Maria,

I understand your passion and anger over blanket statements made in this thread, especially since you have had so much invested in Bushwick for so long, and I cannot even pretend to have been alive long enough to know what Bushwick was like in, say, 1977.

But the problem with some of your anger is how much of it seems to be directed at new faces with the assumption that the new-comers won’t offer anything to the community except yuppie attitude and entitlement. There are lazy, indifferent bad seeds in any community, but I’ve met plenty of “new Bushwickers” that are passionate about respecting the history of the neighborhood and embracing old and new neighbors alike…and that’s the foundation a healthy future is built upon. Old Bushwick working with the right kinds (read: not rich hipster kids subsidized by mommy and daddy, but people who out of situation or circumstance have arrived in Bushwick, understand where it’s come from and see where it can go) of new Bushwickers may be able to accomplish the sort of change that makes life easier on everyone, regardless of skin color, age, profession, background, etc. etc.

And I’m sensing (and I could be wrong) what could be distain for new faces that might be something besides black or brown? That sort of sentiment can be more harmful than any negative feeling about Vito ever could.

Like I said, I’m too young to know old, old Bushwick. But I am marrying into a puerto rican family that, given their struggles 20 years ago when they moved to the area from the island, could rightly be as jaded and bigoted and angry as they next. Over dinner this weekend everyone from Abuela to the pre-teenaged grandson who’s lived in NY all his life were and never seen the island himself, were talking about how one of the biggest obstacles in the neighborhood is how quickly EVERYONE is to some sort of racism. The same people who are enraged by what predjudice has done to reduce opportunities in their lives (which, a lot of the time, CAN be overcome through hard work and focus…Abuela is an example and I do believe every word she says on this matter)are the first to thrust more racism and hate on white or new faces they’ve never even spoken to. Which then breeds more hate or bigotry, and more danger in Bushwick.

I’m not trying to get corny, but this sort of hypocrisy and misplaced anger is exactly what is slowing down Bushwick’s progress, no matter WHO is in charge.

1> Statistically speaking the crack epidemic has subsided in most of the US. That is not to say that crack is gone… that is to say that a smaller and more manageable group is gravitating towards the drug. I agree that there will always be pockets of the population that will be more likely to seek out the drug… but that is a different topic altogether.
2> Before we talk about positive change in the community, I think its important to agree on what change specifically we are talking about. However, like Jeremy, I am inclined to believe that governments have very little influence over the choices people make in their day to day lives. Vito may have come up with a couple paths for people to take but ultimately its people making personal decisions that direct a community.
3> So this leads me to my 3rd point. I believe that ultimately people are ultimately responsible for their own destiny. I do believe that at one point, maybe in my parents generation (btw I am 30), outside influences like racial discrimination had a large impact on what you could expect to accomplish in your life. I simply dont believe that is that case anymore. Before you make any conclusions let me set some things straight: I am Puerto Rican (born on the island), I am not “light skinned” and we were poor (not what you Yorkers call poor… I mean down south poor). I spent my childhood years in Georgia and Florida at a time when I the only other non-black or white kid in school was my sister or my cousins. All things being equal, you would think my sis and I would have had the hardest time of anyone in dealing with discrimination. I can honestly tell you that I have never once been denied anything I wanted because I was Puerto Rican. My parents taught me that I could do anything i wanted if I studied hard enough and worked hard. They taught me to be independent and not to depend on other to do what i could very well do on my own. They also taught me to have enough self respect to define my own sense of self worth and not worry about what other people think of me.

I think the trouble is that for the puerto rican descendants in NYC, the discrimination argument is made in terms of “race” instead of class. You see Maria, race is easily defined in terms of lineage but class in this country can now be defined in terms of education and road that one makes for oneself. What makes this a hard pill to swallow is that ultimately if the discrimination is based on class we as individuals are partly to blame. If I had even a tenth of the government sponsored opportunities that most all Bushwick residents do today I could say without a doubt that i would have gone to an ivy league school.I would have made those choices. The trouble is that every day i way around and see people making poor choices.

So moving on to the new people in Bushwick. These are people (probably similar your own ancestors) that moved to NYC because of opportunities. Lets please remember that this was once an italian neighborhood, before that a german neighborhood and even a freed slave neighborhood. Nothing is constant in this city.

I personally believe that we should respect people that choose to educate themselves, people that choose to clean up after themselves, people who choose to take care of their possessions and those that care for their bodies. I also think its fair game to criticize those that choose not to do these things. However this does not constitute racial or cultural discrimination. Declaring that one prefers not to have s grease stain on a public sidewalk should not be viewed as a attack on the puerto rican descendants of NYC. If so the… as my mother would say, “traeme la escoba y poco de acido que voy a limpiar.”

You say that the community organizations and Assemblyman Vito Lopez are not responsible for the changes that have taken place in Bushwick, and I go back to reiterate my question have you been around to see the changes which have occurred in this community? Do you know what RBSCC means to the THOUSANDS of people they extend their services to?

And as far as for Mayor Guliani I don’t agree with most of his policies but he was a good cop, and was essential in cleaning up the streets of New York.

You say that “The crack epidemic and massive crime wave all but evaporated clear across the United States —” And I ask myself have you visited other cities in the U.S. like Detroit or even our Nation’s Capitol where crime has not decreased substantially. But on second thought you dont even have to leave the state just go to Nostrand Ave in Bedford-Stuyvesant or certain places in the Bronx where the streets are still drug infested, and you will see for yourself what Bushwick USED TO BE.

The hard work of these men and women are all around you. As you walks just take a look around at the social service agencies, the community centers the senior citizen centers and the affordable housing developments, which once were abandoned lots.

I disagree with the way you undermine the Latino and African American Community, based on stereotypes which are being proven wrong on a daily basis. YOU have been presented with opportunities, opportunities which we are denied because of our color skin. An “intelligent” man like yourself should be able to understand the socioeconomic and racial barriers which STILL EXIST in America.

But are you willing to work with the community which is already established? Have you showed amnesty towards those who have been here long before you? No just listen to the way you speak and try to underestimate us and the HARD WORK we have put into this neighborhood. And the reason that many of them “spit in your faces” is because you disregard their hard work and what they stand for.

Bushwick is only acceptable now because, as Maria says, it has cleaned up in recent years. But is a ward-heeler really to credit for this? That’s preposterous. Are various and sundry “community organizations” to credit? I hardly see how, since what they seem intent on doing is cementing in the worst elements here in Bushwick.

There are many reasons why Bushwick is cleaner and safer now, but Vito Lopez is the least of those reasons. The crack epidemic and massive crime wave all but evaporated clear across the United States — which means it was neither Vito Lopez nor Rudy Giuliani nor any local organizations that had a hand in calming Bushwick down. This is in part due to improved economic conditions for rich and poor alike, which always cools the jets of criminals on the economic margins.

I do think it’s unfair to make like Bushwick’s long-term residents were mostly criminals, and I’m sure the neighborhood would have been far worse without the best of them. Steve is right — dirtbags are always the minority, terrorizing the majority who try to keep clean and mind their own business. But I do think Ricmac has a point about those of us just moving in — we are far less tolerant of trash and noise and crime than those who were here before us.

More newbies are also moving here because there is now an established community here that allows them to feel they fit in. Exactly NONE of that has anything to do with the other communities in Bushwick, Vito Lopez, RBSCC, or anything else that was here before us. We have built this community for ourselves in their MIDST, which is very different from building it on TOP. This brings me back to the main point of this post — Vito Lopez, RBSCC, Diana Reyna, the community board, none of them are here to help or represent us. They are here to put up walls for us to jump over. And don’t worry, we will, because we’re intelligent and resourceful and enterprising and NUMEROUS. Nobody is trying to stamp anyone else out. But we won’t happily pay to moisten the mouths of people who spit in our faces.

I have done my part as a mother, a citizen, a neighbor and a friend always willing to help those in need.

But do you honestly care about what I and hundreds of other citizens have done to help move this community along? Do you even recognize the community organizations and the hard work of everyday citizens like myself who have been here before you were born?

Do you honestly feel that your contributions to Bushwick have been monumental?

I have no animosity for Vito Lopez. It’s just that some of us need to realize that its not up to elected or appointed officials to mold/dictate our living situations. Instead WE should be dictating our visions of the future to them.

Did you ever stop to consider that maybe, just maybe, the community has started to improve because “we” are moving in? And this may answer your final question above as well – “we” were not in Bushwick when crime was at its peak because “we” are not criminals and will be intolerant of criminal neighbors. By the way, where were you, what were you doing during the crime wave?