W 161 Street, Manhattan: Grade C · 311, HPD & Crash Data
Grade C, 41 out of 100. How does W 161 Street in Manhattan rank for traffic safety, noise, and cleanliness?
Livability score
Grade C, livability 41 out of 100.
Calm 20, ranked against numbered streets. Access 81, ranked against every street in the city. More complaints per home than most numbered streets, but a lot within a walk.
That puts W 161 Street in the bottom 21% of scored streets citywide.
Strongest on infrastructure (86) and transit (87). Quietness (2) is the weak spot.
On the record
More 311 reports on West 161 Street name illegal parking than any other category, 542 of them. Across every category, 1,601 reports sit on this street's 311 file, and 34% of them name illegal parking. After that the file runs to street/sidewalk noise (526 reports) and heat and hot water (126). Reports on West 161 Street span 58 distinct 311 categories. About 243 reports per 100 homes sit on West 161 Street, counting every category.
Inspectors have written 193 Class C violations on West 161 Street, the tier the city treats as an immediate health or safety risk, about 29 per 100 homes on file. Pests is what HPD writes up most on West 161 Street, 113 violations of it. Paint and lead follows at 109 violations, then plumbing at 60. PLUTO counts 37 residential buildings and 658 homes on West 161 Street, with 21 walk-ups and 9 elevator buildings among them. That averages about 18 homes to a building.
NYPD records 22 people injured in crashes on West 161 Street since 2021.
Among numbered streets, West 161 Street ranks 33 on traffic safety and 6 on housing. A 6 on housing places West 161 Street in the weakest quarter of numbered streets. Measured against numbered streets, cleanliness sits at 7 and parking at 6. Against every street in the city, West 161 Street ranks 87 on food nearby and 57 on tree cover. Of the three measures ranked citywide, transit is the strongest on West 161 Street, at 87. About 990 numbered streets make up the band West 161 Street is scored inside.
Infrastructure is the strongest of the measures ranked inside the band, at 86.
The housing file puts 71% of the 658 homes on West 161 Street in rent stabilization, 466 homes in all.
Scores are built from 311 complaints, HPD violations, NYPD crash records, NYPD felony complaint records, MTA stop locations, DOHMH food permits, and the street tree census, divided by the homes and businesses on the street, updated weekly. Read the scoring method or the data sources.
Nearest streets in Manhattan
- W 162 Street, Manhattan
- W 159 Street, Manhattan
- W 157 Street, Manhattan
- Sylvan Ter, Manhattan
- W 158 Street, Manhattan
- Riverside Drive, Manhattan
W 161 Street runs through Washington Heights, where every scored street in the neighborhood is ranked beside it.
Every scored street in Manhattan, the citywide rankings of all 5,700+ graded streets, or Manhattan vs Brooklyn: How the Two Boroughs Score (2026 Data).