This is the Williamsburg of Your City: A Map of Hip America

[NorthernDancer]

Originally Posted by bobdreamz

Wynwood is getting so gentrified that the Miami Parking Authority is going install meters throughout the area much to the chagrin of local business owners.

How are parking meters related to gentrification? Parking meters are found on commercial streets whether they're upscale, ghetto, or anything in-between.

[StethJeff]

Somewhat off-topic.

I know New York in general likes taking credit for things whenever it has the chance (pizza, Greatest City on Earth, baseball), but is Williamsburg really the birthplace of modern-day curly-mustache suspender-wearing barista hipsters? Or is this NY just being NY again?

[mrnyc]

Originally Posted by StethJeff

Somewhat off-topic.

I know New York in general likes taking credit for things whenever it has the chance (pizza, Greatest City on Earth, baseball), but is Williamsburg really the birthplace of modern-day curly-mustache suspender-wearing barista hipsters? Or is this NY just being NY again?

definitely not the coffee baristas, but the olde craft cocktails crew had that particular look first. otherwise, if you mean generally speaking it is. even the modern use of the hipster term was reinvented there.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by mrnyc

definitely not the coffee baristas, but the olde craft cocktails crew had that particular look first. otherwise, if you mean generally speaking it is. even the modern use of the hipster term was reinvented there.

Most uses of the term before 2000 in articles about Williamsburg are in reference to the 1950s, Norman Mailer use of the term, but SPIN Magazine was using the term to describe a certain latter-day breed of alternative rock fans (in various cities around the country) as early as 1992.

[Chef]

Hipster was a very common term in Minneapolis in the 80s and 90s for people who were "alternative" but not punk rockers or ravers. It didn't take on a negative connotation until 2000 or so. Those people were frequently baristas (or waiters, bartenders or working retail) back then. They usually didn't dress like foppish dandies though. Back then it was more the scruffy, post-punk junkie look. Still lots of tattoos though.

If you wanted to trace the arc of the modern hipster muse, I think you would start with Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground and go through "New Wave", the 80s indie rock and art scene, and into the 90s subcultures of Rave and Grunge into what is now the modern hipster scene. There was no break where one of those things stopped and the next one began, they more or less flowed into each other. Frequently with the same people involved in consecutive iterations.

New York played an important role, but it didn't invent it, it was an evolution that happened in a lot of places simultaneously - the Bay Area, Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, Seattle, Austin, Atlanta, LA, Montreal, Toronto, a lot of smaller college towns. There is also a European side of the evolution too - Europe and North America have been cross pollinating each other pretty heavily in terms of modern bohemian culture.

[pico44]

Originally Posted by 10023

I mentioned those two because they're the most likely places that would be brought up by someone looking to dispute what I said.

Both have lots of young people, and Astoria has for a long time, but that's because it's fairly accessible to Midtown and cheap. It's like Hoboken. The only place anyone ever goes to from Manhattan is the Bohemian beer garden. In Chicago, many of the most talked about places for food/drink/nightlife are in Logan Square; in New York those places (if outside of Manhattan) are pretty much all in Brooklyn.

Nowhere in Queens has anywhere near Logan Square's buzz... but Logan Square was never as edgy as Bushwick. Its transition is from being boring and residential to trendy, rather than from being dangerous to trendy. So

This coming from someone who didn't admit he would occasionally go to Brooklyn until about 2009. As always, You're absolutely clueless. So how much time have you spent in Ridgewood? How many world-class exhibitions of contemporary art have you seen in Logan Sqaure? Which Logan Square chefs have garnered more buzz than Hugue Defour in Queens? Where can I get the best chinese food in Flushing? Of course you don't know because you have no idea what you're talking about.

Again, just to drive the point home, you're saying that a neighborhood of 70,000 people, is garnering more "buzz" than every single spot of a borough not much smaller than the entire city of Chicago. Sit down and think about that for a minute or two, then come back and apologize to everyone for making such an idiotic comment.

[bobdreamz]

Originally Posted by NorthernDancer

How are parking meters related to gentrification? Parking meters are found on commercial streets whether they're upscale, ghetto, or anything in-between.

Well Wynwood was never a commercial area to begin with :

"Wynwood used to be the warehouse and manufacturing district of Greater Miami, developers have rehabilitated neglected warehouses, shuttered factories, and other unused buildings, transforming them into the numerous art complexes, galleries, performing art spaces, restaurants, cafes, and other creative businesses that are seen here today."

How many warehouse and manufacturing districts across cities do you know that have parking meters? The area has transformed itself into a commercial & residential area.

http://www.wynwoodmiami.com/about.php

[Austinlee]

Brooklyn is ahead of the game....

Report: Nation's Gentrified Neighborhoods Threatened By Aristocratization

http://www.theonion.com/articles/rep...reatened,2419/

According to a report released Tuesday by the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank, the recent influx of exceedingly affluent powder-wigged aristocrats into the nation's gentrified urban areas is pushing out young white professionals, some of whom have lived in these neighborhoods for as many as seven years.....

[Kingofthehill]

Silverlake would be the Los Angeles analog to Williamsburg. Bushwick is a little trickier. The Arts District, with its mix of industrial infrastructure, warehouses, lofts, boutiques, hipsters, etc., would be the natural analog, except that the recent arrivals are far more wealthy and posh (including some celebs) than anybody in Bushwick. Demographically, parts of both Highland Park and Echo Park, with their 20-somethings mostly white and somewhat "indie" artists and musicians, would qualify, but those areas do not have the industrial warehouse aesthetic prevalent in much of hipster-ized Bushwick.

Oslo lacks a Bushwick, but the Grünerløkka district is a fairly straightforward match to Williamsburg, both in terms of crowd and recent development timelines.

Overall, somewhat rough and multicultural places with industrial components and population overflow from nearby, more developed (passé!) and expensive places are the kind of neighborhoods I'd associate with Bushwick. Hackney (London), Kensington (Philly), Neukölln (Berlin) are the places that I'd associate with Bushwick's current demographic mix and level of development. Conversely, still-scruffy and legitimately artist areas near Baltimore's Penn Station remind me of what alot of Williamsburg and Bushwick probably used to be like.

[dc_denizen]

^ so where does the Norwegian movie 'Reprise' about young authors take place, that seemed full of Norwegian hipster-equivalents.

link

[P. Alouishous]

Here are the 15 coolest neighbourhoods in the entire WORLD (according to Vogue):

http://www.vogue.com/slideshow/10806...neighborhoods/

Bushwick, Silver Lake, and Hackney all make the list.

[KevinFromTexas]

Yeah, East Side in Austin sounds about right with all the popular eateries there. SoCo is another one that is probably more well known. It's just a generic name for South Congress Avenue. It's lined with restaurants and small shops. They have a big outdoor fest every first Thursday of the month where the businesses and others setup shop outside along the street.

http://www.firstthursday.info/

[Kingofthehill]

Originally Posted by dc_denizen

^ so where does the Norwegian movie 'Reprise' about young authors take place, that seemed full of Norwegian hipster-equivalents.

link

The movie is called "Oslo, 31. august", and while it was filmed throughout Oslo, it mostly took place in the posh, affluent western side of the city. West Oslo, Bislett, Majorstuen, Frogner, Sentrum/Center, etc.

[mrnyc]

Originally Posted by P. Alouishous

Here are the 15 coolest neighbourhoods in the entire WORLD (according to Vogue):

http://www.vogue.com/slideshow/10806...neighborhoods/

Bushwick, Silver Lake, and Hackney all make the list.

as only they could, vogue managed to make them seem like the 15 most boring neighborhoods. ha. but i dont begrudge the effort, it's inevitable somebody had to make a silly list. and i had to get sucked in and clik on it!

[dimondpark]

Originally Posted by Nineties Flava

They said Hunters Point would be SF's "Bushwick" which is still a bad comparison. They also said Oakland is SF's Bushwick and Piedmont/San Francisco are Oakland's "Williamsburg"... Pretty much all the Bay Area comparisons are off the mark lol.

Yep. All way off.

Piedmont is and has always been a posh hillside suburb wholly located within Oakland. I havent a clue why they say "Piedmont, San Francisco" and why do they have a "tie"?

[tech12]

Originally Posted by dimondpark

Yep. All way off.

Piedmont is and has always been a posh hillside suburb wholly located within Oakland. I havent a clue why they say "Piedmont, San Francisco" and why do they have a "tie"?

It's pretty clear that whoever put that list together has little or no experience living in SF or Oakland. Or they're the type that just isn't very observant, and somehow got the wrong ideas about what those areas are like.

[Columbusite]

Originally Posted by ColDayMan

Cincinnati, Ohio Northside, Over-the-Rhine (tie) Clifton, Northside (tie)

The Williamsburg one, they got. Clifton and Northside as Bushwick? No. Walnut Hills and East Price Hill would be the Bushwicks of the city.

Columbus, Ohio Clintonville, German Village (tie) Olde Towne East

Opposite for Columbus. They got the Bushwick right but Clintonville (a yuppie family paradise with no hipsters) and German Village (an unaffordable mansion district prentending to be quaint?). No. Columbus' Williamsburgs are Merion Village and Harrison West.

Wha??? Hello: Short North is now a good deal more gentrified/less hipster, so it's perhaps the closest comparison to Williamsburg since I'm guessing some old standbys remain (it does have the art galleries) but a lot of fancy expensive places have pushed their way in: no more is there a gay bookstore, gay coffeeshop, or Full Monty with its sad strippers tempting neither hets nor homos. I love that Mike's Grill is still there

Or Old North which is largely intact/ungentrified with its live music venues, quirky destinations like Kafe Kerouac (books,records, and coffee: you can Irish that coffee too), Hounddog's with its delivery hearse that has a toy basset hound head on top, Club 20 for a gay bar that looks like your parents' basement, Dirty Dungaree's for the rare laundromat-bar combo, Garcia's with its drum circles on weekends, Cafe Bourbon Street which is hipster central (easily 98% of the clientele) and used to be home of Taco Ninja (free condoms with your meal). I mean, come on.

As far as Bushwick, despite OTE still on its way to being the next big thing (not gonna happen til Main looks like Parsons and Oak, so 20 years?) Franklinton has the working class roots that match which OTE doesn't have and it's got some ways to go too (a poor teenage girl was gunned down there not too long ago). I was impressed the last time I visited and have yet to experience Dinin' Hall. Strongwater and Rehab are solid and I like how the shitty carryout got a facelift and is now home to a neighborhood organization.

[Columbusite]

Originally Posted by Chef

I don't really see the North Loop as the Bushwick of Minneapolis. It is mostly an area for yuppies and is one of the most expensive parts of the city, has little street life and almost no creative community. Powderhorn Park, Whittier and Seward are much better choices, along with Northeast which is mentioned.

I am often not a fan of these types of comparisons because they assume that there are a limited number of cultural/urban forms and every city can be fit into the same mold. New York is primarily driven by the dichotomy of money and power on one hand and ethnic neighborhoods on the other hand. The bohemian parts of the city are really just enclaves compared to the bigger picture. Minneapolis doesn't have that dynamic at all, things are more mixed. The city is much cheaper so even people with working class incomes can afford to live in gentrified areas. As a result it doesn't really have a Williamsburg or a Bushwick, at least in terms of social history and evolution. The bohemian muse is pretty strong here and there are neighborhoods where it is more significant rather than less, but also it is more spread out through the city as a whole rather than concentrated into a few places. That said, North Loop is probably one of the least bohemian areas of the city.

They were about as off when it comes to Minneapolis as they are with Columbus. Since when are NIMBYs and yuppies hipsters? NE and Whittier came to mind immediately for Williamsburg equivalents, although you're right to include Powderhorn in the mix.

I would list NE as a Williamsburg-Bushwick hybrid: working class roots yes, but it has become a stable neighborhood and empty storefronts and iffy bars have disappeared. Totally, it seems, with the demise of the Deuce Deuce: no longer can you watch someone's mom work what she's got left. Now you have to go to a more tasteful establishment down the block: Grumpy's (way better anyway). There are still oldies that are goodies though and with the recent(ish) opening of Sikora's Polish market you still have the original Eastern European flavor that had been there for decades which includes Nye's and Kramarczuk's (can you believe that was actually auto-corrected?). Of course, the microbrewery boom has been big here: the country's third brewery co-op opened their tap room just recently in the neighborhood. And I have yet to go to Bauhaus which opened before them. And then they have those artist lofts they built a little while back. There's Art-A-Whirl, not to mention a good selection of coffeeshops. So: artists, microbreweries, and coffeeshops? Check. And NE has Afghan pizza: Williamsburg does not, let alone NYC: poor souls don't know what they're missin'. If you've had it, you know NE wins.

Now Whittier is more immigrants + artists, not really a notable working class aspect like NE which still has the bars to prove it. Whittier is likewise now a healthy neighborhood and does have a smattering of galleries and shops (just hit up a gallery over an hour ago: 16 bit platformers to play created by several different artists) not to mention a wide variety of ethnic restaurants including the best bahn mis anywhere.

Powderhorn I'd say is more like Bushwick in that it could certainly use improvements but still has a number of compelling destinations: there is an artists' presence too. Just look a bit north of 38th on Chicago. And then you have the Mayday Parade and Mayday Cafe not to mention a variety of interesting shops and other destinations all surrounding a damn fine park with a nice lake (seems too small compared to the rest, but it's Mpls so you're spoiled by the big lakes: in any other city it would be the shit).

West Bank is in the same boat since it still has a somewhat gritty reputation and is home to the highest concentration of local music venues, Somali immigrants, although it skews younger due to proximity to the U.

Seward is really just our version of Portlandia: a shame NYC didn't have such a neighborhood it could have used alongside Williamsburg and Bushwick for a NYC-centric comparison. They love their co-op, their Ethiopian restaurants, neighborhood cafe (Seward Cafe, what else), bike highway (Midtown Greenway), carless Milwaukee Avenue, punk-rock Monday bowling alley, and how could forget the neighborhood anarchist bookstore?

I guess Lyn-Lake would be the closest comparison to Williamsburg: a cool part of town fighting the losing battle against pricey "luxury" apartments and overpriced, bland restaurants and bars. Uptown on the other hand is all but conquered save for...well, a gay leather coffee shop opened up there.

[urbanlife]

I thought it was funny that the Williamsburg of Portland is Portland....Though I think it would be the other way around, the Portland of Brooklyn is Williamsburg.