Bed Stuy/ Bushwick

Another made-up BK neighborhood: ‘Bedwick’

Less ridiculous than any other name people can think of
Less ridiculous than any other name people can think of

No matter how much any reasonable person howls, real estate hustlers are always trying to think of new names for Brooklyn neighborhoods. RAMBO. Parkwanus. And now, because real estate companies are clearly run by people who love portmanteaus a bit too much, comes “Bedwick.” “What’s Bedwick?”, you ask? It’s Bed-Stuy. It’s just that it’s near Bushwick and real estate agents are clearly banking on their clients being complete freaking idiots.

What is Bedwick, aside from life imitating Brokelandia? Well, keeping in mind that it’s a lazily created smashup of words that sounds suspiciously like “bedwet,” Bedwick is supposed to be…the area south of Broadway on the border between Bed-Stuy and Bushwick. Which, if you aren’t addicted to portmanteaus, is popularly known as “Bed-Stuy,” being that it’s south of Broadway.

Curbed noticed the name for the neighborhood in a new listing for luxury apartments that ARE CLEARLY IN BED-STUY, but aren’t being marketed as such because…ugh, who even knows why. In this specific instance, it could be a shell game, so that we roll our eyes about this nonsense instead of noticing that someone is trying to pass off studio apartments in Bed-Stuy for $1650/month. Which, hey, wait a minute. That’s also terrible. We know literacy tests are illegal, but anyone who purports to believe in Bedwick should be stripped of the right to vote.

9 Comments

  1. Kelly

    I don’t really see the point in writing an article just because one person called it that. Bushweast! See, I just made up a name for a new neighborhood where Bushwick meets East New York! If it were a thing that agents were actually commonly doing, it might be worth writing about but it’s not. Also, when you mention, “Bedwick,” I actually know exactly the area in reference, as opposed to Bedstuy, which is massive and unspecific.

    • al fair

      I think there’s valid in nipping this shit in the bud. berwick doesn’t have to be a trend, the making up neighborhoods to obscure their location and charge crazy high rents is the trend.

      • Brian

        Hmmm… Well when you think about it it really doesn’t obscure the location at all. Like Kelly said, it gives you a more immediate sense of the location. Even though we think it’s cute to conceive of neighborhoods as discrete units — THIS IS BED-STUY… cross the street… THIS IS BUSHWICK — but there are no actual borders, and whatever community vibes/aesthetics/ etc that you’re going for obviously bleed over the edges.

  2. notnewtoNY

    A) Kelly – Bed Stuy is a very specific neighborhood, I’m sorry that you’ve only lived in NYC for a year or two and are completely ignorant; B) $1650 for a studio??!?!!?! Fuck NYC real estate, that’s obscene and makes me never ever want to move.

  3. Well, the listing seems to have removed the offending term. I hate these stupid made up neighborhood names.

    Then again, I still live in REAL america, where Bushwick is a place normal people would never bother to visit except for the odd foray into an illegal music venue/drug deal.

    • al fair

      i assume you mean to imply that bushwick has a high crime rate, and not that ‘normal’ people are white or have money, but normal people have always lived, worked and partied in bushwick. it wasn’t a no man’s land before hipsters and yuppies started moving there.

      • I spent plenty of time there for the aforementioned reasons in the 90s and beyond and, yeah it was pretty much no-mans land compared to places that have actual stuff going on. Sorry you had to grow up there.

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