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Have any of you hung out in Williamsburg at all recently? It’s really a fucking shame that this place is overrun with such douchebaggery (and I’m not talking about hobos). There are so many cool bars and good cheap restaurants, and you can drink in McCarren Park at night while playing bocce. I went to a place called Union Pool on Saturday night that had a taco truck parked in its awesome backyard outdoor seating area. The place was great, except for the fact that the “bouncer” had a fucking Watson mustache (that took all of my energy not to punch) and looked disgustedly at my NJ ID with a ridiculous air of superiority (that took all of my energy not to punch).
Also, they have this place:
And the dance clubs play Justice and Passion Pit.
It’s not fair. Would these places not exist were it not for the hipsters and trust funds?
The most iconic memory I have of Williamsburg is walking up from the subway station about five years back and seeing two smelly, trust-fund hipsters in a screaming match over when the White Stripes had sold out. They weren’t arguing “ifs”, they were arguing “whens”.
No those places would not exist if it weren’t for hipsters and trust funds. You want to go to cool, gentrified places, you have to deal with a lame mustache and people with money now and then. I know the hipster bashing discussion is never ending, but how is bashing hipsters any different than hipsters bashing everyone else?
Exactly. That place was nowhere near that way before the hipster wave of the past 7 or 8 years.
The entire city for that matter…it just blows my mind. I was in with my kid a few weeks back and I know it’s been 30 some years but I can’t believe that some of the places that used to terrify me and were pretty much just like they were depicted in movies like Taxi Driver and The Warriors, are now these gleeful, shiny places where I can pretty much let my kids walk and bounce in front of me without having to clench them with a tight grip to my side in fear.
I’m just not sure I understand why gentrification and hipsterdom goes hand in hand. A place can be nice and “cool” in the absence of skinny jeans and an “I’m better than you” attitude, right?
alycia said:I know the hipster bashing discussion is never ending, but how is bashing hipsters any different than hipsters bashing everyone else?
I’m not bashing hipsters, I’m bashing assholes that think they’re better than me because their clothes don’t fit, or they are ballsy enough to grow a ridiculous mustache. I would have no problem with hipsters (well, less of a problem at least) if they were nice people. I just don’t respond well to dirty looks, or people making me feel like I don’t belong somewhere.
You kind of answered the question by clarifying that it be nice AND cool. There are plenty of nice places that are pleasant and not run down and nice but not cool. They are areas geared more towards families and adults. But usually when a place is “cool” in that it has things that young people want to do and artists want to live there bands want to play and all that AND it’s nice it’s usually the result of gentrification.
Typically it’s going to start because artists and the creative community (hipsters, if you will) look for places that are more affordable that other people don’t want to live because they are more run down and maybe dangerous. Once enough of them gather to that place, it slowly becomes more desirable not only for other people to live but also for developers and money men to invest in to make better. Eventually…it’s gentrified. And now it’s starting that it’s no longer affordable so soon Williamsburg will be more of an upscale family friendly place rather than a hipster enclave.
Aren’t the hipsters a side effect of the gentrification, or at the very least, a marginal part, seeing as how they themselves tend to lack significant income?
No, it’s usually the hipsters that cause the gentrification since they look for inexpensive places to live. Then they move in, and the area becomes more desirable and starts getting built up and invested in.
Jersey City is a good example of this (although I wouldn’t say it’s yet fully gentrified). When I worked there in ‘92 it was a shit hole. But shortly after they opened up some really inexpensive lofts and the artist types who couldn’t afford Hoboken any more moved to Jersey City. Soon after you had starbucks, and some nicer bars open up, then more desirable housing put in, and 17 years later it’s not a bad place to be.
Kevin said:And now it’s starting that it’s no longer affordable so soon Williamsburg will be more of an upscale family friendly place rather than a hipster enclave.
Yeah, all of the people I know that live there pay upwards of $2000/month in rent. Nice places, but yikes.
Kevin said:Soon after you had starbucks, and some nicer bars open up, then more desirable housing put in, and 17 years later it’s not a bad place to be.
Ev, you need to come check this place out. $10 liter steins – tons of great beers.
So awesome. I actually don’t mind the Jersey City crowd either. Not nearly as hipster-ridden as Brooklyn, and not as snooty and fake as Hoboken. Mostly just normal people with decent jobs and a good education.
When I worked in Jersey City it was like Escape From New York. Even though it was easily walking distance from the path station to our office they had to have a driver in a secured van and a security guard come and pick us up at the path and drive us to the office (which was surrounded by a barbed wire fence). You had to be sure to time your trains JUSTRIGHT because if you didn’t you had to stand at the path station and wait for the van to come back and that was never good.
The sad(?) thing is, you can’t tell where the junkies stop and the hipsters begin because they look EXACTLY THE SAME! It’s like bringing back Heroin Chic from the early 90s, but with a fraction of the class.
Also, I just laughed so hard at this:
“The girls here like it that I’m dirty and I ride trains,” he added"
Kevin said:When I worked in Jersey City it was like Escape From New York. Even though it was easily walking distance from the path station to our office they had to have a driver in a secured van and a security guard come and pick us up at the path and drive us to the office (which was surrounded by a barbed wire fence). You had to be sure to time your trains JUSTRIGHT because if you didn’t you had to stand at the path station and wait for the van to come back and that was never good.
Well, the Waterfront seems to have come a long way, but I’m still not comfortable exploring too much of The Heights or anything west of 78…
Yeah, my office was right to the west of the turnpike extension (78). There was a check cashing place, a liquor store, and a methadone clinic right across the street. I heard lots of shots fired in my 2 years there, and they had the number of a car window replacement place because of the frequency of rocks and bottles being hurled over the barbed wire fence into the parking lot.
Good times…….good times.
I live in a hipster neighborhood. Its the same thing in here, but there are two different groups, the cbgb kids with 400dollar leather jackets that they have professionally customised as well as the indie kids who look homeless. Both groups freak me out, nothing but a bunch of weirdos.
Ha. My parents live waaaaaaaaaaay west off of 78. But rather than meth clinics, they’re bordered by farms. They still have a shit ton of people commuting to NYC from out there though. Insanity.