https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_intentional_homicide_rate
11/13 states with the highest murder rates are southern states. MD and IL are the exception. Baltimore, Chicago, and East St. Louis areas are certainly the main reason.
Ok, the source you provided doesn't have anything on cities, so unless I miss something (and you point it out), I'm going to discount that as a discussion point related to the comparison on NYC and the aforementioned Floridian cities.
I looked at the total murder number in the city and the population of the city. NYC (the city only) had 485 murders in 2021. The estimated population is about 8.8 million. That's 5.5/100k which is a clear uptick. We have seen upticks across the country though as the murder rate in the country was 6.9/100k. For NYC, shootings have dropped in 2022, but overall crime is up. We'll see what the totals are at the end of the year. Murder rates tend to be higher in the summer months.
Thanks. So when you say "NYC (the city only)" you're using a number for population of 8.8M, when the 5 boroughs are roughly double that. Are you just using Manhattan? When you are using cities like Jax or Tampa or Miami, my guess is you're including the entire area, which isn't an apples to apples comparison.
Also, what crime are we speaking of when we say "safer"?