Brooklyn, The Borough: Avenue A Crosses the River
Though I spent three years living in Greenpoint, I often found myself shunning the local nightlife—aside from a few restaurants and my local watering hole the Pencil Factory—for cozy nights in on my quiet residential street. Especially during this time of year. But despite no longer residing there, I've recently found myself traveling north to Williamsburg and Greenpoint for a night out more often and apparently, I'm not alone!
On a recent Thursday, I headed to the Music Hall of Williamsburg to catch a few bands play. On my walk toward the venue, which stands just short of the East River, I bypassed the Thai restaurant Sea, now North 6th Street's bridge-and-tunnel capital. Patrons were falling out of the doors, the line for a table immense, while a DJ boomed hip hop to a crowd donning their Sunday (or Thursday) best. Similarly, up the street, Planet Thai was packed to the brim with people seeking a lounge, restaurant and bar feel all in one.
The previously desolate concrete streets—Berry, Wythe, Kent—that I often traversed to catch the L train at Bedford Avenue are now packed with giggling outer-borough and outer-island 20- and 30-somethings on a night out, excited that they can enjoy Manhattan-esque nightlife and park their cars for free. Hip local teenagers roughhoused on a corner. Now the streets are only uninhabited long enough for the occasional public urination or upchuck.
Now I often find confused and slightly terrified visitors desperate to know how to get to Studio B or Europa, choice Greenpoint neighborhood nightlife spots in somewhat remote corners. Later in the evening and early into the morning, those same clubgoers loudly stumble to their cars and disappear to whence they came.
Nearby, The Gutter, a bowling alley that opened on the border of Greenpoint last summer and was retrofitted piecemeal with lanes, booths and scoring machines from shuttered alleys across the country, is consistently packed with crowds from far and near, and of course, parking is readily available adjacent to the vacant warehouses. Vintage Milwaukee's Best-stained glass lamps hang over the dark wooden bar, where some of Bushwick's best wait hours to play on one of the four antique lanes.
So, with its mix of hipster residue and tragically suburban folk, Bedford Avenue finally completed its transformation into the new Avenue A. My mind flashed back to the late 90's to a time when I realized this might happen, despite Williamsburg streets being completely empty—even on a Saturday night—Sweetwater being the only bar hopping with patrons on that same stretch of uneven concrete. Now a watering hole for a more mature crowd, and less so for the punk rockers who used to frequent it, Sweetwater is hardly recognizable, fading into the backdrop of retail fronts hawking intricately designed furniture, fashion and footwear. Not unlike the Alphabet City of the 90's.
Of course, I knew what was to be for northern Brooklyn, but having seen it finally and completely descend upon us I'm not sure how to feel. I'm unable to wrap my head around the fact that Williamsburg is no longer a neighborhood, but a destination for debauchery; like Manhattan, a playground for those who can afford it. Though it can be fun, a less raucous adventure to Fort Greene is more my speed. I stood on Bedford Avenue and North 7th Street after departing the Music Hall, caught a cab immediately, and spent the short ride home to Prospect Heights totally content to return to my quiet, peaceful neighborhood.
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Never go to SEA Restaurant awful food and the service is the worst!
oh Nicole, you are just so much better than rest of universe because you are not ' outer-borough and outer-island ' and 'cause you don't have a car.
The earth thanks you for being so smug and wonderful.
I live in Williamsburg and we still have "our" spots. Any Williamsburg resident will tell you that Sea and PLanet Thai are totally played. Going to those places is like eating at an Applebees in Times Square. Williamsburg is way more than Bedford ave.
I'm sick of all of these goddam suburban bridge-and-tunnel types who ruin this city by infesting it with their ignorant, culturally-backwards, suburban attitudes. Why can't you all just stay in Queens and Long Island?? The cultured men in this city are attracted to more than just girls who look like cheerleaders and Paris Hilton wannabees. The culture women in this city date guys who actually know a little something about fashion and music, who don't spend all their time watching TV or "beefing up" at the gym. And people in this city actually date interracially *gosh*!
This gentrification pattern has gotten so boring. And this author is just playing her boring cliched part in all this boringness.
Let the poseurs flock to places like Sea and Planet Thai. There are so other great restaurants and bars in the neighborhood (many of which are not on Bedford Avenue) where the trust-fund hipsters and their skinny jeans are seldom found.
I wonder where the woman who wrote this article came from? Something tells me the Midwest.
it's always interesting to hear how people from states like Ohio or Kentucky, etc live in NYC or Brooklyn for a few years and suddenly hate people from queens or long island and want to comment on how un-cool we are and how we ruin everything. most of us from the bridge and tunnel crowd were born in ny. we didnt watch sex and the city too many times and decide to move here
get over it.
I am a bit confused - having grown up in Queens (now living in Seattle)people FROM Brooklyn were considered "Bridge & Tunnel". Has this changed?
Also, many of the people inhabiting these hipster spots look quite unwashed, even by Seattle standards - what is the deal with the minimal personal hygiene?
WOW.
Everyone, give yourselves a hand. USA! USA! USA!
Oh man... oh man... Where to start...
First I live right in Williamsburg on Wythe right by the L... and some of what was said is true (particularly the Sea and PlanEAT thai comments), but this article really got on my nerves.
I love Brooklyn people who refer to other Brooklyn people as "outer borough" or "bridge and tunnel". Do you people even know what that means? "BRIDGE AND TUNNEL" Surprise. THE L TRAIN goes under water.
Also, I hate the superior "Well I lived in Williamsburg before when it was cool." Want a medal? Do you have this very weird inferiority complex where you have to rationalize your hyper coolness by saying that? There's an LCD Soundsystem song that fits this attitude perfectly.
Finally, I absolutely love the hypocritical ending of taking a car back home after spending the night out there where 2 paragraphs ago you critique the same behavior. Guess what? Taxies don't run on magical fuel that doesn't produce smog, congestion etc. They run on the same fuel as the other cars.
God, please... go and take that smugness back to Ohio.
To the writer: You don't know anything about the dynamics of what's happening over there. For one, those warehouses aren't "empty" - what made you assume they were? They're filled with thriving businesses. But your yuppie mindset prevents you from seeing that. You were just another relatively moneyed fun-seeker, as oblivious as the B&Ts you decry.
You know what kills me..yes the smugness of this writer..like you really know what is cool or "on" or hip these days. Did you ever live in Manhattan? How can you compare destinations in Willimasburg to Manhattan, like Manhattan is like so toursity these days..some retail strip or mall. Like your the barometer of trends.
I really get a kick out of you Brooklynites who think the area is so slick, so more much more underground than NYC, where the real bohemians live. What a joke. Brooklyn is so junior varsity!
Then you all bitch about gentrification. Like it was so hip before. Face it. You need a bridge and tunnel to get to Manhattan!!
Oh..and another thing..like Mr. Seattle said. Look at the winners in the photo. These guys are so with it that they dress like they just woke up and came down for breakfast in their college dorm. the messy look..cause their freakin BROKE.
Zippo style, or I'm sorry..so ultra hip that their grunge ideology is ultimate sense of identity.
I want to party with them.
I love all of these comments, although they really belong on Curbed.com. The writer's angst seem harmless enough. Everyone has a right to hang out wherever the hell they want in New York, and its true, the bridge and tunnel crowd is generally made of a higher percentage of native New Yorkers, or at least East Coasters then the damn hipsters. But we also have to be careful about throwing "hipster" as a perjorative. There are alot of real artists in Williamsburg as well, the people at 475 Kent Ave for example were quite accomplished, many recognized in their fields and well paid. Losing that flavor to Sea-style would be a shame. But that's the way it goes, no one individual is to blame - just socio-economic forces. Frustration shouldn't always turn into hatred for some group!
Hipsters are a subculture of men and women typically in their 20's and 30's that value independent thinking, counter-culture, progressive politics, an appreciation of art and indie-rock, creativity, intelligence, and witty banter. The greatest concentrations of hipsters can be found living in the Williamsburg, Wicker Park, and Mission District neighborhoods of major cosmopolitan centers such as New York, Chicago, and San Francisco respectively. Although "hipsterism" is really a state of mind,it is also often intertwined with distinct fashion sensibilities. Hipsters reject the culturally-ignorant attitudes of mainstream consumers, and are often be seen wearing vintage and thrift store inspired fashions, tight-fitting jeans, old-school sneakers, and sometimes thick rimmed glasses. Both hipster men and women sport similar androgynous hair styles that include combinations of messy shag cuts and asymmetric side-swept bangs. Such styles are often associated with the work of creative stylists at urban salons, and are usually too "edgy" for the culturally-sheltered mainstream consumer. The "effortless cool" urban bohemian look of a hipster is exemplified in Urban Outfitters and American Apparel ads which cater towards the hipster demographic. Despite misconceptions based on their aesthetic tastes, hipsters tend to be well educated and often have liberal arts degrees, or degrees in maths and sciences, which also require certain creative analytical thinking abilities. Consequently many hipsters tend to have jobs in the music, art, and fashion industries. It is a myth that most hipsters are unemployed and live off of their parent's trust funds.
Hipsters shun mainstream societal conventions that apply to dating preferences and traditional "rules" of physical attraction. It is part of the hipster central dogma not to be influenced by mainsream advertising and media, which tends to only promote ethnocentric ideals of beauty. The concepts of androgyny and feminism have influenced hipster culture, where hipster men are often as thin as the women they date. The muscular and athletic all-American male ideal is not seen as attractive by confident and culturally-empowered hipster women who instead view them as symbols of male oppression, sexism, and misogyny. Likewise, culturally-vapid sorority-type girls with fake blond hair, overly tanned skin, and "Britney Spears tube-tops" are not seen as attractive by cultured hipster males who instead see them as symbols of female insecurity, low self-esteem, and lack of cultural intelligence and independent thinking. Hipsters are also very racially open-minded, and the greatest number of interracial couples in any urban environment are typically found within the hipster subculture.
Although hipsters are technically conformists within their own subculture, in comparison to the much larger mainstream mass, they are pioneers and leaders of the latest cultural trends and ideals. For example, the surge of jeans made to look old and worn (i.e. "distressed"), that have become prevalent at stores such as The Gap, American Eagle, Abercrombie and Fitch, and Hollister, were originally paraded by hipsters who shopped in thrift stores years before such clothing items were mass produced and sold to the mainstream consumer. The true irony here is that many of the detractors of hipster culture are in fact unknowingly following a path that hipsters have carved out years before them. This phenomena also applies to music as well, as many bands have become successful and known to mainstream audiences only because hipsters first found and listened to them as early-adopters of new culture. Once certain concepts of fashion and music have reached mainstream audiences, hipsters move on to something new and improved.
Because of the rise of various online photo-blog and social networking sites, insights into urban hipster culture is reaching sheltered suburban audiences at an exponential rate. Cultural "norms" have been deconstructed by hipster culture as a whole. Hipsterism is often dismissed as just an image thing by some, but the culture as a whole is effecting changes in society, leading to feelings of insecurity and resentment in people who are no longer a part of the cultural ruling class. For example, a lot of anti-hipster sentiment evidently comes from culturally-clueless suburban frat boy types who feel that the more sensitive, intelligent, and culturally aware hipster ideal threatens their insecure sense of masculinity. Anti-hipster sentiment often comes from people who simply can't keep up with social change and are envious of those who can.
Apparently the author is originally from Manhattan, but this only makes her attitude more annoying. Like she can't accept that she has downgraded to one of the boroughs, so she pretends Brooklyn isn't bridge and tunnel. Being from and/or living in New York does not make you more special or interesting than anyone else, so stop trying to pretend like you are so above the masses. I also love how these 3rd generation Brooklyn gentrifiers act like it was some edgy wilderness when they moved there 3 years ago. That ship sailed at least a decade ago. Get over it.
"Bridge and tunnel" was originally a derogatory slang directed against people living in the outer-boroughs of NYC, who by definition must either use a bridge or a tunnel in order to travel into Manhattan. The original slang had connotations of class distinction,with the implication that bridge and tunnelers were less affluent than those living in the city and were therefore of a lower class. Because of the recent hipster revolution and the ongoing "hipsterization" of popular culture, over the years the term has drifted away from being a distinction based on affluence and location of residence, to a distinction based on cultural awareness, values, and attitude. In terms of the modern usage of the term, one can now reside in Manhattan and still be considered "bridge and tunnel". And in fact even people living in other cities such as San Francisco are using "bridge and tunnel" to describe people of specific demographics and cultural attitude in their respective locales.
So what has bridge and tunnel evolved to mean? Bridge and tunnel is currently a derogatory slang directed at people who are culturally ignorant and hold very mainstream ethnocentric ideals of beauty and rules of attraction, who embrace decidedly passe suburban cultural values and "reality TV" ideals. For example...one would be considered "bridge and tunnel" if your musical awareness only includes whatever is played on Top 40 radio, your ideal female sex symbol would be someone like Paris Hilton, you go to tanning salons and constantly flat-iron your hair, you only date people who are white, you think only tall muscular men "a la Abercrombie and Fitch" are attractive, you routinely pay for bottle service at clubs when you go out, you won't eat Indian or Thai cuisine because it's too weird and exotic for you, you drive an SUV or a hummer, or you belong to a fraternity or sorority.
Hamilton, I'm glad to see I can now stumble upon your work. Good job on the article, it certainly needed to be addressed. Williamsburg's lost "it" several years ago. Williamsburg now is just so much detritus left over from the eastward drift of "cool" (read: gentrification). I troll the place largely to satisfy some of the perverse facets of my sense of humor.
For people that define themselves so narrowly, you would think they would pay more attention to their personal hygiene. I think the whole hipster groove is a rationalization for paying too much money to live in a neighborhood that most real new yorkers view as a New York's Rust Belt
You people are the biggest haters I have ever seen. STOP SIPPING ON THE HATORADE. NICOLE'S BLOG IS THE SHIZZNACK. Yea I said it. We're all a little pretentious, but at least she call people out on it.
When I was in college I was in a fraternity and I still maintain close friends from those days. I like to drink Miller Lite and Coors instead of PBR. I like football. I don't like wearing skintight clothed that looks 20 years old. My girlfriend is not easily confused with 12 year old boy. I like to go to the gym so as not to be ridiculously skinny and apathetic looking. I have a job I enjoy do, that enjoys mainstream success. I wear old school Adidas instead of old school Cons.
And yet I am active in various politics and organizations. I read books and not ones on the NY Times bestseller list. I have always listened to and continue to listen to bands that are obscure that may be popular in years or may not make it at all. Although I don't have the taste for many, I do try new kinds of food. I enjoy going to museums and galleries. My job is in the entertainment/arts area.
And I live in Williamsburg.
Does that throw off some stereotypes there? Maybe everyone can stop acting like a stereotype and we won't have these issues.
Ever been to Queens buddy? Maybe you need to get off your own little pedestal and come spent a night in Jackson Heights. Unless you are afraid to come to the most linguistically diverse county in the USA. ;-)
Seriously though, do yourself a favor and don't mix up Queens as a bridge and tunnel site, nor combine it with LI. If you do, then Brooklyn is no better.
As for the dating scene, the Brooklyn dating scene is where un-attractive guys with bad fashion, bad attitudes, and bad work ethic date 18 year old Pratt Students from Massachusetts. Are these the cultured men? They do make art.
PS. When I think "beefing up" I think Golds Gym. That's about as non transplant, NYC as you can get.
On that note I agree with you and all that you're pissed off at. Just leave Queens out of it.
See you at the next Magic Garden.
I find it humorous that most of the comments here are by people who feel the to need to prove their own NYC authenticity. Deviation from their imagined idea of a "hipster" furthers their own validity as a citizen of the metropolitan area. For example, "Beefing up at Golds Gym as being as NYC as you can get." Or, "not wearing skin tight jeans that looks twenty years old."
Also interesting is that having or making a lot of money qualifies someone not as a hipster, but rather as morphed by their success into something else that demands admiration rather than contempt. Like the person who said, "there are many real artists in Williamsburg...recognized in their fields and well paid."
I get the feeling that there are a lot of frustrated white collar workers out there who are actually jealous as well as suspicious of people who don't appear to share their deep seated cultural values: ie making lots of money and maintenance of patrichal, heterosexual society. These people will come to an area only after people on the fringes of society have changed it. And when they do, it's often to laugh and ridicule those who have lived there for a long time, those who have struggled against these deep seated norms.
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