The Evolution of the New York Times Brooklyn Trend Piece
As you may have noticed, the New York Times likes to write about Brooklyn. A lot. Really, a lot, a lot, a lot. Obviously this makes sense, since the Times is, after all, the paper of record for New York, and we are one big, sassy, z-snapping, news-making borough to contend with.
Unfortunately, as you also may have noticed, things really hit the skids here when it comes to the Brooklyn trend piece. So much so that it actually kind of seems like they’re baiting us. Even after Brian Williams — representative of one of the biggest, most mainstream, New York-based media outlets around — publicly mocked the Times’ “discovery of Brooklyn” as the biggest news story of 2010, no one took the hint.
No, they actually started doing it more. For every article that hits its target — Bushwick was a great real estate investment in 2006, beer brewing has seen a big renaissance in the area — there’s another, earnestly chronicling everything from Greenpoint’s inevitable transition into the “next Williamsburg” to the existence of bars and people with tattoos on Wythe avenue. It seems like the Times‘ infatuation with the curious, trendy young things of Brooklyn has only deepened, if not necessarily been returned.
Below, we take a look through some of Grey Lady’s weirder love letters to our borough (or at least the newly hip parts), and we, uh, put our phones straight to silent:
