Oh, the bodega.
So many on each corner,
Like ghetto Starbucks.

Gushing and flowing,
Relief from summer’s torture.
The hydrant bursts forth.

The fight rages on.
Renovation the weapon,
Hipsters the army.

Shouting and yelling
At empty windows and doors.
Why not a cell phone?

Friends from the island,
Wary of walking alone,
Jealous of my rent.

(Leave your Bushwick haiku in the comments!)

In today’s Daily News, Metro section columnist Albor Ruiz covers gentrification in Bushwick with some insights from Wednesday’s Make the Road by Walking rally. The article opinion piece doesn’t really delve into anything new, rather it just regurgitates the same old “gentrification is bad” statement. The one good point that Ruiz makes is that for all their anti-gentrification bluster, Make the Road by Walking does have suggestions for positive development. Unfortunately that jewel is lost between the vilification of landlords (sometimes deservedly so) and the overall simplification of the larger issue. Ruiz quotes 21-year-old José López, a Make the Road by Walking staffer, who says “no matter if these people come and say they want to better the community, they cannot do it because they don’t know anything about it and are not interested in the community input.”

Hi José. Nice to meet you. I didn’t know you were so clever. I mean, c’mon, you figured out my whole reasoning behind moving to Bushwick. Of course I say that I want to get involved with the community, but in reality all I want to do is make fun of poor people whilst sipping a cappuccino with my fellow white invaders at one of our ultra-exclusive, rich-people-only coffee shops. You totally get me!

Sarcasm aside, communication is a two-way street there, José. You can complain all you want about “these people” not really caring, but until you make the effort to actually include us in these discussions you are essentially nothing but an angry person full of empty rhetoric. If your intention was to make us feel unwelcome and thus scare us out of Bushwick, keep on keepin’ on brother.

A better tactic would be for Make the Road to host a “Welcome to Bushwick” event for new residents. Many of us who moved here have no desire to see our neighbors thrown out on the street, no matter how hard you try to typecast us. In fact, I plan on attending the next Community Board meeting in September to see what is going on with Bushwick. As much as it is our job to become involved in our community before we start complaining and judging, it is also the job of those who wish to preserve Bushwick’s identity to welcome us into the fold — keeping both sides segregated will only make things worse.

So, José, I’d like it if next time you made an attempt to get my opinion before judging me, because I have not done the same to you. Thanks. You can e-mail me. Or come visit — I’ll be holed up in Northeast Kingdom with the rest of the crafty crackers as we plot against you.

One of the reasons my boyfriend and I chose to move to Bushwick (besides the affordability factor) was that so many apartments seemed to be pet-friendly. While I was not naive enough to imagine a bucolic neighborhood of friendly pooches and mini-societies based around the local dog run, I did assume that it would mean Bushwick would be a great place for me to acclimate my dog to New York City life. She is young (7 months), was born in Arizona, and then lived with us in a resort-style apartment complex complete with dog runs, Olympic-size pools, and miles of walking paths. I feared for her sanity upon our arrival in Brooklyn.

Well, Bushwick has certainly acclimated her to city life, but I’m not sure if it is the kind of city life I want her to get used to. I live right next to Maria Hernandez Park, so I often take her there for short walks, but other than that I have nowhere for her to run and get used to other people and dogs. Most children are terrified of her (because they have been taught to be wary of the neighborhood dogs, rightly so in many cases) and I don’t trust most of the dogs around here enough to let her get anywhere near them. The sidewalk is always littered with trash and, most disturbingly, chicken bones, which I am constantly pulling from her mouth so she won’t choke.

I would love to have a dog run in Maria Hernandez Park, but then again, do I want my dog to be set loose with the dozens of untrained (and un-neutered) neighborhood “tough-guy-status” dogs? Don’t get me wrong, I have absolutely nothing against pit bulls (I used to have one, they are wonderful dogs), but I know that these local dogs aren’t getting the kind of training and socialization that their breed requires, which makes me nervous. Just the other day I had to walk quickly away from a man who’s pit was chomping at the bits to get at my dog.

While I love many aspects of the neighborhood, I would like to see it become more pet-friendly in the future.

Any thoughts from fellow Bushwick pet owners?

Hello Bushwickians…Bushwickers….do we have a name? Well, I do, and its Matt. I am the latest addition to the BushwickBK.com stable of bloggers, and I wanted to take a quick second of your day to introduce myself. I am 23 years old and recently moved to Bushwick with my boyfriend. We came from Arizona via Connecticut, which is a story in and of itself, but suffice it to say we’re happy to be here and we’re loving Bushwick! A little bit about myself - I am currently unemployed (hoping to change that in the next few days), I love to read, cook, and blog, I enjoy walking my dog in Maria Hernandez Park and practicing my Spanish with the nice girl at the Panaderia on the corner of Starr and Knickerbocker, and one time I almost got stabbed by a guy with a broken Corona bottle in Ecuador.

I plan on focusing my posts on the culinary side of Bushwick, so you can expect things like restaurant and grocery shop reviews, farmer’s market reports, and the like. I’ll also keep an eye on whats happening at Maria Hernandez Park. If there is anything going on that you would like to see covered here on BushwickBK.com but are too lazy to do it yourself, just let me know!

Have a happy Wednesday!