[UPDATE: Please read editor’s note regarding the use of 2000 Census Data in this article and an attached apology.]

Since mid-summer I started noticing tags like the one on the above photo popping up in Bushwick and on trains. The notion that Bushwick is gentrifying is so ubiquitous that it’s mentioned on the first line of its Wikipedia page. As a fairly new resident to Bushwick, I can’t help but wonder if I am also contributing to gentrification, simply by residing here.

The common consensus seems to be that Bushwick is in fact gentrifying, but what does that really mean? Is it simply a matter of “White Bodies” moving into Bushwick causing minorities to be pushed out? While the collective voices seem to answer back with a resounding “YES,” I believe I would be doing my community, my neighbors, my new home, a disservice if I didn’t take a closer look at this pressing issue from a more objective perspective. I decided to undertake this task by examining U.S. and local census data that show the population trends over the past decades.