Bburg: Not Just for [American] Hipsters Anymore

This article makes me hate Williamsburg even more than I already did.

Posted by: 11217 at November 24, 2008 11:54 AM

"it's the best neighborhood in NY"

Your desperation in talking about your neighborhood makes me nauseous.

I would never claim that Park Slope is the "best neighborhood in NYC." Yes, in my opinion it is the best for ME, but I would never suggest it is simply THE BEST.

It is so obvious you are terrified of your new white box being worth half of what it is now by this time next year. Could you at least TRY to be a little less transparent?!

I love that you think a neighborhood infested with cloned 21 year olds from the Midwest is the be all end all neighborhood in New York City. I think THAT says a lot about you.

The NYTimes piece was a fluff piece paid for by real estate agents to get a couple more Europeans (suckers) to buy a couple more rapidly deflating condos in your hood. It's sad that you don't realize that.

Nothing you say is going to change the fact that your hood is going to resemble Miami's housing market by this time next year. 10,000 new condos coming online with NO buyers!!

Posted by: 11217 at November 24, 2008 12:19 PM

We've all noticed, Billyboomer. Everyone except wine lover that is!

Posted by: 11217 at November 24, 2008 12:44 PM

"except your misinformed notion that everyone in the burg longs to move to Park Slope, and is a 21 year old hipster."

Actually the opposite of this is true. I hope those in Williamsburg stay where they are! I dislike the neighborhood and I despise almost everyone I've ever met who lives there.

Wine lover pretty much sums up the attitude of those who live in Williamsburg. They think it's the only place on earth and even he just slammed Heather, someone who has always spoke very highly of Williamsburg and he had nothing but trash to talk about her.

A sign of someone who's really into himself. Very much like every person I've met who lives in Williamsburg.

I agree...some people like it...clearly. But I don't have to and I'm allowed to state my opinion.

Btw, 3 people on my block moved to the U.S. from abroad in the past year or so..one couple from the U.K...one from France with a little girl and another couple (2 girls) from Berlin.

Can we get the NYTimes over here STAT!!!

In case you missed it, that was sarcasm. The whole freakin city is made of of people from other places...I find this particular article trashy just like most of the other NYTimes real estate "pieces"

Posted by: 11217 at November 24, 2008 3:02 PM

I do LOVE the Beacon's Closet in Williamsburg and have found many nice items of clothing there.

The people there are awful, however. Nasty and rude.

The few remaining friends I have in Williamsburg (I used to have many more, but they've all since left) are approaching their late 20's and early 30's and would describe Williamsburg just as I have above.

Not one of them wants to be there anymore. I'm currently helping 2 find places elsewhere in Brooklyn since they know I keep up with real estate, etc.

Posted by: 11217 at November 24, 2008 4:02 PM

This craiglist missed connection sums up Williamsburg pretty well...it's actually hilarious.

***

You are the Prototype - m4w - 24 (7th & Bedford)

Me: Skinny jeans with patterned slip-ons. Shaggy brown hair, crusty mustache, over-sized headphones, a black and white plaid cloth scarf and an attitude.

You: Skinny jeans with black boots just past your ankles, brown straight hair with bangs, over-sized 80’s style glasses, bright red lip-stick, american apparel type blouse, over-sized headphones (around your neck).

I saw you loitering on bedford. You had headphones but you weren’t listening to any music. You never smiled, and I thought to myself, “wow, this is a girl like no other.”

Then I looked to my left and saw 20 more of you. Then 70 or so bumped my shoulders on the street cause they weren’t paying attention to where they were going. Then 300 more poured out of the Music Hall. Just when I started to feel sad, I noticed about 2,000 of me standing around and then I thought, we’re both so totally and hopelessly unoriginal and fake we’d be perfect for one another.

Email me, we can pretend to talk about music we know absolutely nothing about then get drunk off of OE cause, you know, it’s fun to be white and pretend like you know shit about the ghetto. I know you’re out there, I’ll be waiting breathlessly by my MacBook Pro and Midi Keyboard for your email. In fact, I think I’ll go compose a wordless, electronic ballad while I wait. peace, chicken

Posted by: 11217 at November 24, 2008 4:14 PM

I dated someone this past year who lived in Williamsburg and spent 3-4 nights a week there.

I gave it a chance, really I did.

We hit all the bars, we hit all the "great" restaurants (even Dumont with a roach crawling on our table), we hit a couple cool shops.

That's not the problem. I find the area cold, I find the people totally vapid, I find they don't really care about anyone in the neighborhood who's lived there for generations, I felt like all the bars were the same crowd, I felt like there were no trees, I feel that calling McCarren a "park" is laughable, and I found that there are a lot of people willing to pay a million dollars to live in an area that looks a lot like Beirut in the 1980's.

Sure, I like Hotel Delmano as a space for a bar, and have had a really great meal at Fanny's on more than one occassion, but I still dread going to the neighborhood. I just don't like it. I've given in a chance and the people are not my cup of tea (for the most part).

I don't judge things quickly and I always give them a fair shot before making a decision. I'm absolutely not saying that no one likes Williamsburg...clearly that's not the case. But just like you know many people who have moved from Brownstone Brooklyn to Williamsburg, I know many people who have done the exact opposite.

We have differing opinions here and that's fine.

I've spent years reading this website with people trashing Park Slope for a number of different reasons. Doesn't really matter to me, because I enjoy living here. I don't claim it's perfect like wine lover, I don't claim it's as hip as Williamsburg, I don't claim anything. You either like it or you don't. It's like chemistry with a mate...you either have it or you don't.

Although I have to say that I love Brooklyn...all of it really...and I'll lump Williamsburg in there if I must cause my love of the BK is that strong. I appreciate that it exists, I just don't want any part of it.

Posted by: 11217 at November 24, 2008 4:34 PM

Here's the take on this article from Curbed.com:

Europeans Messing with Burg Vibe, Hipsters not liking it.

An apology if it took us a few extra minutes to get this weekend's Times story about the heavy presences of Europeans in Williamsburg, but we were too busy (pissing ourselves because we were laughing so hard) carefully considering how to deal with it that we had to wait a bit. The Times wrote that:

There is a distinctly West European flavor to the social calendar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, these days, as affluent buyers from France, Germany, Italy and Britain are transforming a neighborhood better known for attracting hipsters, Midwesterners and Polish immigrants. Other neighborhoods that have been reshaped by the condo boom of recent years have also seen influxes of foreign buyers investing their yen, pounds and euros in real estate. But the trend has been most visible in Williamsburg, where the newcomers are establishing deeper roots and are not simply looking for weekend pieds-à-terre or investment properties.

So, you know, the French hang out at Fabian's on Bedford, the Brits go to Spike Hill Bar & Grill, Urban Rustic sells baguettes to French people near McCarren Park (not the side of the park where alcoholics drink Vladlimir Vodka out of brown paper bags, pass out on the benches and puke on themselves in a more Old European way), the Swedes learn to sell furniture in different languages and at one cafe the little ones are bilingual if not trilingual. One resident gushes, "You can't step outside without hearing French around you."

For real laughs and chuckles, however, head directly to the local blog Bad Advice, which did not take well to the "discovery" of Europeans in the Burg. Bad Advice writes:

Apparently there are a lot of Europeans in Williamsburg these days. Wow. This is news? I guess the newsiness lies in that these are rich, annoying Europeans. Not the artist types that got priced out of the nabe few years back. Instead of Swiss cartoonists and Lithuanian sculptors, we have British i-bankers and Swedish marketing professionals. And not only are they buying apartments with their bushels of Euros, they're opening businesses...

And continues about a comment made by a Swedish shop owner that Europeans are "more serious shoppers":

More serious than who? More serious than moi? (That's French for "me," btw.) It's true. I do tend to adopt a lighthearted, whimsical attitude when snapping up Marimekko washclothes and panda bear pillows. I see now that attitude is wrongheaded and I will never again walk through those doors without an appropriate pout on my face.

Is this why the dude in the bodega spoke French to us when we went in for a PRB the other day and asked us why we weren't buy, you know, the Duvel?

Posted by: 11217 at November 24, 2008 5:12 PM

TRUCE!

Posted by: 11217 at November 24, 2008 5:27 PM

Thank you also, A guest.

I appreciate a good discussion.

Here's to roaches in all of NYC'S finest dining establishments!

Posted by: 11217 at November 24, 2008 5:57 PM