Worst/Best streets in NYC? (New York, Yonkers: section 8, high crime, houses)

[SuperMario]

Simple.

What are the best and worst streets in NYC that you have personally had the displeasure of walking through.

Now with worst I mean, Ugly, Dirty, Dangerous, Drugs, Gangs, Violence etc etc...basically unappealing

Best ...well you know what I mean.

I'll start off

Worst- The notorious 183rd street in the Bronx....ranging from the Grand Concourse to University Ave.....block after block of people hanging out....drug dealers....graffiti... all tenements...really ugly stuff etc etc.......it really is a sight to behold. I think it's in contention for worst in NYC.

Best- Well I've been to Forrest Hills in Queens. I dont know the exact street name because im not from there but... Beautiful absolutely beautiful. Huge houses, big yards and quiet for the most part. If it wasn't for cost, I'd live there!

Share your experiences.....from your own eyes. Best/Worst?

[Hustla718]

There are too many hot blocks to name. What makes a bad neighborhood bad is a lot of hot blocks.

I would say pound for pound some of the worst areas in the city are:

Bronx

To make it simple, all the neighborhoods south of Bedford Park Blvd west of the Bronx River, all the neighborhoods south and west of the Parkchester complex, and all the neighborhoods north of E Gun Hill Road on the east side of the Bronx River. No building is beyond 2-3 blocks from a hot corner at the maximum. In some areas every block is hot, with maybe one "calm" block popped in every 10 that still has to deal with the happenings that spill from around the corner.

Brooklyn

Northeast Brooklyn. Bed-stuy, East Flatbush/Flatbush, Bushwish, Brownsville, Crown Heights, East NY/Cypress Hills and in the south of BK, Coney Island. Same situation as above. The immidiate areas around the PJ's in Red Hook and Fort Greene are real nasty due to the fact those PJ's are buck wild. Sunset Park is shady in sections.

Manhattan

North of E 96th/W 110th same. Central Harlem, East Harlem, West Harlem, Washington Heights and Inwood. Couple decent pockets west of Broadway. It's also shady in the LES near the PJ's that line the East River.

Queens

Far Rockaway is a hole. The South Side Jamaica/South Ozone Park has good and bad pockets, but mostly bad. Corona and East Elmhurst have really gone to **** over the years. Parts of Hollis and even Saint Albans are not the greatest. Also the areas around the PJ's like Queensbridge.

Staten Island

Pockets on the north shore usually around NYCHA property and section 8 buildings.

Pound for pound these are the worst sections of the city for crime. On the other hand. Much of Queens, Manhattan, and Staten Island ain't areas where crime is a huge concern. For Brooklyn, most of the borough is average in terms of crime minus the high crime areas mentioned. In the Bronx, a good chunk of the borough has serious problems with crime, however there are decent areas in the far east and far northwest. So these days overall, the city has less high crime areas then it had in the 70's, 80's and 90's. Not too long ago even Times Square was a dump. Of course that neighborhood had prime location and was gentrified over time. As for these current high crime hoods, I only expect to see changes in a few neighborhoods.

[rlrl]

I had read that in the late 70's the corner of 147th street and 8th Avenue in Central Harlem was the most dangerous corner in the entire city, that one had the highest chances of getting hit by gunfire on that corner. In fact I remember the article named the area from 127th street to 159th street from the E River to St Nicholas Ave "Dodge City".

[rlrl]

Some may think this is too "retro" but I always remembered the block of 8th Avenue between 47th and 48th streets in midtown (today this includes the Engine Co 54 firehouse where many of our 9/11 hero firefighters worked) was a really squalid place. It was 1979, I was a teenager, somehow we ended up on 8th Avenue. The entire block was loaded with drunks, junkies, people nodding off on stoops and transv. hustlers. The stares these characters gave us made us flee off the avenue. I will never forget that. And today the same block is totally different. You'd never know what went on all those years ago.

There are many nice blocks in the city. In the Bronx, in Van Cortlandt Village, Gouverneur Avenue between Van Cortlandt Park S and Sedgwick Ave is really nice.

But then go a few blocks east to W Gun Hill rd (Gates/Knox Pl) and it totally changes

[Elvira Black]

I think my scariest experience by far was when I dragged my b/f to Far Rockaway. A family friend had a bungalow somewhere out there back in the day and I had this vague idyllic memory of it. Must have gotten off at the wrong stop (if there was a better one) and the streets were really scary, and I felt very scared on the train the closer we got. When we got to the water, it was totally deserted and teeming with garbage.

Best block--that's a tough one. Brooklyn Heights near the promenade has some of the most gorgeous buildings/houses I've ever laid eyes on.

[NooYowkur81]

I don't know about worst. But for ugly I would vote Jerome Avenue in the Bronx. No trees, the el, rusty buildings, ugly, ugly, ugly.

[rlrl]

Sometimes I think SW Yonkers looks worse than the worst of the boros

[SeventhFloor]

wow....far rockaway can be intimidating for people unfamiliar to the area, i live out there.

worst block i've ever walked on.....i'm really not nervous to walk anywhere anymore so i'll probably have to go back to high school....matter of face junior high....the only place i can actually remember being nervous was in edgemere....thats prolly the worst projects in nyc, definitely top 3. and thats in far rockaway. stray dogs in the hallway, baseheads in the hallway, and back in the day edgemere had these terraces on each floor with bars on it looked like jail. not to mention like 10 guys standing outside the building. but this was like '92, '93. edgemere's still bad, but not as wild as it used 2 be.

[SuperMario]

Originally Posted by NooYowkur81

I don't know about worst. But for ugly I would vote Jerome Avenue in the Bronx. No trees, the el, rusty buildings, ugly, ugly, ugly.

Agreed!

Well atleast they renovated the train stations.

[jflores]

New Lots Avenue in East New York Brooklyn after 10 PM, Fulton Street is just as bad, and dont forget Linden BLVD on the public housing side.