Introduction

One of the newest up and coming neighborhoods of New York City, Bushwick of North-Central Brooklyn is home to a wide variety of people, places, and things. Since the year 2000, Williamsburg, Brooklyn’s population has increased by 11,000 people. Bushwick rests right next door to Williamsburg and seems to be following the same path. In the North-West of Brooklyn, Greenpoint and Clinton Hill border Bushwick, lending their own neighborhood cultural qualities to the growing Bushwick. Also, directly North, lies the border between Brooklyn and Queens, creating a unique inter-borough flow into the neighborhood.

Bushwick is home to 5 train lines and 5 bus lines. Most people take the L, J, M or Z trains when traveling out of Brooklyn, to Manhattan or the Bronx. The M and the B15, B26, B38, B52, and B54 buses are used mostly by Bushwick residents and employees traveling within Brooklyn or into Queens. Many more people live in Bushwick than work in Bushwick, so train lines and bus lines tend to be busiest during morning and evening rush hours. In addition, Bushwick is very active at night and on the weekends; train lines are relatively busy and must run relatively often to accommodate travelers between 12 midnight and 5 in the morning.

Bushwick has been generally made up of about 25% Black and 66-69% Latino for the last 20 years. However, in recent years, there has been an incredible rise in non-Hispanic White people between the ages of 18 and 30 moving into the neighborhood. It is gaining recognition for its recent gentrification, as the new home for New York’s “hipsters”. Being right next door to Williamsburg, the kind of Mecca for hipsters, it is  the hipster explosion is noticeably expanding into Bushwick more than any other neighborhood. It is still a little rough the edges, reminding many of old New York, and rent remains relatively low and affordable, which may be the cause of this shifting interest.

Bushwick hosts a number of old parks, cemeteries, and churches. On Bushwick avenue, St. Mark’s Lutheran School and Church stands as a remnant of the early German community in the area. It is a rarely seen Victorian Gothic style building and is revered in the neighborhood. Similarly, the Reformed Church of South Bushwick, near Himrod street, has recently been landmarked by the city of New York. The neighborhood’s home to newer institutions such as the original Ulmer factory of Brooklyn Brewery, which remains the only New York based brewery to date.