Feeling less safe this year in Downtown Boston

Downtown Boston

Lightly edited article by Brendan Cassidy in The Boston Guardian.

(Robert Whitcomb, New England Diary’s editor, is chairman of The Boston Guardian.)

The Downtown Boston Neighborhood Association (DBNA) shared results of its annual survey that asks residents and workers about public safety and quality of life in the neighborhood.

391 people submitted responses to the survey, and 55.5 percent said they feel less safe today than in 2025.

In response to the same question in last year’s survey, just 33.7 percent of respondents said they felt less safe in 2025 than in 2024.

After a positive trend between 2024 and 2025 results, sentiment took a negative turn across the board.

6.4 percent of residents and workers who answered the survey said they feel safer now than a year ago downtown. In the 2025 survey, 17.1 percent said they feel more safe than in 2024.

90.3 percent of respondents said public safety is a highly urgent issue in the Boston Common. 89.8 percent said public safety is a highly urgent issue in the Downtown neighborhood. These figures are up 9 and 10 percentage points from a year ago, respectively.

“Last year, following significant cross-sector efforts, we saw a significant improvement in how people perceived public safety Downtown,” said DBNA Co-Founder Rishi Shukla. “This year, that trend has clearly reversed with close to 50 percent of 2025’s gains erased.”

Shukla said responses to the survey are used to help the DBNA with its public safety work and conversations with public officials, law enforcement and local businesses.

“This survey isn't intended to replace crime statistics,” said Shukla. “It bridges the gap between crime statistics and perception of safety. It tells us about how the people who live, work, study and do business Downtown are experiencing the neighborhood.”

90.3%

of respondents said public safety is a highly urgent issue in the Boston Common.

Statistics and findings from the survey were recently presented to residents at a meeting of the DBNA.

Shukla said the focus going forward will be to analyze what is driving perceptions that residents and workers displayed in the survey.