Tony or hip Bushwick wins two ways
Ryan Jensen, a stay-at-home father and part-time photographer with a second child on the way, was priced out of East Williamsburg and now rents a three-bedroom in Bushwick that is about a 15-minute walk from the L train. "We're the leading edge of gentrification," he said. "We're the people willing to be in these areas where there isn't transportation, or where our kid may be the only white kid in the school, or where there aren't amenities. We have delis, and that's about it."
Mr. Jensen, whose wife is a public-school teacher, said they have also been priced out of the trendier northwestern portion of Bushwick, where he lived in the late 2000s.
"It's become much tonier -- all the shops spruced up and better lit, with more organic food -- and everything is cleaner," he said. "It's an area that's definitely pitching to a younger crew, but I don't want to say 'hipsters,' because I think it's become too tony for hipsters."
Several advocacy groups, like the Northwest Bushwick Community Group, have formed to help original residents stay in the community. The group fought to make a sizable percentage of the Rheingold Brewery development affordable, as well as to get the developer to transfer six lots to nonprofit groups for low-income housing, said Brigette Blood, a founding member of the group and an 11-year Bushwick resident.