Alone in public amid randomness and isolation

John Della Volpe introduces himself: 

For more than two decades, I’ve been embedded in the land of young Americans. First millennials, and now Gen Z with an eye on Gen Alpha. From my perch since 2000 as polling director at Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics, at SocialSphere, and as the dad of a few Zoomers and one Zillennial — I spend most of my time talking with, surveying, and thinking about young Americans. 

In the context of New Yorker's mayoral election, he's been talking with young citizens of that city. He reports: After Everything, They Still Want In. You can read it all at the link. 

Twelve young New Yorkers — disillusioned with both parties, abandoned by institutions, and living under daily pressure — still believe in something better. ...

All under 30. Some were born there, some were not. All living in the tension between loving New York and questioning whether it loves them back.

“We love it here,” one said. “But it doesn’t always love us back.”

The conversation didn’t spiral. Everyone stayed grounded. They were proud to live in the “greatest city in the world” — but honest about how much it costs them, in every sense.

He covers ten points; I found myself reflecting on this one:

#7: Fear is everywhere. So is numbness.

Almost every participant described feeling physically unsafe at some point in the last month.

“You’re always calculating... Should I step in? Should I run? Am I going to get hurt just trying to help someone?”

“They’re not there to protect people. They’re there to write tickets.”

The problem wasn’t just crime. It was the feeling of being left alone with it.

I tried to think how this was the same and different from what I felt when I lived for awhile, a long time ago, in the great city. So I raised the question to Della Volpe and he responded: 

janinsanfran: Can you expand on what the fear is about? I know New Yorkers who feel that NYC feels safer than it ever has. 

Lived there myself as a very young person in the 70s -- very sporadically, but not uniformly, seemed unsafe then, in what was then thought a very unsafe area. 

These folks feel what they feel and we must honor that -- but that conclusion seems something that could be expanded on. 

Della Volpe: You’re right — the fear young New Yorkers describe isn’t the same one older generations remember. It’s not about crime rates; it’s about randomness, isolation, and trust.

They’re afraid that anything can happen anywhere — a shove on the platform, a stranger following them — and no one will step in. It’s the sense of being alone in public that feels new.

And even when they know the data shows record-low crime, they don’t feel it. The fear now is less about danger itself, and more about whether anyone — the police, the city, other people — will show up when it happens.

In that gap between statistics and experience, you can feel how much trust has frayed.

Let's hope the experience of the Mamdani campaign is breaking through this isolation. Effectual campaigns can do that. If Mamdani's mayoral term can deliver on some of its promise, that would help too.