A ’90s Graffiti Artist Reflects on Bushwick: Adam Maldonado, Then And Now

Adam Maldonado is a 52-year-old Bushwick native and a self-described graffiti artist. When I chatted with him recently and the idea of making a comeback came up, he laughed: “At my age, there’s no coming back,” he says.

Maldonado has seen the neighborhood change dramatically over the decades. “We never had this diversity,” he says. “Back in the day it was only Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and Blacks, and that was it, that was the whole neighborhood. Now you see Caucasians and little shops. You see trees, we never had trees! It’s so much better, I love it.”