Yuppie entrepreneurs across brownstone Brooklyn are uniting to protect their communities: Instead of competing, why not have all the cheese shops, wine shops, coffee shops, and yoga studios band together, as a chain? Keep out those dreaded other chains!

I mean christ, New York's bohos did not all move en masse to Cobble Hill and Boerum Hill just to see those communities overrun with generic chain store crapola. They're starting their very own community-based chains. One of which is called "Area," just to highlight the "Ripped from the pages of The Onion" aspect of this phenomenon. The following grassroots, homegrown, neighborhood businesses are mentioned in the NYT story on this trend:

"Over here, it is a day spa. Over there, a children's clothing shop. Down a ways, a toy store...a masseuse turned entrepreneur...a yoga studio...Patois, a bistro...a quirky mix of hangouts...two restaurants in Carroll Gardens, Frankies Spuntino and Prime Meats, and a coffeehouse, Cafe Pedlar...cheese-and-charcuterie store Stinky Bklyn, a wine bar, the JakeWalk, and a wine shop, Smith & Vine...the home furnishings shop Environment 337...a boutique, Retrospect...the bistro Provence en Boite and a nearby bed-and-breakfast, Les Sudistes...Sweet Melissa bakery-restaurants...children's clothing shops in Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope and Williamsburg...Delightful Coffee Shop in Red Hook...the Smith Street brewpub Bar Great Harry...a beer garden, Mission Dolores."

Lest Smith Street get a Rite Aid or some shit.
[Pic: Flickr]