Bushwick Clicks 7/28/08
Grove Street block party, by pixelateit
The Trials and Tribulations of Pig-Stuy: Remember that cute blog war we had last year that made all the dimwit-seriosos out there crap their pants in rage? Well, as evidence mounts that Bed-Stuy is indeed just too damn nasty to keep any of the fancy new businesses they have open, and some people are moving out of the neighborhood in the face of race-hate and well, utter boredom, one has to wonder if RE-AL-I-TY hasn’t just decided the winner of last year’s faux tiff (check out the lovely photo of Petra in her local cute-but-empty-ass café).
Bum Deal: The owner of a Bushwick Associated (I wonder if it’s the awesome one on Broadway) gets signed up by two “competing” electric companies — and has to pay both for a month. This is the exact way the government gets you hooked on their “services”: create a clashing oligarchy of utility companies that all have to buy power from the still-legally dominant monopoly and when it creates even more disasters, they get to say “deregulation” didn’t work, though no such thing was ever tried.
They Trap Rats, Don’t They?: A Bushwick pigeon supplier apparently has been selling the birds to Pennsylvania gun clubs to be used as targets. I like the use in the article of “squabs” — is that what you call pigeons when you want people to care about them?
Bushwick Microclimates?: Is it mulberry time in Bushwick? My tree was done dropping its fruit two weeks ago, though maybe because I get more sun than most back yards. When I first tried them, I thought they were a little nasty, but the trick is to only eat ones that are completely black — that will give you a big burst of sweetness. Now to climb to the very top of the tree…
It’s Not All That Exciting: Curbed is kind of obsessed with 249 Varet, which has gone from being hocked as condo offices/workspace to youth hostel and condo hotel. I don’t know what these developers are smoking, but for Varet Street to be attractive to people of above-hostel means, it needs a lot of de-industrializing.
Post-Homosexuals Make Marissa and Becky Pout: The Gawker-girl’s stay in the Big City is supposed to be colored by the flamboyancy and fabulousity of the stereotypical homosexuals her mother hung out with until she married that attorney or doctor. Bushwick homos, as “New Gays,” they complain, are indistinguishable from Bushwick straight boys! Can you imagine the horror that has befallen the huge-sunglassed girls of Bushwick, having to walk through the neighborhood being unable to claw a homophobe’s face when there’s nobody being called “fag”? The bitchy JAP suburbs of the future will have a lot less knowledge of showtunes and poppers now that “their” gays have stopped pretending dick-sucking is an ethnicity.
July 28th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Jeremy, what are you trying to prove with the tone of your writing?
I love everything about this blog except the tone you take when you write about the gentrification issue. It’s brash and radical and unnecessary and it gets in the way of good content.
The term pig-stuy is just severely classist.
July 28th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Believe me, it’s hard out there for us “new gays,” too.
Walking into Goodbye Blue Monday and knowing that at least 9/10 hot guys in tight pants and well-manicured facial hair are straight drives me up the kitsch-covered wall.
July 28th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Myrtle, what you’re really upset about is that someone is writing something you disagree with in a publication you would prefer was neutral — or that agreed with you on everything. People are “radicals” when they say things that deviate from what the mainstream has decided is acceptable. You probably wouldn’t even notice if I used the term “social justice” in a serious way. Would you?
Anyway, this wasn’t a gentrification post, it was about a fake rivalry between Bed-Stuy and Bushwick. As “brash” as some of you think I am, I think you’re all just a bit too sensitive. And “Pig-Stuy” is not classist in the least, let alone “severely” — unless trash tumbleweeds are now a recognized minority group.
July 28th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
That NY Times article mentions Bushwick as another neighborhood with declining property values. If true, I wouldn’t exactly say we’ve won any war yet over here. From the Times article (caps added):
“…The average sales price of residential property and the number of sales in Bed-Stuy, BUSHWICK and other nearby neighborhoods have dropped sharply, according to a recent report released by the brokerage firm Prudential Douglas Elliman…”
July 28th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
I’m pretty sure that is the owner of the Associated on Broadway near Grove.
July 28th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Armstrong: And? What does that have to do with the livability of Bushwick (or Bed-Stuy, for that matter)? The article was mostly about Bed-Stuy SUCKING.
July 28th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
i would agree with Myrtle Ave, this blog has some great moments but they are often polluted with writings that would probably find a more sympathetic audience on Jeremy’s other websites.
July 28th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
LOL.. Every couple months I check in and see that Jeremy hasn’t lost his charm.
And yes, I’ll be happy when all those cafes/hipsters/yuppies move to my neighborhood. If they do that is.. I do believe with the economy going the way it is, we’ve maybe reached a peak in gentrification for some time.
Thats not to say we don’t need more retail, etc for the folks already here.
Yet there are many more things closing on Knickerbocker than opening in the last two years.
Discuss: All those condos being built in Williamsburg? Rentals within 2 years, rentals which will absorb a lot of folks ending up here in Bushwick by default.
Sign me: Happily Renting (not buying at the top of the market) in Bushwick
July 28th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Sam, it’s not just the straight guys that look gayer, it’s the gay guys that look straighter…I guess they’re meeting somewhere in between (but not in a hot way)?
July 28th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
ah, that pigeon store is on my corner. i thought something was up when i saw vans dropping off large crates full of pigeons there over the past couple of years.
July 28th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
And Sam, I don’t think that 9/10 guys ANYWHERE are straight. I really don’t!
July 28th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
I like gentrification.
I also like humanism. It’s when gay and straight become such iconoclastic, polarizing words that I have a problem with BOTH sides. It’s when being “gay” becomes a person’s personality - when being “straight” high-jacks someone’s total outward expression -
That stifles creativity and the ability to offer an environment where people can flourish, and express themselves without the needless labels both gay and straight people seem to cling onto.
Pig Stuy, btw, was GREAT use of language.
July 28th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
But of course, as a straight man, I think men should be able to be men in the classic sense. Women should be able to be women. Gays should be able to be gay. Etc.
It’s the horror show of taking categories to the extreme of us and them.
That’s why I am a humanist.
July 28th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
I agree. “Pig Stuy” is funny.
I’m not worried about the real estate market. My investment in Bushwick is a long term one. Market corrections are normal. And they are not building or phasing out rent subsidies fast enough to hurt the real estate market in Bushwick.
July 28th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
What, exactly, is funny about “pig-stuy”
just curious to hear you explain it.
July 29th, 2008 at 1:01 am
I’d say housing prices need to come down to a price where lower middle-class people can afford to buy. They’ll need to be putting down more than 50% of the final cost (due to our frozen credit environment–which will NOT change anytime soon).
In short, on average, I’d say housing prices need to fall by 50% maybe more, considering we are on the brink of being bankrupt as a fucking COUNTRY which will pull prices down even more.
Manhattan may be immune to this. The boroughs will not be.
Despite it all, I love Bushwick!
July 29th, 2008 at 3:04 am
“Pig-Stuy” is a goofy play of language. And it’s rude and antagonistic.
I like Bed-Stuy.
July 29th, 2008 at 11:28 am
I’m a regular reader and I’m also put off by Jeremy’s tone sometimes, the world revolves around him and if you don’t get it, well, he’ll read your mind for you (”Myrtle, what you’re really upset about is…”) and tell you why you suck. He’s arrogant. But, it’s his blog and unfortunately for me I find it too interesting to not read.
July 29th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
““Pig-Stuy” is a goofy play of language. And it’s rude and antagonistic.”
While I cannot speak for Bed-Stuy since I don’t live there I can say there is way too much trash in the streets of Bushwick and maybe nicknames like this wouldn’t come up if people didn’t treat the street like it’s their garbage dump.
July 29th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
“….if people didn’t treat the street like it’s their garbage dump.”
I worked in a housing project on Avenue D in a preschool doing early intervention work with kids with autism. When the federal government cut the HUD funding sometime last year, lots of people lost their jobs in the projects, including about half the people who collect and take out the trash. The result was, all the hundreds of building residents trash was overflowing at the bottom of the trash chute in the basement (taken out now only once a day instead of 4X), and it emptied right into our school hallway. The 2-4 year old kids had to climb around dirty diapers and condoms to get to the bathroom (for months). One day, after circumventing all of the trash to get the kid I was working with to the bathroom, he threw his paper towel on the floor instead of in the trash can. Without really thinking I said: “please don’t throw your trash on the floor D., don’t you want your school to be a beautiful place? Totally fucking absurd for me to expect that to work. How could I or anyone teach him to care for his environment in such a hopeless mess?
My point is that there are often more complex and nuanced reasons for why people throw trash on the street–their streets.
July 29th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Jessica you teach that little boy about ‘the straw that broke the camel’s back’ because someday it’s a lesson we all learn. Broadway, the Bed-Stuy/Bushwick boarder street is a nasty yucky mess with chewed up chicken bones and used (I guess) condoms. Once such behavior gets rationalized our expectations diminish and the pig-sty broadens.
Low expectations + an “understanding” for why things are the way they are = benign racism.
July 29th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Jessica, no doubt the situation you describe sounds like it would create a sense of hopelessness.
I just can’t stand litter in general though living in the city I’m used to it. While I acknowledge the situation you describe sounds extreme is there a lack of trash collection in Bushwick or Bed-Stuy that I don’t know about? Don’t get the impression that I’m bashing either neighborhood. Usually when someone throws their trash in the street, whether it’s in the city, suburbs or countryside, it because they’re lazy jerks.
July 29th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
You will never get people to pick up trash by calling them pigs.
I like the blog and I agree with you on many points of view.
You just don’t have skillful means when it comes to criticizing others. What you say doesn’t come off as constructive (which is what I think you intend…to be constructive) but rather it comes off as flippant and arrogant.
I’m telling you how you come off to others (and I’m not the only one commenting on it.) I’m saying I think you can be more effective if you lose the tone.
Lose the drama and be a real leader.
July 29th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
“You will never get people to pick up trash by calling them pigs.”
What do you think would work? Not that I advocate calling people pigs but I’d like to know what the answer is to getting people to keep their streets clean and not litter. I’m not claiming to be the one with that answer either.
July 29th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
I don’t agree with everything Jeremy says, but he cracks me up. Works for me.
Re the price of real estate in Bushwick, prices for two-family buildings have already fallen by about 20 percent, or $100,000. That’s a lot. If they fall another 20 percent, it’ll be cheaper to own than to rent (right off the bat).
July 29th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Myrtle, I didn’t call anyone a pig. Let’s get that straight. That said, maybe why you’re upset is that you think I consider myself some sort of community “leader” or think I am here to be exclusively constructive. No. I am here to entertain and pontificate, and a lot of that involves making fun of people and places and things, and even expressing a point of view (gasp!). Take me as I am, and know if you give me shit, I give it back. I’m thrilled that people like this site and I love making it even more useful for our community as a resource, but I am not going to stop holding and expressing certain opinions, no matter how many one-line “refutations” are tossed my way. And I am definitely not giving up the “attitude” or “tone” — it’s really me (with the volume turned up for effect), love it or hate it.
I do enjoy and appreciate those who participate here, but I wish we could have these debates without some people complaining that I’m defending my views. Criticize my points, not that fact that I dare to make them.
July 29th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
Trash gets picked up here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. But you DO have to take the bags out to the curb area. Next door to our house is a smallish, newly built house that the owner rents out as three separate apartments. The owner used to come by all the time to check on things and put the trash out but for the past 8 months he rarely comes by, leaving the bags of trash to pile up along his side of our shared fence. I wonder if that’s how he treats the house he lives in. I guess he isn’t a pig because he doesn’t generate the garbage but he is an asshole for leaving it for his tenants and their neighbors to contend with.
And speaking of PIGS, I have a sweet, well-educated friend who rather fancies himself a pig and is not at all offended when that term is attached to him, but that’s another story!
July 29th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
Did you know that MYRTLE AVENUE was called MURDER AVENUE throughout the 70s and 80s?
I was in Bed Stuy last weekend and I saw a 17-year old with a bullet in his head. I watched the cop unfold the white sheet, shake it out and put it over him.
And here we are arguing about whether or not to call it Pig Stuy.
First ammendment, motherfucker. That’s what I say.
July 29th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
And it was on MURDER AVENUE:
http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Bertrand+Jocelyn
As far as the DSNY - I call them the real heroes of NYC.