More than half of New York residents think the city under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s leadership is headed in the wrong direction, the New York Times reports.
Fifty-two percent of New Yorkers say the city is headed in the wrong direction, while 41 percent think it is headed in the right direction.
That unease is an unexpected turn for Mr. de Blasio, a liberal Democrat who has staked his mayoralty on remaking the way New Yorkers interact with law enforcement. But the poll’s findings suggest the mayor’s efforts have been buffeted, and at times overtaken, by events outside of his control. […]
Strikingly, Mr. de Blasio’s attempts to curb the aggressive policing tactics favored by his predecessor, Michael R. Bloomberg, received little credit. Three out of five New Yorkers said the mayor had made little difference in improving police and community relations, and one in five said he had made the dynamic worse.
Nearly half — 48 percent — of respondents said race relations in the city were bad in general, up from 30 percent at the end of Mayor Bloomberg’s tenure.
De Blasio’s approval rating stands at 52 percent.