Two important meetings that dealt with a question as old as New York were held last night in Bushwick. The first one, a regularly planned Community Board 4 meeting was set to discuss a proposed rezoning of nine square blocks off the Flushing Ave J train stop, near Woodhull Hospital, in order to create an apartment complex with two added streets, open space, and a retail area. (Read Meredith Hoffman’s exhaustive report at DNAinfo).

A prominent Bushwick-based artist, Jules de Balincourt called another meeting, which unfortunately overlapped with the Community Board 4 meeting, to discuss how artists can stay in the neighborhood. The task of the day was to find a way that would allow artists to buy property in Bushwick and resolve the vulnerability inevitably carried with a lease.

If Read Property Group’s proposal gets the go-ahead from the city (after recommendations of Community Board 4 and the borough president are made), we will witness the erection 70 and 80-foot-tall apartment towers containing 977 apartments. Even though the project includes affordable housing for 24% of the units, the question remains: What will the impact of this project and other similar projects on Bushwick be, and will we be able to stay?