Variety Coffee
262 Linden St, Brooklyn, NY 11237
Old school signage is one of the ways the ghosts of the neighborhood stay with us. If you take a look up, you can see the “Variety Coffee Roasters” sign hanging by the power lines. This sign was repurposed from the old Paint Fair Store, which once occupied this storefront. Ironically, it closed in the early 2000s, before it could benefit from Bushwick’s crowning as the street art center of the country.
The Progressive Gentrifiers Start A Facebook Group
For the neighborhood
cause the neighborhood never communicated before Facebook
and it seems that the old residents don’t care about the trash
so maybe they don’t care about the neighborhood
and so maybe they shouldn’t live there
if they can’t be productive members of society
like The Young Lords. You know The Young Lords?
Our Facebook group is for people
who want to make change
Every once in a while someone says something how angry they are about being displaced
then we gotta block them cause we tryna stay positive here!
& it’s not like we’re the ones that raised the rent so high
or neglected the previous tenants so much that they had to leave.
We just want a good neighborhood to live in
Like everybody else
Matter fact if anything we just tryna contribute
to a previously labeled bad neighborhood
and help to bring awareness to the community’s problems
and by problems we mean there’s a new homeless shelter
being proposed cause people who can’t afford the rent
have the nerve to sleep in the park
but don’t worry if the signatures against building the shelter don’t work
we’ll start a neighborhood watch party to help keep the neighborhood safe
and by safe we mean calling the cops on anyone who looks suspicious
and by suspicious ofcourse we don’t mean mean non-white
we’ve been working towards understanding own internalized biases
We follow activists on Instagram.
Oh Man!
So many good infographics on Instagram.
Really breaks the whole racism thing down.
We’ve added some links to our Facebook! Check it out sometime!
& let us know if you recommend any books to read or podcasts to listen to.
We love podcasts.
So hey! Since you grew up in the neighborhood
when it was a shithole —is that what they called it back then?
We wanna know if you’ve gone to any of the community meetings
or helped picked up the trash or what your thoughts are
about the new neighborhood clean up initiative
or have you at least joined the Facebook group ?
there’s a lot of good work happening on the Facebook group
check out the pictures of the volunteers helping your people
aren’t these your people? Here we are providing mutual aid.
These people gave us permission to take their picture.
They don’t speak english
But one of our volunteers speaks spanish kinda. haha.
Hey, do you speak spanish?
We could really use an authentic Latina on the team.
What are you doing for your people?
Maybe it would be good to come volunteer with us some time.
I mean if this is your neighborhood and you’re so angry
about displacement how about you displace some trash haha.
That’s a bad joke but seriously everyone should do their part
Man, because we are exhausted!
Do you think we want to live here?
In a place that the politicians ignore.
We could move you know? But we truly love it here.
It’s so diverse. We really see the potential.
But man are we tired of not being heard.
Like do you know how much work goes into living in a neighborhood
where it feels like no one cares
and so then we have to take matters into our own hands
because it seems like everyone
who lives here has given up hope?
Do you know what that feels like?
Do you know?
Do you know?