I beg to differ. During pre-dawn hours, one of the Mt. Sinai personnel wanted security to open the door after he’d been hit (shot), and the guard actually gave him a hard time about it. (This was in the late ‘70’s. It was a crappy neighborhood then. I don’t know what it’s like now, but it doesn’t sound good from this story.)
Compared to the rest of nyc, it's a island of calm. If the 'crime stats' are accurate.