In the heart of Bushwick is a green superblock named in honor of Maria Hernandez, a neighborhood activist who lived across from the park on Starr Street. It is a park for active recreation with a playground, dog run, basketball, volleyball, skateboarding, soccer, basketball, and handball. But the layout of its paths dates to 1896, when this park opened to the public with the landscape design of McGolrick (formerly Winthrop) Park in Greenpoint and Washington Square Park in Manhattan.
Facing the park’s north side is P.S. 123 Suydam School, designed by the great C.B.J. Snyder in 1904. As with all of his schools, its exterior has an appearance informed by history. Among its distinguished alumni are Mayor Eric Adams and actress Rosie Perez.
The center of the park has a plaza where its two diagonal paths meet. The park building dates to the 1930s. In front of it as a skateboarding circuit, too small to appear on the Parks Department’s list of skate parks.
The center of the circular plaza has a mosaic of a green parrot installed in 2007 by Camila Gelpi. The tropical bird is in recognition of Bushwick’s sizable Puerto Rican community.
The southeast corner of Maria Hernandez Park has walkup buildings on three of its four corners. Most of them still have their Italianate cornices that appear on brownstones and walkups throughout the city.
Across Knickerbocker Avenue from the park’s southeast corner is Ayat, a Palestinian restaurant that first opened in Bay Ridge and then grew with branches in East Village, Ditmas Park, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The interior is tastefully designed with fake trees for the olive orchard look and murals relating to the Palestinian movement. Ayat offers food alongside activism.
Diagonally across from Ayat is a supermarket with a faux Italian second floor installed in 2013. The interior is brightly lit with yellow paint on the walls and ceiling, and arches above the aisles to evoke the feel of a European marketplace. Like its western neighbor Williamsburg, Bushwick is home to creative professionals. The street vent here is covered in stickers and graffiti tags in the same way that many people here are covered in tattoos. Kevin documents street vents the same way that he does with lampposts, inspired by Linneaus’ categorization of flora and fauna.
On the Starr Street block where Maria Hernandez lived, organizing block parties and battling drug dealers, the walkups are detailed in their appearance. Why don’t we build homes like these anymore? Fitting into the symmetry is a fallout shelter sign, a relic of the Cold War that can be seen throughout the city.
There are certain invasive species that are prevalent throughout the five boroughs, such as the ailanthus altissima, spotted lanternfly, and lockboxes that are a telltale sign of a short-term rental, despite the citywide ban on AirBnB.
Murals and tattoos are not the only artistic outlets for Bushwick residents. On Starr Street next to the park, I found a car covered entirely in stickers and spray paint, but like the nearby lockboxes, something about this car seems fishy. There’s no license plate on the front nor a registration sticker. The plate on the back is from Pennsylvania and I’ve seen plenty of cars in the city from the Keystone State, likely for insurance reasons. I couldn’t determine the year, model, and make of this car, the comment section is open.
In 1892 when the City of Brooklyn was acquiring the site of this park, George V. Brower of the Brooklyn Parks Commission received an Olmstedian design for Bushwick Park that included winding trails, an overlook, pond, and lawn. It would have been a scenic attraction but a simpler design was approved. Hernandez was a mother of three, gunned down in 1989 at age 34, with hundreds of neighbors attending her funeral. The park renaming for Hernanez forever preserves her love for this neighborhood.
A couple of miles away across Newtown Creek, Crescent Street “begins” at a small triangle park where you will find a small sundial that no longer works, as its gnomon (the part that casts the shadow) is missing. Four names are inscribed under it and I only know two; if you know the other two, Comments are open. Brian Watkins, from Provo, Utah, was visiting NYC with his parents in September 1990 to take in the U.S. Open when he was killed while fighting off robbers in a subway station. One is Maria Hernandez.
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5/10/25