Williamsburg Is Only the Third Most Hipster Neighborhood In America?


I find this so hard to believe. And yet this is what the hipster experts over at Forbes have determined in a very scientific round-up of the hippest neighborhoods that dot this fair country of ours. Criteria for hipness included such cool things as a neighborhood’s walkability, the number of coffee shops found within, the presence of food trucks and farmers’ markets, and “the percentage of residents who work in artistic occupations.”
It is undeniable that those are all some hip, hip things. But Williamsburg has all those things! How could it only win the bronze in hipsterdom? Inconceivable.
I was alerted to this story by executive editor Mike Conklin’s mother, who sent her son a Facebook message that said, in its entirety: “Williamsburg voted the third hippest city in the country according to Forbes magazine.” How could I, along with everyone else in our office, not be intrigued?
Forbes explains Williamsburg’s third place finish by saying that while “Williamsburg may have spawned the hipster craze, the neighborhood is evolving in a direction that’s far less hospitable to the patchily employed, fedora-wearing crowd.” So, basically, no matter how many food trucks and fedoras you see on the streets of Williamsburg, the rent’s just too damn high.
Alright, then, Forbes, what are the hippest neighborhoods in the country? What could possibly be more hipster than Williamsburg?