My feelings for or against Bushwick fluctuate every few days, it seems. On days we go to Northeast Kingdom, we have to walk what I call the Ghetto Gauntlet: up Troutman from Central, past gushing fire hydrants that soak my chanks, families using the entire sidewalk as their front yard, rotten trash overflowing in front of filthy buildings with rats the size of cats knocking over unused “Bushwick Initiative” trashcans…we breathe a sigh of relief after crossing Irving and making it to the peaceful, though depressing in a different way, Jefferson/Wyckoff industrial area. During dinner, I actually waste a few moments dreading the walk back. That’s a bad Bushwick day.
Other days catch me on a good note. One day it was disgustingly hot out, so I stopped for a piragua at the elementary school on Central on my way home. I waited patiently behind the kids in line before handing the man a dollar and snatching my cold reward. When I got home, I sat on my stoop, crunching and slurping away on chunks of amber-colored ice — they were super sweet as the piragua man had doused it with syrup to overflowing, and my hands were completely sticky. I was happy. Just then a lady pushing a stroller walked by, and I shot her a big smile. Her stone face cracked and she gave me one back. That’s a good Bushwick day.
My attitude toward Bushwick runs from “ugh, hurry up and gentrify so I can rip off some yuppie with this dump house and move back to civilization” to “I’m not going anywhere, they’re not going anywhere, I might as well exploit the bright spots and enjoy my stint here.” Not an extreme spread, I agree. An example of making the most of it is when I feel overwhelmed by ghetto actions — howling up at windows, blaring reggaeton — I just turn lemons into lemonade by taking a walk past the handball courts and staring down the shirtless boys. Wanna be noticed, pa? I’m noticing you. How’s that feel? (I somewhat resent having turned into an old lech at 27 — this is everybody’s fault but mine).
So my cable modem got fried by last week’s storm, and just the telephony part wasn’t working. They sent a tech today: the van pulled up, faded Puerto Rico bandera fluttering from the antenna, and out hopped 180 pounds of pura lesboricua, cropped reddish hair cemented back with a palmful of gel. She stomped up my steps in her white t-shirt and Dickies, and immediately started cracking jokes about my perpetually-growling dog (“we know you’re the boss, Killer, you’re workin’ hard, but now it’s time for a break”). She was full of advice about figuring out which of the 40 wires hanging off the house I can cut without cutting any services. She noticed the fresh wounds in the floor and ceiling where a wall had been before this weekend, and all the sheetrock dust-covered tools and said “When you’re done with this house, it’s gonna be beautiful. Good job, papi.” She switched out my modem, hopped into her truck and headed off to some account on Willoughby. My heroine.
Today is a good Bushwick day. Not even an Escalade shaking my house to the foundations with distorted Daddy Yankee lyrics can ruin that.
Matt L August 15th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
I know its going to be a good day when I take Addison for a walk in the park and a young kid will want to pet her and know about her instead of running away. Also, when the old ladies in the building next to me wave hi.
david August 15th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
I lived this back and forth for years! It was even seasonal for me..LOATHED the summers as it brought out the worst in Bushwick IMO…..liked the winters because the streets were deserted and I even liked the industrial vibe of by immediate hood. But for real…a lame comment from some ghetto youth or someone dropping garbage would RUIN my day completely. Towards the end it seemed like too many bad days in a row and then the sketchy bodega opened up on my blog…the fact that I was so sketched out about it possibly being a drug front was a signal to me that it was time to go.
My good days normally consisted of a bagel from Potion, a walk over to Vortex to look at vinyl and maybe a successful dog walk down to the park near Mckibbon lofts.
Jay August 15th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
Bushwick can get you down at times. Takes a lot of stamina to live in a place like this with all it’s problems and such. But as it’s been said before doesn’t anyone move here because they want to. Often cheap prices attract many. Dave sorry you were driven out of Bushwick. But where else is a person to go to be close to the city in an area that should gentrify. Everyone talks about lots of space for the money and they love their apts. and houses, so we just gotta wait for the neighborhood to change.
Matt August 15th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
Here’s what defined a good vs. bad day for me, last summer, or perhaps two summer’s ago? Time flies when your mind is a seive.
Anyway, walking every day on Starr St. past Maria H. Park..would the massive junk piles be even more massiver? Would there be a human sized dog turd sitting on top of said piles? And would the homeless junkie convention be shooting up on their mattresses, in plain view, while I walked by? Or perhaps would the one crazy dood be stocking his outdoor supermarket with dented and beat up cans of food? Is so, bad day. If not, good day.
Be glad some, if not most of you, missed that joyous summer event.
Hrag August 15th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
I had those feelings a lot before…nowadays I feel more connected to the neighborhood and let it wash over me.
The only time I get angry is when people start shouting things at me, which inevitably happens when I’m in a crappy mood, makes me confrontational and it always sours that already awful mindset.
Jimmy Legs August 15th, 2007 at 6:32 pm
I didn’t even have to use my AK …
Bubba August 16th, 2007 at 11:32 am
Chank’s! You must be from MIAMI! Nice one.
Armstrong August 16th, 2007 at 11:38 am
Jeremy, it would be a block out of your way but walk down Starr St, along the park, to Wyckoff on your way to NE Kingdom. It’s nice to see some green.
The piles of junk have gotten better this past year. It used to seem that people emptied the refuse of gut-rehabbed buildings on the sidewalk. Not that bad anymore.
I agree with the comment that Bushwick is much nicer in the Winter. Cockroaches hibernate in the winter, I’ve been told – but come out en masse in the summer.
Ylsel August 16th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
This is my first visit to your blog and I am not coming back.
I am a Latina and moved to Bushwick 2 years ago. I think you all should be more accepting — this is why the world is such a mess.
I do understand you want Bushwick to change for the better because I want the same thing but I would like also that my people could have the chance to live in a better neighborhood… this is people that have been neglected for all these years, they don’t have a voice, and sad to say some of them don’t know better, they are victims of their own circumnstances.
It would be great that Instead of criticizing – why don’t we try to make a difference and educate the community… I think that way they wont feel threatened and feel that they are too part of the ride… that change is good because it will be for the better and they are included.
This is people that are going to be displaced at some point and these are cultures that have been oppressed over and over.
My boyfriend is white and we both love this neighborhood! — we talk to our neighbors, help them if they need anything and have been acceptable of the noise, the loud cars, the kids running around… that’s what make this place so colorful and unique.
If you hate Bushwick and Latino culture so much just move to another neighborhood… is that simple. OR instead you can make a difference… talk to the community, your neighbors, make flyers…
just my opinion.
PAZ {peace}
Ray August 16th, 2007 at 6:29 pm
“OR instead you can make a difference… talk to the community, your neighbors, make flyers…”
…start a blog…
Jeremy August 16th, 2007 at 6:38 pm
Yisel, come off it. I don’t think my neighbors are helpless, mentally lesser beings who desperately need my assistance, as you clearly think. How insulting. I don’t need to “help them” since they don’t need any help, they’re adults just like you and me, and can take care of themselves like any other member of the human race. I’m disgusted by your disregard for the intelligence and abilities of the good people of Bushwick.
Something tells me the lack of “acceptance” isn’t why the world is such a mess — I doubt, for example, that the US government blew up Iraq because Americans didn’t “accept” Iraqis. But way to make absolutely vapid pronouncements, you should go work for a liberal think tank or something.
Actually, I don’t even know why I’m responding to such an ignorant comment — just the fact that you conflate noise and trash with “Latino culture” is testament to your density. If you had read anything else written by me — in fact, scratch that, if you even truly read this very post, you’d know I don’t hate “Latino culture.”
And, haha, what the fuck do FLYERS have to do with…anything!? LOL, por favor, nena, go getcha nails did, you’ll feel better, and be back in your intellectual element.
Matt August 16th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
I’m one of the most accepting persons you’ll likely meet. I’ve lived here since Jan 04 and I’m friends with my neighbors, as much as they’ll let me, according to their own level of acceptability.
I’m accepting of the general goings on in the neighborhood. I think it’s a true family neighborhood. I love kids running around having fun. I love the old folks chillin on lawn chairs in front of their house.
I’m NOT accepting of a long list of behaviour, some listed here: dumping shit because, why, you are too lazy to deal with it? Put it in a fucking garbage bag and they’ll take it away! Not picking up your pit or rotties massive turd piles cuz, why, you are too macho to think of anyone else in your neighborhood? Tagging. I’m down with grafiti, burn a mural and I’ll dig it. Just not wanton bullshit tagging. It’s ugly, it’s pointless. Rediculously loud music, be it a car or a backyard. I really don’t mind loud music, I can tolerate other people having a damn good time. But I can’t tolerate it when it’s just downright insane.
The list goes on but hopefully you get my point. Bitching about any of those things does not make me intolerant or unaccepting of the neighborhood. It makes me intolerant of rude bullshit behavviour, no matter what your race, class, background etc.
driver8 August 17th, 2007 at 12:25 am
i have to agree with J here…. I am puerto rican… however…. i myself am absolutely disgusted by the way that many of my neighbors here take care of their neighborhood, houses and even children. I will be the first one to admit that it is not easy living in a socially/economically deprived area, but as my mother would say, “it doesnt cost money to sweep.” I didnt grow up here (and frankly… if my mother ever was to come and visit she would probably be disgusted that i live here now) but i dont feel that the general ghettoness around here has ANYTHING to do with Latino culture and i am offended that anyone would suggest that. I am “latino” (born in PR). My parents would be horrified if i ever shouted from a sidewalk to get someones attention inside the building, or left my kids (of which i have none) to play on busy streets. It would be completely unacceptable for me and my family to accept general bad manners and hooliganry.
Now contrary to what you may be thinking… i did not grow up with money. My parents don’t have college degrees. They were just hard workers and they wanted something better for their children. They always made sure that i read the newspaper in front of them every morning. I had household chores. They always made sure i did all of my homework before going to bed. Their basic view was that there was no good excuse for me to accept anything other than the best (that goes for schooling, career choices, housing).
What the local residents have forgotten (many of whom are of PR descent) is that New York (and the US in general) isnt about give me/help me its about making your own opportunities and working your ass off to make it happen. That “best” is personally defined and it can only come with the personal sacrifice of hard work. Nothing worth having is ever free.
Our community’s children and our nieghborhoods deserve better. I think we all agree on that. I am honestly not going to feel bad about losing that guy that yells constantly for Julio outside my window… you know what…. I hope Julio gains self respect and forces his friend to address him like a human being.. maybe ring the doorbell. My connections with latino culture have to do with respect, courtesy, cleanliness…. oh yeah… and a REALLY strict catholic upbringing… but thats another post….
Jimmy Legs August 17th, 2007 at 9:55 am
it was kind of depressing on the walking tour, every bushwick initiative trash can i saw was overflowing with trash. these trash cans were placed specifically to control the rat population (they even say “CAN IT – Keep Rats Out of Your Community” on the sides), but they don’t work if you can’t close the lid.
Richard August 17th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
I didn’t think Yisel’s comment was ignorant.
Mr. Kraayon August 18th, 2007 at 12:53 am
Thank you driver8 for a decent perspective rather than an attack. Community complaints,that seem to plague this blog,from the longtime Bushwick denizens , tend to be hate-filled and “ghetto lifestyle” proud.
Does anybody really like a dirty,crime-ridden neighborhood?
Jeremy August 22nd, 2007 at 2:05 am
Richard — touché! *rolls eyes*
Erika September 4th, 2007 at 11:29 am
I agree, Ylsel made a very good point.
Jeremy, why’d you reply to her like a total douchebag anyway?
Jeremy September 4th, 2007 at 11:49 am
Erika, no she did not make a good point, she came in here swinging her fists and wagging her finger, and so I shoved it back in her face.
So perhaps you have more to add than just “yuh-huh!” ? If so, please share. I’d like to know exactly which points Yisel made that are “very good.”
Jack September 4th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
“LOL, por favor, nena, go getcha nails did, you’ll feel better, and be back in your intellectual element.”
Jeremy, are you Latino? I’m guessing not, right? Then please, spare Yisel and other Latinos this condescending, racist “I’m gonna insult you using a few words of YOUR language, hahaHA!” b.s. And the “getcha nails did” and “intellectual element” pieces – way to go all classist on her, too. Because what, being a white pendejo who picks and chooses what elements of Latino culture and life he’s gonna be all nostalgic and smiley about and wishes the “ghetto actions” would just go away so he could live his happy gentrifier life, and then goes and insults a Latina who comes and says, uh, no – do you think those are good ways to demonstrate your high regard for Latino culture and the people who live around you? Face it – you’re a gentrifier who likes the lower-income, darker people around you when they’re entertaining your with their Latin spice, but don’t have time for them when they’re making your life a little less rosy and convenient, even though you’re probably damaging their lives way more than they could ever damage yours. (Read that piece on gentrification in Bushwick in the voice a while back by any chance?
Jeremy September 4th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
Jack, the “Latin spice” argument should properly be leveled at Yisel, because she’s the one who invoked it with her ridiculous comment that house-shaking noise is “colorful and unique” and indeed, IS “Latino culture.” She loves to pat the cute ethnics on their little heads. Awww.
She’s probably some suburban-born-and-raised middle class girl who moved to Bushwick to immerse herself in the culture of her forebears. But when she got here, she was upset that her personal experiment to make herself more Latina was being diluted by the shaggy-hair set who don’t like loud reggaeton as much as she does — or at least as much as she likes to pretend she does. The extant Puerto Rican community of Bushwick is an interesting and yes, “spicy” curiosity for people like her. They want it to stick around — and deny their part in the gentrification they so bemoan — for their personal aesthetic fulfillment.
Yeah, I got her type picked out from a mile away.
And yes, I did read the VV piece.
Sandinista September 4th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
So… your overt racism is justified because you’ve made some assumptions about Ylsel? I mean, you can say you’ve “got her type picked out from a mile away,” but forgive me if I remain skeptical of your analytical skills. In any case, how the hell does her alleged “type” justify your blatant and unapologetic racism? Ooh, wait, lemme guess! You would’ve told her “por favor, nena, go getcha nails did, you’ll feel better, and be back in your intellectual element” even if you believed her to be a white suburbanite with a degree in sociology, right? There are absolutely no racial or class markers in mixing Spanish with vernacular English to tell a woman that she’s too stupid for anything but manicures, right? No sexism, either.
Your strawman arguments are nothing short of breathtaking. Of course, asking you to help the community you’ve foisted yourself upon is tantamount to asserting their collective idiocy. Everyone knows that only a community full of “helpless, mentally lesser beings” could be in need of improvement. And you, of course, are far from the idea of condescending to your neighbors in such an egregious fashion! Not you! Being of a nobler mind, you will instead complain in your blog about the audacity with which they persist in being poorer, browner, louder and dirtier than you! Kudos!
And you don’t hate Latino culture! It just happens to be that the people who happen to live on your block happen to have a tendency to play music more loudly than you happen to find acceptable and they also happen to be Hispanic. There may or may not also happen to be a stereotypical association between loud music and Latino culture, but you are too far beyond us all, too post-racist, too truly colorblind to keep up with such petty, backwards notions! Anyone who dares to suggest that such unfortunate and ugly ideas have any bearing on your own is just deluded by their own racism. Hell, you know what Latino culture is better than some dumb Latina, amirite?
Also, for the record: It’s cute that you think “acceptance” is a ridiculous concept that has no relevance to any Real Stuff Like Wars, but if you think that race isn’t a factor in the war on Iraq (and the one on “Terror,” for that matter), then the loud music has rattled your brain. Seek help! Move to the suburbs!
Ray September 4th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
From “Jack”:
“Jeremy, are you Latino? I’m guessing not, right?”
Translation: “I need to know if you’re Latino so I can figure out if your comments are racist or not.”
Ray September 4th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
Hey, Livejournalers!
http://community.livejournal.com/debunkingwhite/536878.html
The internet is very useful. 20 years ago, these people would just have to gnash their teeth and cry about people who actually do stuff like buy property with their own money. Now, they can get online and complain together!
Look how far bitching has come in the 21st century.
Jimmy Legs September 4th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
i have no idea what Sandinista is getting at, but to me Jeremy’s reaction is rooted in the simple notion that the stuff he says is no more offensive than Yisel posting under the guise of ‘best interests at heart’ and saying “sad to say some of them don’t know better.” is it not as ‘racist’ to say a people are too stupid to take care of themselves?
Jeremy September 4th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
Sandy, lay off the coffee, you are absolutely hysterical and I think you just broke my sarcasm meter. I mean, “overt, blatant, and unapologetic racism”? Really. Your activist training is slipping, you have allowed anger to cloud your judgement and it has made you bust your “racism!” nut too early. Of course I wouldn’t have said what I said to Yisel if she weren’t Hispanic and in my opinion, rather dumb. But again, she was the one playing up her Latina cred — I just went along for the ride.
And I never said the community didn’t need improvement — it’s clear enough that it certainly does. I simply reject the idea that it needs ME to better it, or that I have any responsibility to better it. I have no problems talking about how people are loud and dirty, if that is the case, and I don’t see why you should see a problem, either. It doesn’t help your case to accuse me of hating the poor and the brown, it’s ridiculous and the readers here know otherwise.
My neighbors do not blast their music, people racing by in cars do — you know, the “impoverished” ones in the chromed-out $50,000 SUVs? You got lost in your relentless sardonicism and didn’t end up having a point, but I’ll just restate that NO, blasting loud music out of cars is not “Latino culture,” and even if it were an intrinsic PART of it, it’s not anything like a significant part worth mentioning. What the loud music blaring from cars is is a bunch of thugs who don’t give a shit about the people who live on the street they don’t see for longer than it takes for the light to turn green. The only reason their ethnicity is brought to your attention is because it is usually reggaeton…although the other day as I bent down to pick up trash in the gutter someone blasted Metallica right in my ear.
As for race and wars, I never denied that there was a connection — I see it every day in the articles I read about our “heroic defenders fight’n fer freedom” in teh eyerack shoot’n up them “hajis.” Of course, many of those anti-Arab racist soldiers are black and Latino. No, my contention was that a lack of acceptance is not “why the world is such a mess” — since, as even a person who sees racism everywhere must agree, there are many other reasons for a fucked-up world.
“Move to the suburbs!” — oh, Sandy, covering some very old ground here! Maybe even…tired! Whatcha got that’s new for me?
Martha September 4th, 2007 at 4:35 pm
I don’t think LOUD music is a good thing, one way or another. Could you really hear your child’s cry for help?
Marisleysis September 4th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
You know what they call loud car stereos and litter in =actual= Latino cultures? Falta de respeto.
Sandinista September 5th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
All I saw Yisel do was mention that she was a Latina, and hence a member of the demographic you’d like to see pushed out of their neighborhood (only on your bad days, mind). Surely she should be entitled to respond? What the hell does “playing up her Latina cred” even mean? And in what way does it justify your racism?
Why, again, is it that the community needs to improve, but you, who live in said community, don’t have any responsibility to improve it? If it isn’t your race or class that sets you apart from those who do have said responsibility, then what is it?
In the interest of clarity, I’ll underscore that it was not my intention to imply that loud music is an integral part of Latin culture.
And, hey, if I, as you seem to imply, am only the most recent in a long string of people to tell you to move to the ‘burbs, maybe there’s something to that advice.
Also, my name isn’t “Sandy.”
Anon September 6th, 2007 at 12:27 am
Nobody wants you entitled white bread faggots in these neigborhoods anyway. I hope a loud and belligerent herd of “ghetto youth” beats your pasty asses to the ground just for emitting your whiny voices of privilege from your pale non existent mouths.
Amanda September 6th, 2007 at 12:57 am
It’s people like you who make this world a sad place, you simply down play peoples intelligence to make a good point when in actuality you sound like an ignorant dumb fuck.
EJCohen September 6th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
“All I saw Yisel do was mention that she was a Latina, and hence a member of the demographic you’d like to see pushed out of their neighborhood (only on your bad days, mind).”
Where did he say he wanted Yisel or her “demographic,” pushed out of her neighborhood? And what demographic are you talking about?
In terms of responsibility to the neighborhood… yeah, some people like Jeremy, who is a property OWNER in Bushwick, have a responsibility to the neighborhood in so much as it will effect the value of their property. Outside of that, how can the yuppie/hipster/gentrifiers contribute to the community without being accused of changing things to meet their supposed white, middle class sensibilities?
There is a difference between complaining about the level of noise or the amount of trash on the street and simply wanting to erase an entire culture by replacing it with something “safe” and “white.”
Jeremy September 6th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
Sandy: Your name isn’t “Sandinista” either, unless you had some hippie freak parents.
Yisel had no reason to mention that she was a Latina except that she felt it would give her some kind of credibility in argument. She’s a Latina, and hence part of the demographic I want pushed out? You’re relentless in your attempt to distract from the true matter at hand: filth and a general lack of civility with regard to noise levels. This has absolutely nothing at all to do with ethnicity, except that I happen to live in a predominantly Puerto Rican neighborhood so you pretend to assume that it’s the ethnicity itself I really want gone. I say “pretend” because I know that you know that I don’t hate Latinos, but you hate my message and want to slander me. It’s cool, I know the score.
As for the community, that is made up of the people of a neighborhood, not the physical neighborhood itself. I am not a member of the pre-2000s community.
Anon: Yessss, that’s what I have been waiting for, some hardcore hatred of white people qua white. Delicious.
Amanda: You could call me an asshole, a jerk, a boor even, but dumb? Come on. Disappointing.
There are Latinos and/or Hispanics who have commented on this post that agree with me, and I notice nobody even pays attention. Are they self-hating, maybe?
And how about this Latina from the Bushwick of the 70s, also mentioning the noise and trash of her childhood?
Marisleysis September 6th, 2007 at 6:51 pm
Right on Jeremy. I can hardly believe my eyes when I see people put down my ethnicity as one where rudeness and filth are part of my genetic and cultural heritage. And they think they are defending people?!?!? Sheesh. Please go defend the KKK or somebody who deserves it more.
Joe September 7th, 2007 at 1:07 am
My my, how this neighborhood has changed over the past 30 years…