BROOKLYN HAS JUMPED THE SHARK

Here’s an incendiary headline that ought to grab attention: Brooklyn is no longer hip.  It officially occurred on September 28 of last year, with the opening of the $1 billion dollar Barclay’s Center.  In my mind, once you have your own NBA team, you’re on equal footing with Oklahoma City and Sacramento.  Yet even before last year, Brooklyn had jumped the shark.  Because anything that starts out small and hip, inevitably blows up into the mainstream.  And once the real estate developers catch on, which these days is earlier and earlier, it’s game over.  As the original hipsters move on due to higher rents(and aging), us wannabees move in.

Yet there is a silver lining in this tale.  Because you live in Queens, you are at the forefront of the next hip movement.  Sure, that’s tough to fathom when you are living in a modern shiny tower stuffed with amenities and turn-key comfort.  But who cares, because all you have to say to anyone in New York is that you live in Queens.  As of today, 3/4 of Manhattanites will still think to themselves ‘Hmm, that’s pretty cutting edge.’  Because even they know Brooklyn is over, but Queens…

Brooklyn: The Brand – “There is a Brooklyn Diner in Dubai, a Brooklyn Restaurant in Malaysia, and Gorky Park in Moscow features a trendy snack kiosk with the word “Williamsburg” emblazoned across its top.”  Yeah, over.

Creating Hipsturbia in the Suburbs of New York – “As formerly boho environs of Brooklyn become unattainable due to creeping Manhattanization and seven-figure real estate prices, creative professionals of child-rearing age, …are starting to ponder the unthinkable: a move to the suburbs.”

How I Became a Hipster – others might see the opening of the Wythe Hotel as the official end of Brooklyn’s hipness.

Brownstoner Founder Venturing Into Queens – a promise to LICtalk readers: we will never “venture” anywhere else

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Woman Killed While Crossing Street Near Queensboro Bridge Entrance – “A driver struck and killed a woman crossing the roadway of Queens Plaza North.”

Ring 8 to Honor Emile Griffith at the Waterfront Crabhouse – two examples of keeping it real in Queens: Boxing and The Crabhouse