Williamsburg All Grown Up
Bougie couples with kids are buying in Williamsburg. That’s the central message of the cover story from yesterday’s New York Times real estate section titled “Williamsburg, Toddlertown.” There’s one couple who bailed on Park Slope after only a few months because, well, let them tell you: It felt really suburban to me, said the 29-year-old…
Bougie couples with kids are buying in Williamsburg. That’s the central message of the cover story from yesterday’s New York Times real estate section titled “Williamsburg, Toddlertown.” There’s one couple who bailed on Park Slope after only a few months because, well, let them tell you: It felt really suburban to me, said the 29-year-old jewelry designer and blogger. Park Slope has puppets and guitar strumming for kids. In Williamsburg, it is like rock ‘n’ roll for kids. And there are more and more of these kids. The Williamsburg Northside Preschool has grown from a daycare center in 1999 to a ten-classroom school with plans to expand to a third building and accommodate up to the fifth grade. The demand from families has also prompted the developers of such high profile projects as 80 Met and The Edge to reconfigure apartment layouts to include more three-bedroom offerings. Any readers out there fall into this demographic of recent family-sized converts to The Burg? Tell us why you made the call.
Williamsburg, Toddlertown [NY Times]
Photo by Trespassers Will
“There have been children living in those areas for generations.”
Yes, mopar, and for generations their parents worked their asses off to move them OUT of the toxicity. I used to work with some Williamsburg parents when I was a young moonface myself, and they did NOT want to raise their kids there. It was asthma city, and then there was radiac and the Williamsburg bridge sandblasting… Bushwick was actually considered to be a better neighborhood (parts of it at least), than the southside.
Of course, that same lack of desirability is part of what made Williamsburg so easy to gentrify. There was so little there that gentrification happened in a vacuum.
The latest Williamsburg rumor I heard is that maybe a Marshall’s is moving in. Naturally, despite getting at least some of their income from corporate America (or maybe I am wrong and all Williamsburg money is generated from working farms in Vermont and Etsy?) — the denizens are horrified.
Heights Magnifico – The failure of the Bronx to catch on as multi-ethnic middle class boro is truly astounding to me. Especially since inaccessible places with really crappy housing stock (Bushwick) have. Thats not to say that no one knows of the Bronx, blacks latinos, SE Asians etc….all inhabit the boro (in decidedly MIXED neighborhoods) but Whites shun the place (except for the fringes – Riverdale, Throgs Neck etc) like the plague – its odd.
The Bronx is the perfect boro for families, it has great housing stock, tons of parks and beautiful topography. Practically the whole damn boro was built to appeal to the demographic that now covets Park Slope, Kennsington (and now apparently Williamsburg)
“I predict the Bronx is going to be hipster central in a few years. But they probably won’t be called hipsters then. I’m sure society will think of another label.”
uhh – it already is. ever been to port morris?
“Bushwick is becoming overpriced as we speak. It’ll be “cool” for a few more years just like Williamsburg WAS and then the suits and strollers will move in and the NYT will do an article title Bushwick, Hip[ster] Replacement”
Are you sure, HM? I thought the old adage “location, location, location” also has something to do with this.
yes. baby moonfaces are allergic to EVERYthing.
*rob*
I predict the Bronx is going to be hipster central in a few years. But they probably won’t be called hipsters then. I’m sure society will think of another label.
Bushwick is becoming overpriced as we speak. It’ll be “cool” for a few more years just like Williamsburg WAS and then the suits and strollers will move in and the NYT will do an article title Bushwick, Hip[ster] Replacement
As for that industrial oil spill Buttermilk mentions, does it only affect the children of arty college graduates? There have been children living in those areas for generations.
Pittsburgh, Detroit or St. Louis. Rents are too high for true hipsters. How can you be a creative spirit finding your way when you have to hold 2 jobs just for the rent? NYC is for workaholics, trustafarians and the highly transients.
Yes, Biff.