That's like asking who makes the best pizza. Only a non-New Yorker would ask that question. There are too many good pizza joints and too many tough neighborhoods . But I don't think the neighborhoods are as tough as they were a generation or two ago. That's probably true for the entire country, not just New York. The city has become Yuppified, so it's become softer. I think that's true of most big cities today.

I like Rodney Dangerfield's answer the best:

"The football team at my high school, they were tough. After they sacked the quarterback, they went after his family."