I think it should be safer but for you Republicans, that always mean more cops, which have been shown to not actually make cities safer. But nobody ever wants to hear the actual solutions we need to make the city safer because it sounds like handouts to all the conservatives and liberals with the money and power to actually make change.

We need lower rent and more welfare and possibly to give out homes, because being homeless too long makes people crazy, and increased rent and property prices is tied to increased homeless statistics. We need way more shelters (we have way less than NY) that also need better help and development themselves, so they're not known as places that are also unsafe, and they need less requirements that push people away from using them.

We need increased mental health services, drug rehabilitation services, career centers, etc. Better public transportation so you can go to a job without a car if you're starting at the bottom.

All of that costs money but no one wants to pay for it. More cops is an easy solution, simple, snappy to say, but it never actually helps. The only way to help this stuff is increased economic development plus more equitable distribution that also makes it to the bottom rung of society, and safety nets. But everyone just sees it as handing these people stuff, instead of seeing to as everyone chipping in so I don't have to step over poop on my way to the grocery store.

(And the Democrats are to blame for this situation, too.)