The Big Apple is getting pretty sour, soaring quality-of-life complaints show — and it will likely rot further under cop-hating, laissez-faire NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, critics told The Post.
While the NYPD had trumpeted an historic drop in major crimes, millions of calls into the city’s 311 and 911 systems this year show across-the-board surges in quality-of-life complaints, data show.
Gripes about public urination, public drug use, noise, double parking, disorderly conduct and other issues that make New Yorkers miserable have skyrocketed by double digits.
NYPD compstat data from Jan. 1 through Dec. 7 showed complaints surged about peeing in public by 20%; outside drug use by 16%; public boozing by 10%, noise complaints by 15%; and double parking by 11%.
Only a couple of quality-of-life categories actually improved, with graffiti and abandoned car complaints falling 22% and 3%, respectively.
And while outgoing Mayor Eric Adams, a retired NYPD captain, launched special quality-of-life teams earlier this year to handle such neighborhood nuisances, the socialist mayor-elect plans to have cops refocus its efforts.
Mamdani’s pie-in-the-sky plans for dealing with quality-of-life issues include having the city stop clearing out homeless encampments; creating a $1.1 billion Department of Community Safety where civilians handle mental health calls instead of cops; and instituting free citywide bus service in the hopes it’ll keep cars off the road and decrease noise complaints.
It’s a recipe for disaster, critics said.
“Quality of life in this city is in free fall and the numbers prove it,” said City Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens).
“With Mamdani coming in after cheering on tent cities and pushing the same radical ideas that helped create this mess, things are not going to improve, and the city is going to keep burning.”
The stats “grossly underestimate” how many New Yorkers are upset with the city’s quality of life, believes Eugene O’Donnell, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, who said many residents feel their complaints will be ignored.
“It’s even more troubling that the numbers are going up in an environment in which people have been actively discouraged from making complaints,” the ex-cop and former Brooklyn and Queens prosecutor said.
It doesn’t take being a rocket scientist to realize the city’s overall quality of life will deteriorate further with Mamdani running the city, he added.
“[Mamdani] has no faith in the police; he’s made that clear,” said O’Donnell.
“Is he going to encourage New Yorkers to report quality-of-life violations? . . . I haven’t seen any evidence he believes these are actually problems.”
Average New Yorkers are asking the same questions.
“More urination, more litter,” fumed Victoria DeLuca, 56, while peddling scarves at an Upper East Side store this week. “I just don’t know if this is ever gonna get controlled. We’re gonna turn into California or Philadelphia.”
Kenneth French, who works at NYU, said, “When I first moved here in 2005 I felt safe, not anymore.”
French claimed he and his husband were once attacked on the subway by a group of youths, and even his dogs are threatened.
“My dogs have gotten high from eating pot. I had to take them to the emergency room,” he claimed.
Quality-of-life complaints nearly doubled from 2018 through last year, which spurred Adams and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch in April to roll out quality-of-life or “Q” teams.
Since then, the NYPD says it’s responded to 531,000 calls to the 311 hotline — up 9% from the previous year — and reduced non-emergency response times by about 20 minutes.
Tisch has pushed back on claims the units are a new version of “broken windows” policing tactics instituted in the 1990s by then-NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton and then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
The well-known policy is famously credited for driving down serious crime by first tackling low-level crimes like graffiti — but later came under fire for disproportionately policing Black and Hispanic neighborhoods.
Adams this week told The Post he believes more people are reporting quality-of-life complaints because of the city’s crime-fighting success.
“When you bring down serious violent crimes, it gives people the opportunity to talk about other issues that are important to them,” said Adams, who leaves office Dec. 31.
“Now people are saying, ‘Hey, I want to deal with this noise in my community. I want to deal with this illegal dumping in my community.’ Because we’ve dealt with the most important thing, and that’s making people feel safe in their communities.”
“We are hopeful that the next administration listens to New Yorkers and continues these important quality-of-life initiatives over the next four years,” he said.
Mamdani’s reps did not return messages.
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