Op-Ed
The Brooklyn Hereafter
The Sampling
March 8, 2007 - 12:04amI was pretty lucky — most of my ’06 friends moved to New York after graduation. Better, most of them moved to Brooklyn. “Pretty close,” I thought. “I can just jump on a Shortline Bus any weekend and hang out with them. Brooklyn is cool!” I had long seen myself living in Brooklyn after graduation. It would be necessary to check out my new home.
From the summer parties at Cornell, to Facebook correspondences, I promised them earnestly that I would visit and see their New Lives. Due to combined unfortunate events, however, I was only able to visit them last weekend.
I had only been to Brooklyn once before, during my sweltering Internship Summer. I had walked around briefly, but I distinctly remember being overjoyed to see squat old buildings, a low-hanging sky, trees, strollers and quiet traffic instead of the overpowering skyscrapers and sweating asphalt of Manhattan. Since then, I have had a vision of quiet, romantic, yet sufficiently urbane Brooklyn. My recent visit changed things.
Towards the end of a delicious, elegant meal with David’s family on the Upper West Side, I received a text message from Dave Garman ’06: “hey we r @ annex … free vodka!” Too nervous to take a subway at that hour, I hailed a cab and bit my nails at the change of each digit on the meter. I found the club easily and upon walking in through the doors I was suddenly awash in ear-splitting rock-and-roll, dim red lighting and asymmetrical haircuts. Everyone looked awesome. The band was awesome. Dave and Julia were the lives of the party. It was seriously, seriously cool.
Many hours later, we headed to their home, where I would be staying for the weekend, in the West Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn. On this drive westward, my boozy mind became aware, almost urgently so, that these very streets and houses I was cruising by would become my home next year. I too, was very likely to join the post-college stampede to this one borough. Flowing trashcans, bums errant and glorious graffiti would replace the steep hills, unsalted roads and hunched-over students. The significance of alcohol aside, I spent the rest of the weekend as a sponge, absorbing every detail of my afterlife to come.
Dave and Julia’s apartment was absolutely amazing. It was originally a factory, once a strip joint and now a home for the fresh-faced and free. The rooms were enormous, with ceiling-to-floor windows, and just decrepit enough that the resident artists could paint Marie Antoinette murals with abandon. It was the child of Rent and Friends. It had great party potential. However, when I walked outside in the morning in search of breakfast, the scene was slightly different. There was zero traffic, old trash everywhere, spooky lots and the occasional shady passerby. Shaking in my Upstate shoes, I avoided eye contact at all costs (until I got on the subway, the people-watcher’s dream.)
I got off two stops later at Bedford Avenue, to see Nicole. The neighborhood was much more inhabited and developed, so I breathed a little easier. However, I found a new condition of living. This neighborhood had a very, very distinct feel. It was hip. Everywhere, there were hip restaurants, hip stores, hip coffeeshops, hip people. Hip, hip, hip. This, I was informed, was Williamsburg, the Hub of Hipsterdom.
Here at Cornell, I know a lot of hipsters (hi Fanclub Collective!) and am very, very fond of them. The truth is (as I discovered after my city sojourn), they are Hipsters Lite, removed from the hubbub of a real city and with lots of homework. Cornell hipsters are less intense, more digestible. The entire population of Williamsburg is a big pile of cool. For blocks and blocks around, there are only over-styled hair, ironic tattoos and whimsical combinations of thrift-store treasures. Most other places, hipsters will stand out while people gawp, secretly envying their coolness. On Bedford Avenue, they all looked the same to me, and it looked crazy. It was difficult to imagine settling there.
Dave, Julia and Nicole, however, were insanely happy. The loved the energy of the neighborhood and made friends at every jostle in the crowded bar. Their jobs kept them busy for a nice portion of the day and then had tons of free time to enjoy the city. They once admitted to missing the coziness and structure of campus and Collegetown life, but now they had fully settled in and were living New York up.
I was heartened to see that my friends had ended up where they wanted to be. Brooklyn makes sense, people say. It’s where our kind, the newly graduated, somewhat employed should and will go. After four years of school, Brooklyn is exciting and refreshing. It was tremendously fun to visit, but I think I could only keep it to visits — I couldn’t settle in a 24-hour Place to Be. I’ll instead be dreaming of quieter places, preferably populated by nice old people and family-owned grocery stores. That would be perfect. But, I haven’t the faintest clue where that’ll be — my new home in the great hereafter.
Erin Geld is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at esg24@cornell.edu. The Sampling appears alternate Wednesdays.
There's more to Brooklyn than Billieburg
Sounds like you'd love Park Slope, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn Heights or even Red Hook (aka hipster lite). Cheer up, not all of Brooklyn is hipster central.
Williamsburg is not
Williamsburg is not Brooklyn. It's Brooklyn Lite with a little Portland, Oregon thrown in. Bah.
Brooklyn
"It was tremendously fun to visit, but I think I could only keep it to visits — I couldn’t settle in a 24-hour Place to Be. I’ll instead be dreaming of quieter places, preferably populated by nice old people and family-owned grocery stores. That would be perfect. But, I haven’t the faintest clue where that’ll be — my new home in the great hereafter."
For the last 4 years, I've lived in a neighborhood with nice old people and family-owned grocery stores...and it's about a 5 minute bus ride from the area you describe above. There's a lot more to Brooklyn than what surrounds the Bedford Ave. stop on the L train. I'd recommend you explore the borough a little more.
Bushwick and Williamsburg
Bushwick and Williamsburg are only two neighborhoods in the very diverse borough of brooklyn. Before you damn the whole borough on their hipsterdom you should check out the rest, or just stay in Ithaca.
please dont come to
please dont come to brooklyn, theres already enough starry eyed rich post college twits. go ruin someplace in boston.
You were two stops away from
You were two stops away from Bedford? Hardly the ghetto, no need to get out the pepper spray. I also don't think that counts as "West Bushwick". If I were you I would re-think New York in general. Kids...
At least there was no attempt at giving it an acronym
Bushwick = East Williamsburg. At least as far as realtors are concerned. There is no such place as "West Bushwick".
News Flash
I was born and raised in Brooklyn and all of you hipsters did not discover Brooklyn. Brooklyn is a large and very diverse borough with a lot more to offer if you move past Williamsburg. Don't act like you know Brooklyn after spending one weekend there. I miss the Brooklyn I grew up in...
cornell ppl - pls stay away from bklyn
The fact that you speak about hipsters as if you even know wtf hip is makes me throw up a little in my mouth.
I grew up in Brooklyn, lived there most of my life and I can assure you it is not meant for wide-eyed coddled ivy-Cornell yuppie wannabes to jump in and start making observations like it's your new biology class experiment.
To provide some context, I went to undergrad upstate, near Cornell, and let me remind and assure you that there is a huge difference between the city and upstate New York. To make it in NYC, especially Brooklyn, you have to be what's called *tough*. See, you Cornellians don't really know what tough is because Ithaquack is in the middle of nowhere and a tough day to you is having a little flurry of snow on the ground and getting an A- on your paper.
As for coolness, what the hell do you know about cool? The best bands most of you ever saw were Dave Matthews cover bands for god's sake.
As for judging Brooklyn or NYC for that matter, visiting or even living here for a year or two doesn't mean a damn thing. Yes, you think turtlenecks and thin rimmed glasses, with spiky hair in the front while sipping Starbucks makes you cool. But, alas, you are mistaken.
Try living here for 20 years, through thick and thin, and *then* get back to me with your pseudo-intellectual impressions of the "hipster" neighborhoods in the big city.
Painful.
I'm going to send this piece to my grandmother. She's always asking me about where I live, you see, and now you've finally provided me with the watered down version she's guaranteed to love. Kudos, Erin Geld. A cushy job at New York magazine awaits.
i just threw up in my mouth.
how do you spell brooklyn?
G-E-N-T-R-I-F-I-E-D
What the...?
Is this piffle what passes at the Sun nowadays? As an alum, I'm embarrassed. As a native, I pray you stay far, far away from Brooklyn or just New York in general.
Wow
This was poorly written and poorly thought-out. Could you not even check if "West Bushwick" was a place? It's sort of embarrassing really.
some of us live in bk because we can almost afford it, sort of
interesting. is it possible to be racist towards hipsters? hipster-ist? i.e. "i really really love love love hipsters, (especially the assimilated upstate variety!) with their crazy asymmetrical haircuts and indie rock dance parties*, but i certainly wouldn't want to live in their dangerous neighborhood!"
in truth, though, it's almost refreshing to hear from someone who can approach the bedford ave L stop from a fresh, un-jaded perspective, and still see it as hip hip hip and not as a neighborhood-sized NYU dorm.
hey erin, when you make that new york city move to pursue your comedy-writing career, maybe you should check out murray hill.
*the annex is on the lower east side. of manhattan. you have to cross a river before you land in "west bushwick."
Seriously?! "Too nervous to
Seriously?! "Too nervous to take a subway at that hour..." After dinner? To where, fictional "West Bushwick"? Oh please, stay as far away from Brookyn as possible. Hell, all of NYC for that matter... Only thing worse than the damn hiptards sending Brooklyn rent through the roof - wanna-be hiptards. Oh, and the tourists, too, of course.
Welcome to Brooklyn. Ignore all the haters.
I was born in Brooklyn; Fort Greene. My family has been in Brooklyn since the 1800's. My Great Grandmother rode horses through the streets. Some friends of mine can trace their lineage to the first Crackers; Dutch, who created Brooklyn or Breuckelen and other friends of mine are supposedly descendents from the Weckquaesgeeks and Canarsies.
I am almost certain that most of my friends and family wish that you ignore all of these elitist comments that wreak of hatred and are just downright fascist!
It's as if some of these first, second, third generation transplants want to freeze Brooklyn's history to a time when my mother couldn't walk down the block without the fear of being chased and gang raped or my little brother whose childhood was robbed when crack hit the streets in the early 80's.
As far as hipsters. I guess it depends on ones's definition or when one came of age. Some friends of mine who occupied lofts in Williamsburg and Dumbo in the 80's and those who had lofts in lower Manhattan in the 70's back in the day when it was cool to be INCLUSIVE rather than exlusive when Larry Levan played the Paradise Garage and Mancusos Loft parties were a daily event have moved to places like Patagonia where they can truly live out their truly hip anti-establishment ideologies and seek love and harmony with their environment and their fellow man.
Best Wishes,
JP
PS I hear Ithaca is a beautiful place. I once heard not sure if its true but Ithaca created their own monetary system enabling it's citizens to barter and trade their work with others whereby keeping the money/energy in the area instead of having it sucked out and in the pocket of some multi-national corporation. Now that's hip.
Lay off, Losers.
These offended responses by new york/brooklyn contingency are ridiculous. Calm down. What is so horribly offensive about a fresh-faced college girl having her own perspective on Brooklyn?? What is truly sad is how these nyc self-proclaimed "aficionados" are spending their time writing heated responses on this posting board. Get a life and find something important to rant about rather than weed through college newspapers and impose your inflated jingoism on Erin Geld. I too was born and raised below 14th street, happen to know Erin, also happen to know that she is a fabulously binational, sophisticated, and intelligent darling. Pause before you derogatorily suggest "rich post college twits" should stay out of new york. This city should welcome some intelligent naiveté to balance out the pretentious bitterness of these posting ny “experts”...
Two Stops from Bedford?
I live near the second stop after Bedford Avenue on the L train. It's called the Graham Avenue station, and it's in Williamsburg, not "West Bushwick" which, as several others point out, doesn't exist. I've lived here for ten years and have seen some recent "gentrification" of the neighborhood, but even ten years ago it was not as dirty or dangerous as portrayed in this article--nor has it become quite as "hip" as Bedford is today. Maybe it's exciting to pretend to have stayed in a scary ghetto, but this particular slice of the neighborhood has been very middle-class, very Italian, and predominantly safe for the last 60-plus years. Even dismissing your article as "your opinion" is an insult to my neighbors. I'm a native New Yorker who has lived in Manhattan, suburbia on Long Island and in Massachusetts, a very rural town Connecticut, and not-so-lovely Allentown, Pennsylvania before settling in Brooklyn, so I bring a varied perspective to the condition of this neighborhood. It's not for everybody, but I liked it when I moved here and I like what it has become. If you do your homework before moving, you'll find plenty of "squat old buildings, a low-hanging sky, trees, strollers and quiet traffic" here and in other parts of Brooklyn and Queens.
Prose
Your prose is so lovely! "Errant bum" wow you are so smart.
Look, for real: if you publish, a little name and fact-checking is not only in order, it's an obligation.
Wrong Forum
In hindsight, maybe this is one you should have saved for the next issue of the Public Journal....
The Brooklyn Hereafter......
After reading Erin's article I had a similar vile feeling of vomiting immediately as some of my fellow readers /Brooklynites had. However, I can't blame her or anyone for being attracted to the County of Kings. Brooklyn has always been the perfect place for me; a great place to be born, grow up, meet the best friends of my life, and currently raise my family (I have a 6 year old and a 2 year old). I was lucky to spend a semester at Cornell in the Fall of 1995 and even luckier to meet my now husband in the Olin Library on my first day on campus. When I invited him to spend New Year's at a party in my brownstone he jumped at the chance to have his first Brooklyn adventure. By the Spring of 1996 he moved to Brooklyn and has been loving it ever since.
Having said all of that I feel that someone should warn all future graduates who come to Brooklyn looking for approrpriate housing to research potential neighborhoods carefully (this is when the Mom side of me is going to come out as I am aware that one day my kids are going to be wandering the world after graduation). Check out the amenities, subway lines, proximity to where you may have to commute, etc. If there is a question in your mind about how safe the neighborhood looks ask around (not feeling good about getting off the subway at late hours may be a good indication that you might not feel good about moving to the area).
Going out there alone after college is a fabulous adventure, but don't forget it still the real world and no longer a campus bubble. Just because a neighborhood is perceived as a "hipster heaven" doesn't mean it is necessarily a good safe fit for everyone.
OK, lecture over......
MKT
This is really funny. How
This is really funny.
How many people who go to Cornell actually come from Ithaca? Like .01%. There are many native city dwellers who go to Cornell and then move back. Isn't Williamsburg and the entire L train thereafter the post-grad destination for many moving to NYC? I myself and many fellow Cornellians have been living in NYC (oh yes, that's right, that includes Brooklyn and Queens and heavens! the Bronx!) for years and I laugh at the idea that we are all naive rich twits. I think it's more that any newcomer to living here is going to be a little naive, no?
That aside... West Bushwick? Where is that? East Williamsburg? What?
I Went to Ithaca Kollege
please dont let this ramble make you think everyone who went to school in ithaca is a retard. there are plenty of native new yorkers who went to school up there and actually thought the commons was yup! hip hip hip! although my definition of hip is slightly broader than white artistic urban kids... but newcomers, i love you, and if you can stand to live in this place with inflated rents, little space, and dealing with constant attitude, you probably belong here. but for your own good if you plan on coming here and have never lived here please take a little while to understand what ny is all about before opening your mouth. you will embarrass everyone you know and your family will soon disown you.
kewl
move to mahattan. brooklyns going to bore you. its just queens with more white and black people.
Please Don't Come To Brooklyn
We have enough clueless post-collegiate white kids driving up our rents in their selfish quests to reinvent themselves as Brooklynites. We do not need another. Go gentrify Philadelphia or Baltimore, it sounds like they're more your speed anyway.
Williamsburg Sucks
I've lived here for a couple of years and watched it turn brown like the core of an organic apple. From retards to rich kids, Bedford Avenue is just another freakshow. We like to call Bedford Avenue "The Parade" because everyone's there with the agenda to show off and prance for one another. I'm moving outta this shithole but I'm staying in Brooklyn. Hipsters aren't cool, sweetheart. They're just this generation's hippies but without the politics.
This kind of reminds me of
This kind of reminds me of the Mr. Show sketch where the all american dorky white family takes a trip to San Francisco to see all the hippies. Only it's a bright eyed and bushy tailed college student and she's gawking at "hipsters."