The Vanguard Alights

THIS sprawling neighborhood in northern Brooklyn was one of the borough’s first European settlements, and has been known for many things over its long history: for its farms, then for its breweries and factories, then for the blight and crime that descended in the decades after those employers closed.

 

Pages from that history are always on display for the neighborhood’s more than 100,000 residents. There are the wide streets and orderly grid of an area that was tamed by development early on. There are the mansions, churches and social halls, looking worn now, from a bustling middle period. And there are weedy vacant lots under the elevated train tracks on Broadway, Bushwick’s southern boundary, which has never fully recovered from looting and rioting after the blackout of 1977.

 

There are ample signs, too, of a new era, at least on the neighborhood’s western edge, where artistic and relatively prosperous newcomers have colonized an industrial zone and begun settling into the residential blocks. Many are transplants from adjacent Williamsburg.

 

One of those residents, an entrepreneur named Katja Bartholmess, said it was precisely this new activity that attracted her and her husband, Daniel Susla, to the apartment they bought on Knickerbocker Avenue this year.

 

“I like areas that are transitional, where things are happening, where I can see potential,” said Ms. Bartholmess, who runs a branding strategy company, Copygold.com, and sells baby clothing at Babysnappy.com. As a native of East Berlin who saw her city grow after the wall fell, she added, “I view transition and change as a very positive force.”

 

Their journey to Bushwick, like many others recently, began in Williamsburg, where Mr. Susla, a music executive, was living when Ms. Bartholmess immigrated from Germany. They moved into an apartment on the neighborhood’s south side and stayed for four years.

 

“We had a big patio there, so we had concerts, and masquerade parties, and an underground restaurant for a few months,” Ms. Bartholmess recalled. Still, after a few years, a staleness set in as the neighborhood gentrified. “It’s now a perfect place for someone else, not me,” she said.

 

Last year, Ms. Bartholmess spent the weekend at a rooftop party in Bushwick and declared her love for the area. She and Mr. Susla were married in September and closed on a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment by the end of June.

 

Ms. Bartholmess would not say how much they paid, but similar units in the Knick, the converted former grocery store where they live at 314 Knickerbocker Avenue, list for $500,000 to $600,000. They are inexpensive compared with much of Williamsburg, but on the high side for Bushwick, where more than half of the population receives some form of public assistance, according to city data.

 

Much of what drew her to the area is new, like Bushwick’s thriving art scene and restaurants like Northeast Kingdom, and the gleaming natural-foods store Hana Food.

 

Among her favorite places in the neighborhood is Maria Hernandez Park, named for a longtime neighborhood activist who battled drug dealers and was shot in her home. Now, Ms. Bartholmess said, there are basketball courts, a farmers’ market, and playgrounds that give the park and the blocks around it a positive energy.

 

WHAT YOU’LL FIND

 

Nadine Whitted, the district manager of Community Board 4, which represents the area, said she found the presence of the new residents refreshing, though she added, “The rate that these people have decided to pay in terms of rent sometimes makes it difficult for people who can’t afford that.”

 

And, she said, she worries what might happen if the newcomers tire of Bushwick and move on to cooler frontiers.

 

What is permanent in Bushwick is the expanse — more than 30 blocks from east to west— of two- and three-family buildings that make up most of the housing stock. Most are brick or covered in aluminum or vinyl siding, though there are some rows of brownstones along Bushwick Avenue, which is also home to the neighborhood’s remaining historic mansions.

 

Ms. Whitted said the struggle for government resources related to jobs, housing and education has at times been difficult. For example, she said, the 83rd Precinct, which patrols the area, can use more officers.

 

“Right now we’re just making sure that our whole district gets its fair share of the pie,” she said.

 

City statistics show major crimes in the precinct are down 75 percent since 1990 and about 20 percent since 2001. Robberies in 2010 were down 16.5 percent from 2001, to 460 from 551, and felony assaults were down 30 percent in that period. Burglaries dropped 8.2 percent in the decade to 479, from 522, but murders have held relatively steady since the late 1990s; there were 13 in 2010.

 

Ms. Whitted said the neighborhood’s low years were the result of a confluence of factors including the blackout and fires, and disinvestment from landlords and the city. For years, she said, press coverage was negative; that has changed with the new residents’ arrival, and the swift changes have been a bit jarring for some who were in Bushwick all along.

 

Still, she added, “You may not like it, but they’re here. What are you going to do? You invite them in to make this home, and help them treat it like home.”

 

WHAT YOU’LL PAY

 

Randy Saa, the sales director for Brooklyn and Queens at Century 21 American Homes, said single-family houses were rare. But many homeowners rent out an apartment, typically on the ground floor, to bring in money that can help with a renovation or make qualifying for a mortgage easier.

 

Mr. Saa said two-family houses in much of the neighborhood sell for $400,000 to $500,000 depending on condition and presence of original details, whether they are three or four stories, and proximity to a train line. Three-family houses sell for $500,000 to $700,000, he said.

 

Ms. Bartholmess’s broker, Tom Le, a senior vice president at the Corcoran Group, said buildings farther to the west, near Flushing Avenue — and closer to Manhattan and Williamsburg — can sell for as much as $800,000. One-bedroom condominiums sell for around $300,000, he said, depending on size and the presence of outdoor space, and two-bedrooms are $475,000 to $600,000. Similar units could be 40 percent more expensive in Williamsburg, he said.

 

For rentals, Mr. Le said one-bedroom units were around $1,300 per month and up. Two-bedrooms are $1,400 to $1,800, he and Mr. Saa said.

 

Mr. Saa said much of the area’s new condo construction was badly timed, as it came up for sale just as the market slumped and did not sell. Several such buildings have shifted to rental and are now doing relatively well, he said.

 

WHAT TO DO

 

Arts in Bushwick, a volunteer organization, produces neighborhood art festivals, including the Bushwick Open Studios. The commercial streets are lined with restaurants, from tacos and steam-table fare along Broadway to a more upscale stretch on Wyckoff Avenue outside the Jefferson Street subway. On summer afternoons residents socialize on those streets, along with Myrtle and Knickerbocker Avenues, riding bikes, playing dominoes or eating flavored shaved ices from vendors.

 

THE SCHOOLS

 

Bushwick is home to more than a dozen elementary schools. Among the largest is Public School 145, on Noll Street near the western end, where 32.4 percent of tested students were at or above grade level in English, and 51 percent in math. At P.S. 123, on Irving Avenue, the percentages were 37.4 in English and 51.4 in math. At P.S. 376, on Harman Street near the neighborhood’s center, 40 percent were proficient in English and 57.1 percent in math.

 

Middle schools include Junior High School 162 on Willoughby Avenue, where 17.6 percent of tested students were proficient in English, 30 percent in math. At No. 291, on Palmetto Street, 14.1 percent of tested students were proficient in English, 23.3 percent in math.

 

High schools include the EBC High School for Public Service, on DeKalb Avenue, where in 2010 college-bound seniors scored an average of 376 on their reading SATs, 358 in math and 368 in writing, compared with city averages of 439, 462 and 434, respectively. At the Bushwick Leaders High School for Academic Excellence, on Bushwick Avenue, the scores were 357 in reading, 345 in math and 351 in writing.

 

THE COMMUTE

 

The L train runs along Wyckoff Avenue, near the northern edge of the neighborhood, and the J and Z trains run along Broadway, to the south. The M train cuts through the middle, running on an elevated track above Myrtle Avenue. Travel time to Midtown is about 40 minutes.

 

THE HISTORY

 

The area takes its name from the town the Dutch established in 1660, Boswijck, or “heavy woods,” according to the Encyclopedia of New York City. German immigrants arrived in the mid-1800s, and by the 1880s a string of breweries were thriving on a stretch known as Brewers’ Row.

 

 

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Copyright © 2011 The New York Times Company. Reprinted with Permission.  Photos should be credited as follows: Evan Sung/The New York Times.