An apology if it took us a few extra minutes to get this weekend's Times story about the heavy presences of Europeans in Williamsburg, but we were too busy pissing ourselves because we were laughing so hard carefully considering how to deal with it that we had to wait a bit. The Times wrote that:
There is a distinctly West European flavor to the social calendar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, these days, as affluent buyers from France, Germany, Italy and Britain are transforming a neighborhood better known for attracting hipsters, Midwesterners and Polish immigrants. Other neighborhoods that have been reshaped by the condo boom of recent years have also seen influxes of foreign buyers investing their yen, pounds and euros in real estate. But the trend has been most visible in Williamsburg, where the newcomers are establishing deeper roots and are not simply looking for weekend pieds-à-terre or investment properties.So, you know, the French hang out at Fabian's on Bedford, the Brits go to Spike Hill Bar & Grill, Urban Rustic sells baguettes to French people near McCarren Park (not the side of the park where alcoholics drink Vladlimir Vodka out of brown paper bags, pass out on the benches and puke on themselves in a more Old European way), the Swedes learn to sell furniture in different languages and at one cafe the little ones are bilingual if not trilingual. One resident gushes, "You can't step outside without hearing French around you." For real laughs and chuckles, however, head directly to the local blog Bad Advice, which did not take well to the "discovery" of Europeans in the Burg. Bad Advice writes:
Apparently there are a lot of Europeans in Williamsburg these days. Wow. This is news? I guess the newsiness lies in that these are rich, annoying Europeans. Not the artist types that got priced out of the nabe few years back. Instead of Swiss cartoonists and Lithuanian sculptors, we have British i-bankers and Swedish marketing professionals. And not only are they buying apartments with their bushels of Euros, they're opening businesses...And continues about a comment made by a Swedish shop owner that Europeans are "more serious shoppers":More serious than who? More serious than moi? (That's French for "me," btw.) It's true. I do tend to adopt a lighthearted, whimsical attitude when snapping up Marimekko washclothes and panda bear pillows. I see now that attitude is wrongheaded and I will never again walk through those doors without an appropriate pout on my face.Is this why the dude in the bodega spoke French to us when we went in for a PRB the other day and asked us why we weren't buy, you know, the Duvel?
· Old Europe and New Brooklyn in Williamsburg [NYT]
· Yet another really annoying Williamsburg story. [Bad Advice]
· Burg Not Just for [American] Hipsters Anymore [Brownstoner]
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