Thirty years ago, Bushwick burned; today, it’s being slapped with a disorderly conduct summons. I know that I probably shouldn’t lambaste people in search of love but I just can’t help myself. Doing some research on Bushwick last night (yes, actual research), I stumbled upon the following Craigslist “Missed Connection”:
mckibbin lofts roof party the cops broke up – w4m – 22
NYU Philosophy student! I was talking to you on the upper roof deck Friday night. I threw a beer can before climbing down. I’m a girl (duh), shortish brown hair, recent Columbia grad, trying to be a writer. The fucking cops got me and I had to follow them downstairs to get my bullshit summons. You seemed nice and I thought you were cute. You must be smart too, cause you got away from the goddamn police. Email me!
Do I feel sorry for this young woman? Not a bit, I fear. First of all, is this the finest prose we can expect from the graduate of school that nurtured the likes of Allen Ginsberg and Langston Hughes? I might use better words than “cute,” “smart” and “nice” to describe the potential mate of my dreams. Also, how does one “try” to be a writer? I imagine that all one needs is a MacBook and the $3 requisite to score a soy latte and table space at Potion or the Archive. Last I checked, both were in ample supply around these parts.
What really piques my sense of civic pride, however, is the beer can that seems to have been tossed by our lovestruck friend as she was on the verge of an encounter with New York’s Finest. I knew guys who used to throw beer cans from apartment windows — when they were in high school. Perhaps the mysterious Casanova in question, a Philosophy student at NYU, could have discoursed on Emmanuel Kant’s categorical imperative, which stipulates that an action is moral based on whether one can imagine everyone else in the world doing it.
Now, can you imagine everyone in Bushwick (forget the entire world for now) throwing beer cans, chicken bones and other refuse on the street? If that were the case, we would live in a neighborhood with perpetually dirty streets, besotted sidewalks, and a battered housing stock that is only affordable to enterprising young “artists” because it has been neglected for so long. Oh, wait, nevermind. Scratch that last paragraph. Party on, cans away!
Ridgehooder September 19th, 2007 at 10:28 am
Same “fucking cops” she will be crying to after she gets her shiny new Macbook jacked in the hood!
david September 19th, 2007 at 10:52 am
Let’s face it….hipster kids are the new frat/sorority morons in cooler clothes.
I feel lucky that when I grew up kids identified w/ subcultures like “punk/hardcore”, “indie”, “metal”..etc…..because it spoke to them and it was about something that they were into….politics,fashion,ethics..it actually meant something.
The “hipster” phenomenon is a soulless,empty, devoid of ethics, and about nothing more than “cool”.
Jonathan Williams September 19th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
Maybe trashing the McKibbin dorms is the only way to keep themselves from getting priced out?
jay September 19th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
Hipsters improve the neighborhood, not right away but eventually, then get priced out.
But what do hipsters grow up to be? Funny how they almost never have kids while being hipsters, but hippies in the day would sometimes have kids.
Going to a good school, and wearing clothes from the salavtion army living in gritty Bushwick shows they are anti-conformist.
As for the cops – they did some work?
Martha September 19th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
Bushwick is no prairie! Her action and her speech is imoral. Lets hope she’ll grow up some day soon.
Martha September 19th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
p.s. by immoral I mean awful behavior.
Jeremy September 19th, 2007 at 11:03 pm
I wish people would throw beer cans at cops more often. The fuck were they doing breaking up a private party on a private roof for?
Jaybushwick September 20th, 2007 at 12:20 am
Couldn’t have been broken up for disturbing the peace. run down neighborhood should always imply cheap, but bushwick is run down and is still considered a cheaper place to live.
i don’t know how anyone affords those lofts around morgan without be a trust funder.
Brooklyn Pete September 20th, 2007 at 4:14 am
Although I am 23 and a part of the so-called “hipster” generation, I cannot afford these rents and even with multiple roommates I would be living paycheck to paycheck with absolutely no financial security. Yet many of the kids I know who are moving in either have no job or a low-paying job and yet manage to to party constantly and travel the world too. They all deny that they come from a rich backround but I believe most if not all the new-comers are getting hefty financial assistance from the bank of mommy and daddy. Especially those under 30!
Martha September 20th, 2007 at 9:21 am
When I was 23, I had cero money and three roommates, spoke limited English, but I created my own life. You should be proud of yourself! Having someone else pay your bills only makes you dependent.
Jeremy September 20th, 2007 at 9:44 am
Look, there are not that many trust funds in the world. They split these lofts up among several people, and that’s how they can afford the rent. The ones who have “help” are usually still in college.
Pete — you think these kids don’t live paycheck to paycheck? All you need to travel the world is a credit card. Talk to them when they’re 30, and see how much of their income goes to interest payments.
Ridgehooder September 20th, 2007 at 10:58 am
The above post is correct. Most college kids in Brooklyn aren’t Trustfundsters, but simply middle class kids going into tremendous student loan and credit card debt. In fact, I am one of those now in repayment. Trust funds didnt back me. Crooks like Sallie Mae and Citibank did.
turgan September 20th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
“I threw a beer can before climbing down. I’m a girl (duh), shortish brown hair, recent Columbia grad, trying to be a writer. The fucking cops got me…”
wow.
Brooklyn Pete September 21st, 2007 at 12:24 am
True, Jeremy and Ridgehooder you are correct, I was not taking into account the broader picture. But sometimes it just seems like they have more but I guess severe financial debt is imminent unless an excellent job kicks in. I actually had to take off school this semester and maybe next one too just to save enough to pay for the joke that is higher education. I really do want to move back to Bushwick but I really do not want to live nervously on each pay check and have no future savings. My parents never saved any money to help me as an adult and I am virtually starting off from scratch.
Jeremy September 21st, 2007 at 9:59 am
Pete, you’ll be better off for it, trust me. People who get help from their parents take much longer to grow up and be independent.
Martha September 21st, 2007 at 10:32 am
An 80-year old woman calling herself an “old girl (gal)”, I can understand, but a 22 years old Columbia Grad calling herself ” a girl.” Hey, what’s wrong here???
One would expect that she had a 4-year rigorous education at Columbia.
Colorado transplant January 19th, 2008 at 7:14 am
Congratulations to all you young folk coughing up big bucks to live in Bushwick. I’m 49 now and grew up in Ridgewood. I guess I caught the tail end of what this country use to be like. I recall old German women scrubbing the front stoops on Saturday mornings. Our rent was $100.00 per month
for a small 5 room railroader on Putnam ave. We had one TV with no remote, one banged up car. one phone, one parent working. Stores were closed on Sundays. It was a lot harder to get into trouble back then, There are so many freak’in laws now, you don’t want to leave your house cause it’s gonna cost you money. Owning a car here is a hugh hassel. It has become a faceless society, it’s all about money and how to separate it from you.
You have to pay 5 times the amount for something than its really worth. There were NO fast food restaurants in Ridgewood back in the day. You knew all the shop owners. Pizza was .15 cents a slice in 1969. Sanitation trucks came down your block and sprayed water to clean the street. We fished for money in the sidewalk grates using a stickball bat and bubble gum on the end of it.
Things were much kinder and simpler then. You could actually get a start in life without help from your parents. Working your way thru college with no acquired debt was common. Apartments were affordable in good neighborhoods. Most jobs actually meant something and people took pride in them. Now you deal with $8.00 per hour schmucks and have to bring back half the junk you buy cause it’s shit. People lived better back then with less money. All the gadgets and gizmos will never make this a better place. What happened to the country I was born in?
Jeremy January 19th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Oh please, it’s easier to make a living, eat good food, and find an endless variety of products that nobody could even imagine would exist in 1969. Citing the price of pizza and the apartment you grew up in is a useless indicator, because of inflation and the fact that it’s so much easier to make a buck now. I’m sorry you’re having trouble dealing with the modern world, but your parents worked harder to have less back then, despite what you think you remember.
Dresden January 19th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
This insipid, useless culture following Gen X is all about being “cool” -
and cool is boring. Cool is a heroin nod. Cool is a stupid teenager who knows about life.
And all this sitting in a cafe typing – you are useless, space-consuming assholes. Your screenplay isn’t going to go anywhere.
Dresden January 19th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
I meant nothing about life.
And are any of them actually attractive? All that PBR seems to make them soft and they’re usually pretty ugly.