concrete plant and colorful graffiti

Discovering Bushwick

In September, 2016, I ventured out to explore Bushwick, Brooklyn’s latest gentrifying neighborhood. What a great place to observe the process, as it is happening.

Fully loaded Mack trucks roar out of concrete plants, past fences covered with street art, compelling the hipsters to hold their lattes on the sidewalk. Beautiful, stylish models from the city and from around the globe come to pose in front of the dramatic, colorful backgrounds. Since 2011, the Bushwick Collective has attracted world-famous street artists to decorate the large blank walls of the gritty industrial area. Now, it’s becoming a tourist attraction.

The hipsters, street art, and new construction are concentrated around the Morgan Avenue and Jefferson Street subway stations, an area now called “Bushwick,” but which straddles Flushing Avenue, traditionally the border between East Williamsburg and Bushwick proper. But times and boundaries change, as I overheard one hipster confidentally state that Bogart Street (near the Morgan Ave stop) is the “main drag of Bushwick.”

girl in black outift in late afternoon light

That light

pretty Japanese girl in front of street art

Lovely


view of weedy empty lot through hole in fence

Opportunity

bearded hipster in sunglasses by graffiti

Does anyone even know what a Trotskyite is anymore?

new construction i-beams against the sky

Gentrification on the rise

cab of Mack truck by street art

Pre- post-industrial

bicyclist silhouetted against yellow graffiti

Life goes by.

street photographer and woman walkng by train tracks

Why didn’t she stop?

girl in red tank top holding skateboard

“Didn’t have to pay rent for 3 months after our landlord was murdered.”

street art of two skulls facing each other

Till Death Do Us Part, by D*face

sculptue by se yoon park

form, light, and shadow

three african-american guys by graffiti

always a good shot

two abandoned 1950s cars and a trailer

Not wholly gentrified yet