Bushwick Open Studios, pt 3- some history

Bushwick made national news in 1977 when the New York City Blackout unleashed a riot that left the already impoverished neighborhood destitute–134 stores looted, 44 of them burnt to the ground, fires flickering for a week. In the late sixties, unscrupulous real estate agents began “blockbusting,” leaving disturbing messages about the influx of Southern Blacks and Puerto Ricans to encourage the historically white homeowners to sell. Bought cheap, those homes were sold at much higher prices under bad loans and abandoned by their new owners within a few years. In 1972, the city had estimated at least 500 homes in the neighborhood stood empty. Hoping to collect on insurance policies, some desperate owners set their homes on fire.

Gang crime also proliferated, starting fires that would rip through tightly packed wooden frame buildings in order to collect wiring and copper once the fire department had tamped the flames. Some parents would put their children to sleep in street clothes in case their building was ignited during the night. When the city nearly went bankrupt, budget cuts drastically reduced the number of police officers and fire fighters, allowing the mayhem to grow in poor neighborhoods like Bushwick. One apartment building was raided by a crew who started pulling piping from the walls; residents phone calls to the police precinct went unanswered for three weeks. The Blackout simply released what little was still being controlled.

The Eighties crack epidemic naturally scoured Bushwick. One area was dubbed The Well for its ceaseless drug supply. Abandoned buildings made natural havens for the city’s poor and desperate. Gang violence escalated. The often berated “draconian” crime reduction policies that Giuliani instated, however, helped reduce Bushwick crime 66% between 1990 and 1998. As the neighborhood calmed down, across the first decade of this century, artists moved to the large loft spaces as other neighborhoods got too expensive.

Now, Bushwick thrives. Shared work spaces like Bat Haus (279 Starr Street, off the Jefferson stop) and 3rd Ward (195 Morgan Avenue) provide space for small business owners to operate outside of their home among other young, idea-driven entrepreneurs. These spaces offer classes in everything from how to write an “About You” page on a website, to woodworking, to mastering various computer programs. Of course, crime remains in Bushwick as it does in every neighborhood in New York, but the graffiti is renowned and respected, and street scenes are often being shot by aspiring directors and photographers.

At Bushwick Open Studios, the history of the neighborhood is washed out in the ardent art enthusiasm. In a few years, like SoHo, that too will be forgotten. Who knows what art does to you personally, but it certainly changes a neighborhood.