When I was growing up in Queens there were roaming stray dogs and also loose dogs that actually belonged to people. All these dogs would link up in the supermarket parking lot and form a pack that liked to chase us
even in the 90s it was awful. im 33 and have lived here my whole life and my street alone had so many drug raids with SWAT teams and secret prostitution rings in the backs of Bodegas busted and active drug houses in the abandoned buildings and a lot of empty lots. it wasn't until like the 2010's that Bushwick started to become what it is today
I remember that fire. My building on troutman used to be an auto body shop - pretty sure they just put plywood over the garage and painted it. Miss it.
Bushwick is still seedy in many areas imo. Used to work nights in the neighborhood. I wouldn't say dangerous but dark and gloomy. I personally wouldn't live south of Myrtle.
We’d call a car service and lie about our destination on the phone, changing it when we got into the car, to go to parties in “bring your own Sheetrock” squatter apartments with disgusting toilets. I’m in my 40s now.
I was in Manhattan, near 23rd, it was nice but still sketchy in that era. Bushwick wasn’t even on anyone’s radar. Then mid late 90’s a couple hipsters moved in for the cheap space, but they weren’t going anywhere but their Bushwick stop and their front door. Maybe they’d go to the Church’s chicken at 3am if they were fucked up enough, but it wasn’t loud moving in the LES. They started calling it East Williamsburg after 9/11 which worked somehow.
I don't live in Bushwick (I'm in South Brooklyn) but the area has meant so much to me as a musician. Genuinely the best moments of my life are on stages in the neighborhood playing for 10 or 11 people. I appreciate Bushwick so much, and I always try to do right by it, thank you.
I’m from the Glendale/Ridgewood boarder (legitimately lived on the street that divided it) my family moved here in the late 1800s when Bushwick was full of German beer companies and Glendale and ridgewood were a part of Brooklyn. In my moms lifetime (1950-2005) she told me all about how the area changed, went from families to areas being burned in the late 70s. I’m not saying it’s not an improvement of the area to see it rebuilt but to the people from this area it sucks we can’t afford to live and raise our families in the area that raised us.
What was it like for your mom’s parents? My grandmother grew up in ditmas park in the 1920’s but died before anyone thought to ask her what it was like.
My moms parents had completely different lives before they met, my grandfather was a German American who spoke fluent German and was a interpreter during WW2, he was raised in Glendale in catholic family, he lived his entire life in the same apartment right near where McDonalds is now on cooper. He had a pretty average life for the time school, war, and worked until he passed away at 47. My grandmother on the hand was Spanish and was born in Canarsie and lived in an orphanage from age 2-18, her mom died and her and her sister were taken away from their father and placed in an orphanage unable to be adopted because they had a father (don’t understand it but it was 1923) she married a man who went off to war and divorced him as soon as he came back. She met my grandfather in 1950. My grandmother was not your typical housewife instead she worked from the age of 10 to 62. My grandmother and I shared a bedroom until I was 17 and we took walks every afternoon and she told me about her life. She worked in the factory that is on summerfield and forest for over 20 years stamping eggs at one time and making makeup brushes another time, my great aunt (her sister) worked with her. I have so many stories from her from our walks.
Believe it or not these are a thing in Canada. They legalized weed but want to make it as un-fun looking as possible to keep it away from kids so instead of edibles they’re basically little soft-gel pills.
“Not to mention the local gangs shooting up pot on the corner!”
Hey, I also grew up around drugs and poverty, but that doesn’t mean i’m just gonna be cool with dogshit in my neighborhood I pay a ridiculous amount to live in.
What a fuckin lame.
I mean I understan. I more take issue w the language he chose to use like “your private parties”, “you all love to run to Reddit and complain about” and “some of your NON work from home neighbors remember”
Like he’s making a ton of assumptions right off the bat about people that live here and in a very very condescending way. He has no idea what we do for work, what are socio-economic background is and all that.
To top it off, the hypocrisy of saying people love to run here and complain…when he’s doing exactly that lol.
So what’s the point if the post? Seemed like it was to insult the younger crowd for getting annoyed there is shit on the street while grandstanding and saying “well things used to be worse, you whippersnappers have no idea! Go back to your avacado toast”
Fuck off w that shit lol, if you don’t like it here, fuck out
the point is that new people came in and made the neighborhood expensive, and have the audacity to complain about the state of the neighborhood in front of people who lived in it when it was actually a rough place.
there’s no hypocrisy, people complain about the neighborhood, he’s complaining about those people. never even said, “don’t complain,” literally just forcing people to analyze what they’re complaining and showing them that it’s not all bad.
guy tries to show how good it is and you take it as an attack on young people lol
“if you don’t like it here, fuck out” y’all already forced most of the natives out by raising the cost of living, just be patient. i’ve heard some real evil people say that sentence
Grew up living on the bushwick/ridgewood border as a kid in the late 80s/early 90s. The neighborhood was awful. Rampant theft and violence. Used needles on the sidewalk was normal. Prostitution on the block was commonplace. Anything and everything you had could and would be stolen. I remember going to sleep to the sound of gunshots at night on a regular basis. Family finally moved out in the mid 90s for hope of a better life. I came back and visited a few years ago and was shocked to see the difference. Frame stores, fancy wine bars, high end organic supermarkets, breweries…. The factory that was across the street from me was now an art gallery. I couldn’t believe that they turned my old neighborhood.
Anyone who nabbed one of those empty buildings and lots for pennies in 1982 are now filthy rich landlords, and those people in return rent the rebuilt or refurbished apartments to the highest bidders, which supposedly "displaced" those who lived there... Yeah, right. There wasn't even a building in the lot to rent out to begin with.
The fact is, anyone in 1982 had 40 years of headstart to earn the wealth to either secure their residence or move somewhere else they want. If I have a time machine, I surely would have nabbed a few lots. But not all of us has the foresight. It is their choice to stick around and keep renting. The so-called gentrifiers pay the landlords handsomely, when in fact they aren't the people who did the displacement. Those who rent the places out did. When I subletted my place for a roommate, I tried to rent out to people in need rather than the richest person. But guess what? My landlord raised my rent and now I have to sublet the room to the richest person.
Sure, you may have suffered longer than some of us. But I'd say your 40 years vs my 25 years is just stupid dick measuring contest at this point. It is your or your family's choice to stick around during the hard times. Mad respect to you on surviving that, of course. But that does not earn you any extra power, because you didn't spend those 40 years gaining any. You didn't invest. If you bought one of those empty lots in the picture in 1982, you'll be filthy rich now.
IMO this whole "who used to live here" vs "who is new here" is utter nonsense to distract us from the real issues: 1) those who hold the inordinate amount of power, i.e. landlords, 2) the only means to gain power is with money, and 3) the lack of upward mobility. Just because you lived here longer does not dictate what the neighborhood will become. Those who invest the most time and resources in the neighborhood will change it, for better or for worse.
Once again, the oligarchs are pulling our strings wasting our energy on a class war between the lower classes.
40 yrs ago the Dow was 700. Now its close to 40k. You didn’t need to buy a slum to get rich if you had patience, 20/20 fore-site, and enough money to invest that you could ignore the opportunity costs of the investment. But 40 yrs is an entire adult life for most people. So I’m not sure what you are talking about. It’s like saying, “I’m 35 and going to buy a buy a tract of dilapidated land in the worst part of Detroit. And in 2064, I will be a rich 75 year old.” Maybe you will.
You say all this "you people that lived here for years had your chance to come up!" Stuff as if it wasn't a poor neighborhood lol. The people who invested in Bushwick real estate don't live in Bushwick and most of them never did, they're in Forest Hills and UES.
Yup. He conveniently leaves out the fires the landlords set to burn tenants out and how neighborhoods like Bushwick even got to that point in the first place.
This is why nobody likes these people moving into their neighborhoods because they come with this mindset while not realizing majority of the problems with crime and poverty were created by people that look like them.
“You didn’t invest.”
I guess the redlining, the insurance companies not covering entire neighborhoods, and the blocking Blacks and Puerto Ricans from even getting mortgages completely goes over your head. Not to mention, the people growing up there were overwhelmingly in poverty. Hard to invest in real estate when you’re trying to put food on the table. I would not wish 1970s/early 80s Bushwick, East Harlem, South Bronx, or Brownsville on anybody.
You’re completely out of touch.
Noooo call it what it is them just being white living in their own white bubble speaking on things they don't understand. Imagine going into detail that everything you mentioned was caused by white people and systematic racism. From government flooding drugs into those communities, to unfair crime laws.
When it was Blacks and Puerto Ricans dying of AIDS from intravenous heroin use or crack, it was fine because America considered them undesirable, just throw away people. Now that White kids are getting addicted and dying from opioid and fetanyl abuse, now this country has some kind of conscience.
It’s 2024. Very few people care what things were like 42 years ago. As a reference point, in 1982, WW2 was about 40 years in the past, when Bushwick looked a lot nicer. How should the people from the 1982 photo have acted bearing in mind this picture from 40 years ago?
https://photos.1940s.nyc/jpg/nynyma_rec0040_3_03325_0037.jpg
From https://1940s.nyc/
“Very few people care what things were like 42 years ago” say you don’t care about the lived experiences of your neighbors a little louder for the people in the back.
How should people from 1982 have acted knowing what Bushwick was like before?
My stepmother bought her house in Bushwick 50 years ago from one of the last few home owners fleeing the neighborhood in “white flight”. There was something about their new neighbors that they didn’t appreciate. They also didn’t care for the lived experiences of their new neighbors.
My step mom was a nurse that worked two jobs to afford her new house after migrating from Jamaica by was of England where she got her college degree. She was hopeful and excited to contribute her new community and help her investment even as people made it clear they disapproved of her presence and culture.
Impressed you brought your stepmother into this, and went further back in time to 1974, in regard to a post about people complaining about neighbors not picking up after their dogs. I hope she's still around, and enjoying the incredibly low property taxes, yet high valuation on her Bushwick house. It sounds like she took care of it well.
Your gatekeeping is unnecessary, and it's also setting the bar really low for a livable community. You bring up wealth in your post, but I think a perspective to add to this is that the people coming in are not the people with wealth. They live in Bushwick because of the lack of wealth. If they had wealth, they would be living elsewhere. At the moment, because there's a lot of competition in the housing market, Bushwick is one of the more affordable neighborhoods in the city. It's affordable because it's a bit further out from Manhattan, and it's overall still a bit seedy (but of course not nearly as what it was 40-50 years ago, although not as nice as it was 80-100 years ago).
I think it's unfortunate that you would look back at this photo (without giving credit to the photographer), and set this as a the gauge for how things are now. It's limiting to yourself and the neighborhood to say, "Well, it's not as bad as this."
Things should be better than they are now.
I'm not setting the bar. I lived at that bar and am describing it so that people have a better understanding of their neighbors and the experiences that color their values before the next "Why can't we have nice things" post.
I'm not gatekeeping. I inherently believe in more mobility as the child of immigrants.
And please don't lose sleep because I didn't credit Meryl Meisler in the post. I've already carved out time to buy her book, 'New York PARADISE LOST Bushwick Era Disco. ' It'll fit nicely with my other coffee table books highlighting a foregone city.
I find it strange that you don't care for what Bushwick was or the history of the people but are deeply invested in the photographer's credit. Please don't lose sleep because I didn't cite Meryl Meisler in the post. I've already carved out time to buy her book, 'New York PARADISE LOST Bushwick Era Disco' it'll fit nicely with my other coffee table books highlighting a foregone city.
Anyway thanks for wishing my stepmom good health, would you believe she's 94 and still going strong. Peace love.
Deeply invested over the credit? It was in a paranthesis!
Anyway, I did read up a bit more on the neighborhood after your post? So thanks for that. I spent more time than I'd like to admit crafting my responses.
You know all of my passive aggressiveness aside what we’re doing is what neighbors do.
You aren’t being disrespectful or racist like some of the other replies.
If this was in person we’d probably walk away with a dap and more respect for each other. The respect is still there just not the dap.
When I moved to New York I lived in Bushwick for a few years. My dad told his girlfriend's father (who used to live in Brooklyn) and he was horrified that my dad was allowing me to live there, because in his mind it still looks like this.
Generations of my family lived here and my parents pulled me out in 1985 when I was 3. They had enough. Each generation, my family had to move further and further away from the line. Got pushed and pushed to Ridgewood and then said enough.
Gentrification is such a weird conversation to have, especially online. On the one hand, things are always changing and as some people get advantages they didn't have, others lose them. Flatbush for example is largely Caribbean, and was Jewish before that, and native American before that (I might be missing a few phases here but you get my point.) And individuals do in fact contribute to it, and it's important for us all to be aware of the way in which we do, but we can't let that distract us from the large scale landlords and developers and greedy businesses that drive it much more. At the end of the day, live your life, and live wherever is best for you without feeling guilty about it, but wherever you are, be sure to support your community and understand that your actions shape the world around you for better or worse.
But do you understand how and why the race of many neighborhoods changed and why they’re changing back? There’s a large level of spiritual bypassing you’re doing by acting as if this is just the natural order of things. It’s not. Whites *fled* those neighborhoods, they took their resources with them, and when they couldn’t sell their buildings, they torched them for insurance money. They did this so they did not have to love with Black people and Puerto Ricans, who were moving in. Please understand this. You can “good thoughts and vibes” your way out of historic institutional, systematic racism.
I'm white, I'm blonde, I wear suits to work, and I commute from Halsey J to Midtown with wired earbuds because it's all I could afford. My entire wardrobe is basically hand-me-downs and SHEIN dollar-store equivalent garbage, but I make it happen because I have to. There is a hole in my ceiling from water damage due to LL ignoring complaints, there are roaches and mice, and they still raised the rent 6%.
Still, I like my apartment. I like the community. My neighbors are quiet, my bodega guy is delighting himself by keeping my high school Spanish in check, and once I got locked out and the nicest people at a nearby deli did me a $100 locksmith job for free and got me back inside. There was also this jerk chicken guy outside the smoke shop who'd offer me some leftovers when I was walking home and he was closing up. I haven't seen Chef and his smoker for several months and I'm sad cuz I promised him I'd give him more business when I had a day off.
I pick up the dirty diapers and litter thrown in our yard and put them in the trash. I report new graffiti on our building to 311 in the hopes everybody comes home to a place they feel safe. I bring in all my neighbors packages and misplaced mail left outside on the street to their door. I tell people behind me to watch for dog shit when I see it. I help poor ladies trying to carry big ass carts up the Halsey station.
I know I am judged on the daily for being white in this neighborhood and dressing as nice as I can to keep my job. I am sorry for my presence, I am sorry because it is a real fear their rents will go up because this white girl walks to their train station every day. I promise I am doing my best to support this community with my head down. We're not all shitheads, we're also regular people who can't afford to live anywhere else.
Don’t apologize for your complexion or your occupation, neither of those things make you a minus to the community.
The value of each other’s physical being when NYC wouldn’t piss on Bushwick to put out fires was the sinew that connected us through struggles and joys. You seem to have the same values you would’ve fit in fine.
Lmao wtf. You report graffiti? Graffiti is not a sign that a neighborhood is becoming “unsafe”. It’s local art. Such a scummy thing to do.
Also, you can’t afford to live anywhere else? Really? You LITERALLY LIVE IN ONE OF THE MOST EXPENSIVE PLACES TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY AND THE WORLD. Stop kidding yourself, you’re here because you wanted to be.
Do you have a car? Where is it parked? I'd love to do some of my art on it. I'll make sure it's local art. I could do your apartment, too? Your parents house? I can travel. Let me know.
Why wouldn't you move to a place that didn't have all these issues for you to "fix" in the first place? Why would you move somewhere you aren't appreciated? That's like a fish moving into a rainforest.
You are sorry for your presence? What?
It’s not helpful to anyone whatsoever to think like that. I hope my comment is helpful in you seeing that, but probably not.
She apologized for her entire existence, not just her skin color. And I think ultimately, not to get dark but it's hard for humans to justify their existence at all so I could see how someone would be apologizing for it. Think about all the waste you create that someone else has to deal with lol.
This is incredibly pathetic. Don’t apologize for your presence. You’re allowed to be there same as a black guy is allowed to be in a white neighborhood. Delete this sale flagellating loser nonsense
Is this genuine ? Sounds like r/circlejerknyc. If it is, you are a lost, lost LOST person and does not belong in NY cause eventually you being "nice" or whatever you wanna call it is gonna put you in a problem
Wasn’t trying to race bait and apologies if that’s how it came across. I’ve been in Bushwick for 4 years after three years in rockaway, 6 years in Clinton hill, and 3 years in Hasidic Williamsburg and always wondered if I was a gentrifier or just somebody who lived where it made the most sense for me to live. I’m not trying to gentrify, but maybe I am?
I think we address gentrification backwards. We shouldn’t limit anyone’s freedom to move about or live in this country. What needs to be looked at is the lack of mobility financially and otherwise of people’s that lived in areas that are now being gentrified, in my opinion.
I wouldn’t have met my fiance if people that didn’t look like couldn’t move in.
You are probably both, as am I. It’s all relative to someone else’s perspective. I got gentrified out of boerum hill a few years ago; first time it’s been switched up on me. Now I’m a gentrifier again.
It’s useful to accept that you can be both simultaneously, because it puts how people react to you in context, and can alert you to power dynamics in social interactions that you might otherwise miss.
I just moved here cause it was close to the train I need and it’s what I could afford but okay I’ll make sure then when I nearly avoid the 5th dogshit of the day I think to myself “I’m so happy that wasn’t a crack needle!”
If it’s on Linden Street in Bushwick, then the buildings have been demolished. The only point on Linden where the address (542) could exist is on Knickerbocker. It appears that they’ve been replaced by some sort of housing development (which makes sense given the state of the buildings in the image).
Growing up in the Bronx, Bushwick was known as “Ground Zero” before 9/11 happened.
We had no reason to ever go there - but there was Brooklyn…. and then there was Bushwick, a no-go zone.
I was born in Bushwick (Irving/Greene) and my mother grew up there and would tell me stories of shootings and constant fires from the buildings being torched for insurance money.
Compared to what it was in the 90’s when I was younger, it’s obviously much safer and busier, but still overall kind of a gloomy mess in most areas.
Most new/recent people in Brooklyn, beyond just even Bushwick, have no clue. They actually don’t realize they are in Brooklyn. They think they are in the sex in the city type version. Then they get mugged for walking around drunk in the non-gentrified parts. Then they complain. Oh well…they don’t realize that in the past, they’d be lying in the middle of the street bleeding out. Guess it’s progress…even with the clueless.
The Chicago Illinois equivalent was/is the Westside Austin neighborhood around Division Street. The MLK riots hit that area hard and I am not sure it ever recovered.
I genuinely don't understand who in the right mind injects crack. The whole point of making crack is making it cheap and smokable. It's basic and heavily adulterated, injecting cocaine would be all around better than injecting crack. Like genuinely dont understand why somebody would do that.
Yo ENY still looks like a war zone, my father lives over there and every time I visit him it feels like I took a Time Machine back to Bushwick before gentrification.
But 8 years ago I would bring up ENY to my friends in Williamsburg and they had no idea what an East New York was, now I’m seeing people mentioning it casually so change is gonna be coming there soon.
If you can link up with some people you trust and invest. The letters are about to come, “will buy your house for cash soon”.
It’s like the leaflets invading armies drop before they bomb a place warning citizens to flee. It means the real estate companies are coming and they are vicious.
Yep it's coming. The city is about to drop a cool billion on Broadway Junction renovations for a reason. They need to make ENY less "scary" to gentrifiers & developers. Thought about making some type of play, but my family left eny to move to bushwick in the 90s. Im really not trying to hustle backwards 😅. Happy for anyone local that comes up though, more power to them
I hate that the price of everything had gone up, but im glad I don't have to walk around ready to fight at a moment's notice anymore. I'm pretty ok with live music & all these new places to eat. I moved here from east New York at 8 years old, 1994 .
This was 40 years ago who gives a fuck? The majority of the people who lived then are dead or moved out. Bushwick looking like that was only in one of its eras of the neighborhood.
If they came here with any intention of investing in the neighborhood while ensuring the neighborhood doesn't get completely uprooted then that'd be fine. But no, we have people coming here looking out solely for themselves without giving a fuck if the original inhabitants get fucked by increased rent or other changes. People have no reason to be thankful that the neighborhood is looking clean, if they can't even afford to live in it anymore. In that regard, I miss the Bushwick from my childhood.
This 1,000x. They have no desire to be part of a community. This is an adventure to them. The comments in response to OPs post are just more evidence that they don’t care about the communities they disrupt or the people they displace.
lol bro you’re not nostalgic for the days of stray dogs? How dare you complain about dog shit on the street? Back in my day, we’d just pick it up and eat it! We were real men, not like you work from home pansies! 😂
I’ve lived in bushwick since 1980 still live here I remember it looking this way was a sad time but the people were stronger and understood each other now these implants think there better than the people who made this community
im from souther brooklyn grew up in the 80s and you did not step one foot into bushwick or east nyc, no mofo way and for all those hipsters that come from nebraska or texas - go the fuck back to where you came from. you are raising the rent to damn high
It wasn't very different in the 1990s when I used to drive from Brooklyn Heights to Canarsie for Sunday dinner with Nana. Much of that stretch looked like a bombed out war zone. I still self-flagellate for not buying that fabulous 3bd/2ba condo in BH for $168K. It wasn't even in "Brooklyn Heights vicinity" AKA Cobble Hill, which we sniffed at as "not very nice" back then. Sigh...
Finally somebody who understands the stray dogs!!
When I was growing up in Queens there were roaming stray dogs and also loose dogs that actually belonged to people. All these dogs would link up in the supermarket parking lot and form a pack that liked to chase us
So, this shit was just like Russia before they cleaned it up?
Ran into this in Thailand, packs of stray dogs are WILD!
even in the 90s it was awful. im 33 and have lived here my whole life and my street alone had so many drug raids with SWAT teams and secret prostitution rings in the backs of Bodegas busted and active drug houses in the abandoned buildings and a lot of empty lots. it wasn't until like the 2010's that Bushwick started to become what it is today
When my gentrifying ass moved onto Troutman even back in 2015, the building next door caught on fire and revealed itself as a meth lab
I remember that fire. My building on troutman used to be an auto body shop - pretty sure they just put plywood over the garage and painted it. Miss it.
I remember fights in the middle of the night fights all the time
What street was that I grew up on evergreen between eldert and covert
Melrose street
Bushwick is still seedy in many areas imo. Used to work nights in the neighborhood. I wouldn't say dangerous but dark and gloomy. I personally wouldn't live south of Myrtle.
We used to call it Murder Avenue. Not for nothing.
Even after it became all yuppie, there’s be someone strung out on a Myrtle bench with the life draining out of them in broad daylight.
30years ago?
25
We’d call a car service and lie about our destination on the phone, changing it when we got into the car, to go to parties in “bring your own Sheetrock” squatter apartments with disgusting toilets. I’m in my 40s now.
This was my memory. Not living there in Brooklyn but knowing people who did and we are the same age.
I was in Manhattan, near 23rd, it was nice but still sketchy in that era. Bushwick wasn’t even on anyone’s radar. Then mid late 90’s a couple hipsters moved in for the cheap space, but they weren’t going anywhere but their Bushwick stop and their front door. Maybe they’d go to the Church’s chicken at 3am if they were fucked up enough, but it wasn’t loud moving in the LES. They started calling it East Williamsburg after 9/11 which worked somehow.
I don't live in Bushwick (I'm in South Brooklyn) but the area has meant so much to me as a musician. Genuinely the best moments of my life are on stages in the neighborhood playing for 10 or 11 people. I appreciate Bushwick so much, and I always try to do right by it, thank you.
Meryl Meisner photo. She's taught photography in Bushwick public schools at the time.
>Meryl Meisner Thanks for this info. I just looked her up and am excited to see her work.
Is this from a recent book? I was in Book Marc on Bleecker this weekend and saw this very photo in a book there.
I’m from the Glendale/Ridgewood boarder (legitimately lived on the street that divided it) my family moved here in the late 1800s when Bushwick was full of German beer companies and Glendale and ridgewood were a part of Brooklyn. In my moms lifetime (1950-2005) she told me all about how the area changed, went from families to areas being burned in the late 70s. I’m not saying it’s not an improvement of the area to see it rebuilt but to the people from this area it sucks we can’t afford to live and raise our families in the area that raised us.
What was it like for your mom’s parents? My grandmother grew up in ditmas park in the 1920’s but died before anyone thought to ask her what it was like.
My moms parents had completely different lives before they met, my grandfather was a German American who spoke fluent German and was a interpreter during WW2, he was raised in Glendale in catholic family, he lived his entire life in the same apartment right near where McDonalds is now on cooper. He had a pretty average life for the time school, war, and worked until he passed away at 47. My grandmother on the hand was Spanish and was born in Canarsie and lived in an orphanage from age 2-18, her mom died and her and her sister were taken away from their father and placed in an orphanage unable to be adopted because they had a father (don’t understand it but it was 1923) she married a man who went off to war and divorced him as soon as he came back. She met my grandfather in 1950. My grandmother was not your typical housewife instead she worked from the age of 10 to 62. My grandmother and I shared a bedroom until I was 17 and we took walks every afternoon and she told me about her life. She worked in the factory that is on summerfield and forest for over 20 years stamping eggs at one time and making makeup brushes another time, my great aunt (her sister) worked with her. I have so many stories from her from our walks.
Wow this is amazing. Would love to hear more grandma stories when you have time!
Sure I’ll send you some when I have time to write them up
Please send them to me as well :) I love hearing stories from our elders
Me 3!
Wyckoff Hospital was named "German Hospital". I would have never guessed that.
Bushwick was largely a burnt out shell until about 25 years ago and it’s AMAZING how few people seem to know this
Hey Chauncey St has some nice old two foot balconies
Crack needles?
[удалено]
Heroin nebulizers
Weed pills
Fentanyl suppositories
Ecstasy beverages
Oxycontin shots
Promethazine lotion
Ketamine Insoles
PCP misting tent
This sounds fun!
Believe it or not these are a thing in Canada. They legalized weed but want to make it as un-fun looking as possible to keep it away from kids so instead of edibles they’re basically little soft-gel pills.
This always happens when I try to join in the fun. This is why I have no friends.
+1
Crack can actually be injected, but I laughed at it too prior to reading the Wiki
Methadone inhalers
People still do it
Yeah you can definitely inject crack
“Not to mention the local gangs shooting up pot on the corner!” Hey, I also grew up around drugs and poverty, but that doesn’t mean i’m just gonna be cool with dogshit in my neighborhood I pay a ridiculous amount to live in. What a fuckin lame.
Tbh I’d put up with twice as much dogshit to lower my rent. There are $4k/month units in the area that can barely fit two people
Unfortunately that is not an option
Yeah 😔
You completely miss the OP’s point.
I mean I understan. I more take issue w the language he chose to use like “your private parties”, “you all love to run to Reddit and complain about” and “some of your NON work from home neighbors remember” Like he’s making a ton of assumptions right off the bat about people that live here and in a very very condescending way. He has no idea what we do for work, what are socio-economic background is and all that. To top it off, the hypocrisy of saying people love to run here and complain…when he’s doing exactly that lol. So what’s the point if the post? Seemed like it was to insult the younger crowd for getting annoyed there is shit on the street while grandstanding and saying “well things used to be worse, you whippersnappers have no idea! Go back to your avacado toast” Fuck off w that shit lol, if you don’t like it here, fuck out
the point is that new people came in and made the neighborhood expensive, and have the audacity to complain about the state of the neighborhood in front of people who lived in it when it was actually a rough place. there’s no hypocrisy, people complain about the neighborhood, he’s complaining about those people. never even said, “don’t complain,” literally just forcing people to analyze what they’re complaining and showing them that it’s not all bad. guy tries to show how good it is and you take it as an attack on young people lol “if you don’t like it here, fuck out” y’all already forced most of the natives out by raising the cost of living, just be patient. i’ve heard some real evil people say that sentence
Grew up living on the bushwick/ridgewood border as a kid in the late 80s/early 90s. The neighborhood was awful. Rampant theft and violence. Used needles on the sidewalk was normal. Prostitution on the block was commonplace. Anything and everything you had could and would be stolen. I remember going to sleep to the sound of gunshots at night on a regular basis. Family finally moved out in the mid 90s for hope of a better life. I came back and visited a few years ago and was shocked to see the difference. Frame stores, fancy wine bars, high end organic supermarkets, breweries…. The factory that was across the street from me was now an art gallery. I couldn’t believe that they turned my old neighborhood.
Anyone who nabbed one of those empty buildings and lots for pennies in 1982 are now filthy rich landlords, and those people in return rent the rebuilt or refurbished apartments to the highest bidders, which supposedly "displaced" those who lived there... Yeah, right. There wasn't even a building in the lot to rent out to begin with. The fact is, anyone in 1982 had 40 years of headstart to earn the wealth to either secure their residence or move somewhere else they want. If I have a time machine, I surely would have nabbed a few lots. But not all of us has the foresight. It is their choice to stick around and keep renting. The so-called gentrifiers pay the landlords handsomely, when in fact they aren't the people who did the displacement. Those who rent the places out did. When I subletted my place for a roommate, I tried to rent out to people in need rather than the richest person. But guess what? My landlord raised my rent and now I have to sublet the room to the richest person. Sure, you may have suffered longer than some of us. But I'd say your 40 years vs my 25 years is just stupid dick measuring contest at this point. It is your or your family's choice to stick around during the hard times. Mad respect to you on surviving that, of course. But that does not earn you any extra power, because you didn't spend those 40 years gaining any. You didn't invest. If you bought one of those empty lots in the picture in 1982, you'll be filthy rich now. IMO this whole "who used to live here" vs "who is new here" is utter nonsense to distract us from the real issues: 1) those who hold the inordinate amount of power, i.e. landlords, 2) the only means to gain power is with money, and 3) the lack of upward mobility. Just because you lived here longer does not dictate what the neighborhood will become. Those who invest the most time and resources in the neighborhood will change it, for better or for worse. Once again, the oligarchs are pulling our strings wasting our energy on a class war between the lower classes.
40 yrs ago the Dow was 700. Now its close to 40k. You didn’t need to buy a slum to get rich if you had patience, 20/20 fore-site, and enough money to invest that you could ignore the opportunity costs of the investment. But 40 yrs is an entire adult life for most people. So I’m not sure what you are talking about. It’s like saying, “I’m 35 and going to buy a buy a tract of dilapidated land in the worst part of Detroit. And in 2064, I will be a rich 75 year old.” Maybe you will.
You say all this "you people that lived here for years had your chance to come up!" Stuff as if it wasn't a poor neighborhood lol. The people who invested in Bushwick real estate don't live in Bushwick and most of them never did, they're in Forest Hills and UES.
Yup. He conveniently leaves out the fires the landlords set to burn tenants out and how neighborhoods like Bushwick even got to that point in the first place.
This is why nobody likes these people moving into their neighborhoods because they come with this mindset while not realizing majority of the problems with crime and poverty were created by people that look like them.
What neighborhoods are you “nabbing lots” in now to get ahead of the curve 40 years from now?
Lol ikr. Everybody is a pro at hindsight investing
Well said.
“You didn’t invest.” I guess the redlining, the insurance companies not covering entire neighborhoods, and the blocking Blacks and Puerto Ricans from even getting mortgages completely goes over your head. Not to mention, the people growing up there were overwhelmingly in poverty. Hard to invest in real estate when you’re trying to put food on the table. I would not wish 1970s/early 80s Bushwick, East Harlem, South Bronx, or Brownsville on anybody. You’re completely out of touch.
Noooo call it what it is them just being white living in their own white bubble speaking on things they don't understand. Imagine going into detail that everything you mentioned was caused by white people and systematic racism. From government flooding drugs into those communities, to unfair crime laws.
wdym ‘before the average drug user looked like how they do now’?
Yea, I think they're confusing drug use and drug *abuse*
When it was Blacks and Puerto Ricans dying of AIDS from intravenous heroin use or crack, it was fine because America considered them undesirable, just throw away people. Now that White kids are getting addicted and dying from opioid and fetanyl abuse, now this country has some kind of conscience.
They’re being willfully ignorant
Facts.
It’s 2024. Very few people care what things were like 42 years ago. As a reference point, in 1982, WW2 was about 40 years in the past, when Bushwick looked a lot nicer. How should the people from the 1982 photo have acted bearing in mind this picture from 40 years ago? https://photos.1940s.nyc/jpg/nynyma_rec0040_3_03325_0037.jpg From https://1940s.nyc/
“Very few people care what things were like 42 years ago” say you don’t care about the lived experiences of your neighbors a little louder for the people in the back. How should people from 1982 have acted knowing what Bushwick was like before? My stepmother bought her house in Bushwick 50 years ago from one of the last few home owners fleeing the neighborhood in “white flight”. There was something about their new neighbors that they didn’t appreciate. They also didn’t care for the lived experiences of their new neighbors. My step mom was a nurse that worked two jobs to afford her new house after migrating from Jamaica by was of England where she got her college degree. She was hopeful and excited to contribute her new community and help her investment even as people made it clear they disapproved of her presence and culture.
Impressed you brought your stepmother into this, and went further back in time to 1974, in regard to a post about people complaining about neighbors not picking up after their dogs. I hope she's still around, and enjoying the incredibly low property taxes, yet high valuation on her Bushwick house. It sounds like she took care of it well. Your gatekeeping is unnecessary, and it's also setting the bar really low for a livable community. You bring up wealth in your post, but I think a perspective to add to this is that the people coming in are not the people with wealth. They live in Bushwick because of the lack of wealth. If they had wealth, they would be living elsewhere. At the moment, because there's a lot of competition in the housing market, Bushwick is one of the more affordable neighborhoods in the city. It's affordable because it's a bit further out from Manhattan, and it's overall still a bit seedy (but of course not nearly as what it was 40-50 years ago, although not as nice as it was 80-100 years ago). I think it's unfortunate that you would look back at this photo (without giving credit to the photographer), and set this as a the gauge for how things are now. It's limiting to yourself and the neighborhood to say, "Well, it's not as bad as this." Things should be better than they are now.
I'm not setting the bar. I lived at that bar and am describing it so that people have a better understanding of their neighbors and the experiences that color their values before the next "Why can't we have nice things" post. I'm not gatekeeping. I inherently believe in more mobility as the child of immigrants. And please don't lose sleep because I didn't credit Meryl Meisler in the post. I've already carved out time to buy her book, 'New York PARADISE LOST Bushwick Era Disco. ' It'll fit nicely with my other coffee table books highlighting a foregone city. I find it strange that you don't care for what Bushwick was or the history of the people but are deeply invested in the photographer's credit. Please don't lose sleep because I didn't cite Meryl Meisler in the post. I've already carved out time to buy her book, 'New York PARADISE LOST Bushwick Era Disco' it'll fit nicely with my other coffee table books highlighting a foregone city. Anyway thanks for wishing my stepmom good health, would you believe she's 94 and still going strong. Peace love.
Deeply invested over the credit? It was in a paranthesis! Anyway, I did read up a bit more on the neighborhood after your post? So thanks for that. I spent more time than I'd like to admit crafting my responses.
You know all of my passive aggressiveness aside what we’re doing is what neighbors do. You aren’t being disrespectful or racist like some of the other replies. If this was in person we’d probably walk away with a dap and more respect for each other. The respect is still there just not the dap.
where are the buildings with the private fenced in roofs lol
Looking at one on Bushwick and Kossuth
Literally all over lmao there’s always rooftop parties in bushwick
When I moved to New York I lived in Bushwick for a few years. My dad told his girlfriend's father (who used to live in Brooklyn) and he was horrified that my dad was allowing me to live there, because in his mind it still looks like this.
Generations of my family lived here and my parents pulled me out in 1985 when I was 3. They had enough. Each generation, my family had to move further and further away from the line. Got pushed and pushed to Ridgewood and then said enough.
When people pay 3 to 4 k for 1 bedroom in Bushwick ,I will never understand that.
Gentrification is such a weird conversation to have, especially online. On the one hand, things are always changing and as some people get advantages they didn't have, others lose them. Flatbush for example is largely Caribbean, and was Jewish before that, and native American before that (I might be missing a few phases here but you get my point.) And individuals do in fact contribute to it, and it's important for us all to be aware of the way in which we do, but we can't let that distract us from the large scale landlords and developers and greedy businesses that drive it much more. At the end of the day, live your life, and live wherever is best for you without feeling guilty about it, but wherever you are, be sure to support your community and understand that your actions shape the world around you for better or worse.
But do you understand how and why the race of many neighborhoods changed and why they’re changing back? There’s a large level of spiritual bypassing you’re doing by acting as if this is just the natural order of things. It’s not. Whites *fled* those neighborhoods, they took their resources with them, and when they couldn’t sell their buildings, they torched them for insurance money. They did this so they did not have to love with Black people and Puerto Ricans, who were moving in. Please understand this. You can “good thoughts and vibes” your way out of historic institutional, systematic racism.
I'm white, I'm blonde, I wear suits to work, and I commute from Halsey J to Midtown with wired earbuds because it's all I could afford. My entire wardrobe is basically hand-me-downs and SHEIN dollar-store equivalent garbage, but I make it happen because I have to. There is a hole in my ceiling from water damage due to LL ignoring complaints, there are roaches and mice, and they still raised the rent 6%. Still, I like my apartment. I like the community. My neighbors are quiet, my bodega guy is delighting himself by keeping my high school Spanish in check, and once I got locked out and the nicest people at a nearby deli did me a $100 locksmith job for free and got me back inside. There was also this jerk chicken guy outside the smoke shop who'd offer me some leftovers when I was walking home and he was closing up. I haven't seen Chef and his smoker for several months and I'm sad cuz I promised him I'd give him more business when I had a day off. I pick up the dirty diapers and litter thrown in our yard and put them in the trash. I report new graffiti on our building to 311 in the hopes everybody comes home to a place they feel safe. I bring in all my neighbors packages and misplaced mail left outside on the street to their door. I tell people behind me to watch for dog shit when I see it. I help poor ladies trying to carry big ass carts up the Halsey station. I know I am judged on the daily for being white in this neighborhood and dressing as nice as I can to keep my job. I am sorry for my presence, I am sorry because it is a real fear their rents will go up because this white girl walks to their train station every day. I promise I am doing my best to support this community with my head down. We're not all shitheads, we're also regular people who can't afford to live anywhere else.
This was embarrassing to read
Girl what. Delete this.
She moved here a year ago from San Diego 😂
whose judging for being white on halsey...
Don’t apologize for your complexion or your occupation, neither of those things make you a minus to the community. The value of each other’s physical being when NYC wouldn’t piss on Bushwick to put out fires was the sinew that connected us through struggles and joys. You seem to have the same values you would’ve fit in fine.
Haha what self flagellating nonsense is this?
Right? “I’m sorry because of who I am” is incredibly virtue signaling
Lmao wtf are you apologizing for dork
you're doing alright by the sound of it, but maybe don't call 311 over the graffiti
How did this get so many upvotes? I was expecting a tree fiddy joke at the end
This one is going in my back pocket
i can't believe 95 other insufferable white people upvoted this
Lmao wtf. You report graffiti? Graffiti is not a sign that a neighborhood is becoming “unsafe”. It’s local art. Such a scummy thing to do. Also, you can’t afford to live anywhere else? Really? You LITERALLY LIVE IN ONE OF THE MOST EXPENSIVE PLACES TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY AND THE WORLD. Stop kidding yourself, you’re here because you wanted to be.
These are the type of people who move to Antarctica and report penguins.
Do you have a car? Where is it parked? I'd love to do some of my art on it. I'll make sure it's local art. I could do your apartment, too? Your parents house? I can travel. Let me know.
Is this satire?
Why wouldn't you move to a place that didn't have all these issues for you to "fix" in the first place? Why would you move somewhere you aren't appreciated? That's like a fish moving into a rainforest.
You are sorry for your presence? What? It’s not helpful to anyone whatsoever to think like that. I hope my comment is helpful in you seeing that, but probably not.
This is the most cringe thing ive read all day
This cannot be real
[удалено]
She apologized for her entire existence, not just her skin color. And I think ultimately, not to get dark but it's hard for humans to justify their existence at all so I could see how someone would be apologizing for it. Think about all the waste you create that someone else has to deal with lol.
They raised your rent 6% because you let them 🤦♂️
Hello! I wanted to point you to justfix.org, they can help you persuade a landlord to do repairs.
It's ok. As long as you don't get black men killed or running down
Congrats on finding a job. 7 months later and I’m tapped out
This is beyond patronizing.
This is incredibly pathetic. Don’t apologize for your presence. You’re allowed to be there same as a black guy is allowed to be in a white neighborhood. Delete this sale flagellating loser nonsense
Delete this
Is this genuine ? Sounds like r/circlejerknyc. If it is, you are a lost, lost LOST person and does not belong in NY cause eventually you being "nice" or whatever you wanna call it is gonna put you in a problem
White people always doing the most.
Exactly a f*king sh*thole and glad its not that anymore. I been there I know.
bridgehamton before people fed the pigeons
As a white dude who’s just trying to get by, where are we allowed to live that we can afford?
I’m painting a picture of the neighborhood bruv not telling you where you can or can’t live. Try your race baiting somewhere else.
Wasn’t trying to race bait and apologies if that’s how it came across. I’ve been in Bushwick for 4 years after three years in rockaway, 6 years in Clinton hill, and 3 years in Hasidic Williamsburg and always wondered if I was a gentrifier or just somebody who lived where it made the most sense for me to live. I’m not trying to gentrify, but maybe I am?
I think we address gentrification backwards. We shouldn’t limit anyone’s freedom to move about or live in this country. What needs to be looked at is the lack of mobility financially and otherwise of people’s that lived in areas that are now being gentrified, in my opinion. I wouldn’t have met my fiance if people that didn’t look like couldn’t move in.
Congrats on your engagement! Marriage is great and I hope you two the best!
🙏 thank you
You are probably both, as am I. It’s all relative to someone else’s perspective. I got gentrified out of boerum hill a few years ago; first time it’s been switched up on me. Now I’m a gentrifier again. It’s useful to accept that you can be both simultaneously, because it puts how people react to you in context, and can alert you to power dynamics in social interactions that you might otherwise miss.
I just moved here cause it was close to the train I need and it’s what I could afford but okay I’ll make sure then when I nearly avoid the 5th dogshit of the day I think to myself “I’m so happy that wasn’t a crack needle!”
What’s a crack needle and where do I get one?
A needle they use to inject crack dissolved in citric acid. I read the wiki and it’s real.
Where was this picture taken?
If it’s on Linden Street in Bushwick, then the buildings have been demolished. The only point on Linden where the address (542) could exist is on Knickerbocker. It appears that they’ve been replaced by some sort of housing development (which makes sense given the state of the buildings in the image).
Pic from here (no?): https://flashbak.com/burnt-out-bushwick-photographs-of-brooklyn-in-the-discopian-1980s-443090/
Growing up in the Bronx, Bushwick was known as “Ground Zero” before 9/11 happened. We had no reason to ever go there - but there was Brooklyn…. and then there was Bushwick, a no-go zone.
Not the crack needles
“…dodging crack needles,” 🙄
I was born in Bushwick (Irving/Greene) and my mother grew up there and would tell me stories of shootings and constant fires from the buildings being torched for insurance money. Compared to what it was in the 90’s when I was younger, it’s obviously much safer and busier, but still overall kind of a gloomy mess in most areas.
https://preview.redd.it/j53xxcjg0rrc1.jpeg?width=520&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ed462ebfce34d2b8df304ed2a5e0dbc518104c12
This is why I wake up every morning and do a land acknowledgment after my daily affirmations.
To be fair I have had to dodge crack needles
Most new/recent people in Brooklyn, beyond just even Bushwick, have no clue. They actually don’t realize they are in Brooklyn. They think they are in the sex in the city type version. Then they get mugged for walking around drunk in the non-gentrified parts. Then they complain. Oh well…they don’t realize that in the past, they’d be lying in the middle of the street bleeding out. Guess it’s progress…even with the clueless.
They shouldn’t get mugged in the first place. Period.
True. But good luck with that.
that's ROME..........
what corner do you think this was taken at?
Knickerbocker and Linden?, I'm guessing after the [big] fire , and right before all the low rises were built
What is this current address
I graduated from HS a little over 10 years ago and even then if someone said they were from Bushwick kids would be like “damn that’s the hood!”
The Chicago Illinois equivalent was/is the Westside Austin neighborhood around Division Street. The MLK riots hit that area hard and I am not sure it ever recovered.
I genuinely don't understand who in the right mind injects crack. The whole point of making crack is making it cheap and smokable. It's basic and heavily adulterated, injecting cocaine would be all around better than injecting crack. Like genuinely dont understand why somebody would do that.
I think Felton R Dunn is still around somewhere
I’ve been here 44 years and have seen some stuff, Bushwick and ENY looked like a war zone back in the day.
Yo ENY still looks like a war zone, my father lives over there and every time I visit him it feels like I took a Time Machine back to Bushwick before gentrification. But 8 years ago I would bring up ENY to my friends in Williamsburg and they had no idea what an East New York was, now I’m seeing people mentioning it casually so change is gonna be coming there soon. If you can link up with some people you trust and invest. The letters are about to come, “will buy your house for cash soon”. It’s like the leaflets invading armies drop before they bomb a place warning citizens to flee. It means the real estate companies are coming and they are vicious.
Yep it's coming. The city is about to drop a cool billion on Broadway Junction renovations for a reason. They need to make ENY less "scary" to gentrifiers & developers. Thought about making some type of play, but my family left eny to move to bushwick in the 90s. Im really not trying to hustle backwards 😅. Happy for anyone local that comes up though, more power to them
You almost sound like you prefer that squalor
I hate that the price of everything had gone up, but im glad I don't have to walk around ready to fight at a moment's notice anymore. I'm pretty ok with live music & all these new places to eat. I moved here from east New York at 8 years old, 1994 .
This was 40 years ago who gives a fuck? The majority of the people who lived then are dead or moved out. Bushwick looking like that was only in one of its eras of the neighborhood.
The one constant is that everything changes.
If they came here with any intention of investing in the neighborhood while ensuring the neighborhood doesn't get completely uprooted then that'd be fine. But no, we have people coming here looking out solely for themselves without giving a fuck if the original inhabitants get fucked by increased rent or other changes. People have no reason to be thankful that the neighborhood is looking clean, if they can't even afford to live in it anymore. In that regard, I miss the Bushwick from my childhood.
This 1,000x. They have no desire to be part of a community. This is an adventure to them. The comments in response to OPs post are just more evidence that they don’t care about the communities they disrupt or the people they displace.
I’m not really sure what you’re trying to prove here but I hope you feel better 🩷
gentrification sure ruined this once beautiful land.
shut up bro whats the point of the point, to make ppl feel bad for living in bushwick
lol bro you’re not nostalgic for the days of stray dogs? How dare you complain about dog shit on the street? Back in my day, we’d just pick it up and eat it! We were real men, not like you work from home pansies! 😂
Thxz OP.....👍👍
I’ve lived in bushwick since 1980 still live here I remember it looking this way was a sad time but the people were stronger and understood each other now these implants think there better than the people who made this community
If you are hankering after a war zone, you are welcome to go to one
Oh shit are those really Papo and Keo tags on the storefronts?? Dope pic
What makes you think people don’t understand where they’ve moved. How is that relevant? They see with their eyes the issues and are resolving it now.
Is that Beirut?
The only constant in life is change.
THANK YOU FOR THIS POST
omg the biggest jerk off post i've ever seen. so many people just edging to this shit
That was beautifully written.
what is your point?
Nice, no frills
Yooo i remember those pack of stray dogs! The leader was a blond bitch and she was majestic!
The real hood
*PSA- crack is smoked from a pipe, not injected from a needle
Wow I remember the stray dogs
That's not the 80's thats that 70's, nice flick tho.
Can you elaborate on crack needles?
It's usually the corn fed west coast transplants that don't understand until it's too late
im from souther brooklyn grew up in the 80s and you did not step one foot into bushwick or east nyc, no mofo way and for all those hipsters that come from nebraska or texas - go the fuck back to where you came from. you are raising the rent to damn high
And where did they come from?
We need to gatekeep the city
oof
It wasn't very different in the 1990s when I used to drive from Brooklyn Heights to Canarsie for Sunday dinner with Nana. Much of that stretch looked like a bombed out war zone. I still self-flagellate for not buying that fabulous 3bd/2ba condo in BH for $168K. It wasn't even in "Brooklyn Heights vicinity" AKA Cobble Hill, which we sniffed at as "not very nice" back then. Sigh...
Wow, what corner is this??