New Yorkers who took part in the exodus from New York City last year say they were driven out by the obvious changes hitting the streets, many blaming crime and soaring prices.
Samantha Pillsbury, 31, who left for Los Angeles in February after living in the Big Apple for nine years, said the city has changed over the past year or so in terms of safety and cleanliness. I think everyone realized that,” he said. .
“I’m a single woman and I start to feel less safe and it affects my whole life,” she said.
Pillsbury, who plans to visit Europe and other cities before settling elsewhere, is just one of tens of thousands of people who have fled New York City in recent months.
Approximately 78,000 people will leave the city in 2023, according to new U.S. Census data, slowing the pace of population decline in the Big Apple since the pandemic but still marking the third straight year of population decline. There is.
“Simply put, I don’t like it as much anymore,” Pillsbury admitted to the Post of Gotham. “Over the past few years, my feelings about this city have changed in a sense.
“I started to really worry about New York’s culture around work. It’s like a workaholic, work-obsessed culture,” she said, adding that she works online as a content creator and marketing consultant. He explained that this allows him to work from anywhere and escape the hustle and bustle of the city.
The growing threat of crime on the streets since the pandemic led her to decide to quit last year.
“I think those factors certainly move me and move me a little bit faster,” she said.
Pillsbury wasn’t the only one feeling the changes in the city they love.
Stephanie Heinz, 37, first moved to New York 14 years ago to join the fashion industry and found a community that cared for its members despite the occasional chaos on the streets.
“I believed all those clichés that if you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere. I still believe that,” she said. “I believed that it was a city that never slept.
“That, for me, made single women feel safer on the streets late at night. There were power numbers, there were more people participating. And that alone made me feel safer on the streets late at night. I was given the freedom of
But she said that feeling disappeared during the pandemic, and fears for her safety led her first to move from her apartment in Hell’s Kitchen to the Nomad Doorman Building, and finally to move out of town entirely. .
“Those were all the things I loved about New York in the beginning, but things really changed for me with the pandemic,” she said.
“It became a place where I carried pepper spray. I was physically attacked several times on the street,” she said. “I felt myself changing, my energy changing. I felt like I wasn’t attracted to it at all. And if anything, I was jumpy.
“I had a feeling like, ‘The world was my oyster,’ and suddenly the situation reversed and I was stuck in this tiny little apartment. I could barely even walk the dog. ”
Despite living a block away from the upscale Ritz-Carlton hotel, Heinz said he regularly witnessed people defecating and stairing heroin through the door. Ta. When she finally decided to quit, she was spat on by a strange man on her way to the office to quit.
What helped her was the fact that her rent had skyrocketed since the pandemic. Even though she had risen to the position of vice president in her fashion world, she suddenly found it difficult to pay her rent.
She decided to pack up and head to Fort Lauderdale, Florida in October.
“During the pandemic, I thought all the Floridians were crazy. But you know, moving to a place with lots of sunshine and different taxes and beaches and being close to… “I really enjoyed walking past people with smiles on my face and saying ‘hello’ in a friendly way,” she said.
Heinz joins more than 58,000 New Yorkers who moved to Florida last year, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, which was obtained by the newspaper.
“I think everyone needs to live in a city like New York that gives them humility,” Heinz said philosophically. “But 14 years have passed for me. And the two big factors were safety and money.”
Roughly half of New Yorkers plan to join the exodus from the city within five years, but say they’re satisfied with their city and blame its significant decline since the pandemic, according to a Citizens Budget Committee poll. was only 30%.
Feeling stifled by the pace and mindset of New York, Sophie Alvi, 30, left her job as a Manhattan lawyer in September and headed to Austin, Texas.
“Looking back, I feel like the whole culture of Manhattan and New York City felt pretty cold,” Alvi said. “The truth is, it wasn’t where I wanted to continue the next chapter of my life.
“It’s too busy. I feel like everyone’s trying to make money or chasing something, and they’re not just trying to live life.”
After deciding I didn’t want to be a lawyer, I decided there was little reason to stay in the city, and now that I’m paying part of the rent and living in a nicer apartment in Austin, I’ll start practicing mindfulness there. I believe. brand.
“I wake up and I hear birds chirping and I hear chickens crowing coming from my apartment,” she said.
“I think Austin is a place where you have a lot more space to be yourself,” Alvi said. “It’s not too rigid. I’ve tried not to learn that very rigid, rigid way of thinking from Manhattan.”
Some said they wanted to go to new places after spending so much time restricted by pandemic lockdowns, and many said remote work, which has since taken hold, has left them with little reason to put up with the hardships of city life. said.
But everyone The Post spoke to still harbored nostalgia for their old team and encouragement for those looking to take over.
“There’s a lot of apocalypse going on about this city,” Pillsbury said. “While I do think there are some issues going on in this city, it doesn’t change the fact that it’s a great city to live in. No,” he said. We have a lot to offer people. ”
