A single concern unites the city: New Yorkers cannot afford the housing in their neighborhoods, and the problem is getting worse. In every neighborhood, in every age group, from lifelong residents to recent arrivals, New Yorkers feel more strongly about the unaffordability of housing in their neighborhood than about any other issue. Two thirds of New York City residents say that housing affordability in their neighborhood is bad and getting worse. The prevailing sentiment in every neighborhood across the city is that housing is unaffordable, presenting an acute crisis for the administration. Only 14% of New Yorkers say it is not a concern in their neighborhoods.

When it comes to finding quality jobs, the tale of two cities is abundantly clear. More than 50% of New Yorkers say their ability to find a good job is bad and getting worse. The sense of crisis is most acute in the Bronx, Queens, Upper Manhattan, and Brooklyn outside of the “brownstone” neighborhoods. Middle-aged New Yorkers are more concerned than are other age groups, but younger adults acknowledge a worrisome trend – although slightly more of them believe their ability to find quality jobs is currently good, they are concerned that their prospects are getting worse.

On all other issues, the dominant sentiment citywide is that the City’s performance is adequate. Although every neighborhood has its own priority issues, in six out of the nine policy categories covered by the Talking Transition survey, New Yorkers as a whole feel that the City is doing okay in their neighborhoods. In each of these policy categories, the sentiment is that things are trending moderately better. Of these six categories, New Yorkers feel that parks and open spaces are performing best and, along with health and human services and transportation, heading most strongly in the right direction. Trends are also moderately positive when it comes to education, the environment, and law enforcement citywide, although there are deep divides along geographic lines when it comes to policing.

Many of the challenges confronting the new administration are place-based. The Talking Transition survey reached deep into neighborhoods frequently underrepresented in policy-making circles, in large part thanks to a field team of more than 100 canvassers, speaking 19 different languages, and active for two weeks across the city. Certain issues that do not present critical challenges citywide are pressing issues in particular pockets of the city. Police-community relations elicit deep dissatisfaction in Central Brooklyn, the South Bronx, and Upper Manhattan, in stark contrast to more positive sentiments across much of the rest of the city. In the South Bronx, the only issue on which residents are more positive than negative is health and social services. In the West Village, on the other hand, residents are critically concerned with access to health care.

On the other hand, very few variances in opinion can be attributed to age, tenure of residency in the city, or whether or not respondents had voted in the election. Among the few exceptions to this rule is the difference in perspective on jobs and economy between recent New Yorkers and longtime or lifelong New Yorkers – recent arrivals are 10% less pessimistic, as might be expected.

Where the City is perceived to be doing well, New Yorkers believe things are generally getting better; where it is believed to be doing poorly, things are generally considered to be getting worse. In question after question, New Yorkers’ expressed the sense that City services that are currently being performed well have been getting better, and services that residents are less satisfied with have been getting worse. Very few New Yorkers believe there are areas of City policy and services that are currently good but are getting worse, or are currently bad but are getting better.