NY1 last night debuted its new City Poll – a collaboration with Baruch College that tries to dig deeper into New Yorkers' thoughts about the direction of the city in a non-election year.
But after looking at the numbers, Mayor de Blasio probably is wishing that residents would head to the polls this November rather than in 2017.
The masterminds behind the poll – Baruch's Mickey Blum and Doug Muzzio – have crafted their own version of the Consumer Confidence Index for the mayor, creating a composite figure of his approval rating, New Yorkers' satisfaction with city services, and whether they think the city is on the right track. And until we get sued by The College Board, we're using the first letters from the words "Satisfaction," "Approval" and "Track" to dub this 100-point index the SAT Score. And by those standards, de Blasio is acing it at 64 percent.
For the traditionalists out there, the mayor's approval rating with residents is at a whopping 58 percent. But as our Grace Rauh points out, there is still a massive racial divide when it comes to de Blasio's support with 82 percent of African-Americans approving of the job he is doing, compared with just 44 percent of white New Yorkers.
While residents are pretty much evenly divided about whether the city's quality of life will improve or not, they're hopeful that de Blasio's Tale of Two Cities will be over -- forty percent say it will be a city for the privileged in the future, while 55 percent think it will be a city for everyone.
Tonight, we'll look at whether New Yorkers feel safe – from their own streets to whether they think city as a whole is vulnerable to terrorism. And we'll also take their temperature about the NYPD. In the meantime, maybe the education metrics-averse mayor will start humble bragging about his SAT score as he fights off a cold.
Bob Hardt