Why the time has come for New Yorkers to trust the subway again

On back-to-back nights last week, I bumped into two New Yorkers made famous by the subway: Lenore Skenazy and Daniel Penny.Skenazy rose to prominence in 2008 as “America’s Worst Mom” for letting her 9-year-old son ride the 6 train alone; Penny in 2023 for restraining Jordan Neely, a repeat offender menacing other passengers, in a headlock that would lead to Neely’s death.Skenazy’s and Penny’s incidents took place 15 years apart, but are united by a perennial question: Is the subway safe enough for New York’s most vulnerable?Back in the oughts, Skenazy argued that the real threat to kids wasn’t dangerous riders, but overprotective parents who never let them develop the skill of independence.The subway, in theory, is the ultimate liberator for kids and parents alike.

I’m raising my kids in the suburbs, and the biggest pullback to city life isn’t the arts or the restaurants — it’s the chance for my kids to grow in confidence and be exposed to the world without my hand-holding. City life for kids, though, requires trust in public order.When Skenazy made a name for herself by sending little Izzy into the subway alone, the city’s trust was peaking.

Just months before, MTA had announced that ridership was at a 50-year high, and subway crime was at a record low.Thanks to the leadership of Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his successor, Michael Bloomberg, New Yorkers were safer than they had been in generations.The secret sauce those mayors used was “broken windows” policing, targeting disorder and low-level crime to maintain public peace and confidence in public spaces.The way scholars George L.

Kelling and James Q.Wilson saw it, if you tolerate broken windows, graffiti, fare evasion, and low-level lawlessness, you signal that no one is in charge and you invite bigger crimes to follow.

But when you enforce the basics, you stop that spiral before it metastasizes.With a focus on the small stuff, NYPD was able to keep a lid on the big stuff, bui...