A Borough of BroBos?
Do you remember when Times columnist David Brooks coined the phrase BoBos to describe a certain set of liberal yuppies—or Bourgeois Bohemians—back in the Nineties? Well, this week the Observer has resuscitated the term with a twist, putting their finger on a certain subset of the Brooklyn population the salmon-colored weekly is calling BroBos, or…
Do you remember when Times columnist David Brooks coined the phrase BoBos to describe a certain set of liberal yuppies—or Bourgeois Bohemians—back in the Nineties? Well, this week the Observer has resuscitated the term with a twist, putting their finger on a certain subset of the Brooklyn population the salmon-colored weekly is calling BroBos, or Brooklyn Bourgeois Bohemians. Ouch! Matt Power is one BroBo, according to the Observer: “Fuck, Brooklyn’s great!” said the PLG-based magazine writer. “I’ve got three blueberry bushes, I’ve got a fig tree, I’ve got 20 tomato plants. We put up enough basil last summer to have pesto until now. It’s fucking great. Why would you suffer living in a lightless hole?” Evidently The Brooklyn Flea is considered a hotbed of Brobos, as is the stretch of Bergen Street that includes Toys in Babeland, high-end hot dog place Bark and maternity clothing shop Bump. “If this isn’t real New York, then why would you want the other New York?” a Flea attendee and Fort Greene resident told the Observer. “Why wouldn’t you want this?” Turns out not every young creative type in the city is buying the Brooklyn hype. “People live in Brooklyn because it’s cheaper,” said one such Manhattan purist. “It’s not a money thing or a class thing, but it’s sort of admitting defeat—an inability to be in New York.”
BroBos in Paradise [NY Observer]
Photo by vlauria
I like my cheddah cold.
It is amazing how many Manhattanites still feel that if they set foot in Brooklyn they will become hopelessly lost among unnumbered streets and stumble onto a street corner gunfight and be shot.
“I live on that stretch of Bergen Street.”
I’m not surprised. Even with over-generalization and such – sometimes they are true.
every year some recent journalism grad thinks he’s struck gold by projecting his own real estate-based insecurities on the city. the signifiers change but the pointless boosterism/bashing never does.
Oh, please. I agree with the zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. The gross generalizations of people on both sides of the river were ridiculous.
This might be my favorite thread, EVER.
Dead horses that are still being beaten: “Manhattan vs. Brooklyn”
Yawn.
I live on that stretch of Bergen Street.
I’ll read anything and I tried to read The Observer once and was like, WTF? – and sadly the morons who do read it now think they’re clued in.
is she really advocating harlem as the ‘I’VE MADE IT’ address? that makes her a winner?
heh. oh ok.