Uptown Nabes Safer than those in Lower Manhattan

Uptown Nabes Safer
than those in

Lower Manhattan

Photo credit: A New York police officer stands on patrol following a melee involving groups of youths. (Getty) 

Washington Heights and Inwood are far safer places to live in Manhattan than Greenwich Village and the Meatpacking District, according to a new survey.

DNAinfo.com’s Crime & Safety Report, which ranks every New York City neighborhood for per capita crime, found that high property crime rates are dragging down Greenwich Village, which came in at 68th of 69 neighborhoods for overall safety.

Only midtown, with its high density of tourists and commuters, had a worse per capita crime ranking than the Village and the Meatpacking District.

Northern Manhattan fared much better than its southern counterparts.

Inwood and Washington Heights are the third and fourth safest neighborhoods in Manhattan and 23rd and 24th safest in the five boroughs, respectively. East Harlem, Central Harlem and West Harlem also have much lower per capita crime than the Village.

“There were precincts I studied in the past, such as Washington Heights, where I was told to wear a bulletproof vest when I went on a ride with the police,” said Thomas Reppetto, author of “The NYPD: A City and Its Police” and the former president of the nonprofit Citizens Crime Commission.

“That tells you … how much it has changed now,” he added.

Property crime is by far the neighborhood’s biggest concern. Factor out those offenses, and the Village’s ranking rises to No. 32 -- still below Inwood and Washington Heights.

“We do have a really hardcore criminal element down there,” said Terri Howell, vice president of the Christopher Street Patrol.

That includes gang activity, she said, noting that the most common crimes Howell finds in the Village include noise, fights, and drug and alcohol use.

The interactive report, which used the NYPD’s CompStat database and 2010 Census statistics, also
found that murders, rapes and robberies are on the rise citywide.

• Based on 2009-10 data, murder and rape both jumped nearly 14%; robberies inched up more than 4%.

• Although the overall crime rate dipped by 1.5% from 2009 to 2010, murders increased for the first time in decades, by 13.8%.

• Robberies climbed by 4.5%.
• Rapes spiked by 13.9%, with the biggest increase in Harlem.
• Felony assaults edged up by 1%.


CRIME IN MANHATTAN
5 safest neighborhoods 
1. Upper East Side
2. Upper West Side
3. Inwood
4. Washington Heights
5. Kips Bay

5 least safe neighborhoods 
1. Midtown
2. Greenwich village
3. Flatiron
4. Chelsea
5. Murray Hill
 
CRIME IN BROOKLYN
5 safest neighborhoods 
1. Kensington and Borough Park
2. Bensonhurst
3. Sheepshead Bay
4. Bay Ridge
5. Windsor Terrace

5 least safe neighborhoods 
1. Brownsville
2. Fort Greene and Clinton Hill
3. Bedford-Stuyvesant
4. Brooklyn Heights
5. East New York
 
CRIME IN QUEENS
5 safest neighborhoods 
1. Forest Hills
2. Bayside
3. Flushing
4. The Rockaways
5. Fresh Meadows

5 least safe neighborhoods 
1. St. Albans
2. Jamaica
3. Ozone Park and Howard Beach
4. Sunnyside and Woodside
5. Woodhaven

Source:
http://www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/uptown-nabes-safer-than-those-in-lower-manhattan-study-1.3152097