Whether you call it East Harlem, Spanish Harlem or El Barrio, this neighborhood is a tightly knit community that is home to one of the city's largest concentrations of Hispanic residents. Over the years, it has struggled with just about every kind of measurable quality of life issue. But because it is adjacent to the Upper East Side and is one of the few Manhattan neighborhoods with relatively cheap rent, East Harlem has seen a wave of young professionals and artists relocating there in recent years, helping to rank the neighborhood 44th for per capita crime in DNAinfo.com's Crime & Safety Report out of 69 New York neighborhoods. The area placed eighth out of 17 in Manhattan.

Overall crime rates in East Harlem, covered by the 23rd and 25th Precincts, dropped by 70 percent from 1993 to 2010. The biggest improvements were in property crime, with car theft downs by 86 percent and burglaries by 81 percent. East Harlem ranks 24th safest for the latter crime category. Robberies and murders, down 74 percent and 72 percent, respectively, led the neighborhood's decline in violent crimes. Rapes, however, dropped by just 59 percent during the 17-year period, and grand larcenies fell by 50 percent. The trend continued but leveled off in 2010, with a 1 percent decline in total major crimes, to 1,777. Grand larceny fell 11 percent, to 482 in 2010, and burglaries dropped another 7 percent, to 199.

But the neighborhood's rough edge remains. In 2010, shootings increased by 72 percent in the combined precincts, from 43 to 74. Rape, too, remains a concern, up 34 percent from 2008 and 19 percent from 2009, to 43, making East Harlem the city's sixth least-safe area for this crime.