Williamsburg Hipsters Aren't All Rich Kids After All
New York Magazine pops The Times’ bubble about the real demographic reality of Williamsburg. Despite the fact that its most visible residents make easy targets with their skinny jeans and facial hair, Williamsburg is in fact no hotbed of trustfunddom. In fact, Williamsburg’s residents are by and large in worse financial shape than most New…
New York Magazine pops The Times’ bubble about the real demographic reality of Williamsburg. Despite the fact that its most visible residents make easy targets with their skinny jeans and facial hair, Williamsburg is in fact no hotbed of trustfunddom. In fact, Williamsburg’s residents are by and large in worse financial shape than most New Yorkers. In 2005, for example, almost half of those living within the bounds of Community Board 1 were getting some kind of social assistance and the area’s median income is almost 20 less than the city as a whole; less than 3 percent of households were bringing in over $200,000 a year. Concludes the New York article, “The reality of Williamsburg, beyond the mythical trust-funders, is that it is a community of people mostly struggling to get by, with a few wealthy residents grabbing headlines — the way New York has always been.”
Beyond Hipsters: Williamsburg’s Tough Economic Realities [New York]
Parental Lifelines, Frayed to Breaking [NY Times]
Dose of Reality for Trust Fund Kids [Brownstoner]
Photo by Eric Graham
“The poor hipsters most likely patronize all those successful places that offer free pizza with your pint of beer.”
The Charleston and The Alligator are crowded on the weekends, but hipsters tend to frequent Royal Oak, Union Pool, K&M, The Levee on the weekends for the free dance parties, or the hookup scene.
Also, PBR is becoming passe – seeing more cans of Schlitz, Miller High Life, Black Label etc.
Oh – and mark my words – Meeker Ave btw Metro and Graham will be the next bar/restaurant row – there’s currently 5 establishments in the works, and 3 have opened in the past 3 months.
The poor hipsters most likely patronize all those successful places that offer free pizza with your pint of beer. And why do you think PBR is sooooooo popular? As far as people coming in from elsewhere to dine and drink, every time I pass Sea on my way to Academy records, you see every type of non-hipster you can imagine from all over, especially packed on weekends.
From a rare short-sighted perspective (toot toooooot), without even reading the comments and piece, I guess it’s what What said, 10 to an apartment. Spiking rents/comps. Until Lehman that is.
***Bid half off peak comps***
“This means to me that lots of these are going to close up, or that the relatively few wealthy residents sure do like to consume a whole heck of a lot.”
From my observation – the upscale Williamsburg establishments are frequented by people outside the neighborhood (at least on the weekend). The usual suspects (marlow, diner, dressler, rye, zenkichi, delmano) are packed on the weekends.
There are, however alot of great places that have been absolutely dead lately (DBA, DOC Wine Bar) – so it’s definitely hit or miss.
Sparafucile- don’t I wish!!!! 🙂
CB1 includes Greenpoint, and all of Williamsburg, including very large Orthodox Jewish and Latino populations, and a lot of public housing. So I don’t think the hipsters are the ones in CB1 who aren’t rich.
As has been pointed out repeatedly, the median household income in Brooklyn is less than $41,000, even though everyone posting on Brownstoner earns a mid-six figure income working in the arts.
” I think, although I’d expect to see a lot more closing as leases expire. Because it was sort of a retail vacuum, most of Bedford and Metropolitan ave. got developed in line with the “new” demographic.”
The trend I’ve seen is as leases expire, businesses that have been in the neighborhood are leaving, being replaced by owners of Manhattan establishments – as retail rents in Williamsburg are still MUCH lower then other gentrified brooklyn neighborhoods, and ALOT lower than downtown manhattan.
Retail rents in Williamsburg were a pretty good deal for a long time, and since most of the storefrontage was vacant, opening a business wasn’t a hard thing to do. That’s why there are so many, I think, although I’d expect to see a lot more closing as leases expire. Because it was sort of a retail vacuum, most of Bedford and Metropolitan ave. got developed in line with the “new” demographic.