America's Best Hipster Neighborhoods (Chicago, Victoria: home, organic, to live)

[jwaiter]

Introduction - Morgan Brennan - Forbes

4. Wicker Park, Chicago, IL

The Midwest Mecca of hipsterdom started attracting artists and young adults in the late 1980s. Nestled around a park, this artists' community is known for its galleries, music venues, boutiques and food options. It's also home to a smattering of Victorian mansions built by wealthy 19th century merchants and beer brewers.

[emathias]

Even given that Forbes lists in general are kind of silly, the idea that a financial news magazine would think itself an arbiter of what constitutes a good hipster neighborhood is pretty amusing.

[jwaiter]

Looks to me like Forbes is trying to attract a new demographic with articles like this.

[Aleking]

America's best yuppie neighborhood maybe

[Vlajos]

Forbes lists are funny

[Drover]

Looks like some Forbes editor just watched High Fidelity and thought they were on to something.

Way to keep up with the times, Forbes.

[Lorielicious]

I saw this and thought, "If they pick Silverlake, Los Angeles, I'm going to die from laughter." Oh dear... Also, would it kill someone to make a list without the crappy slideshow? Just give me the list already. Nobody feels like clicking through 20 different pages.

[Chi-town Native]

Originally Posted by Lorielicious

Also, would it kill someone to make a list without the crappy slideshow? Just give me the list already. Nobody feels like clicking through 20 different pages.

Woot!

I'll just say that being named as hip by Forbes is pretty much the surest indication of UNhipness possible.

[Link N. Parker]

The thing is, the artists etc that make a neighborhood 'hip" usually do such a good job of making it an interesting place, that others start to want to live there. This eventually leads to rising rents, due to many people wanting to move in an be part of the music/art/social "scene" that the hipsters created. This is both good and bad for the neighborhood.

The good is that the neighborhood begins to thrive, and the people who move there discover there is life outside of the automobile. They learn to become hipsters themselves, and learn to appreciate art more, and learn how to eat locally and organically.

The bad is that some of these people bring their douchebag tendencies with them, and this can "sterilize" as area, or irritate the hipsters that are there.

The main problem (to the hipster) is that this pushes him/her out of the neighborhood and forced to find cheaper housing elsewhere. But hipsters (I prefer the term "urbanist", myself) prefer neighborhoods that are walkable and have some sort of european charm; there are few neighborhoods in the US that meet that requirement. One of the last places for hipsters to go now is Pilsen. Once that place completely gets taken over, the yuppies will arrive and then there will be no more quaint walkable european-esque neighborhoods in CHI to move to.

I did notice that Austin's East Side is listed as hip, and I saw that when I visited that city a few weeks ago. But something that Forbes did not list, were hipster/urbanist enclaves outside the US...Vancouver, Toronto, and especially MONTREAL, are hipster areas. Montreal's Mile End makes Wicker Park look like a pukey imitator.

In my recent travels, I also noticed that there are significant hipster populations in Dallas (M-Streets/Deep Ellum areas) and also in Albuquerque.

[Chi-town Native]

Hipsters are just undisciplined artists, musicians, writers, etc.

It has always been a completely meaningless term, I can't fathom who would want such a label, or why.