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City's Safest Neighborhoods

NCJ Number
82055
Journal
New York Dated: (October 19, 1981) Pages: 30-35
Author(s)
R Young
Date Published
1981
Length
6 pages
Annotation
Based on interviews with city officials, police, and citizens as well as police statistics, this article identifies the safest neighborhoods in New York city's five boroughs and describes actions that their residents have taken to prevent crime.
Abstract
This survey found that many factors make a neighborhood safe, but the most important were community pride and cohesiveness, well-defined geographical boundaries, and the willingness of people to look out for one another. The police feel that citizen patrols and neighborhood watch groups have been particularly effective in reducing crime. The safest areas in Manhattan are the apartment complexes of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, Roosevelt Island's highrise apartment community, TriBeCa on the lower West Side, Little Italy, and the Upper East Side. Although burglaries and purse snatchings are problems in some of these neighborhoods, violent crime rates are low. Staten Island is New York City's safest borough where violent crime is almost unknown and burglary rates are dropping. Safe neighborhoods in the Bronx include Belmont, Morris Park, and Riverdale, all of which exhibit strong community involvement in crime prevention. Active community organizations also characterize the safest areas in Queens -- Middle Village, Kew Gardens, Douglaston-Little Neck, and Neponsit-Belle Harbor. Housing renovation, ethnic pride, and citizens' groups have contributed to relatively low crime rates in the following Brooklyn communities: Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Greenpoint, Bay Ridge, and Brooklyn Heights. Photographs are included.