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NY Post columnist says Boston ‘shows New Yorkers’ what kind of city the Big Apple could be

July 11, 2022 | | Print Article

As crime continues to rage out of control in New York City, New York Post columnist Nicole Gelinas ventured to “faraway” Boston and discovered something shocking: “normalcy.”

“Boston is a liberal city,” writes Nicole Gelinas for The Post, “but it is also a pragmatic city.”

The Manhattan Institute senior fellow described her trek through the “new New York” to Penn Station where she would catch her train.

“I had to avoid an emotionally disturbed gentleman brandishing a bottle, screaming at people to ‘get away from me,'” she says.

And when she de-trained in Boston and began a long walk through Beantown, Gelinas says she found herself “relaxing.”

She walked through tourist spots, downtown, and through the city’s museum district.

“I went to the museum, had a drink, took the T back, ate an outdoor diner and walked to my hotel, by myself — in the dark,” she relates incredulously.

“I gradually realized that I did not feel nervous at all,” she says. “Nobody accosted me screaming. Nobody looked like he was about to stab me if I refused to smile at him. The dusk-time Green Line T was a paradise of people on their way home from work, or on their way out to clubs.”

The following day, she says, “nobody harassed or threatened me,” something Gelinas considers an “unusual thing.”

“I also noticed that there was no disorder: no piles of trash spilling into the sidewalks. No needles,” she recalls.

“Yes, Boston has pandemic scars — empty restaurant and retail storefronts, fewer foreign tourists,” she says. “But I didn’t wonder if a bomb went off.”

So what is it that Boston has that New York City is missing?

Simple: Low crime rates and, during the critical summer of 2020, a moderate Democratic mayor.

“Boston is one of the only American cities not to have experienced a double-digit increase in violent crime over two years,” Gelinas reports.

“In 2020, Boston had 57 murders, matching the 2017 number. In 2021, it had 40 murders — matching the 2015 number, and 16% below the five-year pre-COVID average,” she states. “This when New York, in 2021, saw 488 homicides, 53% above the five-year pre-COVID average.”

“In Boston, rape, robbery and assault are all down since COVID,” she continues, noting the “sad exception of domestic violence.

The trend is continuing in 2022, and not because Boston didn’t suffer from COVID unemployment. The city “lost nearly 18% of its jobs, more than the nationwide level of 15%,” according to Gelinas.

What set Boston apart, she argues, was moderate former Mayor-turned-Senator Marty Walsh, who, as rioters were burning liberal cities over the death of George Floyd, backed his Blue and rejected the notion of defunding the police.

“It was hard to take this stance,” Gelinas acknowledges, “but Walsh showed cops that thought he would insist on police self-discipline, he wouldn’t throw his force under the bus.”

And today, under the leadership of the “supposedly progressive” Mayor Michelle Wu, the “moderate stance has continued,” Gelinas says.

Wrote Peter Lucas of the conservative Boston Herald, “People got the message. Wu is supporting the cops.”

Coupled with a moderate mayor was a moderate prosecutor in the form of another supposed progressive, Racheal Rollins, who may have indicated that she wouldn’t prosecute low-level misdemeanors, but did go after “repeat offenders who wouldn’t cooperate with diversion programs,” the NYP contributor writes, adding that her successor, Kevin Hayden, who “bragged about revoking the bail of an ‘unarmed’ robber after repeat second chances.”

“Can you imagine Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg doing that?” she asks.

“There’s no mystery to Boston’s success,” Gelinas concludes. “Be lenient when you can. Don’t, when it harms public safety. I look forward to a trip back — to walk around without looking over my shoulder.”

Online, Gelinas’ message resonated with Americans, weary from leaders who put their agendas above their constituents.

“Good to see stories like this,” tweeted one user. “Reminds you that things are not as bad as you see on tv and online.”

Former New York Councilmember Sal Albanese agreed, albeit with a little less finesse.

“Good column by @nicolegelinas,” he tweeted. “NYC doesn’t have to be a violent sh*t show.”

Melissa Fine
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