by Catherine Smith
More than 300,000 residents have fled New York City over the past eight months because of rising crime rates, school stress and the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report from the New York Post.
Data obtained by The Post from the U.S. Postal Service under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, revealed residents filed 295,103 change of address requests from March 1 through Oct. 31.
However, the total number of people leaving is likely much higher – the data details only when 11 or more forwarding requests were made to a particular county outside NYC, so the number of moves is actually higher. And a single address change could represent an entire household, which means far more than 300,000 New Yorkers fled the five boroughs, according to The Post.
The city’s number of residents fleeing is much greater than in prior years. There were 244,895 changes of address from March through July, The Post reports. That’s more than double than the 101,342 requests filed during the same time last year.
According to experts the exodus is down to economic stress, confusion about schools and the rising crime rate occurring alongside the pandemic.
“I think people are afraid,” Michael Hendrix, director of state and local policy at the Manhattan Institute, told The Post.
“They’re afraid of catching a deadly virus, and they’re afraid of crime and other quality of life concerns. One thing we also hear is about trash and cleanliness of the city,” Hendrix said.
The institute’s report found that 44 per cent of New Yorkers earning $100,000 or more annually have considered moving from the city over the past several months.
Many of the city’s top earners have escaped to the Hamptons and suburban counties, such as Long Island, Westchester, and parts of northern New Jersey taking their money and resources with them. While some New Yorkers changed their addresses to places as far as Florida or Hawaii.
The trend of New York City residents leaving for other places has spread to other parts of the state. Breitbart News reported in October that New York lost more residents than any other state due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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Catherine Smith reports for American Greatness.
