Bushwick Goes National
Like Williamsburg before it, the Bushwick brand is spreading beyond New York City’s borders. This weekend, The Philadelphia Inquirer brought news of the gritty but increasingly arty nabe to its readers in the City of Brotherly Love. “Over the last few years, the two-square-mile Brooklyn neighborhood has been attracting visionaries outpriced by neighboring Williamsburg or…
Like Williamsburg before it, the Bushwick brand is spreading beyond New York City’s borders. This weekend, The Philadelphia Inquirer brought news of the gritty but increasingly arty nabe to its readers in the City of Brotherly Love. “Over the last few years, the two-square-mile Brooklyn neighborhood has been attracting visionaries outpriced by neighboring Williamsburg or disillusioned by Chelsea’s artiste scene,” writes the paper. “Studios, galleries and spaces that defy categorization are appearing in former bodegas, 99-cent stores, and other unglamorous structures.” The ‘Wick manages to maintain its street cred with a killer quotation from Laura Braslow of non-profit Arts in Bushwick: “The Bushwick art scene is not about sipping wine and looking at white walls,” she said. A few of the recommended galleries include English Kills, Ad Hoc and Factory Fresh.
Art Grows in Bushwick [Philadelphia Inquirer]
bushwick is where poor people move who can’t afford manhattan and some parts of brooklyn anymore. seriously, it’s nothing more than that. it’s a ghetto. dont most people want to move OUT of the ghetto? plus people who think they are edgey in 2009 nyc are just totally beyond lame. who the hell really wants to see some self-absorbed performance art piece by a Madison and McKenzie from bumblef*ck louisiana? i sure dont. they have nothing relevant to add to nyc.
*r*
Mopar;
You are right – Mexicans don’t go in for car service. Pierre was just engaging in some patronizing politically-correct BS. Hey, don’t you know that his best friends are latinos? Please.
“Don’t believe me? Go to Philadelphia. Tell someone you’re from New York. Watch them blink once, look away, and change the subject.”
So interesting! I’ve been to Philly maybe 20-30 times over the past 5 years as a really great friend was living there up until recently (she’s from here though). I really got to know the city a bit and came to really enjoy center city.
The one thing my friend and I always commented on though was that whenever we went out, all we had to do was say New York and we had 10 new best friends. It happened every single time. The people we met gave us so much attention simply because of our NYC connection, we always considered it strange, if not endearing.
You would have thought we were freakin celebrities the way some of them acted around us. Very nice people though. Nothing but good vibes for Center City, although things seem to be getting a little more depressed there lately and crime seems to have spiked. My friend is back in NYC, so I haven’t gone down in the past 6 months, but I’m looking forward to a weekend trip soon.
I have *never* had a Mexican cab driver. Never. Maybe one guy once who might have been second-generation Puerto Rican. Most of the drivers I get are Indian or Arab/Muslim/Pakistani/Egyptian. Now why is that?
The Puerto Rican guy said the Mexicans are great tippers. Three or four will share a cab home from work late at night.
cw, Bainbridge is quite a nice street, but FYI, between Ralph and Patchen is a public housing project. But the house is also just a block from Stuyvesant Heights, right Dave?
yes pierre…..wonderful families
MM this is where we cannot disagree more with you:
“To have a gallery in Chinatown and not mention the area’s rich ethnic history is to deny its importance, in my opinion” Deny its importance?? Even when the crux of the discussion is about art and the gallery? Sorry MM but we will not draw such an inference (completely out of thin air)but hey people have different life experiences on which we all base our understanding and interactions. Like we stated earlier wish all humanity was one race / color…dommage!
Now since everyone is talking about it good old pdt will also chime in and say we are a 1st generation immigrant who came here with zilch, nada, zip, except for hope and courage….Ah that audacity! We understand and deeply appreciate the contribution of Latinos and Mexicans to this society and are quite sure the economy of this country will collapse to disrepair if it weren’t for illegal aliens especially Latino aliens. The overwhelming majority of Americans are NOT willing to do any of the jobs these hardworking and polite Latinos do so that right-wing political satire of illegals taking American jobs is NOT entirely true.
Winelover who do you think washes your plates in restaurants, plant & pick your fruits and vegetables in California, drive cabs in Brooklyn, perform cheap construction labor, clean your hospitals, and all with grace and politeness? We must be thanking these people and don’t think for one second these folks don’t pay taxes…
DIBS we also have Mexican and other Latino “illegal alien” friends…nicest people you ever met.
“No doubt about it, for all its gloss, the city’s civic life has coarsened, especially for children.”
NOP;
I’ll have to strongly disagree with you on that one. I think I’m a bit younger than you – I grew up in NYC in the 60’s and 70’s. My memories are of dilapidated parks that were not fit for kids’ play, of ethnic tensions so thick you could cut them with a knife and just a general feeling that things were not well. I’m sure that the old days had their merits, but I’ll take present day NYC any day of the week.
DaveinBedStuy:
As we’d say in our cups around the Chapter Room, that’s deep.
Most of us never got in any real danger — until we moved to Cambridge for graduate school where:
A girlfriend was sexually assaulted.
Most of our apartments were burglarized (sometimes while we slept).
And some punks tried to set me on fire on the “T”!
We’d learned to read the danger signals in New York, but Boston/Cambridge was another world.
An unexpected menace: Raging, working-class Irish American kids from Southie, looking to roll any student they could.
NOP
NOP….If I moved to NYC after I got out of business school in 1980 I’d be dead now. Serious.