The Hipster Community

hipster <noun>

<informal> A person who follows the latest trends and fashions, especially those regarded as being outside the cultural mainstream.

– Oxford Dictionary

The art community gave way to the wave of “hipsters” flooding the streets of Williamsburg and Brooklyn as a whole. Artists and other “hipsters” took advantage of the low prices and close proximity to Manhattan that Williamsburg promised and bought up as well as moved into abandoned warehouses and factories turned luxury apartments in later years. Soon the stores surrounding them began to accommodate them. The preferences they had regarding food, clothing and other items began to show in the things being sold around Williamsburg. Grocery stores like Whole Foods and Trader Joes began to arise in the area, much more expensive than what the neighborhood was used to. Boutiques, high end thrift stores – so expensive they might as well not be considered the classic sense of thrift shops – and expensive clothing stores eventually made their way into the area. Soon restaurants sparked up around Williamsburg, sporting high prices as well. (ny.curbed.com)

Through interviews with those who live and have lived in Williamsburg, it becomes clear that new stores showed up every week and continue to arise. Food from all over makes appearances as well, promoting tourism and other visits from those around the state and so far as around the world. “Thirty years ago, it would be deemed as insane if you saw a tourist running around Williamsburg with a map, seeming lost and just walking the streets like it was no big deal.” said one interviewee who worded in the Williamsburg Fire Department for fifteen years in the 1970s.

As hipsters continue to move into Williamsburg, prices continue to rise and the social stratification of the area makes a drastic change. The community becomes a more affluent one with many artists, performers and others with high paying jobs. Many who have lived there for years are concerned with the evaporation of a culture that created Williamsburg. The seeming disregard for the Puerto Rican Community with the proposed removal of the words “Avenue of Puerto Rico” on one street on the Southside. (http://larespuestamedia.com/)

But many others welcome the change in the neighborhood, citing the new culture being created by the hipsters moving in. They made Williamsburg a safer place to live, introduced, new, interesting stores and brought tourists to the area. New York itself is changing and Williamsburg is a byproduct of this change.

The gentrification issues go deeper, however, another interviewee stated: “These people move in from out West, wanting to live in New York and many of them have no idea what this place looked like 20, 30, 40 years ago. They don’t know the culture, the people or the social standing of these people. They see a beautifully redone neighborhood, interesting places and a lot of people like them.”