Bushwick Is on the Rebound Following Decades of Unrest

Business Owners: Area Is Still In Flux

Of all the places to send tourists, the city chose Bushwick.

The Bushwick Mural illustrates the neighborhood’s history-first an immigrant’s haven, then a ghetto; moving through fire and blight and into a period of rebirth. The mural, which can be found on the perimeter of an elevated baseball field along Knickerbocker Avenue between Woodbine Street and Madison Street, was painted with permission by students from Bushwick High School in 2007.

Mayor Bloomberg and NYC & Company, which promotes the city, gave top-billing to Bushwick in a marketing program called “Neighborhood x Neighborhood.”

The initiative aims to get tourists to go beyond Midtown and explore outer-borough destinations.

Popular Bushwick eateries, venues and shops were featured along side points of interest in Fort Greene and Williamsburg.

Many of the images on the Bushwick Mural show reading, writing and creativity as a means to usher in a brighter future for the neighborhood and its residents. The messages give a sense of history while expounding on the need to move forward in a positive way.

But, Bushwick’s inclusion in the campaign’s seminal push tells a story. While Fort Greene has its Barclay’s Center and Williamsburg is roundly considered the hip-icenter of Brooklyn, many of Bushwick’s points of interest encircle a park named for the neighborhood resident and anti-drug crusader who was brutally murdered a few blocks away.

“[Bushwick] used to have a bad reputation—no lying, we still have a bad reputation,” 83rd Precinct Community Council President Barbara Smith told the council Mar. 19.

But, as she indicated, that reputation is changing.

Paris Smeraldo, owner of Northeast Kingdom—a restaurant spotlighted by the city’s neighborhood guide—saw the area as the next Williamsburg when he opened Northeast Kingdom at 18 Wyckoff Ave. in 2004.