My butt has been charting new territory in my jeans. I bike a fair amount, walk a ton, eat well, but as 30 approaches, my body is exploring the outskirts, and that’s not cool.  I asked around, and got a glowing review of a neighborhood gym for women that costs only $10 a month.  Cheap and close were my two main criteria, and this place passed with flying colors (signature yellow, pink, and red, to be exact).

more »

We don’t yet have our own yoga center here in Bushwick, but we certainly have plenty of interest. As a stopgap measure, may I suggest the services of the Bushwick Yogi?

The Yogi’s been practicing yoga since 1992 and is certified by several different yoga(l?) authorities. I’ll let him describe himself:

“I incorporate Hatha, Vinyasa, and Therapeutic Yoga into a comprehensive teaching practice focused on your individual needs. Individual sessions and classes typically include chanting, warm-ups, eye rejuvenation exercises, asanas, deep relaxation, guided healing visualization, meditation and breath work.”

Bushwick Yogi is also hoping to expand his business and is interested in renting space to teach classes, so if you can help him out, or you are interested in a private session at your home please contact him via email.

Money wasted on this map could have been used to buy produce.

Just when you thought the people of this city had endured quite enough paternalism, our benevolent overseers have now found it fit to tell us we don’t eat the way they say we should. Bushwick is, as usual, alarmingly red on the map of areas in the city which rate poorly. Lower Manhattanites, along with people in some other areas in the outer boroughs, apparently eat a bureaucrat-endorsed amount of veggies daily. Less-obedient people in other neighborhoods apparently do not eat “enough,” with up to 26% of people having responded to the one-day survey that on the previous day, they had eaten no fresh fruits or vegetables. That’s “400% less than Manhattanites!” I can see the stats-mongers screaming.

To remedy this, the city wants to recruit people to run fruit stands in these “underserved” neighborhoods, so that the people there will buy and eat the approved amount of fresh foods and thereby have lower rates of everything bad. They are calling it the Green Carts program. A few problems I will note:

more »

I got a letter from HPD today inviting Bushwick residents to a seminar on bedbugs, “including how to recognize them, prevent infestation, and eliminate them from the home.” The meeting is Wednesday, March 12 from 6-8PM at 195 Linden Street at the Hope Gardens projects. Hm, I thought the idea was to avoid infestations.

Bushwick has an incredible, free STD/health clinic.

No fancy double entendre headlines on this one. It’s about as simple as that.

I don’t want to brag, but this author has been to so many free clinics in his 31 years, that finding a clean, efficient clinic in the heart of his hood was a pleasant surprise (lived here for 18 months, before Greenpoint, LIC, LES — NYC for 9 years).

I like to get tested once a year if I’m not in a relationship. As a sexually active hetero male, the motivation is the responsibility to the lovely ladies that I engage. Being the uninsured American, I’ve had ample opportunity to survey the free STD clinics of NYC…

And I have got to tell you:

The LES STD clinic was kind of shady back in 2000, located on Ludlow Street, SE corner of Delancey (probably got moved because of the ol’ gentrification — and in fact I think it was a community outreach and not the city’s). When I went there it felt more like a poor person’s living room, with masonite walls and grubby carpeting. They took my blood and the sticker sucked –- I mean, how hard is it to drain blood without leaving a fucking black and blue mark? My veins are awesome too. There weren’t many people there though, which always helps. (I actually saw a guy throw himself off the roof of the building about a week later after he found out he had the HIVs… I mean –- he hung there for about 30 minutes while cops tried to talk him down, before he let himself go. Another story altogether.)

Besides the LES, I went to the Chelsea STD clinic 3 years ago and it was the WORST EVER. I have never been cruised by more gay men who were clearly HIV-positive in my entire life. The wait was horrible, the staff was minimal, the prostitutes were plentiful –- I mean, whores coming in right from work. I heard they renovated it but it still looks like a fucking prison -– and you can feel the diseases trying to get into you while you wait in that gross room. I thought I left with something I didn’t bring in! Ninth Ave between 27th and 28th if you want to be really punk about your shit.

But let’s face it –- you don’t go and do this without washing your hands a million times throughout the experience no matter where you go…

Unless you go to 335 Central Avenue where the staff are AWESOME and friendly and helpful. It’s the cleanest, best free clinic and they offer all kinds of stuff. I got my Hep B vaccine. Free. I didn’t even ask to see a doctor and they plopped me in front of one who asked me about my habits, took some time to talk to me about general mental health, and then looked at my junk to make sure I didn’t have anything growing on it.

How awesome is that for Bushwick? Hooray for Bushwick Free Clinic.

STD Services, Emergency Contraception, Hepatitis B vaccine, Hepatitis A vaccine for high risk patients, Hepatitis C screening for high risk patients, HIV Counseling and Rapid Testing.

Bushwick Clinic | 335 Central Avenue | 718-573-4820
Mon-Fri 9-4 (closes at 12pm every last Wed. of the month)
1-800-825-5448 – NYC free health clinic info line

by shaftbean, from the BushwickBK.com flickr pool

Can’t we catch a break? Once again, Bushwick takes a number one on the shit list, this time for bedbug complaints. Again, I emphasize that this is bedbug complaints, not actual bedbug infestations. I was under the impression that Greenpoint is actually the epicenter of the bedbug “epidemic” (everything bad these days is an epidemic, right?). But since Greenpoint is heavy on the homeownership and Bushwick is decidedly not, Bushwick tops the complaints. Just a theory — if anyone has some harder facts, please post below.

Not to say Bushwick isn’t known lately for its bedbug problem. If I were to take a word association test right now, “McKibben” would have me blurting out “bedbugs!” in a half-second. There are apparently buildings being scarlet lettered to warn prospective tenants and shame landlords.

I can’t figure out from research whether or not the DDT ban really is to blame for the reemergence of bedbugs, but until someone comes up with a silver bullet, we’ll have to keep washing everything in hot water and rejecting cool curbside furniture finds.