Is Ridgewood the Next Bushwick?

Here’s a thought-provoking nugget from a recent blog post on Hyperallergic:

Some people say that Ridgewood will inevitably be the next destination of the emerging (and starving) artistic community, after organic grocers replace bodegas and people sitting at tables and chairs on the sidewalks are more likely to be having brunch than playing dominos. Others say that Ridgewood will never be the new Bushwick, because there aren’t enough industrial buildings suitable for conversion into artist studios and the streets are too loud to be adopted by the solitude seeking creative community.

It seems to us that Bushwick still has a ways to go before all the existing warehouse and loft space has been used up by artists and foodies. Then again, the fact that Chelsea mainstay Luhring Augustine has announced plans to set up shop in the ‘wick does suggest that the days of affordable rents and DIY abandon in the nabe (or at least within walking distance of the Morgan stop on the L train) may be numbered. (The gallery shelled out $2,050,000 last November for the 10,000-square-foot building, which it plans to use for “project and storage space.”)