¿Que pasa en Bushwick, Brooklyn?

It is often said that you can take the boy out of the 'hood but that you can't take the 'hood out of the boy. My sentiments are such that every time I visit the neighborhood I grew up in many childhood memories surface.
That neighborhood is Bushwick, Brooklyn, a neighborhood that was predominantly Puerto Rican and ignored during the latter part of the 20th century. The 21st century brought many changes in an attempt to address deteriorated housing conditions, increase economic development opportunities, reduce drug dealing activities, and enhance the quality of life. Bushwick today is a neighborhood with a heavily concentrated Latino population, much more diversified than when I was a kid there. It is still a place I can easily visit and feel very much at home.

While many were able to buy homes in the neighborhood and maintain residence there,the fact that many have been devastated by the mortgage and foreclosure crisis is saddening. The neighborhood has suffered its own share of gentrification in recent years, while the scammers and leeches in the mortgage industry continue to defraud people.


A three-part series by Eva Sanchis in El Diario-La Prensa:

1. Bushwick se muere/Bushwick is dying
2. Obama llega a Bushwick... tras los buitres/Obama comes to Bushwick, but the vultures arrive sooner
3. ¿Dónde está el estímulo de Obama?/Where did the stimulus funds go?

El Diario - An SOS for Bushwick
New York’s housing market is largely rentals, but neighborhoods such as Bushwick, Brooklyn have been devastated by the foreclosure crisis. And they need more help—now. Cont-->