Hipsters Aren’t So Bad

Williamsburg is growing on me. I always hated it before, and the 12-block stretch of Bedford near the Subway is still a disgusting hipster boardwalk, but I’m here on my own this weekend and somehow exploring it myself makes me see it with different eyes. Also I took the Chinatown bus directly to Williamsburg and was dropped off near the bridge, in a very immigrant-y area, so I see that the entire neighborhood isn’t completely gentrified. And walking from there to my friend’s apartment, where I’m staying alone while they are out of town, the hipster quotient of course increased, but I could still see the structure of the old Williamsburg; the backbone is still there. The Columbian bakeries, the tiny immigrant-owned grocery stores, etc. Also the spas, the hipster coffee shops and bars etc., but somehow seeing it in that order, that progression, made it less offensive to me. And now I might even say I like it.