It's official: Brownsville is the murder capital of New York. The hardscrabble Brooklyn neighborhood, with the unofficial motto "Never ran, never will," that's wedged between Prospect Heights & Crown Heights and East Flatbush is also at the bottom of the barrel for robberies and shootings. Once home to Jewish immigrants (Larry King grew up here), Brownsville took a turn for the worse in the 1960s, and the neighborhood's relative isolation and lack of parks and quality housing has left the deck stacked against it.

With bullets flying faster than anywhere else in the city, the 73rd Precinct recorded 28 murders in 2010, a 33 percent increase from 2009, for 3 killings per 10,000 residents, placing it dead last among the 69 neighborhoods for that category in DNAinfo.com's Crime & Safety Report, which ranks neighborhoods based on per capita crime. Brownsville also had 10 shootings incidents per 10,000 residents, far outpacing even other crime-plagued neighborhoods.

Despite these setbacks, things have improved over time in the neighborhood where boxer Mike Tyson grew up dodging bullets and honing his street-fighting skills on Amboy Street. From 1993 to 2010, murders dropped 62 percent, robberies 78 percent and car thefts 79 percent, leading the way to an overall reduction in major crimes by 67 percent.