In my experience, New Yorkers who “don’t feel safe” don’t feel safe mainly because they read the New York Post (or watch sympathetic local news, idk do people even watch television anymore?), and their perception is skewed by the resurgence in right-wing fear-mongering.

Crime in NYC is apparently up from its low point in 2019 but is still substantially lower than it was even in the early 2000s. Which is to say that if you felt safe under Rudy Giuliani you should feel safe under Eric Adams.

(Which also may be to say that people feel safer when we have an evil YIMBY mayor like Bloomberg giving us baubles like the Times Square makeover or when we have a feckless sad sack liberal mayor like DeBlasio who we can all kind of hate-pity for being pathetic and useless.)