Bushwick Goes National

Oh blahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblah.

This much is true:

*The loft area is Bushwick, not East Williamsburg.

*The artsy hipster scene is mostly happening in the loft area, not the residential part.

*The neighborhood is mostly hispanic, not black.

*Right now this minute there is a very nice balance between the various groups, and they occupy different types of housing, and no one is being pushed out.

A few caveats: Most of the art is not very good but there is a great deal of performance, music, and interesting events going on all the time. If you want to see what the neighborhood offers, go during Open Studios and make a point of seeing anything curated by Maggie Pounds. She is really good.

Yes, there are definitely hispanic and black arty hipsters, but most are white. Many of these “hipsters” are recent college grads looking for cheap housing. Many are political activists. They crowd horrible substandard and illegal housing for $800 each. They are mostly not competing with the other major group of the area for housing, the recent Mexican immigrants, who tend to pay even more (less per bed but more per apartment) to double up and triple up on rooms rented individually by Spanish speaking landlords. The Spanish speakers are not interested in lofts; the arty grads are mostly only interested in lofts.

All of that said, rents have been rising in the area, particularly around the L Jefferson stop where the lofts converge with traditional housing (two-, three-, and six-families). For example, a three or four-room railroad apt used to rent for $1200 and now it runs $1400 to $1600. Usually the immigrant families make do by living with a third adult, usually a sister, and sharing three jobs and child care responsibilities. Single people tend to rent a room directly from a landlord. They pay very little individually but the rent roll is high — higher than it would be if the building were being used legally. These are always advertised in Spanish on paper fliers. The two populations don’t really interact — the landlords often don’t speak English and don’t know about Craigslist.

I sometimes see places like this for sale and wonder what will become of the tenants. There is one now for sale on Stanhope where a Vietnam vet could be displaced from his $400 a month basement studio. There is another one for sale on Troutman where the tenants expressed to me worry they will have to leave, although the total rent roll on the building is higher than market rate. These are two- and three-family buildings that are not under rent control. They’re simply below market for now. Most of the tenants are in their 50s and are hispanic, some speak perfect English.

It’s not true that nobody cared about Bushwick until the media started writing about hipsters in lofts. Bushwick is very famous for staging its own comeback from the blackout and fires of the early 1970s and crack in the 80s and 90s with community based organizations such as Make the Road, the local credit union, community sponsored agriculture, activists such as Maria Hernandez, and political-machine politician Vito Lopez. I am a member of Make the Road, and I attended the vigil for José Sucuzhañay and I was thrilled to see so many different people from different walks of life, different colors, different sexual orientations, all coming together in a spirit of cooperation and similar purpose and values. I would say this is typical of Bushwick.

Wine lover may have just been hung over — perhaps too many cartons of the cheap stuff during the super bowl last night.

WOW…wine lover is a real psycho. Haven’t seen that much crap since the old faded type guest days.

THE HIPSTER MOVE
a checklist by FLATRATE

Moving to: [ ] williamsburg [ ] bushwick [ ] greenpoint [ ] fort greene

Reason for move: [ ] gentrification [ ] proximity to music venue [ ] writer’s block [ ] artistic differences

[ ] schedule a free moving consultation at your co-op/loft/art space

[ ] fold skinny jeans/ironic t-shirts/flannel into wardrobe boxes

[ ] separate Proust, Nietzsche and Freud collections in specialized book boxes

[ ] plan on spending your free time grooming ironic facial hair while the moving company does the rest

[ ] get a custom box for fixed gear bicycle

[ ] don’t pay hidden fees, explore hidden emotions

[ ] arrange for moving company’s IT setup to ensure speedy blogging in your new co-op/loft/art space

[ ] resolve daddy issues

Wine lover, your comments are so absolutely stupid that I won’t even deconstruct them further.

If you are looking for racism, try a mirror.