Although they remain down on politics, New Yorkers are feeling optimistic about the future, according to a new Siena College Research Institute poll.
Poll Director Don Levy says the survey finds New Yorkers describe themselves more as optimistic than as pessimistic by 78-21%.
"Overwhelmingly, 78% said, I'm optimistic. You know, as a pollster, maybe I'm a little bit like a journalist, I tend to pry," Levy said. "I want to know what people are thinking. 'What are you thinking about when you're driving alone in the car?' 'What are you thinking when you put your head down on the pillow at night?' And so then we asked, as you think about how you feel most days, do you say, 'Do you feel like you spend more time worrying, more time being happy, or you spend about equal amounts of time?' Those are minutes and seconds that you spend in the privacy of your own mind. And 36% of all New Yorkers said that they spend more time being happy, fewer but still a decidedly large group, 28% said they spend more time worrying, and the balance also about a third said they moved back and forth."
Levy says respondents 65 and over say they're spending more time being happy rather than worrying. 73% of New Yorkers say they're more likely to feel worried when they think about money. And for New Yorkers earning $50,000 or less, 82% say when they think about money, they're worried.
"Those New Yorkers who make $50,000 or less were very forward with us," said Levy, "and by 41 to 26 they say 'I spend much more of my time worrying than I do being happy.' So these are, you know, insights into the privacy of people's own thought processes. When people listen to this interview on their favorite radio station, they're going to be invited to think about themselves. 'You know, when I'm alone with my thoughts, am I worried or am I happy?'"
Levy says that although 57% of New Yorkers say there's less opportunity today than there was 50 years ago, 52% say there's more opportunity today to live a healthy life and 58% say there is more opportunity to “be who you are” in terms of self-expression and sexuality.
Did COVID change people's perceptions?
"It's hard to say. I think that you could guess that the pandemic, and those years, had an impact on on all of us," said Levy. "Perhaps we prize our interactions with others now, again, more than we used to. Perhaps we appreciate that more. We did ask about, you know, living a healthy life, perhaps the pandemic and the pain associated with it drove up the percent saying that there's less opportunity to live a healthy life. We also asked about something like, to have access to clean air and water. There's something that perhaps 50 years ago, we would have said, 'Oh, we'd be in pretty good shape by today,' that was sort of a split. 39% say there's more opportunity to have access to clean air and water today. 38% say there's less opportunity."
About 9 out of 10 New Yorkers across all income levels reported worrying about politics and the state of the world. Asked if he himself is an optimist or a pessimist, Levy says he is a more optimistic person.
"So in a sense, what we found in the survey is that despite financial pressures, despite political polarization, which I'm sure we'll talk about many times as the months move on, that it is a bit gratifying that the vast majority of us cling to and pronounce that 'despite all that, I remain optimistic, despite all that I plan on a better tomorrow for myself, for my family,' and you know, as a pollster, as a person, the day that that optimism wanes, the day that optimism drops and we become, as a society, pessimistic, will, I think, be a very sad day for us all," Levy said.
