Customers waiting in front of Cafe Ghia. Bushwick businesses are experiencing almost 50% more business than usual. (all photos by Katarina Hybenova)
While many of the neighborhoods in the tri-state area have been devastated by the ravages of hurricane Sandy, Bushwick was “miraculously” spared any serious damage. A large number of Bushwick residents who regularly commute to Manhattan have been forced to stay in the neighborhood, and Bushwick business owners report more customers than ever. “It feels like Bushwick is in this protective bubble,” said Nyssa Frank, the owner of Living Gallery, which organizes art classes and exhibitions. “We were so lucky…”
Nyssa wasn’t the only one mentioning the “Bushwick bubble.” Gina Leone and Ben Warren, the owners of bars The Bodega and Heavy Woods mentioned it as well. They said that they see about 60% more customers than usual. “It’s really terrible what happened in other parts of the city,” said Ben sadly. Heavy Woods is planning a benefit night for the areas that suffered the most.
It is true that Bushwick was incredibly lucky. Our reader Erick Verela asked on Bushwick Daily’s Facebook page a question probably on many of our minds: “Should we feel guilty?” I believe that we shouldn’t feel guilty; we should feel very grateful and ask ourselves how can we be helpful.
Margherita and Zalmen from Loom Yoga Center.
Loom Yoga Center is organizing a collection of food, clothing, and other useful items to donate to shelters all around the city. Zalmen Labin, the owner of the yoga studio, said that they see about 25% more people at every class. The studio is functioning on its regular schedule, although with many substitute teachers.
Kim, a Bushwick resident who works at Cambridge University Press located in SoHo, Manhattan, said that their offices are out of power and therefore closed. She was waiting to be seated at Café Ghia. “There is a 15-minute wait,” said Kim. Café Ghia was as full on a Thursday afternoon as it usually is on the weekend. Café Ghia’s co-owner Anna D’Agrosa was so busy serving her customers she didn’t even have time to talk to us.
Brunch at Cafe Ghia on Thursday afternoon.
Jerry Cronin, the owner of café Three Angels by the Park, which is named after his three daughters, said that his customer base doubled. “And you know what is the best thing about it?” said Jerry, whose friendly personality makes him very popular among Bushwick residents old and new, “…all the new faces that are coming in!”
Hair colorist Chelsea Pickthorn, who recently opened her salon on Wyckoff Ave, was of the same opinion. “For every Manhattan customer who cancels an appointment, we get another one from Brooklyn. People are walking around, exploring their neighborhood, and making their appointment the next day.” Chelsea said that she has seen an increase of about 30%.
While Bushwick business owners are very busy serving the locals, they all feel very sympathetic toward the areas that were not so lucky. Every business owner we spoke with today expressed interest in organizing a collection or a benefit to help. Bushwick Daily is currently discussing an all-Bushwick fundraiser night with a Red Cross representative. If you are a Bushwick business who would be interested in participating and donating a percentage of your sales from a fundraiser to the Red Cross, please contact us at bushwickdailyATgmail.com. [Update: We are compiling a list of Sandy relief organizations that are accepting monetary donations.]
Thank you!
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About Katarina Hybenova
Proud founder of Bushwick Daily. She writes, takes photos, and sometimes video. Born and raised in Slovakia, she has studied in Prague, Leuven and New York, traveled the world only to find home in Bushwick or should we say Ridgewood :) She is interested in yoga, running, human & cat friends.
Not sure if American Red Cross has responded to many of these areas nor do I feel comfortable with our neighborhood supporting them. Can we look for more direct local organizations to help our fellow New Yorkers???
Also, any reason why if we were unaffected our local key food has chosen to only take cash?
Thanks!
Diana, thanks for your comment. Good point definitely. Can you recommend any other, more direct organizations?
I saw that C-Town wasn’t taking cards, weird. We’ll look into that.
Thanks,
Katarina
Hey Diana and Katarina! I actually just came back from Coney Island where I spent the afternoon handing out hundreds of galleons of drinking water and some food. I work for a ministry here in Brooklyn. We put our usual kids’ program on halt for now and focus on emergency relief for far rockaway and coney island. We gave out about six truckloads of water and food yesterday and today and waiting on more supplies, we would SO GREATLY APPRECIATE any kind of help. Any kind of donations of non-perishable food, water, blankets and batteries. we are going out again tomorrow around noon, and then every single afternoon next week. please contact me asap if you can help, I can’t post a phone number here, but email me at kathrin.beyer@gmx.de and I can give you the ministry’s number and my own number. Any help will be appreciated, you have no idea what those people are going through, I was SO shocked today! Most of the people who came to pick up water and some snacks have been without heat, light or running water for four days in a row. supermarkets are shut down. tens of thousands of people are stuck with no access to fresh food, and running out of supplies, especially water. People are desperate out there, and no relief organisation has been out there yet. Feel free to contact me with any questions! Thank you! Kathrin
Earlier today we saw on the news either breezy point or rockaways had a local church gathering items for the people affected in the area. Direct support would be best if we can identify those local resources.
The church in the Rockaways is St. Francis de Sales on 129th Street and Rockaway Beach Blvd. My neighbor and I will be driving there tomorrow morning. If anyone would like to bring supplies by my apartment we can load them up. My email address is pazzylambdin@gmail.com
MOST NEEDED ITEMS:
Cleaning supplies (gloves, surgical masks, solvents/cleaners, shovels, contractor bags)
Generators
Pumps
GASOLINE
D-Batteries
Boots
Hot Coffee
Chelsea Pickthorn is an example of where Bushwick went yuppy.
Staten Islanders were also hit very hard. I’m going down tomorrow to help my parents, who lost pretty much everything they own and still have a basement full of water. Many others are in the same position. I will try to get the names of the local organizations that are accepting donations.