People living and working around Downtown Boston are feeling less safe again.
A new survey from the Downtown Boston Neighborhood Association found that 56% of respondents said they felt less safe downtown and around Boston Common than they did at the beginning of 2026.
That is a sharp reversal from last year.
In 2025, 34% said they felt less safe. In 2024, the number was 71%. Only 6% of respondents this year said they feel safer than they did at the beginning of 2026.
So what changed?
Safety concerns are clearly rising
The survey found that 90% of respondents now consider public safety an urgent issue downtown, up from 81% last year.
The most common concern was drugs and discarded needles, cited by 45% of respondents. Homelessness and loitering came next at 30%, while 20% identified violence as their biggest concern.
That last number has moved significantly. Only 7% chose violence in last year’s survey.
The places generating the most concern were also concentrated around some of Downtown Boston’s busiest public spaces.
Boston Common and the Park Street area were cited by 46% of respondents, followed by Tremont Street, Downtown Crossing, Washington Street and Winter Street.
The survey comes after a difficult summer downtown. Between June 29 and July 15, five people were shot in three incidents within roughly half a mile of one another, according to the neighborhood association. A fatal beating near Boston Common followed later in July.
Those incidents helped push public safety back into the center of the conversation.
But the crime data tells a more mixed story
The latest Boston Police Department numbers do show increases in some types of violence.
District A-1, which includes Downtown along with Beacon Hill, Chinatown and the North End, recorded 163 non-domestic aggravated assaults through Sept. 27, up from 148 during the same period last year.
There were also two homicides, compared with one last year.
But those numbers do not amount to an across-the-board crime increase.
Non-domestic aggravated assaults remain slightly below the district’s five-year average of 166.8. Reported rape and attempted rape fell to 10 cases, from 17 last year and a five-year average of 16.6. Other major categories including robbery, burglary and several forms of theft were also below both last year’s levels and their five-year averages.
Earlier BPD data through Sept. 20 showed total Part One crime in A-1 running 7% below the same period in 2025 and nearly 3% below the five-year average.
So Downtown can have more aggravated assaults and several highly visible violent incidents while overall major crime remains lower.
Both can be true.
Feeling safe is about more than crime statistics
The survey also shows why official crime totals only explain part of what people experience downtown.
Open drug use, discarded needles, erratic behavior, homelessness and aggressive street activity may affect how safe someone feels even when they never become part of a violent-crime statistic.
That distinction matters in areas like Downtown Crossing and Boston Common, where thousands of residents, workers, students and visitors move through the same small area every day.
When asked what they would change, 45% of survey respondents called for more visible police and patrols, with many specifically asking for sustained foot patrols rather than temporary enforcement surges.
The bottom line
The new survey provides strong evidence that concern about Downtown Boston safety has increased sharply in 2026.
The crime data is less dramatic.
Aggravated assaults are up and several serious incidents this summer gave residents real reasons for concern. But most major crime categories in District A-1 remain below last year or below their recent averages.
So the gap between being safe and feeling safe may be one of the biggest public-safety challenges Downtown Boston faces right now.
The numbers do not show a broad collapse in safety.
But the people using Downtown are clearly telling the city that something about the experience has changed.
