Listen to the message of the governor of New York after shooting 2:17
New York (CNN) --
It's a sultry spring day in New York City, but Dana Aber is standing on the Times Square-42 Street subway platform in a thick leather jacket.
Her hands are gloved and stuffed into her pockets to hide her jewelry.
Although she tries to appear relaxed, her senses are on high alert.
"I thought maybe it would be a little better protection than a thin layer, in case I get shot," said Aber, a Manhattan stage actress and writer.
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Choosing an outfit based on the probability of being shot sounds like a dystopian nightmare, but it's the reality for many New Yorkers who feel helpless and scared amid a rising crime wave.
A mass shooting at a Brooklyn subway station in April highlighted his fears.
Dana Aber on a platform of the Times Square-42 Street subway.
To date, the city has seen a 42.7% increase in serious crimes compared to the same period in 2021, according to the New York City Police Department.
That includes a 46.7% increase in thefts, a 54% increase in grand theft incidents and a 14.9% increase in rape reports.
Homicide rates have decreased 13.1% over the past year, but continue to rise 9.2% over the last two years.
For New Yorkers like Aber, the fear of ending up in another criminal statistic has cast a shadow over their city.
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“It's becoming more and more of a mental issue for us, constantly worrying about being safe,” said Pilar Weston, a 53-year-old Harlem resident.
"What will happen to me if I take the train? Or if I walk down the wrong street? Or if I ride my bike?"
Pilar Weston stands outside the 125th Street station in Harlem.
"It's a horrible way to live," he said.
Harlem has been Weston's home for decades, but it's starting to feel a lot less safe, he says.
He tries to avoid taking the train when he can.
She chooses her route home carefully.
She avoids certain streets at different times and is "always, always" ready to run.
"New Yorkers Deserve Better"
After three decades of record lows, crime rates in New York City began to rise in 2020.
Officials have attributed the increase to a combination of factors, including changes in the justice system — such as New York's new bail reform legislation — and a flood of illegally trafficked guns, which advocacy groups say weapons and criminologists was fueled by the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic.
The economic and social hardships brought on by the pandemic played a role in the rise in crime, with the number of homeless people since the start of the pandemic increasing "substantially," according to Mayor Eric Adams.
In January, Adams announced a comprehensive plan to combat the crime wave.
It includes an increase in officers on patrol, additional resources for the city's existing gun seizure unit, new technology to stem the flow of guns, and job creation for at-risk residents.
He also revives a controversial plainclothes unit in the police force renamed "Neighborhood Safety Teams".
Police officers stand outside the Harlem 125th Street station.
Police Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell endorsed the plan, saying the NYPD was committed to tackling crime head-on.
“The men and women of the New York City Police Department are proactively addressing the root causes of criminal behavior,” Sewell said in a statement at the time.
"The NYPD will never back down, and the department has made too much progress over decades — and invested too much in the communities it serves — to go backwards by any measure. New Yorkers deserve better."
The plan couldn't come soon enough, according to Margaux Paras.
Like many Asian Americans in the city, he lives with the added concern of hate crimes.
Margaux Paras in Bryant Park.
Paras, an Asian American, spoke about her fear of being the next victim of a hate crime.
"I live in constant fear and anxiety that I'm going to be someone's next target," said Paras, 35.
"I'm always on the verge of a panic attack when I'm on trains or even walking during the day. It's not safe for us."
Hate crimes in New York City are up 76% so far this year compared to the same period last year, according to data from the New York Police Department's Hate Crimes Task Force. .
Asian Americans have been especially targeted, usually for unwarranted reasons of the pandemic.
Paras lives in New Jersey but commutes to the city to attend school.
She has no choice but to continue her usual routine, but the stress is overwhelming, she says.
Sitting on a bench in Bryant Park, Paras recounted horror stories she heard from family and friends, including one that she, she says, was randomly punched in the chest while walking through a park.
Patrick Curley inside a train at a Times Square-42 Street subway platform.
Patrick Curley, 70, a lifelong New Yorker who lives on the Lower East Side, also welcomes the mayor's plan, saying he trusts the NYPD to restore public safety.
“I am confident that our police officers will keep us safe,” Curley said.
Curley, who lived through the city's crime heyday in the 1980s, pointed to the walls of the Times Square-42 Street subway station, noting how they were once covered in graffiti and the vandalized platform.
"This is nothing like the '70s or '80s," he said.
"Crime levels here go down and up again, but there's still no comparison. To someone new to New York City, things seem to go downhill, but New York always comes back."
The city saw 1,814 murders in 1980, the year the New York Times called the "worst year for crime in the city's history."
That assessment was overshadowed at the peak of the crack epidemic in 1990, when the Times reported that New York City had recorded 2,245 homicides.
"More surveillance is not the answer"
Other New Yorkers, like Rasheed Blain, worry about rising crime, but question the mayor's plan.
He says the focus on heightened surveillance is misplaced and could backfire.
Blain, 23, as a violence interrupter for NYC Cure Violence, the city's crime prevention program, walks around Harlem talking to at-risk youth to reduce conflict and inspire them to find paths other than crime.
He says his experience has shown him that there are more effective ways to fight crime than the police.
"More surveillance is not the answer," said Blain, who lives in the Bronx.
“Police in our communities don't communicate well with people and vice versa.
There's a trust issue and we feel like we're not safe with them."
Police officers stand inside the 125th Street station in Harlem.
He fears that increased surveillance could alienate and even have an adverse effect on communities of color.
"Violence behaves like an epidemic of contagious diseases," Blain said.
"If we want to fix the uptick in violence, we have to start with poverty, the root of all violence, and fix the lack of resources for youth, as well as mental health."
Carmen Perez-Jordan, CEO of the nonprofit The Gathering for Justice, agrees.
The organization's mission is to "eliminate the racial inequalities that permeate the justice system," according to its website.
Having lived in the city for 12 years, Pérez-Jordan, 45, says she is familiar with what over-policing can do in Black and Latino neighborhoods.
She is especially concerned about the reintroduction of plainclothes officers, who have in the past been accused of violating minority rights with controversial tactics like stop-and-frisk searches.
These searches, in which police stopped and frisked people she considered suspicious, disproportionately targeted Black and Latino men.
“When violent crime increases, it's often our low-income black and brown communities that suffer the most, and I would hope that what's happening now follows that trend,” Perez-Jordan said.
She believes the mayor's plan does little to address the underlying factors that have contributed to the rise in crime.
"What I see is not just crime, it's a giant red flag that something deeper is going on in these communities and in these people's lives," he said.
"We really need to ask ourselves, what drives someone to shoplift, use drugs in public places, or pick up a gun and hurt someone? What does a person have to go through for them to think those things are okay?" she said. .
People hanging out in Union Square in New York City.
Standing on the edge of a sun-kissed avenue in Central Park, Perez-Jordan admits the problem is closer to home than most realize.
In the past year, she has lost loved ones due to rising violent crime, as well as drug overdoses and covid-19.
"A gallon of milk costs $4.62. Rents continue to rise unsustainably," Perez-Jordan said.
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"Mental health diagnoses have increased, homelessness has skyrocketed, and fentanyl overdoses and deaths have devastated poor communities. All this while nearly a million Americans have died from a virus that has claimed the lives of more than six million around the world during the last two years of a global lockdown.
"I think it's safe to say we should have seen this coming. People are suffering, people are desperate, and those who have experienced this their entire lives are fed up," he said.
What New York needs most, according to Perez-Jordan, are interventions that "really produce community safety," such as mental health services, substance abuse counseling, housing programs and more social workers.
"I should feel safe at home"
Ty Sumpter in Union Square.
Sumpter, a manager at a nearby Trader Joe's, said he no longer feels safe walking around town.
Ty Sumter fondly remembers the "old days".
He smiles and enthusiastically lists all the things he used to do in New York when he felt safe walking alone and taking the train home at night.
Peaceful routines have become a thing of the past, he says, and a day that goes by without incident is a blessing he doesn't take for granted.
"For someone who travels late at night and early in the morning, I've seen a lot of scary things. But now it's an everyday thing," Sumter said.
"As someone who grew up here in the '90s, we had to walk together. We didn't allow our friends to take the trains alone. We went back to those days."
Sumter, 47, a manager at a Trader Joe's near Union Square, walks home from work.
Despite the blue sky and the merry bustle of families playing in the nearby park, he isn't tempted to stay.
"I love New York more than anything. It's like finding the whole world in one place," Sumter said.
"But these levels of crime make me not want to do anything anymore. Even in this beautiful weather, I want to walk, but why? I don't feel safe. There's a police station right here, and I still don't feel safe. I just want to get home".
An entrance to the Times Square-42nd Street subway station.
Weston shares similar thoughts as she stands outside a CVS store at the 125th Street subway station in Harlem.
She just finished talking to a friend whose car was broken into yet again.
It's "truly heartbreaking," he said of the rise in crime.
"Having to walk around the neighborhood you grew up in, in your own house, constantly looking over your shoulder all the time and wherever you go, it really bothers you to do that where you come from," he said, pointing to his heart. .
"It's my home," he said.
"I should feel safe at home."
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