A Map of Hip America
January 31, 2014 7:32 AM   Subscribe

 
This is pretty subjective, I mean what's hip is not the same as "frequented by hipsters", no?
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 7:34 AM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


Yep, Mile End in Montreal is completely accurate (but I love it anyway). As for MTL's Bushwick, I know it's not anywhere near but I'd nominate Griffintown or Point Saint Charles. L5P in Atlanta? Maybe once upon a time ago. East Atlanta? I guess so? I mean, it was super hipstery when I moved to the ATL in '99 and seems to keep up that momentum. I guess when they say the Old 4th Ward, they might mean that corridor of Boulevard & Edgewood (where some friends of mine now own a bar I've yet to go to). And I'd be interested to hear TO Mefites on The Junction/Roncesvalles as the Bushwick to Queen West's Williamsburg (particularly as Matt and I learn towards moving to The Junction area later this year).
posted by Kitteh at 7:37 AM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


JP is Boston's Park Slope, not its Williamsburg.
posted by Diablevert at 7:38 AM on January 31, 2014 [9 favorites]


Fort Worth - Fairmount.
Yep. (Proud Fairmount resident.)
posted by kmz at 7:38 AM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


Wrong. Toronto's Bushwick is Liberty Village. Please move there. There is nothing going on in the Junction. No reason at all to even visit.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 7:39 AM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


oh god i live in a hipster enclave

pls send help
posted by Mayor West at 7:40 AM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


Interesting choice for Indy (Fountain Square) I can't honestly disagree with that.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:42 AM on January 31, 2014


Toronto: is it still Parkdale, or has it been supplanted by the Junction? For a while it was (briefly, before the fastest gentrification of all time) probably College/Ossington. Roncy and Leslieville probably also had their moments before they also went too upscale.

On preview; isn't Liberty Village where people who want the atmosphere of Richmond Hill without the long commute move to?
posted by The Card Cheat at 7:42 AM on January 31, 2014


Having briefly contemplated moving to Williamsberg over a decade ago, and knowing how it's changed in the interim, I feel that the use of the term "the Williamsberg of your city" is deeply problematic.

As I understand it, there are two Williamsbergs: the actual, mostly-by-now-gentrified one, and the imaginary, still hip and up-and-coming one. It's not clear to me which of these is meant by the term.
posted by gauche at 7:42 AM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


Kitteh, you and Shepherd are very welcome to join us in the One True Junction as we prepare for the March on Liberty Village. Shhh! Don't tell anyone else.
posted by maudlin at 7:42 AM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


Wicker Park is Chicago's next Lincoln Park. I'd say maybe Ukranian Village is the next Wicker Park, and Logan Square is the new Wicker Park of 5 years ago.

I live in Little Village, which in 3 years will be the Pilsen of 5 years ago. I keep pretending like maybe if I had enough money I'd buy some rental property on a boulevard here and look forward to fleecing futurehipsters.

I don't really know how any of this applies to New York because I'm not really familiar with the neighborhoods, but I like Chicago neighborhood speculation. I also like Chicago.
posted by phunniemee at 7:42 AM on January 31, 2014 [2 favorites]


..but Williamsburg hasn't been "hip, fashionable Williamsburg" since like ....2007? It's Park Slope Jr. Now.

The whole notion of a hip, young neighborhood requires demographics and cheap housing that does not exist here,
posted by The Whelk at 7:43 AM on January 31, 2014 [3 favorites]


Yeah, I thought it was pretty accurate for Raleigh, with Boylan as the current Williamsburg and Mordecai as Bushwick. Saying Carrboro is Raleigh's Williamsburg is kind of weird, as it's a whole different place. Like saying Northampton is Boston's Williamsburg or something.
posted by Rock Steady at 7:43 AM on January 31, 2014 [2 favorites]


Yeah, the article kind of gets at this: "What is your city's Williamsburg? What's its hippest—or formerly hippest—or sometimes just youngest—neighborhood..." but hippest and formerly hippest are totally different places.
posted by gauche at 7:45 AM on January 31, 2014


Yeah, I thought it was pretty accurate for Raleigh, with Boylan as the current Williamsburg and Mordecai as Bushwick. Saying Carrboro is Raleigh's Williamsburg is kind of weird, as it's a whole different place. Like saying Northampton is Boston's Williamsburg or something.

I was going to say. It's not really the same if its in a different county. Carrboro might be Chapel Hill's Brooklyn, but it's not Raleigh's.

Their pick for DC (H Street) is so right as to be boring, though.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 7:47 AM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


I thought JP had gentrified out of hipness and passed the torch onto Somerville.
posted by justkevin at 7:48 AM on January 31, 2014


"Saying Carrboro is Raleigh's Williamsburg is kind of weird, as it's a whole different place. Like saying Northampton is Boston's Williamsburg or something."

San Francisco -> Oakland.

Totally valid.
posted by schwa at 7:49 AM on January 31, 2014


Their pick for DC (H Street) is so right as to be boring, though.

I totally would have voted Bloomingdale for that dubious honor.
posted by troika at 7:49 AM on January 31, 2014 [3 favorites]


I type "bike shop vintage CITY" into Google Maps. I don't know how it correlates to this at all. Perhaps someone else can come up with better search terms?

bike shop vintage Boston=Somerville/Cambridge

bike shop vintage San Francisco=Misson

bike shop vintage Montreal=Mile End.

bike shop vintage New York=East Village/Williamsburg?
posted by vacapinta at 7:50 AM on January 31, 2014 [5 favorites]


Oh my god, they're EVERYWHERE!
posted by nubianinthedesert at 7:50 AM on January 31, 2014


Some combination of Uptown and Loring Park for Minneapolis, I'd think?
posted by kavasa at 7:51 AM on January 31, 2014


On Providence: I think the hipsterfication of Olneyville predates the hipsterfication of Bushwick. In which case, by their standards, Bushwick is the Olneyville of NYC.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 7:51 AM on January 31, 2014 [6 favorites]


Seeing as how Hamilton doesn't make the list, I'm guessing much of the downtown and east end are still pre-Williamsburg Williamsburg. Which would seem to be the ideal state of affairs.
posted by Capt. Renault at 7:52 AM on January 31, 2014


They nailed San Diego. When I saw the post title here, I thought "oh, I bet it's North Park." Upon going to the link and seeing that they were also looking at what a city's Bushwick, or "Next Williamsburg" is, I thought "well, that'll be City Heights". Scroll down to San Diego's entry and bingo.
posted by LionIndex at 7:53 AM on January 31, 2014


My definition of hipster is anybody younger than me who isn't wearing a suit.

I've noticed over the years that their numbers are increasing. It's a mystery.
posted by srboisvert at 7:53 AM on January 31, 2014 [4 favorites]


Shoreditchification.
posted by Paul Slade at 7:55 AM on January 31, 2014


I thought JP had gentrified out of hipness and passed the torch onto Somerville.

You're looking on the wrong side of the tracks, man. Over by the park, there are cheap apartment rentals and minorities and a frisson of thrill at being so close to the 02119.
posted by Mayor West at 7:57 AM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


I haven't lived in the St. Louis area since 1996, so can a current resident please tell me WTF "the Grove" is?

However, I lived in 2 of the 3 hippest neighborhoods in Memphis when I lived there, so I guess, yay me?
posted by DiscourseMarker at 7:57 AM on January 31, 2014


In case anyone cares about Ithaca, NY, the trendy / hipster neighborhood is the West End. It probably goes without saying that I don't live there.
posted by aught at 7:57 AM on January 31, 2014 [2 favorites]


The article is probably right about The Fan in Richmond, but Oregon Hill? I'd say Scott's Addition or Jackson Ward are next.
posted by emelenjr at 7:57 AM on January 31, 2014


This is all over the web and yet it seems only a couple hundred people participated in the original poll? Am I reading the spreadsheet correctly? It looks like overwhelmingly onesies and twosies
posted by batfish at 7:58 AM on January 31, 2014


We had fun on fb yesterday mocking the NYC-centered-ness of this by changing it to "What's the [San Francisco neighborhood] of your city?"

What's the Excelsior of your city?
What's the Outer Sunset of your city?
What's the Cole Valley of your city?

Etc.
posted by rtha at 7:59 AM on January 31, 2014 [5 favorites]


I live in Laredo, Texas. Our hip area is approximately two blocks long, consisting primarily of an ice cream parlor, the only deli sandwich shop in town, a Vietnamese restaurant, and a boutique clothing store. That's it.

I really need to move.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 8:00 AM on January 31, 2014 [10 favorites]


On preview; isn't Liberty Village where people who want the atmosphere of Richmond Hill without the long commute move to?


No. It is a hotbed of transgressive music, arts, and food. Young professionals looking to live in the new trendy area should move there. And not the Junction.


Again, nothing happening in the Junction.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:00 AM on January 31, 2014 [2 favorites]


The Grove is (i believe) the area around Tower Grove Park, DiscourseMarker. So southish of SLU.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 8:02 AM on January 31, 2014


Carrboro might be Chapel Hill's Brooklyn, but it's not Raleigh's.

TIL that hipsters can afford $250,000 "mill houses"
posted by thelonius at 8:07 AM on January 31, 2014


rtha: We had fun on fb yesterday mocking the NYC-centered-ness of this by changing it to "What's the [San Francisco neighborhood] of your city?"

I've been mentally doing this with Chicago neighborhoods since it's the other city I've lived in apart from my current residence in DC. Brookland is the Hyde Park of DC. Mt. Pleasant/Lanier Heights is the Pilsen of DC. Adams Morgan is Wrigleyville. Woodley Park is probably Lincoln Park, zoo and all.

Sadly Logan Circle is not the Logan Square of DC because that would be too perfect.
posted by capricorn at 8:10 AM on January 31, 2014 [2 favorites]


What's the Interzone of your city?

What's the Miskatonic University of your city?

What's the Mos Eisley of your city?

What's the Osgiliath of your city?

What's the Deep Space Station K-7 of your city?

What's the Diagon Alley of your city?
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:11 AM on January 31, 2014 [27 favorites]


Pater Aletheias: I live in Laredo, Texas. Our hip area is approximately two blocks long, consisting primarily of an ice cream parlor, the only deli sandwich shop in town, a Vietnamese restaurant, and a boutique clothing store. That's it.

I made a fun little game of predicting the population of Laredo based on that fact. I was an order of magnitude too low. Sorry, Pater.
posted by Rock Steady at 8:11 AM on January 31, 2014


What's the Miskatonic University of your city?

Northeastern! No, wait, Tufts.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 8:13 AM on January 31, 2014 [7 favorites]


I live in Laredo, Texas. Our hip area is approximately two blocks long, consisting primarily of an ice cream parlor, the only deli sandwich shop in town, a Vietnamese restaurant, and a boutique clothing store. That's it.

In my mind's eye, the clothing store is called "I See By Your Outfit That You Are A Cowboy." The ice cream parlor is called "As Cold as the Clay." The deli sandwich shop is called "All Wrapped in White Pita." The Vietnamese restaurant...um..."Rosie's"?
posted by yoink at 8:14 AM on January 31, 2014 [10 favorites]


If Williamsburg is the formerly-hip and Bushwick is the currently-hip, then I'd have thought that the still-half-gritty stretch along and around Bloor from Lansdowne to Ossington is TO's Bushwick; the Junction and Roncy have gone full Prenzlauerberg/Park Slope. Though it's still a question whether Blansdowne/Bloorcourt will gentrify like Parkdale or like Little Italy.
posted by Beardman at 8:14 AM on January 31, 2014


The Excelsior of Chicago is Rogers Park.
The Outer Sunset of Chicago is Beverly.
The Cole Valley of Chicago is Lincoln Square.

This is fun!
posted by hal incandenza at 8:14 AM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


The Brigadoon of DC is Park View.
posted by troika at 8:16 AM on January 31, 2014 [3 favorites]


I thought JP had gentrified out of hipness and passed the torch onto Somerville

Somerville appears on the list as "the next Williamsburg," which I think is weird, because cheap, dense Somerville, or "nature's rent control," as we called it, was where hipsters and weirdos and punks and messed-up nerds lived BACK IN 1995. Somerville is where Fat Day House was, for God's sake! Did the hipsters go away and now they're coming back?
posted by escabeche at 8:17 AM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


Lolz, Carrboro as Raleigh's Williamsburg, but I'm counting it as a victory that Durham didn't get named as Raleigh's Williamsburg or Bushwick.
posted by radiomayonnaise at 8:18 AM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


Lawrenceville showing up as Pittsburgh's Williamsburg is not exactly surprising considering that one of the biggest bars on the main strip is called the New Amsterdam. They've done their best to pretty explicitly market themselves as "the new hipster neighborhood". Seems to be working, ten years ago, it was a wasteland of boarded up shops and now there are $400K condos going in.
posted by octothorpe at 8:18 AM on January 31, 2014


JP is Boston's Park Slope, not its Williamsburg.

Agreed. Unclear how the answer to this for Boston is not Somerville. And specifically Union Square in Somerville.
posted by olinerd at 8:18 AM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


As for Madison, yeah, Willy street is the right answer, but my neighborhood is Williamsburg in its own way: "yuppies with advanced degrees live here and there's a Trader Joe's but a long time ago it's where the Orthodox Jews lived."
posted by escabeche at 8:19 AM on January 31, 2014


olinerd: Agreed. Unclear how the answer to this for Boston is not Somerville. And specifically Union Square in Somerville.

My guess is that most of the Boston votes were from people who went to school in the Boston area 10-15 years ago and then moved away.
posted by Rock Steady at 8:20 AM on January 31, 2014 [3 favorites]


Ironically, Williamsburg and Bushwick were known in the 80's for their super-high crime rates and having perhaps the most crack and heroin dealers in the entire city. Both areas were a dangerous pit, with at least a couple of huge gangs in residence.

Funny how things change.
posted by zarq at 8:22 AM on January 31, 2014


having perhaps the most crack and heroin dealers in the entire city.

What do you think was attracting those trust fund babies to the neighborhood in the first place?
posted by 1970s Antihero at 8:24 AM on January 31, 2014


Ironically, Williamsburg and Bushwick were known in the 80's for their super-high crime rates and having perhaps the most crack and heroin dealers in the entire city.

Well, that's normal for the gentrification lifecycle, isn't it? People with jobs and dental plans don't want to live in such an area; so rents are cheap for musicians, metal sculptors, and so on. Then someone opens a breakfast joint to serve those people, and we're off.
posted by thelonius at 8:25 AM on January 31, 2014 [3 favorites]


The Brigadoon of DC is Park View.
posted by troika at 11:16 AM on January 31


I once heard a band performing at Looking Glass say something about being in Petworth only to have a guy yell "YOU'RE IN PARK VIEW" at the top of his lungs. I should have bought him a drink.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 8:26 AM on January 31, 2014 [2 favorites]


"The Williamsburg of Portland is Portland"

Well then.
posted by Zalzidrax at 8:27 AM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


Is Bushwick even hip! Everyone I know got priced out like five years ago. I'm hard pressed to think of an actual stereotypical "young hip arty" neighborhood in NYC that isn't just a rich kid cargo cult.
posted by The Whelk at 8:28 AM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


"East side" is half of austin, since I-35 bisects the town almost down the middle and is considered the dividing line that defines "east side" and there are huge swaths of East Austin that are very un-hip. If they'd narrowed it down to French Place or Cherrywood, they would be right. I drive down Manor Rd. every day, and it's a struggle to not run over a trendy 20's-30's-ish type with a cell phone in their face pretty much every day.

There was a bearded, black-plastic-bespectacled guy a few months back cycling through a red light at 12th & Comal, both hands off the handlebars, texting. I looked at my son & said "He's applying for his Darwin Award online."
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:28 AM on January 31, 2014 [4 favorites]


New Yorkers over the years...

1985: Well, at least I live in Greenwich Village and not - ugh - the Upper West Side.
1992: Gah! At least I live in Soho and not - ugh - Greenwich Village.
1997: Please. At least I live in Chelsea and not Soho.
2000: What? At least *I* live in Park Slope and not... ugh... Chelsea.
2007: Ha. At least I live in Williamsburg and not Park Slope.
2014: Oh spare me. At least I live in Bed-Stuy and not Williamsburg.
posted by mark7570 at 8:29 AM on January 31, 2014 [2 favorites]


I'd probably agree that Ronces or The Junction are probably the best bets, though Parkdale was the pretty obvious choice for a while. But what in the hell is "West Queen West" when did that awful name come around? They mean Trinity-Bellwoods right.?
posted by cirhosis at 8:29 AM on January 31, 2014


Athens GA. Interesting to find out it's a "major metropolitan area." But Normaltown as the hip neighborhood? Back in the day maybe, there was music at night, but if it even has a bar now it's very well hidden. I walk through N-town all the time (minus-20 hip points for that alone, when I'm there) and the only remotely hip thing I ever see is packs of bicyclists returning from practice runs in the countryside and heading back downtown where the bike shops are. These certainly don't pause in Normaltown and as far as I can see never even glance sideways at it.
posted by jfuller at 8:31 AM on January 31, 2014


This article indicates I live in the williamsburg of philadelphia. Williamsburg must be a real craphole.
posted by smackwich at 8:32 AM on January 31, 2014 [2 favorites]


All that said, I have actually seen The Fitness People (shudder -- you know who I'm talking about) out doing their Fitness Thing as far east as Airport & 12th/Oak Springs, which makes it appear a full-scale invasion is actually underway.
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:35 AM on January 31, 2014


I'm really not sure how Burbank made the list. We're a smallish suburb of 100,000 and we're Burbank, FFS, not an incorporated community of Los Angeles. I live in a neighborhood just adjacent to Magnolia Park, and while it's lovely and has Porto's (the best Cuban pastries ANYWHERE) it was never hip and frankly I don't think it ever will be. San Fernando Road is no Echo Park either.

I don't know what these people were thinking. I mean, don't you at least have to have a laundromat in the area to be considered hip?
posted by Sophie1 at 8:35 AM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


Not sure how Columbus ended up with Clintonville or German Village, wouldn't it be Short North?
posted by imabanana at 8:36 AM on January 31, 2014 [2 favorites]


I made a fun little game of predicting the population of Laredo based on that fact. I was an order of magnitude too low. Sorry, Pater.

I was raised in Texas and lived in the state most of my life, and before I took a job here, I would have guessed Laredo's population at about 40,000, not the actual quarter of a million we are. But 249,000 of us are poor and tragically unhip.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 8:36 AM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


But what in the hell is "West Queen West" when did that awful name come around? They mean Trinity-Bellwoods right.?



When they moved the Parkdalian frontier back to Dufferin, the stretch just west of Trinity-Bellwoods, between Ossington and Dufferin became West Queen West.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:40 AM on January 31, 2014


I think I live in the Manhattan of Laurel, Maryland, but I'll be ding-danged if I can figure out what our Williamsburg would be. Of course, I have a Vespa, five theremins, Atticus Finch glasses, and a complicated mustache with waxed ends, so it may be my apartment.
posted by sonascope at 8:40 AM on January 31, 2014 [14 favorites]


I'd probably agree that Ronces or The Junction are probably the best bets, though Parkdale was the pretty obvious choice for a while.

Parkdale seems to be a stuck fermentation. I suspect all the group homes and bedbug infested 70s highrises are keeping it from obtaining the critical mass of marketable demographics necessary to go full on gentrified. Works for me.

But what in the hell is "West Queen West" when did that awful name come around?

I seem to recall lamppost banners with that name, plus a picture of a pug wearing a sweater. No doubt the handiwork of some insipid BIA.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 8:44 AM on January 31, 2014


DiscourseMarker: The Grove in St Louis is along Manchester Ave, east of Kingshighway between I-64 and I-44. I'd call it more of St Louis' Crown Heights rather than Bushwick. Shaw and/or Tower Grove would deserve that honor, IMHO.

Let's see, for Akron, I'd say our Williamsburg would be Highla— oh, who am I kidding. This whole town is a shithole.

The Williamsburg of Boulder, Colo. is Boulder
Heh. Heh heh.
posted by slogger at 8:44 AM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


These references are new to me - where might I have heard any reference to Williamsburg and Bushwick? Movies? Articles?
According to their list, Williamsburg is populated by dicks with too much money who barely nod at the whole Boho lifestyle because they don't know what it means, and Bushwick isn't too bad except in the summer when the neo-hippies stink of patchouli and feel a need to play bongos. Badly. Punks sparing for change. Good stores, interesting characters, fine cappuccino and people not caring that girls are holding hands.
posted by Zack_Replica at 8:45 AM on January 31, 2014


the stretch just west of Trinity-Bellwoods, between Ossington and Dufferin became West Queen West.

If I remember correctly, the banners defined it as between Bathurst and Gladstone
posted by [expletive deleted] at 8:46 AM on January 31, 2014


The results say that here in New Orleans our Williamsburg is the Marigny and our Bushwick is the Bywater, but that's out of date. The Marigny is far more like Park Slope now, leaving Bywater as Williamsburg (which all southern culture writers of the past few years are very fond of mentioning, as if they're each the first to make the comparison) and St. Claude as our new Bushwick. Of course the real estate agents would prefer that we start calling St. Claude something like "New Bywater" or some crap like that but c'mon, it's St. Claude.
posted by komara at 8:47 AM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


Not sure how Columbus ended up with Clintonville

The only thing I can think of is that they're saying that one building with Northstar Cafe and Jeni's Ice Cream constitutes the Williamsburg of Columbus.
posted by escabeche at 8:48 AM on January 31, 2014 [3 favorites]


I thought JP had gentrified out of hipness and passed the torch onto Somerville.

Per the article, the holder of the "Williamsburg" title is: "What's its hippest—or formerly hippest" enclave--which I think fits.

Granted, despite being born and raised in NYC, I have been to Brooklyn about five times in my life, and I don't know any of the neighborhoods, other than by name, so I can't really vouch for any of the comparisons.

I thought Park Slope was for the well-heeled with kids, no? I would have called that Brookline, maybe? Or is that more like Riverdale?
posted by Admiral Haddock at 8:52 AM on January 31, 2014


I take back what I just said about Akron...I just found a place that will put meatballs on a pizza for me.
posted by slogger at 8:53 AM on January 31, 2014 [2 favorites]


Oh man. Piedmont is SO not Oakland's Williamsburg. Fruitvale was closer, but I would pick West Oakland.
posted by waitangi at 8:54 AM on January 31, 2014 [5 favorites]


Leslieville is so hip right now.

You better get in now if you plan to buy. Look, what a great investment condo! 16% ROI, and it's right there on the marketer's website.

Remind me why this is legal again?
posted by [expletive deleted] at 8:57 AM on January 31, 2014


> Piedmont is SO not Oakland's Williamsburg.

Oakland's Park Slope?

NYC does not map well onto the Bay Area overall, though.
posted by postcommunism at 9:03 AM on January 31, 2014


Reno, Nev. --> Downtown

bwhaaahahahaahahaaa
posted by Big_B at 9:04 AM on January 31, 2014


This changes in Cleveland every 4 years or so.
posted by DinoswtfEd at 9:11 AM on January 31, 2014


Japantown for San Jose, CA? Because it has one indie coffee shop and a store that sells American streetwear a la Japonaise? We go there semi-regularly for food and groceries, but I see mostly families.
posted by peripathetic at 9:18 AM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


DiscourseMarker: The Grove in St Louis is along Manchester Ave, east of Kingshighway between I-64 and I-44.

Also known as the Gayborhood.
posted by saul wright at 9:20 AM on January 31, 2014


Also, I get the idea that Portland and Boulder think Williamsburg is like three pickle boutiques and a cafe full of outdoorsy Etsy vendors.
posted by postcommunism at 9:21 AM on January 31, 2014


2000: What? At least *I* live in Park Slope and not... ugh... Chelsea.

The usual motivation for moving to Brooklyn from Manhattan is a lot more like "we made a baby" than "we want to be trendy".
posted by elizardbits at 9:24 AM on January 31, 2014


Ughh..I really gotta get out of Oak Cliff, but sadly there are very few historic neighborhoods that are still affordable in the Dallas area. Maybe Keistwood or South Oak Cliff. The 40 year old maintaining-the-hipster-front ratio is staggering and quite old.
posted by Benway at 9:34 AM on January 31, 2014


The young, hip, arty people I know in greater Boston live in Allston. Somerville is where my parents went to visit their young, hip, arty friends thirty years ago.

I can agree with JP for Boston's Williamsburg, but I feel like Allston needs a mention here.

Or is this just hard to do for Boston because such a large percentage of our housing is taken up by undergraduate and graduate students? Our demographics are pretty skewed by that.

Personally I live in the Queens of greater Boston, and proud of it.
posted by pie ninja at 9:35 AM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


I guess when they say the Old 4th Ward, they might mean that corridor of Boulevard & Edgewood

The residential parts of O4W have been gentrifying for a while now, so that might account for it (there's a skatepark and everything). The Edgewood corridor is what I thought of though too; it's gotten super hip in the past few years and, with the streetcar going in, shows no sign of stopping. Technically though, Edgewood Ave is both Downtown and O4W (with the interesting stuff tapering off VERY quickly once you cross Boulevard into O4W.

where some friends of mine now own a bar

Is it Church? Because that place is great.
posted by Panjandrum at 9:39 AM on January 31, 2014


Seconding that Logan Square not being included in Chicago is ridiculous (but in a way, it's better that people keep talking about Wicker Park instead.)

Japantown for San Jose, CA? Because it has one indie coffee shop and a store that sells American streetwear a la Japonaise?

Serious question, since I just moved here this month - is there any place in the city that would remotely qualify?
posted by naju at 9:39 AM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


Personally I live in the Queens of greater Boston, and proud of it.

Where is that? Brighton?
posted by Admiral Haddock at 9:42 AM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


Seminole Heights is Tampa's Williamsburg. Ybor City is Tampa's East Village. Hyde Park is Tampa's ... Murray Hill, maybe?
posted by penduluum at 9:43 AM on January 31, 2014


A look at the raw data shows that an awful lot of these places only got 1 or 2 votes in the first place. Even the biggest vote getters I could find, in Philadephia and Chicago, only got 15 and 13 votes, respectively. That both explains some of the questionable reults people are noting and demonstrates that hip people (Is that the same as hipsters? Clearly it is not me in either event) don't read Gawker, or at least dont take it's online polls.
posted by TedW at 9:43 AM on January 31, 2014 [2 favorites]


This isn't revelatory, but it's entirely possible that young, hip people populating up-and-coming (or newly arrived) neighborhoods want to continue to have their lifestyle of, e.g., working low-stress/low-pay jobs, devoting their free time to bands/crafts/whatever and still affording rent and dive bar beers - and are very aware of the gentrification creep - and thus a Gawker is the absolute last place they'd want to telegraph how cool their neighborhood is.
posted by naju at 9:49 AM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


I thought Park Slope was for the well-heeled with kids, no?

I don't know that Park Slope was ever hip in the way that Williamsburg was, say, 10 years ago. It kind of went from white ethnic families to rich yupsters with kids, with a transition period when it was something of a mecca for lesbian couples and writers. But even during the transition phase, it was never hip in the "cutting-edge young musicians squatting in warehouses" sort of way that people associate with Williamsburg/Bushwick hipsters. It always skewed older, more literary, and more genteel. Park Slope wasn't as edgy as Williamsburg even during its hipness heyday, and it wasn't as dangerous as Williamsburg even during its nadir.

Also, here's a thing about Williamsburg and Bushwick: They're frickin' ugly. Yeah, there's lots of bars and restaurants, and cool music venues, and artisinal whateverthefuck shops and whatnot. But, aside from a small slice of Williamsburg near Graham Ave., there's like no trees, and the buildings are all boxy old warehouses or row houses with cheap siding and those godawful new modernist apartment buildings that look like space-age glass boxes sheathed in grey steel. Seriously, the street-level atmosphere in Williamsburg and Bushwick is not very appealing, unless you're a drunk hipster looking to meet other drunk hipsters.
posted by breakin' the law at 10:03 AM on January 31, 2014 [3 favorites]


OK, sure. But where is the Colonial Williamsburg of your city?
posted by spilon at 10:05 AM on January 31, 2014 [6 favorites]


I know Knoxville. I know Happy Holler. I got married in Happy Holler. Gawker, Happy Holler is no Williamsburg.
posted by workerant at 10:07 AM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


But where is the Colonial Williamsburg of your city?

The colonial Williamsburg of New York City is Historic Richmond Town.
posted by breakin' the law at 10:07 AM on January 31, 2014


Panjandrum, the bar is called Mother. They also own/run the art gallery Beep Beep.
posted by Kitteh at 10:10 AM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


As a former New Yorker and current Portlander, I think very little of Portland truly resembles Williamsburg. Maybe some stretches of, say, Mississippi Avenue resemble some parts of Bedford Avenue — but most of Portland isn't as densely packed, expensive, cosmopolitan, or grimy as most of NYC. Which is fine; I love both cities for what they are.

I do like that Portland doesn't have a single designated "hip area." You can find your artisan pickle dealers (or, at least, locally owned cafes and independent stores and art galleries and band rehearsal spaces) all over, from Hawthorne and Belmont to Alberta and Mississippi to Sellwood to "LoBu" to NW 21st/23rd to downtown. Plus, most neighborhoods are walkable and have a good mix of residential and commercial blocks. And there's pretty terrific public transportation for a midsized U.S. city.

But New York City is enough of its own thing that you seriously can't transport it elsewhere. Why try to be the "next Williamsburg"? Be the original [YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD HERE].
posted by lisa g at 10:17 AM on January 31, 2014


But where is the Colonial Williamsburg of your city?

Sturbridge or Salem, depending on how much historical accuracy you're looking for.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 10:18 AM on January 31, 2014


I find it hilarious talking about "hipsters" with my brothers who live in New Orleans. They think basically anybody who isn't a horrible caricature of a dudebro fratjock is a "hipster". Also anyone who does anything in any way atypical, creative, different, etc. They think preppies are hipsters. They think anime fans are hipsters. They think people who buy artisanal cheese are hipsters. It's so weird.

Oh, and Philadelphia is the Williamsburg of New York. Obvs.
posted by Sara C. at 10:24 AM on January 31, 2014


where hipsters and weirdos and punks and messed-up nerds lived BACK IN 1995. Somerville is where Fat Day House was, for God's sake! Did the hipsters go away and now they're coming back?

This list is completely stuck in 1995. Well, maybe more like 2002. But still. For Los Angeles, I would say that the current "Williamsburg" is Echo Park and the current "Bushwick" is Highland Park or maybe Boyle Heights. Silverlake is more on the order of Park Slope. It has boutiques and stuff, but as far as I can tell everyone who lives there is mostly grownups who care about real estate values, school districts, and gardening.
posted by Sara C. at 10:29 AM on January 31, 2014


I find it hilarious talking about "hipsters" with my brothers who live in New Orleans. They think basically anybody who isn't a horrible caricature of a dudebro fratjock is a "hipster". Also anyone who does anything in any way atypical, creative, different, etc. They think preppies are hipsters. They think anime fans are hipsters. They think people who buy artisanal cheese are hipsters.

That sounds pretty much like the vast majority of invocations of the term here on Metafilter.
posted by yoink at 10:32 AM on January 31, 2014 [4 favorites]


Sara C.: "I find it hilarious talking about "hipsters" with my brothers who live in New Orleans. They think basically anybody who isn't a horrible caricature of a dudebro fratjock is a "hipster". [...] It's so weird."

I'm trying to figure out your point here, other than just to talk about your brothers' opinions. Are you attempting to imply that the rest of us in New Orleans think like they do and that they are somehow representative of New Orleans as a whole, or did you just want to bring them up, or what?
posted by komara at 10:37 AM on January 31, 2014 [2 favorites]


Personally I live in the Queens of greater Boston, and proud of it.

Where is that? Brighton?


I'd say Quincy. It's got the second, modern Chinatown.
posted by Diablevert at 10:41 AM on January 31, 2014


In my day, about a decade ago, in actual Williamsburg in its heyday (well, the twilight of its heyday), hipsters were 22 year olds wearing ridiculous clothes who worked McJobs, did coke, and played kickball in McCarren park.

Nowadays I definitely see people I'd call descendants of that basic idea in Echo Park. (I think taking classes at Upright Citizens Brigade is the local equivalent of kickball.)

If you're over 30, you pretty much can't be a hipster by definition.

If you have an actual career, you're probably not a hipster.

Hipsters don't have money for artisanal cheese, and if they did they would put it up their nose.
posted by Sara C. at 10:42 AM on January 31, 2014


Hipsters... snort coke?
posted by naju at 10:44 AM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


Are you attempting to imply that the rest of us in New Orleans think like they do and that they are somehow representative of New Orleans as a whole

Kind of?

I'm in New Orleans at least once a year and very rarely see any hipsters despite hanging out in the "hipster" parts of town around people my family insists are "hipsters".

Personally, I'm happy that New Orleans has never been consumed with the things hipsters generally care about, has a unique local culture, and does things its own way.
posted by Sara C. at 10:44 AM on January 31, 2014


Hipsters... snort coke?

Or whatever the current drug of choice is, I guess.

Wow, I'm officially old. Huh.
posted by Sara C. at 10:45 AM on January 31, 2014


If you're over 30, you pretty much can't be a hipster by definition.

This doesn't jibe with the families I see in Oakland these days.
posted by bitdamaged at 10:45 AM on January 31, 2014 [2 favorites]


Here's an early viral video depicting the hipsters of my youth, in actual Williamsburg. Probably five years after the end of True Ultimate Authentic "Williamsburg" as a hipster mecca, but depicts my memories of it pretty well.
posted by Sara C. at 10:46 AM on January 31, 2014


I've decided to adopt srboisvert's definition of a hipster from this moment forward: anybody younger than me who isn't wearing a suit.

Its been a few years now since I lived in San Francisco, but surely someone is trolling Gawker when they put forth Hunter's Point as SF's version of Bushwick? Right?
posted by whir at 10:47 AM on January 31, 2014


Hipsters don't have money for artisanal cheese, and if they did they would put it up their nose.

This is why I find the term "yupster" useful. It distinguishes the late 20s/early 30s people with careers who buy artisinal cheese and drink craft cocktails from the kids with the PBR and the McJobs ("hipsters") and the dudebros in Murray Hill ("yuppies"). Basically, a yupster is a slightly older hipster with a job that provides health insurance.
posted by breakin' the law at 10:48 AM on January 31, 2014 [7 favorites]


Sara C.: "Kind of?

I'm in New Orleans at least once a year and very rarely see any hipsters despite hanging out in the "hipster" parts of town around people my family insists are "hipsters"."


Well, I'm in New Orleans every single day and don't hang out with anyone whose opinions parallel those of your brothers' so it's obvious that neither you nor I can be the arbiter of what truly passes for a New Orleanian attitude towards what constitutes a hipster.
posted by komara at 10:51 AM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


Hipsters... snort coke?

No, they snort Ossau-Iraty, occasionally cut with some Pecorino Toscano.
posted by yoink at 10:53 AM on January 31, 2014 [5 favorites]


Evidently my city has neither a Williamsburg or a Greenpoint. Pardon while I shed my gray hair and eat white bread. A New York Times Style reporter just went by in a driverless car wearing a blindfold.
posted by bswinburn at 10:54 AM on January 31, 2014 [2 favorites]


Gawker, Happy Holler is no Williamsburg.

It's like they didn't even try on Knoxville.

I honestly don't know what the Williamsburg of Knoxville is (is there one?), but I'd give the Bushwick title to Park Ridge.
posted by likeatoaster at 11:06 AM on January 31, 2014


Yes to the Cleveland choices. As for Brooklyn neighborhoods I actually LOVE, my heart currently belongs to Greenpoint. So much tasty Polish food! I am a sucker for pierogi, what with being a native Clevelander and all.

Slavic Village is our Greenpoint.
posted by bitter-girl.com at 11:12 AM on January 31, 2014


But where is the Colonial Williamsburg of your city?

Streets of Old Milwaukee.
posted by drezdn at 11:14 AM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


I am still bitter about the fact that other people eventually discovered Greenpoint. Most underrated neighborhood in New York till it showed up on Girls. I think that was the moment I knew it was really time to leave.
posted by Sara C. at 11:15 AM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


On Providence: I think the hipsterfication of Olneyville predates the hipsterfication of Bushwick. In which case, by their standards, Bushwick is the Olneyville of NYC.

Olneyville is a rundown slab of Providence that is perpetually a magnet for post-apocalyptic trendoids. Once or twice a decade, the cops roust the squatters, and it goes back to welcoming in whatever immigrant group is most hated and reviled by other immigrant groups, and everyone goes back to advising their out of town friends never to visit.

Then the underground theaters, warehouse concerts, U-Haul truck art galleries and unlicensed fine dining restaurants start creeping back in, and the boarded up and condemned triple deckers start filling up with the tattooed and pierced and unkempt, and then there's a write-up in Hustler or the New York Review of Books and the city cracks down again.

It's not gentrification as much as it is a gathering of tribes before they are hurled to Boston or NYC, a sacred ritual Providence uses to ensure it will be a forever backwater between great cities. It's ramping up a new cycle now, which is why it's trending as the Bushwick - it's not. It's something stranger and more ominous. I like it.
posted by Slap*Happy at 11:16 AM on January 31, 2014 [4 favorites]


But where is the Colonial Williamsburg of your city?

Either Mission San Diego or Old Town.
posted by LionIndex at 11:24 AM on January 31, 2014


Yes, but what's the Williamsburg of Colonial Williamsburg?

Lafayette Street? Braxton Court? The Meridian Coffeehouse? I'm a little terrified that I have actual opinions about this analogy...
posted by schmod at 11:47 AM on January 31, 2014 [7 favorites]


troika: "Their pick for DC (H Street) is so right as to be boring, though.

I totally would have voted Bloomingdale for that dubious honor.
"

Shut up.Shut up.Shut up.Shut up. I already got priced out of H St. I don't want to have to move again.

(Besides, Bloomingdale gives me more of a Park Slope-ish vibe. Parts of Columbia Heights definitely have much more of a "Williamsburg"ish vibe to them. I just hope to God that Gawker and the NYTimes don't discover my awesome and hidden corner of the city until I can actually afford to buy a place there...)
posted by schmod at 11:50 AM on January 31, 2014


Japantown for San Jose, CA? Because it has one indie coffee shop and a store that sells American streetwear a la Japonaise?

I know the one guy who told Gawker Japantown. He basically did it to troll them.
posted by madcaptenor at 11:53 AM on January 31, 2014 [2 favorites]


Oh Schmod, sad schmod, unless your "hidden place" is a soiled mattress under the 395/695 interchange, everywhere is pretty much discovered and quickly becoming overpriced and even your mattress is getting some looks!
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 12:01 PM on January 31, 2014 [3 favorites]


My best friend lives in Columbia Heights in DC. She's been in DC for going on six years and change now; she has no plans in the future to move but living in an expensive shoebox apartment is starting to lose its luster. She would love to buy real estate in the city, but that ain't happening any time soon and she's deadset against living in the suburbs. I have no idea what the solution would be.
posted by Kitteh at 12:12 PM on January 31, 2014


Piedmont is the Williamsberg of Oakland? Not hardly, more like the Westchester County, full of rich white corporate attorneys. Unless they mean Piedmont Avenue or what is generally known as the Temescal neighborhood. That certainly is well-gentrified: there is a pork-oriented bar, a hip bicycle shop, and a mac-n-cheese restaurant within two blocks of 40th Avenue...
posted by suelac at 1:01 PM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


The 10th Regiment of Foot: "Oh Schmod, sad schmod, unless your "hidden place" is a soiled mattress under the 395/695 interchange"

Actually, the Anacostia Community Boathouse (where I used to row) got evicted once DC had enough money in its coffers to rebuild the 395/695 interchange (the boathouse previously two buildings that the DC government had basically abandoned and let the community use for free in exchange for maintaining them).

The new 11th St bridge's footings are now on top of the location where the boathouse used to be...

So, yeah... DC's fucked.
posted by schmod at 1:43 PM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


Northeast Minneapolis still has some variation from place to place. The blocks north of Broadway between the river and Central, sure, that's hipster-ish. The more northeastern part of Northeast is great, just more normal and boring and less 'hip' (but close enough to hip that you can get it if you want it, without driving far).
posted by gimonca at 2:27 PM on January 31, 2014


Not sure how Columbus ended up with Clintonville or German Village, wouldn't it be Short North?

I had the same thought. German Village doesn't skew 'young' enough to be a Williamsburg, and both German Village and Clintonville are too residential. Clintonville - or maybe Franklinton - could be the Bushwick.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 2:37 PM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


Piedmont is the Williamsberg of Oakland? Not hardly, more like the Westchester County, full of rich white corporate attorneys. Unless they mean Piedmont Avenue or what is generally known as the Temescal neighborhood. That certainly is well-gentrified: there is a pork-oriented bar, a hip bicycle shop, and a mac-n-cheese restaurant within two blocks of 40th Avenue...

Temescal is probably my choice too for an actual mid-stage hipster neighborhood (as opposed to the ones that are just rich and white or the ones that are just starting to gentrify)
posted by atoxyl at 2:47 PM on January 31, 2014


Serious question, since I just moved here this month - is there any place in the city that would remotely qualify?

No.
posted by Apocryphon at 4:27 PM on January 31, 2014


Milwaukee...yep. If the streets are really narrow and the parking is shitty (and you're not downtown) you're probably in one of Milwaukee's "hip" neighborhoods.
posted by MikeMc at 4:27 PM on January 31, 2014


Albany's Center Square (Lark St., etc.) isn't Williamsburg. Wikipedia calls it the Soho and Greenwich Village of Albany, which makes more sense.
posted by John Cohen at 4:38 PM on January 31, 2014


To me, Williamsburg was always the Silverlake of New York. How did they get to be declared the kings of hipsters?
posted by sideshow at 4:54 PM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


I find it hilarious talking about "hipsters" with my brothers who live in New Orleans. They think basically anybody who isn't a horrible caricature of a dudebro fratjock is a "hipster". Also anyone who does anything in any way atypical, creative, different, etc. They think preppies are hipsters. They think anime fans are hipsters. They think people who buy artisanal cheese are hipsters.

The word “dude” originally (in the 19th century) meant what “hipster” meant a few years ago: youngish men with dandyish sartorial tastes and an affected manner. Which means that, in a decade or two, a “hipster” is going to be the equivalent of a swaggering, testosterone-pissing alpha-bro, not some skinny, neurotic dorkwad who's into loungecore music and Werner Herzog films or whatever the equivalent is.
posted by acb at 5:06 PM on January 31, 2014 [2 favorites]


Also: Northcote as Melbourne's next Williamsburg? I thought that was Melbourne's Park Slope (babyccino central), with the next Williamsburg being Brunswick/Coburg or perhaps Preston. Unless those also have been yuppified since I last looked and the hipsters have been forced out into the car-dependent sprawl of Dandenong or somewhere.
posted by acb at 5:10 PM on January 31, 2014


It's not gentrification as much as it is a gathering of tribes before they are hurled to Boston or NYC, a sacred ritual Providence uses to ensure it will be a forever backwater between great cities. It's ramping up a new cycle now, which is why it's trending as the Bushwick - it's not. It's something stranger and more ominous. I like it.

yes, yes! I love this comment Slap*Happy!

I lived in the West end/Armory district on the edge of Olneyville from around 1987 until mid 2001, when I moved into an old unheated industrial building in Olneyville proper. During all of those years there was a churning underground of one freakish thing or another going on. I thought it was over the day I came home to my space to watch the kids at Fort Thunder lowering their instruments out of their building's windows days before Eagle square was razed. But no, Olneyville soldiered on in weirdness and I each time I go back to visit Providence it feels like something strange and wonderful (or at the very least, fucked up) is happening there.

I moved from Olneyville to McKibben lofts in Bushwick in 2002, and then on to Greenpoint. It's all about large (but uncomfortable) spaces with cheap rent, not that elusive search for coolness for a lot of people. No really. (Cues this song in background)
posted by stagewhisper at 5:21 PM on January 31, 2014 [3 favorites]


On Providence: I think the hipsterfication of Olneyville predates the hipsterfication of Bushwick.

fort thunder was ages and ages ago, shame it got moved on - it could have done a lot for olneyville.

*edit - they're doing something again there now ???*



also:

DUDEBRO FRATJOCK
posted by sgt.serenity at 5:23 PM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


Fort Thunder was ten years away in the future from when I went to my first pirate theatre play in Olneyville. When I'm in my grave at 211 years old, rejects from RISD and RIC and Brown and dropouts from downstate will be making music and putting on plays there in unsanctioned spaces, until a new mayor vows to Clean Up the City. Then we begin anew.
posted by Slap*Happy at 7:38 PM on January 31, 2014


Oakland? Really? I get so sick of this crap. Yes there are parts of Oakland that qualify, but Oakland is a large city with a lot of different neighborhoods. Give it more respect than lumping the entire fucking city with the few hip areas. Because it's not all Temescal or Uptown. But you wouldn't know because that requires not thinking about the rest of (non-Rockridge/Piedmont) Oakland as an actual place worth visiting or living in.

Also, Hunter's Point? Umm, did you not notice what's going on with Divisidaro and Alamo Square?
posted by aspo at 7:44 PM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


The weirdest thing for me was the old map with a "Renton Hill" on it. So I now I've learned that used to exist.
posted by Margalo Epps at 8:11 PM on January 31, 2014


Talk about coincidences: I have a framed copy of that map hanging above my desk.
posted by Pudhoho at 10:17 PM on January 31, 2014


People really shouldn't get worked up about this. If you look at the full chart, half the places were chosen on the basis of "one vote", from some dude on the internet.
posted by modernnomad at 1:53 AM on February 1, 2014 [1 favorite]


Pretty sure I live in the Bay Ridge of Boston/Eastern Mass. Does this make me Peggy Olson?
posted by pxe2000 at 7:41 AM on February 1, 2014 [1 favorite]


With Minneapolis, I'd be more specific and say Whittier, with Loring as maybe the Bushwick? I lived in Stevens (and loved it like I love my crazy aunts) so I spent a lot of time in those areas. There are cute shops and lots of places to hang out, along with residential. In Loring, I feel like there were fewer people coming from far away to hang there, but there aren't as many good shops. All those areas have really good walking scores (I didn't notice my car was stolen for almost a week!)

The "North Loop" (meh, Warehouse District sounds cooler) is for people my parents' age (50s/60s) who can afford downtown condos. (I only go there on special occasions--anniversary dinner, a party at my academic advisor's fancypants condo, party at some design firm--wait, that part does sound hipstery...) Northeast is where the cool kids go to have their backyards and babies; as mentioned above, it's really a bunch of different neighborhoods, though.
posted by MsDaniB at 12:46 PM on February 2, 2014 [1 favorite]


aspo: " Yes there are parts of Oakland that qualify, but Oakland is a large city with a lot of different neighborhoods. Give it more respect than lumping the entire fucking city with the few hip areas."

I think you've misinterpreted it. It's not saying "Oakland is Williamsburg", it's saying "of the Oakland neighborhoods, which is most closely equivalent to Williamsburg (by which we mean overrun with hipsters and trendy shops)?"

FWIW, I would answer Temescal, not Piedmont Ave and certainly not "Piedmont" or "San Francisco" (because they're not fucking Oakland, not even as a joke).

(Although the premise would appear to be flawed, in that Oakland is "the Brooklyn of the Bay Area".)
posted by Lexica at 6:06 PM on February 2, 2014


Lexica: No, the "Bushwick of San Francisco" is supposedly Oakland. Yeah it's just a few responses, but it mirrors what people in the Bay Area keep saying, and it drives me crazy. Yes, there are parts of Oakland that are rapidly filling up with hipsters, but that's not "Oakland," anymore than The Mission is San Francisco. And the same people who don't seem to understand that are the types of idiots who ten-fifteen years ago thought Oakland was some crazy war zone where you'd get shot for walking outside after dark. Oakland's been a hip and interesting city for generations, and it just drives me crazy how acceptable it is to act like it was some hellhole before the enlightened San Franciscans started moving in.
posted by aspo at 9:12 PM on February 2, 2014


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