Is there an unsafe neighborhood left in New York?

The talentless Alicia is full of shit in every way. Don't believe anything she says or releases on cd or the internet.

Where did the uncivilized people go?

Harlem is not so safe, neither is the far-east part of the East Village.

R1, she's also had a lot of work done on her nose.

OP, New York (all boroughs) or Manhattan?%0D %0D Aren't parts of the Bronx poverty-ridden, rundown, and unsafe?

There is still inter-nicene violence in upper manhattan

What's this I hear about violins in New York?

Remaining bad areas of Manhattan:

Far Alphabet City, C & D Avenues. The government housing projects there, ensure it will forever be shit.

Upper East Side above 96th st.

Parts of Harlem are still iffy.

If Datalounge were a city, how much crime would it have?

[quote]What's this I hear about violins in New York?

I hear around Lincoln Center and the sixties it's RIFE with violins!

R9, face-slapping would be the greatest offense

There is also lot of punching... and deleteing.

I'm not sure how "unsafe" they are, but areas like Two Bridges and Hell's Kitchen west of 9th avenue are pretty grim, and not much fun to walk around in at night by yourself.

I will also say that I've had to deal with some unpleasantly aggressive come-ons on Christopher Street at night (something that has made me infinitely sympathetic women when it comes to the bullshit they have to up with pretty much all the time from strange men.)

What about the neighborhood of all the endless blocks of endless project-looking buildings along the river? red brick, I think

Inwood and Washington Heights - you can try to make these part of the UWS all you want but I don't like driving through there with the windows rolled up and the doors locked. I had to work at Children's Hospital which is Riverside Drive and about 145th and I was uncomfortable in the middle of the day up there.%0D %0D Still a ghetto. Same with Lenox Hill on the UES. %0D %0D I'm not comfortable in Chinatown late at night, or anywhere on the far west side.

OP, I think it's time for a little nighty night for you.

The far west side in Midtown, esp. around Port Authority is still pretty sketchy. I don't walk around there at night. It's a really depressing part of Manhattan. Most blocks east of 9th Ave. are ok now.

depressing doesn't be life-threatening. the homicide rate in NYC is lower than anywhere else!

Is that considered the 'far west side', R17?%0D %0D I thought the far west side was farther west.

The streets right around the Port Authority (i.e., 41st and 39th Streets between 8th & 9th Aves., 8th & 9th Aves. between 38-42nd Streets) are a little scary because of the number of homeless who still hang out around there, but most of HK is much safer now than it ever was.

There are scattered blocks and groups of blocks all over Manhattan that are still less than ideal, but most neighborhoods as a whole are much safer now. Even Harlem has sketchy blocks, but there are parts where you can walk down the street late at night and not be afraid (even if you're white - well, someone had to say what so many of you on this thread were thinking and implying).

Since the black bars have taken over the far end of Christopher Street their have been some violence and robberies. It is no longer safe to walk around at night.

R20, you guys are pussies. try 27th and Dauphin at any time of night or day.

I think Chi-Chiz is closed now, R21. That being said, as long as Newark remains blighted and scary, the area around the PATH train station on Christopher Street is going to be rowdy at night.

[quote]Upper East Side above 96th st.

So I risk my life every time I go to Costco?

[quote]as long as Newark remains blighted and scary, the area around the PATH train station on Christopher Street is going to be rowdy at night%0D %0D True, though I will add that I lived in Jersey City for years and always came into the city through the Christopher Street PATH station and no one ever bothered me once. I don't deny that some of the kids can be a bit unnerving, especially in the way they leer at you as you walk past, but they never touch or block your path in any way, which is all I was concerned about. It's for this reason that I've often felt that the residents of the Village, though they certainly have a right to be concerned, tend to make those kids and their behavior sound far worse than the actual reality.

R25, I have been approached by guys selling drugs on the street and have had run-ins with a few guys who got up in my face with the standard "hey, hey, slow down. what's your name? Hey, I want to talk to you" or more disconcertingly "hey, you got a place? We'll both fuck you in the ass."

But I'm a delicate white guy in my twenties, I can't imagine the mostly middle-aged rich people who can afford to live in the Village these days face the same type of hassling.

My female friend who lived on Christopher Street's biggest annoyance seemed to be the street noise on the weekends and having busted drag queens bumming smokes off of her.

Ever heard of The Bronx?

Inwood is a shithole

Inwood isn't bad at all. Especially the area around Fort Tryon Park and The Cloisters.

Washington Heights is a different story although I know many gay people who have moved up there in the past decade.

Garment District has cleaned up somewhat but still oddly short of amenities and deserted at night.

Area near Port Authority still sleazy and depresssing, Penn Station not so great either.

Lots of prissy transplants from suburbia on this thread.

Hell's Kitchen is overrun with whores.

Bushwick and Bed-Stuy in Brooklyn are still pretty dicey.

All of these crimes that scare you so much wouldn't exist if drugs were legalized.

I find 8th Avenue between Penn and Port Authority sketchy late at night. All around Penn is no picnic either.

There's also a lot of parts in the boroughs that are not too safe.

[quote]Lots of prissy transplants from suburbia on this thread.

WTF? none of these places in the City have the homicide and violent crime rates of any other big city. These queens all sound like prissy hothouse flowers who've never left mommy's house before!!!

I'm glad people are mentioning the garment district and 8th ave from port authority to Penn. If there is a creepier, sketchier area in this city I don't know where it is. It's gross and overrun with homeless ppl, prostitutes, and drug dealers. It really skeeves me out. I don't do the Bronx and rarely do Brooklyn. They're both too desolate for me to really feel comfortable.

The south Bronx is pretty sketch but the north Bronx is pretty nice. I have a friend that lives in the Pelham Bay neighborhood and it's an old school Irish/Italian neighborhood with butchers, bakeries and flower shops along the main strip. It's like stepping into that movie "A Bronx Tale". There are other nice neighborhoods like Morris Park and Riverdale.

The only truly scary neighborhood left in New York, going purely from police crime reports, is East New York. It is consistently violent, blighted and grim. Endless public housing complexes. Drug dealers on practically every corner. A cacophony of gunshots as soon as the sun goes down. Crack heads and derelicts roaming the desolate streets like zombies in a horror film.

Even Bed-Stuy and East Harlem have their pockets of gentrification...but East New York is just straight up hood territory.

Is anybody here old enough to remember a time BEFORE there was violence in New York? i.e. before drugs and guns, when kids played hopscotch on the sidewalks and folks put geraniums on their stoops?

Pfft!

I don't like to walk alone west of 9th avenue in the 30's. I've done it on occasion, but make a point not to. And I avoid going West of 10th and east of Lex in most areas late at night. %0D %0D

what a bunch of wimps on this thread. Except for some blocks in Harlem and WH there are no unsafe areas. The assertion that Hell's Kitchen west of 9th is unsafe is laughable.

[quote] Still a ghetto. Same with Lenox Hill on the UES. %0D %0D You're an idiot.

I think people are mistaking "depressing" for "dangerous". West of 9th is certainly depressing. It's desolate, rundown and a favorite of the homeless population. But it is rarely dangerous. You might feel uneasy walking in this area but you aren't terrified as you would be if you were in certain parts of East Harlem past midnight.

The East Village on a Friday night is more dangerous due to drunken assholes pouring out of the bars and looking to fight.

Another scary place that no one has mentioned yet is the southeastern end of the Lower East Side below Delancey. I have friends who say they hear gunshots going off every night coming from the projects in that area.

[quote]Same with Lenox Hill on the UES.

HUH??? Lenox Hill is from 77st to 60th. Arguably, the toniest stretch of blocks in all of Manhattan.

Did you mean Carnegie Hill from 86th to 96th? Even that area is resplendent.

You are a weird one...

R44, I was thinking about that area, too, just hadn't posted about it yet. Isn't that also where that actress got killed a few years ago? I'm fuzzy on the exact details but I think she and some friends were coming out of the bars one night when they were confronted by some hoodlums and she dared one of them to shoot her and he did. It was a terribly sad story at the time.

R45 there are some pretty sheltered queens on this thread. They've never been outside of post post-Giuliani New York. Maybe they need to take a day trip to Baltimore to see what real unsafe areas are like.

r46, yeah I remember that as well. I believe the actual shooting took place in SoHo, however. Although the attackers were from the Lower East Side.

Hell, even an hour trip to Philadelphia would shack some of these Marys to the core.

I have lived in rundown, dangerous places like Baltimore and Philly and am glad as hell I do not have to anymore now that I live in NY. Parts of Manhattan look and feel a little sketchy, but they are far far safer than they used to be and you don't get the seething atmosphere of anger and distress that you palpably feel in ghetto environments.

Some people on this thread may be wimps, but the macho posturing is disagreeable too.

Umm yeah I'm from Philly...NYC is like Candyland in comparison.

[quote]Some people on this thread may be wimps, but the macho posturing is disagreeable too.

it's not posturing, it's realism. most of the world isn't as safe as Manhattan, Mary.

[quote]Same with Lenox Hill on the UES.

Lenox HIll one runs the terrifying risk of paying retail!

I'm shaking and crying so hard right now just thinking about how dangerous NYC is now!

Why don't you silly manhattan queens come over to my hood and we'll talk about "unsafe".

The precept that HK is dangerous is laughable at best. Dodging hungry bottom rentboys strutting down the Dance Belt isn't exactly terrifying.

Wall Street. Watch your wallet! Nothing but thugs and crooks these days.

it is to SOME of us!

R37 = girleena

I think it's funny how cities seem to breed certain types of quirks. New Yorkers never seem to get tired of squabbling over what specific neighborhoods are like and what their exact boundaries are.

Philadelphians (particularly white ones, it would seem) love bragging about how desolate and blighted parts of their city are.

Can anyone think of any others?

Not violent but certainly dangerous, believe it or not - Chelsea after 4 am is swarming with hustlers and drifting meth heads looking to score with the next unsuspecting horny gay guy who will take them home for some "partying and playing."%0D %0D All you can hope is that there is no ghb around or that the criminal-minded don't know where you keep it. You may wake up to a lighter apartment. %0D %0D These drifters can be gay, straight, bi, whatever...but they're usually much hotter than the guys they prey upon. That should be the latter's first clue.

I'm from the midwest, but during college I would visit my grandparents in the Bronx during spring break. I never got hassled and I have zero street smarts. I even went out with a girl who lived in Harlem and her neighborhood had a lot of upscale black people. I now live in DC and there isn't a single neighborhood in the city limits where I feel safe. Even Georgetown can be a little unsettling.

DC is weird. One block is nice and the very next block can be sketchy. I don't feel safe in DC at night, even in Georgetown and Dupont Circle.

It is every NY real estate developers wet dream to knock down the housing projects in prime Manhattan locations such as Lincoln Center, Chelsea and the Village. They would do it in a minute if it weren't for the political ramifications and atrocious PR such a move would generate.

"you guys are pussies. try 27th and Dauphin at any time of night or day.%0D %0D by: Philly snoop, rolling eyes. "%0D %0D Try any corner in the city of St. Louis, 24/7/365. Now you want to talk about being pussies?%0D

What area of New York is DC located, R63?

"They would do it in a minute if it weren't for the political ramifications and atrocious PR such a move would generate."%0D %0D Didn't they try that with Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village and fail miserably?%0D

R66, it is just south of Battery Park

R67, it was a huge financial disaster.

If you can't stay out of trouble in DC (let alone Georgetown or Dupont), you've got serious problems or are just completely paranoid.

I just sat with a friend talking until Midnight sitting by the fountain in the middle of Dupont Circle. it was perfectly safe

R71, you just sat in a park where a bunch of homeless people convene and talked until midnight? Yeah right. Either you look destitute, or you're just stupid.

People who say DC is safe are full of shit. Between the criminal elements and drunk military/college people, I've seen some unbelievable stuff in the past few years. I consider myself fortunate that unlike my friends, I haven't been mugged at gunpoint yet.

R72 most people are fine in those areas. Whether you can handle that or not.

[quote]you just sat in a park where a bunch of homeless people convene and talked until midnight?

not ONE SINGLE HOMELESS person, sorry, bunky.

Some people really do look for trouble.

sharp rise in crime in Central Park%0D %0D see article at link

Though when you read the article at R76, there is little crime in Central Park.

sharp rise is relative.

[quote]DC is weird. One block is nice and the very next block can be sketchy. %0D %0D New Orleans is the same way.

so are a lot of places.

[quote]Try any corner in the city of St. Louis, 24/7/365. Now you want to talk about being pussies?

Please. Not that St. Louis doesn't have a lot of sketchy parts that certainly are dangerous, but the press resulting from its statistical high ranking in terms of crime is ridiculous. And, the "any corner" sentiment is complete bullshit.

Bed Stuy is fine. I lived on a street of nice brownstones and everyone was nice. I never felt unsafe.

The Bronx?%0D No, Thonks.

East New York and Brownsville in Brooklyn aren't safe. Lots of city projects and drugs.

R81, St. Louis is on the Mississippi, not de-nial.%0D %0D You can try to pretend crime is no worse in STL than any place else, and you would be seriously deluding yourself. And those "safe" corners you talk about, they do indeed exist, but they are getting fewer and further between. There was a time when shotgun blasts in the middle of the night anywhere south of I-44 were rate to non-existant. Today, they are all too common. Hell, the chances of someone being shot standing on the corner of Halls Ferry and Chambers Roads in Moline Acres in the suburbs are better than 50/50.

NYC is a hell-hole, but not because of the dangerous crime.

If you haven't been in the worst parts of Newark after dark, you don't know squat.

True R87. Years ago, a friend and I were returning a rental car to the Newark airport and got lost. We drove through downtown Newark at 1:00 in the morning. Jesus Christ, I thought we weren't going to make it out of there.

In the past few months the most unsafe place in all New York is the Foxwoods Theater.

When Cory Booker was a Newark councilman he lived in a high-rise city project until it was demolished. Now lives in a two-family in the South Ward, the most crime-ridden police district. Likes to live with his peeps. Can't bring anyone home for the night. All the neighbors would know, and tell.

If the US ever had an enema, Newark would be the point of entry.

no, that would be Trenton

I live in DC now; I miss NY for so many reasons, but above all I felt SO much safer there. Now, some of that could be because I was born and raised there, so it's more comfortable in general, but DC just seems sketchy.

AV D is never a good idea. The LES scares me late at night. I have lived in The East Village for 26 years.

Bed Stuy and that nasty part of Clinton Hill near it are still a blight on the city.

How is the High Line?

r8, if you treat the residents with respect they will treat you with respect.%0D %0D If you walk into those neighborhoods with your nose looking down on them or clutching your manpurse then you will rightfully get jacked.%0D %0D You are not better than they are and until you stop acting like you are you will be attacked in those neighborhoods.

r91/92, Camden's not exactly the garden spot of the Garden State.

r97 I wish it were true what you say. You're either woefully unobservant or you're disingenuous.

Damn r97 reading your response again is infuriating. Someone acting "better than they are" is not what provokes people who have it in them to fuck with or assault people. These lowlifes/druggies/thugs will fuck with people no matter what. You're ridiculous.

DC is fucking ghetto as hell. Packs of feral pookies in every neighborhood. You can have it.

the only unsafe nabe in NYC is your ahole

R17 How the hell is Midtown sketchy???

[quote] Parts of Harlem are still iffy.

I remember when you only went to Harlem if you wanted to get shot! (and I'm only 28!)

Do you think they'll ever get rid of the projects? All that real estate can't help but be tempting...

Why is Ave C and D dangerous while A and B are not? Is the LES close to where the Body Museum is?

I don't think so, R104. Where would those tenants go?

The projects along the East River below 14th Street are an eyesore, too. If it weren't for those the East River promenade would be as nice as the one in West Village. But what is the point of even making it nice when all you see after the weekend hordes and their barbecuing is loads of trash on the ground?

I meant, R105.

It is every NY real estate developers wet dream to tear down the projects - particularly the ones below 14th st., in Chelsea and around Lincoln Center to put up million-dollar condos and office buildings. To do so, however, would be too much of a race/class war.

I wondered because, in SF, many developers want to boot San Quentin Prison (right by the Bay) and build condos

I think they should tear down all the projects in Manhattan and send those people to the Bronx or NJ.%0D %0D I want a nice clean Manhattan like the Manhattan we see in the movies from the 1960's!

R109- Well, they should knock them down. Thousands of middle-class people would kill for a chance to live in New York, yet they cannot afford it. It isn't fair that these welfare leeches are allowed to live there free and clear.

The plastic surgery on Park Avenue scares me.

The black, Puerto Rican and Dominican Republican areas are awful. It's racist, but the white areas are safe.

Racist yes, but true none-the-less.

R114, overreactions much?

Alicia Keys is the phoniest, most manufactured "star" ever. Why would you believe anything that comes out of her mouth?

No scary part left in Manhattan? Ha.

R52's mother gives him mugger money each time he leaves the house so he will come home safe and sound and reap the rewards of attending the college of his choice.

watching gringos talk about how dangerous their cities are is quite amusing

DC is now gentrified from end to end. The crime has all moved out to MD & VA with the exception of very small pockets of Southeast DC and some gang problems in Columbia Heights.

I have lived in DC for 14 years and have never encountered a block where I felt terribly unsafe or had any problems, and I have worked in all 4 quadrants of the city. I have seen a few buildings with scary people sitting out front in a few locations, but 99& of DC is safe. Certainly as safe as NYC.

I have never even heard of any of my friends having an encounter with crime of any sort in my 14 years living in Dupont Circle.

R112, if you can't afford to live in New York it's not because of a few subsidized housing projects. It's because of hordes of international rich who simply must have a Manhattan pied a terre plus all the gobs of federal bailout and support money flowing into the city to float the financial industry. But keep hating on the poor if it makes you feel better.

New Yorkers are the most self-absorbed, fearful people on the planet.

New Yorkers fearful? LOLOLOLOL.

The irony is R122 most likely lives in some American suburb or urban area of diminished significance where the entire population nevertheless owns multiple assault rifles and handguns, as if anyone gives a shit about them or their WalMart-purchased possessions.

I agree with R120, but I thought this was about New York.

Ignore the troll at R114.

You know, the whole thing is about common sense. Street crimes are usually crimes of opportunity. So no. I don't go walking around alone in the middle of the night, anywhere.

It's like walking thru Central Park at 2 AM by yourself and wondering why you were robbed or raped or assaulted. It's stupid to tempt fate, OP.

In a big city, my rule: there are no truly "safe places." It serves me well, even tho I now live in a medium sized city (moved from NYC for work) bot far from The Loop. Very safe. Low crime.

But: there's a few bars adjacent to a movie theatre. Around the corner, there's a parking garage. People get mugged and robbed there at least three or four times a week. I walk the extra five blocks to park at an open lot with good lighting near the CVS. People need to use common sense.

There has been extensive research showing that the crime waves of the past, in all cities, was due to the lead in gasoline. Removing the lead has led to a decrease in crime.

Proving people are NOT prone to being criminal, it is often environmental factors that do it.

Also, there is an article at the Huffington Post about a giant nematode coming out of a dead spider (it's on the front page). If you read the article and click on one of the links within it, it takes you to a report that all humans have thousands of these parasites living in us, it's just that most of them are harmless. SOME of them do have the ability to affect our behavior, when they nestle in the brain.

I believe all humans should be responsible for our actions, but since we are chemical beings and respond to chemical changes in our bodies, I think we have to look at a lot of environmental factors as the root cause for things like crime.

R123 just demeaned himself with such a prolix yet vacuous statement. Defensive much, honey? NYC is hated the world over.

For the past decade+ people have been pretty casual about hanging out in the far east village (Aves C&D) and they generally it's ok if you are with people - but if you're alone it can be scary.

I was convinced by 3 friends to live in a freshly gentrified apt on Ave D & 4th street in 1990 - man o maneshevitz - the apartment was GORGEOUS & Cheap but it was pretty darned scary - gunshots, hassling, stolen bikes, car trunks broken into, etc. Daylight was fine - after 6pm though...

I'm still wary of going east of Ave B. The area around 14th/1st & Ave A has been thuggy lately too.

[quote]The black, Puerto Rican and Dominican Republican areas are awful. It's racist, but the white areas are safe.

R114 has said out loud what every other poster on here has just hinted at. Every area that has been noted in this thread as being unsafe is non-white.

Is *low income*, R130. Many minorities live in the higher-income neighborhoods.

So fuck you if you refuse to take that into consideration, (like the racist troll you are).

Oh hooray -- r131 has arrived to cloud the water.

R132, It's crystal clear, except to those who will not see.

[quote]DC is now gentrified from end to end. The crime has all moved out to MD & VA with the exception of very small pockets of Southeast DC and some gang problems in Columbia Heights. I have lived in DC for 14 years and have never encountered a block where I felt terribly unsafe or had any problems, and I have worked in all 4 quadrants of the city. I have seen a few buildings with scary people sitting out front in a few locations, but 99% of DC is safe. Certainly as safe as NYC.

I have lived and worked in DC for 30 years. It is a far safer city now than it was in the 1980s, but it most certainly is not gentrified from end-to-end. I usually have to argue against those folks who claim every block in DC is a crime-ridden risk. R120 goes to the other extreme and overstates the case for safety.

The assertion that crime is limited to "very small pockets of Southeast DC" is just not accurate. There are some significant and sketchy areas of Anacostia where crime is still a problem. Those neighborhoods have not been gentrified. And, the same thing applies to large parts of NE Washington, north of Capitol Hill and east of RFK Stadium.

Yes, the murder rate is the lowest it has been in 50 years, but street crime -- especially in the gentrified areas like Columbia Heights, all over really -- is still a persistent problem.

[quote]I have never even heard of any of my friends having an encounter with crime of any sort in my 14 years living in Dupont Circle.

That's nice for you, but anecdotal evidence is not really very good proof of anything except what your experience may be. One of my good friends was the victim of a street robbery last year a few blocks behind the Capitol -- she had her purse and phone stolen. A friend of one of my friends was stabbed and robbed at 1st and P Streets, NW three years ago. I didn't know the gay couple who was attacked in 2012 around V Street NE, but friends of mine did. And then there was that horrendous beating of the young father walking home after a Nationals game last summer.

Things are definitely changing for the better and DC is far safer now than it was, but we are not where we need to be yet.

Agree with R134 as well.

DC is gorgeous and should not be missed, but there is work to be done and don't come here if you're not going to be prudent about your surroundings.

NYC is not hated. It is loved and envied. People try to move there all the time and many cannot.

Is the Lower East Side still a shithole or have they cleaned that up too?

The 17th floor of Manhattan Plaza can be pretty scary.

I think all housing projects should be demolished.

I got mugged by two young black males near the Cooper Park Housing Project in Brooklyn about 5 years ago. Violently. I'm talking armed robbery, they used razors to slip my back pocket and take my wallet. Had a bruise on my cheek to show for it.

Never had a problem like that in white areas.

So yes, avoid minority-populated areas and you'll generally be ok.

I called my parents once from 125 St. and they got all panicked when I told them where I was. I couldn't help but laugh. There were at least a dozen cop cars in my eye line. NYC has changed. Though maybe COVID-19 is now going to change it back.

After midnight? All of them.

They’re all unsafe.