Boston reveals New Yorkers what their metropolis may very well be like

My 9 a.m. stroll right down to New York’s Penn Station for my practice to Boston was regular — for the brand new New York. I needed to keep away from an emotionally disturbed gentleman brandishing a bottle, screaming at individuals to “get away from me.” (Good recommendation.)

Four hours later, I de-trained in Beantown, dropped my backpack at my lodge, and started a lengthy stroll — 21,599 steps.

I didn’t get down to take such a protracted stroll: I had deliberately spent a lot of the day working in my room.

But as I walked on, I discovered myself enjoyable. I walked the vacationer spots of Faneuil Hall and the wharves. I walked downtown. I walked the 2 parks. I walked to the Prudential Center, after which all over the Fens and the museum district.

I went to the museum, had a drink, took the T again, ate a doors dinner, and walked to my lodge, on my own — in the hours of darkness.

I progressively realized that I didn’t really feel nervous in any respect. Nobody accosted me screaming. Nobody seemed like he was about to stab me if I refused to smile at him. The dusk-time Green Line T was a paradise for individuals on their method house from work, or on their method out to golf equipment.

Passengers chatted or scrolled their telephones, reasonably than glancing at their fellow passengers to evaluate the stabbing danger.

The subsequent day, I labored all day on my pc, exterior — and the identical uncommon factor: Nobody harassed or threatened me. I took the Blue Line T to East Boston and didn’t have to determine the place to face on the platform to equidistantly keep away from the would-be pusher and the would-be flasher.

I additionally observed that there was no dysfunction: no piles of trash spilling into the sidewalks. No needles.

Yes, Boston has pandemic scars — empty restaurant and retail storefronts, fewer international vacationers. But I didn’t marvel if a bomb had fallen on it.

My expertise is backed by statistics:  Boston is likely one of the solely American cities to not have skilled a double-digit improvement in violent crime over two years.

In 2020, Boston had 57 murders, matching the 2017 quantity. In 2021, it had 40 murders — matching the 2015 quantity, and 16% under the five-year pre-COVID common. This, was when New York, in 2021, noticed 488 homicides, 53% above the five-year pre-COVID common.

In Boston, rape, theft, and assault are all down since COVID (with the unhappy exception of home violence).

The excellent news has continued these 12 months.

It’s not that Boston escaped COVID unemployment: It misplaced almost 18% of its jobs, greater than the nationwide degree of 15%.

But: First, throughout the crucial “defund” motion of summer time 2020, Boston was fortunate to have a long-time, average Democrat mayor, Marty Walsh. “I feel that simply arbitrarily chopping the funds isn’t the reply,” Walsh stated in early June 2020.

This was throughout the worst of the protests-cum-riots. It was laborious to take this stance — however, Walsh confirmed to cops that although he would insist on police self-discipline, he wouldn’t throw his power below the bus.

This average stance has continued, below supposedly progressive Mayor Michelle Wu. She killed police-budget cuts this 12 months, a profitable reward from the conservative Boston Herald: “People obtained the message. Wu is supporting the cops,” the paper’s contributor Peter Lucas wrote.

Then, there’s Boston’s supposedly progressive prosecutor — who wasn’t all that progressive. Rachael Rollins, who headed the workplace till earlier this 12 months, had a protracted record of “don’t prosecute” offenses, together with shoplifting — however then promptly prosecuted repeat offenders who wouldn’t cooperate with diversion packages.

“Contrary to what she appeared to initially counsel, Rollins has not applied a wholesale coverage of waiving prosecution of lower-level misdemeanors,” Commonwealth magazine reported.

In April, Rollins’ successor, Kevin Hayden, bragged about revoking the bail of an “unarmed” robber after repeating second probabilities. Can you picture Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg doing that?

There’s no thriller to Boston’s success: Be lenient when you may. Don’t, when it harms public security. I stay up for a visit again — to stroll around without trying over my shoulder.

Nicole Gelinas is a contributing editor to the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal.