The NYC Neighborhood Where Cars Are At Most Risk Of Break-Ins

NEW YORK, NY — Parking on the street in New York City comes with risks, but the neighborhoods getting most break-ins might surprise you.

A new study by the parking app SpotAngels combined NYPD data on reported break-ins and its own database of street parking spots to see the areas with the most and least break-ins per parking space.

Brooklyn saw 6,264 reported break-ins last year, the most of the five boroughs. The riskiest neighborhood was Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, which saw 130 break-ins – or 2.2 for every 100 parking spots.

The middle-class Central Brooklyn neighborhood placed above second-ranked East New York and third-ranked Cypress Hills, where the median income is about $10,000 and $8,000 lower respectively, according to U.S. Census data. East New York saw 667 break-ins but ostensibly has more parking spaces, meaning the ratio of crimes to spots is lower than in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens.

Similarly, trendy and affluent Williamsburg was No. 6 among Brooklyn neighborhoods, meaning break-ins are more likely there than in Bedford-Stuyvesant (No. 7), Crown Heights (No. 9) and Brownsville (No. 11). Up-and-coming Long Island City ranked third in Queens.

That pattern isn't unusual, despite the perception that wealthier neighborhoods might have less crime, SpotAngels CEO Aboud Jardaneh said.

"Some neighborhoods that we think are safe because of maybe higher rent, or (where) people don’t talk about the risks, usually rank worse than other neighborhoods that we think are not safe," Jardaneh said.

East New York, though, was home to the city's worst block for break-ins. One section of Gateway Drive saw 34 cars ransacked last year, 5.1 percent of the neighborhood's total, SpotAngels found.

The Bronx saw almost as many break-ins as Brooklyn last year — 6,194 — despite having nearly half Brooklyn's population, SpotAngels found. The ratio of break-ins to parking spaces there is about three times Brooklyn's rate, the study says.

Van Cortlandt Park, a vast green space bordered by the well-off neighborhoods of Riverdale, Woodlawn Heights and Kingsbridge, saw 12.6 break-ins for every 100 parking spots last year, making it the Bronx's worst area. The working-class Concourse neighborhood ranked second, with 7.4 break-ins per 100 parking spots.

Parking near parks proved particularly risky places because they saw a fair number of break-ins despite having few parking spots, SpotAngels found. Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens topped that borough's list with 3.3 break-ins per 100 spots. Central Park ranked No. 2 in Manhattan with 2.2, just below East Harlem's 2.1.

Staten Island could be the city's safest spot for parked cars, figures show. Some 984 break-ins were reported there last year, the least of any borough. Queens saw 5,020 and Manhattan saw 2,370.

Despite these numbers, you're better off parking anywhere in New York City than in San Francisco, where there's an "epidemic" of car break-ins, Jardaneh said. The number of break-ins in the five boroughs has dropped nearly 16 percent from 2012, when there were 24,777 reported citywide, through last year, according to NYPD figures obtained by SpotAngels.

Protecting your car comes down to common sense, Jardeneh said: "Don’t leave your valuables visible within your car, and if you have anything valuable, take it out to avoid leaving a risk."

Click here to read SpotAngels' review and see how likely a break-in is in your neighborhood.

(Lead image: A police car sits near Times Square in May 2010. Photo by Yana Paskova/Getty Images)