Bushwick has some work to do on the healthy living front.
According to the Bushwick Community Health Profile, only 68 percent of residents consider themselves healthy; in 2012, Bushwick had the highest rate of stroke hospitalizations in the entire city with 470 per 100,000 people.
It’s not hard to see why.
First of all, affordable, healthy food is hard to come by. Even though Bushwick isn’t technically a food desert, the neighborhood has only 104 square feet of supermarket space per 100 people, which is one of the lowest rates in the city. Overall, Brooklyn averages about 156 square feet per 100 people, and New York City averages 177.
Bushwick residents also lack access to healthcare. As of 2013, 29 percent of adults in the neighborhood didn’t have health insurance, accounting for the third-highest rate of uninsured in the city.
Bushwick also has the eighth-highest number of tobacco retailers in New York City.
The good news is, even though Bushwick has just a handful of gyms, residents are about as physically active as people in the rest of NYC. The neighborhood has 14 parks and about 1.4 percent of land is zoned as park area, according to the Bushwick Community Profile.
That looks pretty good when you compare it to neighboring Bed-Stuy, which has a similar rate; but Brooklyn Community District 1, which includes East Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and Williamsburg, has twice that number with 28 parks.
So those are your Bushwick Fun Facts of the week. Have a question about the neighborhood that you want us to try and answer using data? Leave a comment below!
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Cover image courtesy of Marion Michele
