Our Borough, Ourselves
For the past month the Observer’s been running a weekly column called “Brooklyn, the Borough.” Each installment is a first-person account written by Nicole Brydson, who grew up in Manhattan and did some time in Greenpoint and Hell’s Kitchen before recently settling in Prospect Heights. In grand old Observer fashion, the column sorta reads like…
For the past month the Observer’s been running a weekly column called “Brooklyn, the Borough.” Each installment is a first-person account written by Nicole Brydson, who grew up in Manhattan and did some time in Greenpoint and Hell’s Kitchen before recently settling in Prospect Heights. In grand old Observer fashion, the column sorta reads like “Sex and the City,” but instead of bed-hopping and social climbing the focus is one woman’s quest to identify herself via her new borough. Here’s what Brydson’s learned so far:
Lesson 1: Finding the right neighborhood is tough. Williamsburg=”hupsters.” Park Slope=”pretentious mommy-daddy colony.” Fort Greene=”just about perfect,” but a little too pricey. Prospect Heights=True love, at the right price.
Lesson 2: It’s possible to decorate on the cheap. Getting gear from Lowe’s and IKEA is all well and good, but how ’bout that beige carpet from the sidewalk? “So far, no bed bugs!”
Lesson 3: Gentrification is a bitch. “I feel destined to simultaneously be gentrified and gentrifying, but to most people I just look like the new white girl on the block.”
Lesson 4: Don’t expect sanity from a real estate agent who asks you to sign a lease on the hood of her Jag.
Looking forward to more!
Escaping Hupsters for New Prospects [Observer]
An Electric Boyfriend Works the New Apartment [Observer]
Destined to Be Gentrified and Gentrifying [Observer]
My Angel Gave Me Hell [Observer]
I’m not going to read the damn article, I got all I needed from the above description. What a load of horseshit.
Anyway, I’m glad for this thread because it offers an opportunity for us to come together and snark on HER instead of on each other. Mini bagels with vegetable cream cheese, anyone?
prospect heights is perfect? lived there, and it is not so much.
Oh the hypocrisy! She hates on the Burg “hups” but she IS a hup! An incredibly self-conscious and narcissistic one at that.
I used to define myself by my borough, but I soon realized it made much more sense to define myself by my Community Board.
10:34 is either the reporter or reporter’s chivalrous wacky gay neighbor.
By responding and commenting, you are only proving what a good reporter she is. It’s all about hits these days.
If you hate it, don’t comment.
‘the shwag’ – I love it!
26 years old? And somehow qualified to pass cliched judgment on pretty much every demographic in Brooklyn, and Manhattan, for that matter.
that video made me puke in my mouth. love those “japanimation” tats you got 10 years ago. so old skool. please go back to hell’s kitchen and stop acting like you know something about brooklyn or even japanese culture for that matter. you’re obviously desperate for attention and have father issues…