The Hipping Point
We were first drawn in by the Newsday headline — "Williamsburg Residents Decry Subway Track Work" — which we found intriguing because we had difficulty imagining Williamsburg residents mustering the energy to abandon their habitual ennui and decry anything, least of all track work.
Our interest was maintained through the article by our media-crit tendencies: The only people quoted doing any decrying were a state senator's spokesman — for whom decry is virtually in the job description — and a transit-workers' union official — for whom decry is definitely in the job description. Nary a Williamsburger, nor even a Bushwickian, was quoted, which, we were noting, entirely undermined the headline.
But then we got to the last bit, which made the whole article worth it:
Use of the L line has inflated since Williamsburg became synonymous with hipness in 1997, and as real estate values climbed along many Brooklyn segments of the 10-mile, 24-stop route; its easternmost terminus is Rockaway Parkway on the borough's southern shore.
They've pinpointed it: 1997! We confess: We always thought that's when the Lower East Side became synonymous with hipness. Billyburg, we thought, didn't hit till a few years later. But, then again, one of us lived in L.A. till 2004, and the other was ensconced in Jewy uptownness around the corner from Zabar's till the summer of 2002. So we do we know? Good thing we have the arbiters of Nassau Country cool to clarify these things for us.
