Pssst...Have You Heard About Bushwick?
Newsflash: Bushwick is hot, hot hot! “Next-neighborhood development has now reached a pivotal juncture in Bushwick. The area still won’t be mistaken for the Upper West Side or even Williamsburg. There is no giant luxury supermarket; there are no dry cleaners in the warehouse district, and not many anyplace else. Crime is still bad, or…
Newsflash: Bushwick is hot, hot hot!
“Next-neighborhood development has now reached a pivotal juncture in Bushwick. The area still won’t be mistaken for the Upper West Side or even Williamsburg. There is no giant luxury supermarket; there are no dry cleaners in the warehouse district, and not many anyplace else. Crime is still bad, or really bad (the rates of violent crime are still among the highest in the city) — last year, the local precinct reported 15 murders, 40 rapes, 467 robberies and 399 felonious assaults. And while there may not be as many cars burning in the warehouse district as there used to be, the streets still feel desolate. But Bushwick is now definitely in the next stage. In May 2004, the neighborhood got its first video store-cafe, the Archive. Northeast Kingdom, the latest artist-affiliated restaurant, opened in October 2005, started by two Vermont natives currently living in Williamsburg proper. In the past year, luxury condos started showing up for $400,000. And there is even a festival — a festival that uses an acronym, acronyms seeming to be the linchpin of the real-estate business.”
Last we checked, Bushwick was ahead in the NYT poll for “next cool neighborhood” through Bed Stuy was running a close second.
Have You Heard About Bushwick [NY Times]
Developers bought up factory and warehouse buildings in this area about 10 years ago, predicting the rising popularity of industrial areas as converted residences. They enticed artists with ‘2 months free rent’ etc… to move into raw spaces and build them out, and apply for C of Os. Then, about a year and a half ago, they essentially invented what is essentially a prefab “community”, opening a few essential businesses in one building (cafe, bar, healthfood store) to satisfy the incoming target clientele and ignite a full-blown conversion.
A similar formula worked in Dumbo.
Its swiss-clock precision is fascinating to watch.
I thought Philadelphia was the next new thing.
I am glad my hood is getting some proper recognition….walking up Bushwick Ave. every day to the Montrose L stop you can see alot of new buildings going up and storefronts in various states of construction….this Summer should be interesting to say the least. I am very glad to have found my pad back in 2003.
nope Bushwick is!
I thought LIC was the next new thing.
I think I’ve written this article in my head a couple of times, and I agree with it with a few caveats, most of which have been covered here’s one more:
It has that classic cliche of featuring the ‘pioneering artists’ and their horror stories of the ‘good old bad old days’, while 90% of the people they actually interview arrived after the truly bad old days were over. Feral dogs, prostitutes, crack for sex – in 1990 I had a friend who lived on 11th St. between A & B (they shot “The Super”* on his block) and he had all those problems too! Everyone had those problems! It doesn’t make you special! You used to have to tolerate so much more to live in New York, it’s hard to believe how easy we have it these days (I’m not complaining). Also, a lot of the focus is on the blocks around the L train, and as the article notes, from Jefferson station on to Halsey, you are really on the border of Bushwick & Ridgewood. Ridgewood is much nicer than the heart of Bushwick along Knickerbocker Ave, IMHO.
After getting out of Grand Jury duty this morning, I decided to take the long way home from downtown Brooklyn, taking the A out to Broadway Junction (my favorite subway stop) then the L from there. On a whim I got out at Montrose (I know, not the heart of Bushwick) and walked around (partly to see the Montrose Flats condos** and I gotta say, I was actually impressed. there are a ton of condos / new construction going up, there was this hipster cafe on Montrose, people walking around. The atmosphere was nice, not oppressively cool like Bedford Ave. Farther out the Myrtle Wyckoff subway stop is getting a big make over. I could almost see buying a place and sticking it out for the long term.
*http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103007/
**http://www.montroseflats.com/ (click on the realtors names for a list of units)
Its weird, the Times was so late to the game on covering the gentrification of so many neighborhoods, and in recent months they have been jumping the real estate shark with abandon. First SoBro and now Bushwick.
Have we given up on the South Bronx – I mean “SoBro” – already? I thought that was the next new thing
When I began reading the article, I told myself that somewhere there would be a statement by an artist lamenting the displacement of creative types while taking a swipe against Wall Street. I was not disappointed.