“We Are without God Now”: Benign Neglect and Planned Destruction of Brooklyn’s Bushwick Neighborhood

Abstract

Focusing on the neighborhood of Bushwick from the post–World War II (WWII) era to the onset of the neighborhood’s gentrification, this paper traces the fundamental significance of race in the policy decisions that led to the evolution of Bushwick from a vibrant middle-class community to one of concentrated poverty and blight by the end of the twentieth century. Drawing on firsthand accounts, senate hearings, court trials, media accounts, as well as the secondary literature, this paper shows how policy actions and inaction led to the inevitable destruction in the neighborhood during the blackout of 1977. Although the blackout marks one of the most turbulent periods in the neighborhood’s history, the community’s resilience is accentuated throughout the destruction and its aftermath. Today, as Bushwick’s residents face a new threat in the form of gentrification, this paper seeks to situate this contemporary development within the historical and ongoing significance of race in urban studies.