February 26, 2007
Escape From Bedford
The New York Times is reporting that...Williamsburg has high rent. Shocking. Apparently this "Bedford Avenue" is getting pretty popular.
The article, called "Escape From New York", is a list of complaints we've all heard before about rent in a once slightly cheaper area now costing more, and hipsters with trusts funds sitting in coffee shops all day (though we'd be willing to bet some of them may just work nights). The writer, Abigail Frankfurt, lived in Williamsburg (having moved there from Chelsea) until she got priced out (about the time "the pseudo-hipsters" rolled into town). She states in her diatribe that "I am not moving to Queens, the Bronx or Staten Island," and that she wouldn't come back to New York until she could live in Manhattan again. We'd personally rather deal with the "pseudo hipsters" than someone who thinks like that.
So she sold off almost all of the contents of her apartment (keeping her Salinger and Franzen books), which, by the way, was "number 143 Metropolitan Avenue, at Berry Street" and moved to the Midwest. Non-ironically, we think.
Photo of N 7th and Havemeyer in 1910 (more here).
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b*tch left her cat to fend for itself? good riddance douche-bag.
You hear a lot about young hipsters living off their trust funds, but it's all strictly anecdotal. I've never seen any actual statistics that might indicate just how many people live that lifestyle.
"So long, farewell, Auf wiedersehen, good night,
I hate to go and leave this pretty sight.
So long, farewell, Auf wiedersehen, adieu,
Adieu, adieu, to yieu and yieu and yieu."
Wow... what an annoying article.
I left New York in 1991 and crawled back in 1996. I found the American hinterlands too disturbing, even if the rent was cheap. She'll be back sooner than she thinks. I hear New Jersey is a nice place.
David Brooks had a similar diatribe against hipsters in the weekend's Times. His was more about hipster parents, saying he was sick of them creating little hipster clones, as if that's somehow worse than Upper East Siders creating little preppy clones.
People who diss Queens, an obviously nice part of NYC, just because it's "below" them is absolute BS. It's insane how many people do that - they don't live in Williamsburg for money or "creative" reasons, these people live wherever so they can eek out some kind-of "cool" status over others.
Ugh. They're the same people who say "Williamsburg is sooo over!" (see: that CPW-bred douche from Entourage's interview last week).
She left her cat to "fend for itself"??? 13 years, why aren't you dead yet??? Fuck the bitch. I hope she's rotting in Nowhere, Ohio for the rest of her worthless life until her family (if she has one, since it seems she has no support system) dumps her in a squalid old-age home.
And what were these two jobs she was supposedly busting her ass at to make rent under $1000? When I was making $25000 a year I was able to pay almost that much without too much trouble. With two jobs she should have been fine, unless she was just as bad as the people she's bitching about.
Don't get me wrong. I was priced out of the Southside of Williamsburg last year and am holding my breath to see what my rent raise will be this spring. It pissed me off when I'd go get a cup of tea on days when I stayed home sick and saw the same people in the coffee shops that were sitting there every other time I'd walked in the door.
But this chick gets no sympathy from me. She sounds like a loser.
Backlash to the backlash! How hip is that??
Yeah, Abby- you just try that kind of name-dropping in Des Moines and see where it gets you. Have a great midwestern vacation- the reason the rent is so cheap there is because it's such a wonderful, exciting, uplifting place to live. Really. No, seriously.
Have I lived in Williamsburg, or is something fishy about this story?
"I weeded through my collection and was ready to pass on the hundreds of rejects to my local bookstore. But there was no way I could get them from my apartment to... Spoonbill and Sugartown bookstore... I made it to Bedford and North Sixth, at which point the cart tipped and my books tumbled out."
She lived on Metropolitan and Roebling, was going to Spoonbill and Sugartown and somehow ended up on N. 6th? And people helped her when her stuff fell? Hmm...
So she's a born and bred NYer, but she won't live in a NYC borough with people equally or less prosperous or socially acceptable to her, i.e. Queens, the Bronx, Saten Island? I can't decide if she's a hypocrite for despising her fellow/former Brooklyn "writers" or just a snob. A little bit of both I think. Have fun in the midwest. You can join a local chapter of the Oprah Book Club and tell all your new friends about Barthelme!
If you work nights, wouldn't you be sleeping most of the day, not spending it in the Verb Cafe?
If you work nights, wouldn't you be sleeping most of the day, not spending it in the Verb Cafe?
[11] Posted by: Huh? | February 26, 2007 1:26 PM
9 hours of work, 7 hours of sleep = 24 hours. Great math. Now let the Williamsburg bashing begin! Don't you hate trucker hats? and what's the deal with skinny jeans?
Hey, where do you get those black assymetrical haircuts anyway? Do you -pay- people to do that? and PBR - for real?
From what I noticed is that most hipsters live off working at service jobs not their imaginary trust funds. Just look at them do you think it would be easy for them to convince their families the money wasn't going up in smoke and blow. Although people living in nyc on other peoples money is not a rare thing by how expensive this city is. These so-called hipsters are often bartenders, clerks, models, etc. As the articles claim many of them are posers because they don't spend time doing art although they have a reputation as artists. They talk alot and are lazy backing it up. What I noticed is the productive artists in those brooklyn neighborhoods and all over the city are the ones that make a lot of free time since they sacrifice typical work(and the comforts of money) for time to spend making art that most people do not support. These artists don't always get to choose the comforts of the creative neigborhood, they usually just end up where they end up. Why's everyone so mad at each other? Make your own life and let people make theirs. Rent always sucks, but so does the same old thought patterns. Open your mind and stand by what you believe.
Let's see.. you fault someone for not wanting to live on Staten Island, or in the Bronx?
Hey.. after 20 years in this town, if I lose my rent-stabilized apartment, I'm out of here too. The city's rewards are no longer great enough to warrant living "wherever."
this is cutting edge reporting. no. really. How long has this been going on? NEW YORK IS EXPENSIVE!? well shit...
The only ones claiming that hipsters don't have trustfunds are the hipsters who have them. It's less about spending all day in a coffee shop, or drinking pbr for the goof of it, and more about the types of jobs they hold down compared to their lifestyles. New York Public Library doesn't pay that well, but sure does make you look cool. Art Galleries seem lucrative, but your Bedford-Chelsea commute can't afford you a new IPod every few months. Bottom line is, the rent wouldn't be going up, and the hipsters wouldn't still be there, unless they could afford it. And they shouldn't be able to without Mom and Dad in Virginia paying for health care.
And what's so bad about Astoria?
I kind of don't blame her for not wanting to move to Queens, you have to take a bus to freaking everything here, and this 7 line mess, and every time it rains the stations flood over here, it drives me up the wall and I just go to school here. Back in Brooklyn most of my trains were in walking distance the D,N,and R.
I'm looking for apartments now and I consider it a privilege to be able live in NYC at all without killing yourself with hours at entry level positions (I'm a born and bred NYer on the cusp of graduation). I wish I could afford to live in Brooklyn, it is my home after all but as of right now I can't afford to rent in the neighborhood I've been in for the past 21 years.
So she can go ride horses for all I care!
O.K., this woman is a total loser in many ways, but let's just clear this up:
She did NOT abandon her cat. You should have read on to the 2nd page of the article:
"By the time July 1 rolled around, I was financially sound. I had a sleeping bag, a wind-up radio from the blackout of 2003, my cat, and the books that had survived the great purge. I solemnly said farewell to New York and decided I would not return until I could come back to Manhattan, which meant until I prospered."
HOWEVER. She sucks so bad for even ENTERTAINING the thought of abandoning her 13 yr. old cat to fend for itself in the garbage! Is she trying to sound like some sort of pseudo badass by saying "Why aren't you dead yet?" So the city sucked the life out of yet another loser/waste of space? Good riddance.
She's jealous over hipster trust funds, has an over-inflated ego & sounds VERY self-important. So I'm thinking this article was simply a way for her to list off every impressive sounding title in her book collection. To sound superior. Please. Get. over. yourself!
As as for her coming back when she prospers... Hmmmmm. Translation: If I can con some sucker into marrying me and live a more comfortable lifestyle, I'll come back. Let's hope she doesn't poop out a couple of self-righteous brats while she's at it. If she comes back "prosperous" she'll probably be just in time to populate the next up and coming yuppie neighborhood. And so the cycle simply goes on and on.
Williamsburg seems to be the only neighborhood that breeds such vicious sub-cultural in-fighting.
Notice that the East Village, DUMBO, or even the Lower East Side don't inspire passions on such a level.
seriously, even though the persona of the writer was annoying, and if she really dumped her cat she sucks, i get it. I wouldn't go so far as to move to the midwest, but any other artsy city, austin, seattle, portland, vancouver will do just as well as this place. it's overpriced and not worth the rents and the cost of living. it's depressing. and the weather sucks. might be cloudy 8 months a year in the pacnw but it's not brutally cold. new york isn't what it used to be and i am not even sure that it used to be all that. starting to think we were all sold some big lie. as for her NO to the other boroughs, well, i get that. they are now alm ost as expensive, totally inconvenient, probably considering her lifestyle and where all her friends live, and far enough away that it just defeats the purpose. might as well leave-leave if you are gonna be spending 40 minutes minimum to commute to downtown just to hang out with your friends or go to work, for a rent that may not even be cheaper, to live in a neighborhood that doesn't really reflect your age group and social circle....what's the point? just so you can say you live in "new york?"
yes, i came here from the midwest. yes i live in brooklyn (not williamsburg). yes i am an artist.
for the last year or so, i've been trying to figure out if it's even worth it anymore to live here. now, before you get all reactionary on me, just listen: i've been here about 9 years and had a great, great time/experience. i love this town. over the last couple of years though, this city has been changing. a lot...and not really for the better. i mean, who dreams of moving to a new york that is just crowded with so many condos shooting up into the sky? at the rate it's going now, this place has a depressing future ahead of it.
i might be wrong, maybe it'll turn out ok, but jesus. is it even fun here any more?
it's gotten to the point where it is seriously ridiculous to try have a work studio and an apartment. even with room mates. i've done it this entire time, but now, faced with trying to find a new workspace, the costs seem to outweigh the benefits.
maybe i'm just getting too old. (i'm not that old)
"And what's so bad about Astoria?"
cheers! I
I don't know a single person in Williamsburg or Bushwick who has a trust fund. All the people I know work regular jobs and usually long hours, and yet get called "trust funders!!!" Anyway, 98% of trustfunds are usually insurance money left for the kid when their parent dies young. Rich kids exist - and not just off the L train!
The only people who talk about trustfunds are those squares who are jealous of people who aren't totally lame, or self-hating hipsters. Guess what - when people walk down the street, people probably think -you- have a trust fund.
Williamsburg seems to be the only neighborhood that breeds such vicious sub-cultural in-fighting.
Notice that the East Village, DUMBO, or even the Lower East Side don't inspire passions on such a level.
I'd be willing to bet that Park Slope parenting seems to breed a similar "sub-cultural in-fighting."
New York is safe. Except where it's not. New York is boring. Except where it's Exciting. New York is stuck up. Except where it's loose. New York is New York at least we got options. Ipods are cool, I'd like to have one.
Astoria is a lovely hood...if you're a yuppie
it doesn't have the artists community that Wburg is/was known for
P.S. And she really had an armoir that supposedly had a $ 7,000 appraisal value? She coaxes someone from the very neighborhood retail industry she hates to come over, and then sells all of her "excellent" furniture for $ 500? She says this is a warm day in June, implying early in the month since she's not yet mentioning a July 1st move.
Then why didn't she just take the time to find an appropriate antiques dealer to buy it for closer to its' alleged value? I mean was looking up someone in the phone book too difficult? Ok, perhaps the internet? She says her writing desk holds her laptop, copier & printer...
Sorry babe, but name dropping book titles to showcase your intelligence doesn't actually mean you have any common sense.
How did she actually get a $ 7,000 armoire? Sounds to me like she could have INHERITED it, no? She certainly couldn't BUY it, right?
Perhaps someone inherited some old relative's antiques rather than actual cash, no?
Hence a bitter "writer" is born?
O.k., sorry, now I'm done w/this speculative sleuthing. This story was just so irritating in 8 million different ways.
Simmer down people. I honestly didn't find too much that was off the mark in this piece. The fact is that the rents in that area have sky-rocketed in recent years thanks in large part - though obviously not entirely - on the fact that a lot of young people with subsidized incomes (i.e. mom and dad pay, if not for rent, some other major lifestyle cost) have moved in and landlords knew they could raise the rents.
I've lived all over this city - including (gasp!) Queens and some of the most far-flung areas of Manhattan and while I do resent to some degree those New Yorkers who look down their noses at people living in, say, Sunnyside or Inwood, I have also come to understand how reasonable, non-obnoxious people could come to the conclusion that they'd rather not live in New York if they can only afford to live so far from the cultural attractions, etc., that initially drew them to the city.
I don't know, just not sure what the huge fuss is about. I was very surprised by the tone of this post, not exactly in-keeping with the Gothamist I've come to know.
Oh, and the cat line? Yeah, that's called a joke people.
If I had a trust fund I sure wouldn't waste it in Williamsburg.
Am I the only person who doesn't agree that Williamsburg is overrun with hipsters anymore? I don't go out much at night but it seems to me that every time I do head out all I ever see are folks who look to be from Long Island. (not that there's anything wrong with LI). And I know that they or some of their friends drive in because the streets are filled with red sports cars with fins, douchebags with those space-age looking headsets, you know, the type of guys with no neck and a buzz cut.
I'm not pro hipster necessarily but I would take a hipster over the scum that I see roaming the Williamsburg streets Thursday through Saturday. I'm starting to think that the people who are actually moving here, able to stay here, aren't hipsters with imaginary trust funds at all; they are rich business types. Maybe they're related to some of the massive developers? Who knows.
I guess I'm just not seeing the hipsters anymore.
I guess anyone who has a job and lives in Williamsburg is considered a trustfunder. And in contrast, anyone who bitches about those who have jobs is a f*ckin' loser with no job or a job that pays shit.
By your standards, I'm a trustfunder. I have a decent job, no inheritence, no trustfund, i wear puma sneakers (have been since i was a kid) and wear $50 denim jeans. I also drink $.75 coffee... Fuck me!
I've been in wb for 9 years and moved here because it was close to manhattan and it was cheap. the fact that it was close to manhattan and cheap helped me facilitate my art while commuting to a day job. i don't know if i'm a hipster. can a 34 year old be a hipster? maybe someone should define *hipster*. i don't have an asymmetrical haircut or wear skinny jeans. maybe when i am walking down Bedford people think i'm a yuppie- i have no idea. who the hell cares? I'm just a normal person who tries to be considerate and not a total jackass. I'm lucky enough to have kept my apt on Berry Street through all the highrise luxury lofts, gourmet delis and now the influx of douchebags on north 6th that almost run me over because they are to drunk to notice the stop signs.... or am i? My next move is definitely OUT of williamsburg. I don't wanna be around for the final Hoboken-ization.
She sounds like a slightly less charming Megan Daum.
I hate the snobbery, but I get not wanting to live in Astoria... between the F/V and the 7, it's kind of a nightmare.
New York Public Library doesn't pay that well, but sure does make you look cool.
Seriously? Have you been inside of a public library in NYC? I can't imagine anyone with a trust fund even working in one for shits and giggles. But maybe I'm not hip enough to get the irony.
Yes, I'm a trustfundless librarian. No, I don't work with the public.
Many people have an attitude about Williamsburg, its hipsters, and the way it "used to be" versus now. When I moved to NYC a bit over a year ago, Williamsburg was the first neighborhood where I found non-judgemental people willing to rent me an apartment. I find the neighborhood much more affordable and convenient than the Upper East Side, for instance, and see its development as part of a normal growth pattern of that New York City.
So what of those twenty-something shaggy haired hipsters? They certainly don't bother me, being all young and attractive and fashionable. More power to 'em.
She's a self-righteous fool. I've lived in Manhattan since 2002, never paying more than $900 in rent. It's called uptown, and it's rather nice.
I dont know...I just moved to East W/Burg/Bushwick/Ridgewood/whatever the hell you call it...and I hate it there( I have a job so I am not there right now). Thank God it's only temporary. It feels dangerous (and I lived in the Bronx and liked it there!)-like I dont feel safe walking home from the subway station at night-I was nearly mugged last weekend, luckily I was sober enough to realize that those two Puerto Ricans weren't kicking at me for shits and giggles and started to run. And in a lot of cases, it really does feel like all talk and no action for a lot of the 'artists' and 'designers' around here.
And I think that a lot of the talk about other cities being just as good if not better for 'living the artistic life' might have some truth to it. Why is there emphasis on suffering and struggle when it comes to making art- I think that is one reason that people think they have to go through the wringer in NYC. I think it has gotten to the point that NYC is a place for consumption ( preferably high-end), not production-if you want the space and time to produce stuff without excessive pressure, then, yeah, Portland, Chicago, Minneapolis, Austin, Montreal might be better at this point. You can always get a nonstop flight back here and perform and sell your stuff and then fly home to your house and garden, which you cant have here anymore...
And its not even cutting edge in much of anything anymore-the architecture is behind the times and a lot of the interesting work is from European firms, the cutting edge popular music (even hip hop!) is from Chicago, Atlanta, Montreal, Austin, theater is in Chicago, movies in LA, and on and on...NYC is just for media and finance now.
As another priced-out of WB resident contemplating a move out of the city (landlord's selling my building to developers), I'm starting to think I've just been too spoiled by this area to settle for a cramped pad in Manhattan for twice the price, a half-dead neighborhood in Queens, or a long painful commute from anywhere else in Brooklyn. Neighborly neighbors, roomy apartments, good coffee, short commute, cheap bars, art galleries, music venues, alternative video stores, record stores that stock stuff I actually buy, a half decent place to get new books, and until the Subway on Bedford moved in, no big chains. Name me one affordable neighborhood that has all that and I'm there. Please!
i gotta agree with charles, the city is dead. it is all about consumption not about production. as a global city, new york can no longer really claim any real energy. i love the city and can't stomach living anywhere in this country but this place is a shell of its former self.
dubai, montreal, london, berlin all way more exciting in the way new york used to have a lock on.
oh well.
To counter all of you that are discussing my situation, here are some of the facts: I am currently living in Indianapolis, in the Broadripple neighborhood. The furniture I sold may have been worth something, but I could not get its true value and had to act quick. I would never have really gotten rid of Ella my calico cat. I considered moving to LIC, but couldn't find a cheap space.
I live in Chicago and while the rents are cheaper you also get about a third of as many things to do in the city (for every one world class museum etc that we have you have three) that said manhattan is like nothing i have ever seen. I include london and moscow in that statement. Going to bars on the lower east side and swimming through a sea of people is kind of too much for me. Chicago isn't quite as exciting as nyc, but it seems to be a lot more livable.
midwest reprezent.
I love Chicago, and I considered moving there when I first left Detroit in 1984. The biggest problem with Chicago is that it's cold cold cold. NC can be cold, but Chi-Town... to me, is way too cold. Which is sad cause it's a great town.
I just don't like midwesterners. No one asks them to move her and when they do they talk about how great Jimminy Junction or where ever the fuck they came from is. They have no culture either, that is why they have to move to NY. They make our culture cheap by pricing out the working class people who used to live here. I am kind of glad they are all leaving, I am sick of seeing these whitebread looking pseudo-intellects ruining the NY I grew up in.
Gosh, Mister MidWesternGoHomeCryBaby I guess I should go cry myself to sleep since I had a choice in the matter of not being born in NYC and in Ohio instead. Shame on me for following my dreams to the big city. I will go pack my bags right now. :]
#39, are you kidding me? Dubai? That city is entirely manufactured, plastic culture. There's not a damn thing authentic about it. A ski jump inside of a shopping mall? Give me a break!!
That story just ended so abruptly. Just like that. Like the author just needed to finish up and go to sleep. Or make some tea. Either way, it makes me think it's that easy and I could be a writer too. Yay, thanks for that.
I like how Catcher in the Rye was the most prominent book she called out too. Somebody left their keyboard on the Hipster Default setting.
She didn't abandon her cat:
"The cat, she’s scrappy. Leave her to fend for herself in one of the garbage cans? It’s been 13 years; why aren’t you dead?*** All right, she stays.***"
See that last part? She was kidding.
She didn't abandon her cat:
"The cat, she’s scrappy. Leave her to fend for herself in one of the garbage cans? It’s been 13 years; why aren’t you dead?*** All right, she stays.***"
See that last part? She was kidding.
I grow weary of the "New York was so much better when..." I believe I heard that the first day I moved here in 1993, when it was, albeit it, cheaper. Back then it was so much better before the crime, now, it's the developers, in the future...my money is on the beavers that have taken over Central Park.
The first apt. I lived in was in the Bronx. Later I lived at Catholic retreat house on Staten Island. I am currently in my third Manhattan locale. I was raised in Billings, Montana, went to college in Milwaukee, grad school in LA and lived at various times in Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago and Newark, Delaware (home of tax free shopping!!!)
Why do I tell you this, only to note with a modicum of authority that no matter how nauseating Bleecker St. has become (it's just a FUCKING CUPCAKE PEOPLE), New York City will always offer things that other cities don't. I can't speak for artists, but for writers, it is far and away the Mecca (on American soil at least.)
Here's an example: on a freezing January Sunday night, during the Pats/Chargers playoff game, some 40 people showed up for a reading (with beer) at the Mr. Beller's Neighboorhood reading series at Mo Pitkin's. I know, I was one of the readers, along with Abigail (and she was rather funny folks...sorry. And no, I have never met her.) There were friends, family and Beller fans, but there were also a smattering of people who came because they read about it in the New Yorker listings.
Sure, we're all in agreement that New York sucks, everyone under the age of 25 is an asshole, anyone with money enough to buy a place should be beaten with manhole cover, all working-class people are noble (except, perhaps for the cops) and we know that because of all the time we spend fighting the man together and of course that, New York sucks....
But nowhere else are 40 people coming out in the dead of winter on a Sunday night to hear Abigail tell us why.
www.patrickjsauer.com
i liked her piece - it rang true for me, an old citizen of spring & thompson before all the glitz: $400 apartment, quick walk to nyu, the old mafia dons and the nicaraguan gangs, the rats of the french bakery, handball, puerto rico coffee shop. now im in seattle, and making a living as an artist, a new yorker who can never go back due to costs. once cbgb closed, once kieth haring died, once armani exchange went in, once trump got vindication in the press - the new york of america was replaced by the new york of the international wealthy. middle class no more.
I was in W'burg for 9+ years, and the vast majority of young people I met worked in low-paying "artsy" jobs, but it didn't stop them from living in a high-rent district, and spending loads of money on drinks, cigarettes, and in some cases drugs. This doesn't mean they had trust funds, more likely they were (A) living paycheck to paycheck, (B) carrying huge debt, or (C) getting some level of financial help from their folks back home (perhaps all of the above).
The notable exception would be those working as bartenders, which generally pays well.
If you want a real affordable artists neighborhood then move to Jersey City!!!! Downtown Jersey City is Expensive but Journal Square, greenville, and the West Side neigborhoods are very affordable (600 dollars a month for your own studio apartment! Plus, you have the clean affordable PATH train, and only 2 to 10 minute ride to manhattan 24 hours a day. Plus, you have five year old new Hudson-Bergen Light Rail to take you anywhere in Hudson County!!!
look out, guys. i'm another pseudo-hipster moving to wberg! shit, i rather live in soho or tribeca but the rents here (tudor city) are getting way too expensive so im gonna hop on the L train wearing my way contrived outfit so i can perpetuate the rents even higher. is it cause i shop at barneys, YRB, and karmaloop? please don't hate me! i love arcade fire, my bloody valentine, asobi seksu, and jazz too! My manahattanite friends think im too indie. i don't understand why you hate me so much... i look forward to meeting all the nice indie girls. i have so much in common with you all. the funny part is that i'm writing the truth. is there no place for me to live??? hell, all you "artists" bore the hell out of me anyway. soooo kerouac and dada. anyway, i hope you all welcome me into your little enclave. see you at barcade!!!
sincerely,
that asian guy with emo glasses from tenafly, nj
Here's the thing...
Your rent went up and you got obnoxious neighbors.
*And you left the city?*
You may be cute in a sundress, but you're no New Yorker.
So you moved to Indianapolis, huh? You can have it! The city voted "#1 most boring" by USA today for many years running.
The quaint little arty neighborhood of Broadripple may be more affordable, but if I recall correctly the only highlights are: a single vintage clothing store, a single "punk" shoe store (doc martens!), and one Subway restaurant chain (with high school skaters instead of hipsters), the rest of the "village" is cafes and galleries that cater to older women with big hair, ugly jewlery and a lot more money than you, who want to feel that they are patronizing the "artsy" part of town and really just want something a lot like Kinkaid even though they aren't willing to admit it.
The only relief is to get a car and drive to Bloomington, or Louisville for the small dribblings of culture that they offer, which pretty much negates the bargain of the midwest. I'll bet you'll be pining for psuedo-hipsters and high rents in just a few months.
Good ridance you stupid cow. The reason the midwest is so cheap is because it is depressing, boring, backward and lame. Sorry, but its true. And can we please lay off the hipsters? There is nothing wrong with being young and irresponsible. I dont know anyone who has a trust fund, and I live in WB. Its just another neighborhood-- get over it. Anyway, have a great time in Kansas City. Everytime you see the skyline on TV, you are gonna miss your shitty, expensive apartment. New York may not be what it used to, but it is still the coolest,