Spring Valley, in Upper Northwest DC, consistently ranks as the city's safest neighborhood, with a crime index score of 8 out of 100 (lower is safer) and a median household income above $260,000. Close runners-up include Barnaby Woods, Woodley Park, the Palisades, and Friendship Heights/Tenleytown.
In brief
Spring Valley, in Upper Northwest DC, is the city's safest neighborhood by most measures, a crime index score of 8 out of 100 (where lower means safer) and a median household income above $260,000. Barnaby Woods, Woodley Park, the Palisades/Wesley Heights area, and Friendship Heights/Tenleytown round out the top five on nearly every ranking that uses 2024 FBI data.
The short answer: Upper Northwest, and specifically Spring Valley
No single data set settles this question forever, but the 2024 numbers point in one direction. Based on current crime data, the safest neighborhoods in Washington are Spring Valley, Georgetown University, the Palisades/Wesley Heights/Foxhall corridor, and Woodley Park. Spring Valley sits at the top of that list on multiple platforms. It carries a crime index of just 8, with a median household income of $260,451.
Spring Valley sits in the Northwest quadrant close to the Maryland line, and 2024 data shows violent crime at around three incidents per 1,000 residents annually, one of the lowest figures reported across the District. For context, the citywide violent crime rate runs closer to 10 per 1,000. Occasional property crimes can occur, especially during home renovations when equipment is left outside, but overall property crime rates stand roughly 20% below the city's average.
The neighborhood is bounded by Nebraska Avenue and Loughboro Road to the south, Dalecarlia Parkway to the west, and Massachusetts Avenue to the northeast, where Dalecarlia and Mass. Ave. converge at Westmoreland Circle on the Maryland border. Landmarks include the main campus of American University and Wesley Theological Seminary, at 4400 and 4500 Massachusetts Ave. NW respectively.
The rest of the top tier
NeighborhoodScout's 2024 rankings list the Catholic University of America, Georgetown University, Barnaby Woods/Hawthorne, American University, Wesley Heights, and Potomac Heights/The Palisades as additional safe zones, all drawing on FBI data released in October 2025.
Barnaby Woods, near the Maryland border in Upper Northwest, averaged about two violent incidents per 1,000 residents in 2024, well under the District-wide figure. Property crimes such as burglary or vandalism are similarly low, at roughly six incidents per 1,000, a reflection of limited through-traffic.
Cleveland Park and Woodley Park are two more Ward 3 options that routinely show up in safety rankings. Cleveland Park's crime rate runs 33% lower than the national average, with violent crimes 68% below and property crimes 26% below national figures. Woodley Park's total crime rate is 7% lower than the national average, with violent crimes 50% lower, making it safer than 79% of other DC neighborhoods.
Many residents point to Northwest DC as the safest quadrant overall, with fewer than three violent crimes per 1,000 residents annually. Apart from college areas, you'll find most of the safest DC neighborhoods in the northwest, near Bethesda.
The broader trend: DC crime is at a multi-decade low
Context matters here. MPD data shows a historic 35% drop in violent crime in 2024, including a 32% drop in homicides and a 39% decrease in robberies, driving crime to its lowest level in more than two decades. Violent crime in Washington was lower in 2024 than in any year with available data going back to 2010, and it was down in all eight wards compared to 2023.
From 2024 to 2025, the rate of violent crime in DC reached a 30-year low, according to data from the United States Attorney's office.
Where crime is still concentrated
The gains are real, but uneven. Wards 7 and 8 lead in violent crimes, with higher-crime areas including Anacostia, Congress Heights, Benning Heights, Ivy City, and Deanwood. Deanwood tops the list of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Washington according to AreaVibes, with a violent crime rate of 2,637 per 100,000 people.
Property crimes, including theft from auto and porch piracy, continue to surface in high-traffic zones and around Metro stations, where daily commuter volume is highest. Even in safe neighborhoods, leaving bags visible in a parked car is a common trigger for break-ins.
How to check crime data yourself
The DC Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) created Crime Cards, a free tool at crimecards.dc.gov. It's an interactive public crime mapping application providing easy-to-understand data visualizations of crime locations, types, and trends across all eight wards. Users can search the last eight years of data by Police Service Area, police district, geographical area, crime category or type, and date. That's the most current, granular, and DC-specific source available, more reliable for block-level research than any third-party ranking.
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CAN I KICK IT? screens New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument, on Aug. 22. (Courtesy SHAOLIN JAZZ)
The live-cinema series CAN I KICK IT? returns to the National Mall this month with what its producers are calling the "Gangsters on the Mall" chapter of their free outdoor summer run. On Saturday, August 22, the SHAOLIN JAZZ production brings the 1991 crime classic New Jack City to the Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument for a night of film, music, and community under the DC summer sky.
What sets the event apart is the sound. As the film plays, DJ 2-Tone Jones builds an original score in real time, reimagining one of the most iconic crime movies of the ’90s through hip-hop, soul, funk, and more. It is less a movie screening than a live performance built around the film.
The details:
Film: New Jack City (1991), with a live soundtrack by DJ 2-Tone Jones
When: Saturday, August 22 — seating opens at 7:30 p.m. (bring lawn chairs and blankets); film begins at 8:30 p.m.
Where: Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument, Independence Ave SW & 15th St NW
A parking note from the organizers: expect road closures and restricted parking east of 14th Street NW due to a separate race event in the District. Roads west of 14th Street NW will be accessible and available for parking.
New Jack City is the second of three screenings in this year’s free CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series, which opened with Black Panther at Skyland Town Center and concludes with Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial on September 5. Produced by the Washington, DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, the series has presented more than 150 live cinematic experiences at venues across the country, from Lincoln Center to SXSW.
"I wanted to be able to tell good stories with substance and remove the ‘ego’ out of the art," said Andrew Huang during a recent interview. Now, he’s building his career at the intersection of discipline, creativity and innovation.
Andrew Huang, founder of New Place Studios. (Courtesy photo)
As a Chinese American, Huang was reared with a deep respect for hard work, consistency and excellence. He describes his childhood as "not so affluent" and later attended college to hone his passion for videography. "In college I tried to do something I loved, which was video, but along the way I knew that I had to find a job. And so I thought, ‘what was the low hanging fruit to get to that stable 9 to 5 job?,’" he stated.
Later in life, Huang found himself working for corporations where his creativity was often limited, eventually leading to burnout. "I worked in a corporation for a long time and there were a lot of missing pieces. I wanted to fill in gaps missing in corporate video production," said Huang.
He later described how his upbringing and a mindset of "survival" led him toward a corporate career. However, his desire for balance and authentic storytelling ultimately pushed him to take the entrepreneurial leap.
"I founded a new place where you can create video and film with ‘substance and style,’" said Huang. His desire for work-life balance and passion for storytelling naturally evolved into a small business based in Virginia. With the launch of New Place Studios, the entrepreneur quickly found himself reconnecting with the values that would become the foundation of everything he creates behind the camera.
Huang said being a business owner has allowed him to first embrace himself. While others may see video as simply capturing moments, he sees it as a way to preserve stories that inspire, connect and leave a lasting imprint.
By combining cinematic visuals with cutting-edge production techniques and a keen understanding of branding, Huang helps organizations and individuals communicate their vision with purpose. He said understanding a client’s "why" serves as the compass for delivering the services they need.
One benefit of working with a small business, he said, is that clients get to see the production process unfold through a micro lens while working with the same faces throughout the entire project. "The work feels personal," said Huang.
Huang does not regret leaving behind the flash-over-substance mentality and corporate hustle culture. That does not mean the Asian American entrepreneur has been without challenges in the industry. "It’s relatively hard to find other Asian American creatives or people who would want to work with me in the DMV," said Huang.
He identifies the industry culture in which everyone is trying to blend in, creatives may fear displaying their Asian identity and some feel pressure to adopt an American corporate persona. He also points to what he describes as a level of gatekeeping within the industry. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2024 statistics, Asian American and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs own more than 3 million businesses and employ 5.2 million people in the United States.
After tapping into organizations such as SCORE, which offers free small business mentorship, New Place Studios has become a trusted creative partner throughout the DMV (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia). The company produces a range of creative services, including commercials, corporate branding, documentaries, film, 2D animation, motion graphics and photography.
For Huang, entrepreneurship has become more than a departure from corporate life. It has given him the freedom to create with intention, build meaningful connections and tell stories that go beyond the surface.
The 2026 CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
For three Saturdays this summer, some of Washington’s most familiar public spaces will do something they rarely do after dark: fill up with blankets, lawn chairs, and the sound of a movie being scored live, in real time. CAN I KICK IT?, the traveling “live cinema” series produced by the DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, is bringing a free outdoor run to the city — pairing three era-defining films with an original soundtrack performed on the spot by DJ 2-Tone Jones.
The premise is what sets it apart from a normal screening in the park. Rather than simply pressing play, 2-Tone Jones builds a score as the film unfolds, pulling from hip-hop, soul, funk, jazz, rock, electronic music, and sounds from around the world. The result, the organizers say, is less a movie night than a one-time performance — the same film you know, wired to a soundtrack you have never heard and will not hear again. Guest DJs warm up the crowd starting at 7:30 PM before each 8:30 PM screening.
The 2026 outdoor schedule
All three events are free and open to the public.
Saturday, August 8 — Black Panther at Skyland Town Center. A pop-up marketplace and community activities kick off the evening; guest DJs at 7:30 PM, film at 8:30 PM. Marvel’s superhero epic gets a one-night-only live score in Southeast DC.
Saturday, August 22 — New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument. Seating begins at 7:30 PM; the film starts at 8:30 PM. The 1991 crime drama plays out at the foot of one of the country’s most recognizable landmarks.
Saturday, September 5 — Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial. Seating at 7:30 PM; film at 8:30 PM. The series closes with Brian De Palma’s crime saga against the backdrop of the Memorial, scored live from start to finish.
First up: Black Panther at Skyland Town Center on August 8. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
A DC company with a national footprint
SHAOLIN JAZZ describes itself as a Washington-based arts company working at the intersection of music, film, art, and culture, and CAN I KICK IT? is its signature production. According to the organizers, the series has staged more than 150 live cinematic experiences around the country — at performing arts centers, museums, festivals, and cultural institutions including Lincoln Center in New York, SXSW, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Republic Square in Austin, the Tacoma Armory, and The Cary Theater.
“CAN I KICK IT? has always been about creating a shared experience,” said Gerald Watson, co-founder of SHAOLIN JAZZ. “When you combine iconic films with live music in public spaces, something special happens. People aren’t just watching a movie — they’re experiencing it together. That’s what makes these nights so memorable.”
Cinema as a community event
The DC run lands as cities across the country look for new ways to activate public space through arts and culture — and this series is a straightforward pitch for how to do it: take a landmark everyone already knows, add a film everyone has an opinion about, and let a live soundtrack turn the evening into something neighbors experience shoulder to shoulder. Families, film buffs, and music fans are all invited, and admission won’t cost a thing.
The CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series runs August 8, August 22, and September 5. All events are free; check SHAOLIN JAZZ (shaolinjazz.com) for the latest details and any weather updates before heading out.
