[Bushwick hipster housing photo courtesy of sawkonyc on Flickr]
Hey, it's tough being a hipster. Especially when your neighborhoods keep being gentrified out from under you. Finally, after 184 Kent, there seems to be a movement to save hipster housing. To wit, according to an e-mail appeal making the rounds:
Are you a hipster? Do you pay too much in rent? Did you know that nearly one third of NYC tenants pay HALF of their incomes in rent? ARE YOU WILLING TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT?? New Yorkers are being forced out of their neighborhoods at astounding rates and
these communities are crumbling...For all of us who are paying close to half our incomes in rent, this has a real impact. How many times have you been forced to leave an apartment because of an unexpected and arbitrary 30% jump in rent? How much longer can you not break up with your boyfriend, who you've been living with to cut your housing expenses in half? How much further out on the L train can you go?Come out with Hipsters for Housing, to remind the world that we didn't all get co-ops as graduation presents. We need to save New York City's largest and most effective affordable housing program. Come out in your Beacon's Closet-est clothes and roll your eyes at the Uptowners. Let us know you're coming, and we'll save you a Hipsters for Housing t-shirt. And for those of you who scoff "Psssh I'm not a hipster," you are soooo a hipster.
Hipsters are asked to report to a very non-hipster location, St. Bart's Church for a town hall meeting on rent control and affordable housing issues on June 14 being organized by Housing Here and Now. Should be fun if the hipsters show.
· Town Meeting [Housing Here & Now Website]
· 184 Kent Update: Death Floating on the Breeze [Curbed] BONUS: If you're a hipster, we know you no longer live in Manhattan.
· 'Our Town Downtown' Heralds End of Manhattan Hipsters [Gawker]