Pigeon 100 Club

By Julia Shirar

Whitey raises and flies pigeons from a rooftop in Bushwick, New York. He was born in Greenpoint and lived in Bushwick during the fires wars, planned shrinkage, and the red-lining of the neighborhood, a time when Bushwick and Harlem resembled war zones.  At that time there were at least fifty rooftops boasting pigeon coops of both flying and racing pigeons where he lived. Whitey started caring for pigeons at the age of fourteen.  He learned from neighborhood men, some who trained carrier pigeons in World War II. They would give him food and pigeons in exchange for his work. He began with a small coop on a fire escape and worked his way up to a rooftop where he still flies pigeons today.