City’s crime is spiraling out of control and nothing is being done about it. And this unfortunate transformation is particularly shocking in the area known as the Upper West Side.

New York Post reports that Elizabeth Carr was a proud resident of the Upper West Side and a proud administrator of “NYC Moms for Safer Streets”, a Facebook group with over 3000 members as of this writing.

Together with her husband and three young children, they are leaving. They just closed on a property in North Carolina. “We reached our New York expiration date,” Carr commented.

According to Carr, a friend who lives at 72nd Street and Columbus Avenue, which since the 1990s has been a desirable block to live on, is trying to move out. She hasn’t been able to find a real estate broker to take the apartment on.

She's just one of many residents whose lives have been put in danger by Mayor Bill de Blasio's anti-police, and bail reform policies that have allowed criminals to run rampant throughout the city.

Even in previous decades when New York was poorly regarded for its high rates of crime, the Upper West Side was always seen as a sort of refuge--an enclave where you could raise a family and generally be a few steps removed from all the violence and disorder. This has changed.

The city’s administration under mayor Bill de Blasio has opened up two new homeless shelters in the neighborhood, housing people struggling with long-term addiction issues. Many of them are on the list as registered sex offenders. Long-time residents are worried and many of them are voting with their feet.

Residents are very worried about their safety. Recently, a 40 year old woman was attacked by a random stranger at the 72nd Street subway station. No motive has been discovered for the attack. Incidents like that have been almost unheard of in NYC for the past quarter century.

“De Blasio seems to have some sort of vendetta against this demographic,” said Jennifer, a mother of two young children. “There’s no incentive to live here.”