"Hipsturbia:" Actually Becoming Browner, Poorer, and Older
Like a lot of other folks, I was amused by yesterday's Times style section piece proclaiming the birth of "Hipsturbia": a supposedly new cluster of affluent, creative-industry white people who have moved from Brooklyn to the lower Hudson River Valley after procreating, mostly to the suburbs of Irvington, Hastings, Dobbs Ferry, and Tarrytown. As Jess Grose (Irvington's finest) notes at Slate, upscale white families have been moving from the city to those particular towns for many, many decades. The changes are really around the margins; now those emigrants are arriving not only from Manhattan, but also from the gentrified neighborhoods of Brooklyn, which means they're bringing all the associated cultural tics with them, like foodie snobbery. (And trust me, Westchester County could use a few more interesting restaurants.)
If we look at actual data, however, we'll notice that American suburbs are not becoming hipper and younger, but are in fact becoming grayer (as their population ages), browner (as immigrants and African Americans are priced out of central urban neighborhoods), and poorer (as young adults with economic means are increasingly choosing to live in cities). I grew up near the Times' "hipsturbia" in a gorgeous riverfront town that neatly
If we look at actual data, however, we'll notice that American suburbs are not becoming hipper and younger, but are in fact becoming grayer (as their population ages), browner (as immigrants and African Americans are priced out of central urban neighborhoods), and poorer (as young adults with economic means are increasingly choosing to live in cities). I grew up near the Times' "hipsturbia" in a gorgeous riverfront town that neatly