Most of NYC is very safe, if you don't feel safe at 3am you're living in the wrong place. Within a mile of where I live in Clinton/Midtown there's been 4 murders since 2006[1].
I also work right by the Empire State building and walk to work along 34th where the shooting happened and I don't worry. None of my co-workers do either. You can't let random infrequent events worry you.
I admit that some areas aren't great, for instance the Bronx or the part of Brooklyn bounded by Flatbush, Bushwick, and East New York. If living in an "edgy" or "up and coming" neighborhood isn't your thing, the majority of Manhattan below 110th is as safe as you can be, whatever time of day or night.
I'm not sure where this database is from, but I'm in Union Square. This database only lists one murder last year (I remember more than that, but I can't find them right now). But just from the last 2 months:
(Correcting self: police only killed the killer; but wounded 9 others)
> You can't let random infrequent events worry you.
That exactly WAS my point. Despite how scare the situation in Israel looks, it is just as safe and just as random as NYC.
> Most of NYC is very safe, if you don't feel safe at 3am you're living in the wrong place.
Boerum Hill is a place a lot people I know don't feel safe at night. Is union square (where I live) the wrong place? I see people arrested (handcuffs at all) after mugging / snatching / sexual assaults on a monthly basis on my 5 block walk to work. (That's in the daytime).
It's not that I feel unsafe in NYC. But compared to Tel-Aviv, crime in NYC is rampant.
I previously lived in Curry Hill for a few years, and I did go down to jog in the neighborhood at 3am. But chelsea/union square does not feel as safe.
I also work right by the Empire State building and walk to work along 34th where the shooting happened and I don't worry. None of my co-workers do either. You can't let random infrequent events worry you.
I admit that some areas aren't great, for instance the Bronx or the part of Brooklyn bounded by Flatbush, Bushwick, and East New York. If living in an "edgy" or "up and coming" neighborhood isn't your thing, the majority of Manhattan below 110th is as safe as you can be, whatever time of day or night.
[1] http://projects.nytimes.com/crime/homicides/map