After sleeping 904 nights in Midtown West Manhattan, I took a three-day trip to distant and exotic Boston. What I found there was shocking: normalcy. Boston is a liberal city — but it’s also a pragmatic ville.
My 9 am walk to New York’s Penn Station for my train to Boston was normal – for new New York. I had to dodge an emotionally disturbed gentleman waving a bottle, yelling at people to ‘get away from me’. (Good advice.)
Four hours later, I untrained in Beantown, dropped off my backpack at my hotel and started a long walking – 21,599 steps.
I hadn’t intended to take such a long walk: I had planned to spend a large part of the day working in my room.
But as I walked, I found myself relaxing. I surveyed the tourist sites of Faneuil Hall and the quays. I walked downtown. I hiked both parks. I walked to the Prudential Center, then through the Fens and the Museum District.
I went to the museum, had a drink, brought back the T, ate an alfresco dinner and walked to my hotel, all alone — in the dark.
I gradually realized that I didn’t feel nervous at all. Nobody accosted me shouting. No one looked like they were going to stab me if I refused to smile at them. The Green Line T at dusk was heaven for people coming home from work or out of the clubs.
Passengers chatted or scrolled through their phones, rather than glancing at fellow travelers to assess the risk of a stab wound.
The next day, I worked all day on my computer, outside – and the same unusual thing: no one harassed or threatened me. I took the Blue Line T to East Boston, and didn’t have to figure out where to stand on the platform to equidistantly avoid the potential pusher and the potential flasher.
I also noticed that there was no mess: no heaps of trash spilling onto the sidewalks. No needles.
Yes, Boston has pandemic scars — empty restaurant and retail storefronts, fewer foreign tourists. But I didn’t wonder if a bomb had fallen on it.
My experience is backed up by statistics: Boston is one of the only American cities that hasn’t seen a double-digit increase in violent crime in two years.
In 2020, Boston had 57 murders, matching the 2017 count. In 2021, there were 40 murders, matching the 2015 count and 16% lower than the pre-COVID five-year average. This, while New York, in 2021, recorded 488 homicides, 53% above the five-year pre-COVID average.
In Boston, rapes, robberies and assaults are all down since COVID (with the sad exception of domestic violence).
The good news continued this year.
It’s not that Boston escaped COVID unemployment: It lost nearly 18% of its jobs, more than the national level of 15%.
But: First, during the critical “defunding” movement of summer 2020, Boston was blessed with a longtime moderate Democratic mayor, Marty Walsh. “I think just arbitrarily cutting the budget is not the solution,” Walsh said in early June 2020.
This was during the worst of the protest-cum-riots. It was dur take that stance — but Walsh showed the cops that while he would insist on police self-discipline, he wouldn’t throw his strength under the bus.
This moderate stance continued, under supposedly progressive Mayor Michelle Wu. She killed police budget cuts this year, earning praise from the conservative Boston Herald: “People got the message. Wu supports the cops,” wrote newspaper contributor Peter Lucas.
Then there’s the supposedly progressive Boston prosecutor — who wasn’t everything than progressive. Rachael Rollins, who ran the bureau until earlier this year, had a long list of ‘do not prosecute’ offenses including shoplifting – but then quickly prosecuted repeat offenders who didn’t cooperate with the authorities. diversion programs.
“Contrary to what she initially seemed to suggest, Rollins did not implement a comprehensive policy of waiver of prosecution for lesser crimes,” Commonwealth magazine reported.
In April Rollins’ successor, Kevin Hayden, vaunted on revoking bail from an “unarmed” thief after several second chances. Can you imagine Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg doing that?
There’s no mystery to Boston’s success: indulge when you can. Don’t do it when it harms public safety. I can’t wait to go back – to walk around without looking over my shoulder.
Nicole Gelinas is editor-in-chief of the City Journal at the Manhattan Institute.