Battle of the Hipster Meccas (Chicago, downtown, market, safe)

[Edward234]

Originally Posted by Minervah

Same with Portland. I lived there for forty years. I moved away three years ago. While there are some hipster representations these days it's more Yuppie Tech and other professional types.

I know all three cities well. Portland is not nearly as yuppie tech as SF or Seattle yet, although I agree it's on its way. These days Portland is still more "hippie hipster" while Seattle has become more "yuppie hipster".

[mhays25]

I'd say Portland is more "trying to make my passions for bookcases and social media into a viable business model but I only think about that part time because I'm also in a band" kind of hipsterish. San Francisco is more about hipsters that are commercially successful already in some way, or have hung onto their old cheap housing. Seattle is somewhere in the middle. Both are also about tech grads from around the world, particularly SF. But SF has Oakland as its urban but cheaper sidekick and Seattle has Tacoma, both of which have taken some of the low-cost stand-in role. Portand doesn't have a secondary core of that scale to help take the edge off.

[RH3Flatlander]

Real hipsters can't afford San Francisco. Yupsters live in SF. Denver doesn't strike me as an overly hipstery/yupstery city, though there is a bit of a counterculture vibe there with all the legalized pot everywhere. Milwaukee is a pretty underrated hipster city.

[Kaszilla]

Where does Mpls rank in hipsterland?

[l1995]

Originally Posted by fluffydelusions

Maybe parts of Brooklyn are hipster...but all of it? No way. I lived in NYC for 12 years. Portland is definitely the clear winner.

Of course not all of Brooklyn is like that, but it is very densely populated so there are quite a few hipsters in the hipster areas.

[Edward234]

Originally Posted by Kaszilla

Where does Mpls rank in hipsterland?

I don't know exactly, but it should have been an option on this poll.

[Spreadofknowledge]

Originally Posted by NOLA101

Brooklyn is by far the biggest hipster mecca. Portland is the most hipster of the available poll options.

And, just my opinion, but Denver and Seattle are not that hipster. They're more techie and outdoorsy.

No it is not, Brooklyn is only 30% hipster. While each of these cities listed are more like 50-60% hipster.

Hipster areas in Brooklyn
Williamsburg
Greenpoint
residential ares of Downtown Brooklyn (Cobble Hill, Dumbo, Navy yard)
most of Red Hook/Guwanas
Prospect Heights
western most portions of Crown Heights & Flatbush (hipster growth in black ghettos)
about 1/3rd of bed stuy (originally a black ghetto but now heavily hipster)
about half of Bushwick (originally a Hispanic ghetto but now almost completely gentrified)

Ghetto/Black Caribbean n Rican hoods
East New York (dangerous ghetto, black/Caribbean & Rican south of atlantic, and Dominican and Indian north of it)
Brownsville (one of the most dangerous hoods on the eastcoast)
Most of Crown Heights, Flatbush & Bed Stuy (still black despite white hipster growth)
About half of Bushwick (still Hispanic especially goin towards Broadway and Moffat)
Canarsie, East Flatbush & Flatlands (lower middle class Afro Caribbean)
small portions of Coney Island and Red Hook.
Eastern Brooklyn is dominated by low income African Americans, Puerto Ricans/Dominicans, & West Indians.

Immigrant areas in Brooklyn Southwest portions of Bk
most of Coney Island (Russian & Mexican)
Boro Park & Midwood (Jews & Indians)
Gravesend (Russian)
Bensonhurst & Fort Ham ( Italian with some Chinese)
Sunset Park (Mexican & Chinese)
Park Slope (wealthy white neighborhood with some old time Irish in the southern portions)


How can Brooklyn be "hipster mecca" when only about a third of it is gentrified/hipster.

[Vanderbiltgrad]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

Pass, pass, pass, pass, pass.

I was about the right the same exact thing. Any hipster city is not cool, I hope they do not turn Nashville into a hipster city like Austin.

[foobar2038]

Originally Posted by Vanderbiltgrad

I was about the right the same exact thing. Any hipster city is not cool, I hope they do not turn Nashville into a hipster city like Austin.

Hipsters are boring, and boorish.

[Minervah]

I really wonder if there really is any "hipster mecca" these days. It's possible to find cities with neighborhoods that may have people with more of a hipster lifestyle than other neighborhoods in that city. I really doubt, though, that there are any entire cities consisting of only hipsters or in which the majority of residents are hipsters. But of course if someone comes to a city seeking out a particular type of character, they will find them some where. Being flamboyant, hipsters might make their presence known more visibly.

I lived for decades in a Portland, OR neighborhood that was at different points in time considered a "mecca" for gays, hippies, hipsters and yuppies always mixed in with retirees. The domination of these populations were pretty much a flash in the pan although remnants always have and always will exist there. People are often surprised when they visit Portland to find everything doesn't look like what they have seen on that caricature of Portland, "Portlandia." Much of the actual city is pretty suburban looking. It just depends upon what neighborhood one is in just as in any other city. If you're looking for hipsters and you land in a typical middle class family neighborhood, you might be disappointed.

I wonder how many people who voted for Portland as the mecca for hipsters in this poll actually have ever lived there or were just going by it's reputation.