White girls not being raped in Bushwick. (yoinked from yokokikuchi‘s flickr stream)

“Is Bushwick Safe!?” Part Two: A reader emailed this morning to tell us about her Monday:

“I was walking to the train this morning and a Hasidic dude in a BMW flagged me down at Irving/Troutman. I thought he needed directions. He told me he there’s a girl who might move into a building he owns on Troutman but she wanted to talk to ‘a girl who lives here’ first, and then wanted to give me her number to call her! It was Monday, my power had just been shut off (even though I paid my bill) and I was very pre-coffee. I made a face and told him no. And he was angry! I love it here but I’m not going out of my way to do a live ad for a landlord.”

I’d like to add: Dear Miss Priss: Go Away. First of all, this “is Bushwick safe?” line of questioning is sort of offensive — we all live here. Bushwick is the indie art and music capital of New York City right now. Do you think we’d live in a fucking warzone? Second, if you are so concerned about moving to a place that you need reassurance from a (presumably white) girl who lives here, maybe you had better just stay where you are — having a whole apartment to yourself may not be worth the risk of witnessing a crack transaction or suffering the indignity of cat calls.

And landlords — do your own damn PR. Maybe if your renovations weren’t such bottom-of-the-barrel shit your properties would be able to attract better tenants.

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