Enh, some of the more rough neighborhoods in NYC are still far better than a lot of the favelas in Rio. You don't have to go to Rocinha or Vidigal or Vila Cruzeiro to say 'I visited Rio', just like you don't have to say 'I went to Brownsville NYC' there are so many other places too to give you an authentic Rio experience.
(Edit: also my use of 'communities' may have been a bit misleading, that was a direct translation of the portuguese 'comunidade' which refers to a bunch of them)