Yes, raccoons have been living in New York City for ages, and Bushwick is no exception. I have seen a couple of raccoons myself, whether it was in my backyard (nope, that wasn’t an oversized cat) or even one by 56 Bogart building (that was an artsy raccoon coming home from Theodore:Art opening, I suspect). Alexander Ritthaler, one of our beloved readers and a Bushwick resident of two years sent us an email about his own raccoon experience recently:
“I was walking down Irving, near Jefferson Ave (not Jefferson St-it’s right by to the Halsey L stop). I saw what I thought was a cat run across the sidewalk at the end of the block. As I got closer, it crossed the sidewalk again and I could distinctly make out that it was a raccoon! I decided I had to follow it to take a picture-I mean how many times do you run across wildlife in the city?”
Alexander proceeded to follow the raccoon attempting to take a picture of the creature, but as we all know raccoons are fast and old iPhones are slow, and so the desired image never came to existence. Anyway, Alexander ran into another Bushwick resident who was also mildly astonished by the occurrence of the raccoon on the street. But guys, be careful, not only raccoons are relatively common in NYC, they are not to be messed with. You don’t want to be scratched by a raccoon, just look at their paws…
In case you encountered a raccoon hanging out in Bushwick, follow the advice below from Health Department of NYC:
Raccoons in NYC What You Need to Know by BushwickDaily
And yes, raccoons can be commonly seen on the subway platforms.