“Real Housewives of New York City” star Leah McSweeney said she will be leaving New York as public safety in the city is being eroded under the weight of a drug and crime epidemic.
“Service announcement,” read the caption under the video Ms. McSweeney posted to her Instagram account on Tuesday.
“People are smoking crack for breakfast in Times Square,” she said as she filmed herself walking through the Big Apple, immediately adding: “My daughter also had someone on the train tell her that they were going to turn her into a pile of meat on the floor, and…”
“I’ll be leaving New York as soon as possible.”
On Wednesday, Ms. McSweeney appeared on Fox and Friends, where she shared more details about her decision to leave New York and what led up to it.
“This breaks my heart because New York City is the best city in the world,” the reality star said. “But it is not safe right now, and it is especially not safe for women.”
Subway Incident
Ms. McSweeney was asked to comment about her 16-year-old daughter’s recent experience on the subway.
“She was with all of her friends on the train, they were talking, and a man came in and sat across from them and said, ‘Shut the blank up or I’m going to kill you and turn you into a pile of meat on the floor.’”
“She was scared to tell me because she knows I’m gonna be nervous,” Ms. McSweeney continued. “She doesn’t want to make me nervous, but she was scared.”
Host Ainsley Earhardt confessed that she, too, had stopped riding the subway.
“I used to take the subway every day, constantly—it’s so fast, you don’t get caught in traffic. But now I’m too afraid to do it,” Ms. Earhardt said.
Ms. McSweeney agreed.
“The worst thing is we’re being gaslit by the politicians who tell us that it’s actually ‘safer than ever,’ and it’s not,” she said. “I’m sorry, there’s no way. I’m out there, I’m on the train, I’m walking around, it’s not safe… at all.”
Just last month, Mayor Eric Adams reiterated his claim that New York was “the safest big city in America.”
This was said despite reports of public brawls and stabbings as the city deals with an unprecedented influx of illegal immigrants, high numbers of homeless, and having just deployed 800 police officers to prevent subway crime, in addition to the 1,000 State Police in early March. The state’s National Guard was also deployed to the New York City subway system in an effort to help police search passengers’ bags at entrances to busy stations for weapons.
Ms. McSweeney also expressed her dismay at seeing people smoke crack on the street “at 10 in the morning,” adding: “They’re not even trying to hide it.”
She then quipped with the host about getting a “second-hand high” from the ubiquitous smoke of marijuana since the drug was legalized in the state three years ago.
“I want to move to Miami,” Ms. McSweeney said. “I have to wait until my daughter is done with high school, but we’re looking at colleges in Florida.”
“I never thought I would say that,” she added. “I was like, ‘New York till I die,’ but I am just sick of the quality of life here.”
“I’m hoping that things turn around because, like I said, this is the best city in the world, but the people who are in charge do not care,” she added, suggesting that the NY mayor “help us” instead of hanging out at hi-society social clubs and luxury hotels.
Bethenny Frankel Assaulted
Ms. McSweeney’s announcement comes barely a week after her fellow “Real Housewives of New York” star Bethenny Frankel stated that she had been punched in the face by a random homeless person.
This comes after a string of similar incidents of women being indiscriminately assaulted while walking in central New York.
A few suspects were arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault, but they were, in accordance with the city’s loose bail law, immediately released.
Ms. Frankel, who in 2022 already called the soft-on crime city a “scary” place and “not what it used to be.” She said the attack obliterated her plans to move back into the Big Apple.
“At that point, I texted the broker and said, ‘I don’t want to see apartments anymore. This city is insane,’” she said.
Just last week, New York City Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie shut down Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plan to crack down on the explosion of shoplifting, including increasing penalties for people who assault retail workers.
“I just don’t believe raising penalties is ever a deterrent on crime,” Mr. Heastie told reporters.
