Is it reasonably safe for a single woman in Washington Heights, NY?

I've lived in the neighborhood for almost twenty years and it depends on the block and building. A co-worker who visited her sister in one of the sketchy sections was chased by a group of men. Just the other day I passed a sidewalk memorial with hundreds of candles in memory of a young man who was gunned down at 9pm a few blocks from a busy street. But honestly, there seems to be an uptick in murders and petty crimes in the last year. Check out the statistics on the 34th Police Precinct online to see how crime has risen since last year. Also, packages continue to be stolen from inside buildings at alarming rates, however, the police say these are low level crimes so not much is being done to stop it.

I (a 22 at the time year old single woman) moved to Washington Heights (176th and St, Nicholas, then 170th and Amsterdam) in 2008-2010 and while I felt safe, I wasn't exactly happy walking around on the streets there. It's not crime-ridden or anything, and I never got threatened, but I could not step foot outside my door without the lovely cat-calling, both in English and Spanish. And not nice things - there were some very, VERY disgusting things said. I moved to Bushwick once I could FINALLY afford a security deposit, and nothing like that was ever said. Washington Heights is known (from what I've heard) as harassment zone.

Anyway, she may be on a different subway stop, or closer to Inwood, and she won't get as much of that. If she's on 168th on the A/C, near the hospital, she's in a nice place. If it it has changed, great. But don't move east of St. Nicholas, stay the heck west. And don't move near Highbridge Park.

Sorry if I've freaked you out or anything, but she might as well expect it if she's not there yet. She'll be safe, just annoyed.