But will they stay? The answer to that question in other cities has invariably been no. Good schools are needed to keep people. Also, hipsters move on to the next hip place once they have gentrified the neighborhood enough to make rent prices go up. Besides, beard pipe and longboard? Cmon, we all know thats stupid..lol
There are all kinds of "hipsters," it's really a problematic label. Some may indeed be the kind that move out when the going gets rough, but a lot of them are just normal young folk that have made a questionable fashion choice. Critics are painting with way too broad a brush.
It sucks when rent goes up, but the alternative often is landlords that do the bare minimum and let the housing stock deteriorate. I don't think we'll see rapid gentrification in Detroit or rapid displacement of people from their neighborhoods. What does concern me though is that some investors have managed to buy up large swaths of property in Detroit, and might do something stupid and raze a bunch of historic properties to put in a new development. Even so, that's better than stagnation, I guess.
It's like Brooklyn in the early 90s. Hipsters tend to be the first wave of a turnaround in a neighborhood: younger people who are a little daring and are attracted to very low-cost living. Maybe they leave, or maybe they just grow up with the neighborhood.
OK, OK. While I poke fun at hipsters and make jokes at their expense, I understand they're a vital part of the neighborhood. Hell, I'd consider most of our renters hipsters. (Yeah, I'm one of those landlords charging top dollar -- for a nicely renovated, amenity-filled historic house with the owner five minutes away, that is.) But really, their choice of clothes or cigarettes or facial hair or whatever don't affect me in the least. Unfortunately many of the hipsters I have daily interactions with are the pretentious ones, like you mentioned in your post. Yes, I know there's an organic bakery nearby, thanks for telling me. Yes, I know about the community garden; I helped build the thing. It's kind of like the annoying teenager thinking they know it all when they actually have no real life experience. If we can get them to stop walking on the sidewalk four across, and shower occasionally, I'll be extending a welcome to every hipster who wants to move to midtown.
Thought I'd bump this conversation, as today an exchange on Reddit got me riled up. People have so much vitriol towards these hipsters. I think it's the optimism that pisses people like this off. Read the exchange between me and "LeftDetroitThrowAway".
I hate the accusation of gentrification. Woodbridge was never built for poverty stricken people. The homes are large and elegant. Many of us who have been here for 10+ years bought abandoned homes. Who exactly is being pushed out of an abandoned home??? In any big successful city there are areas that are out of the reach of the very poor. If we want our city to grow we will have to swallow that bitter pill.
I hate the accusation of gentrification. Woodbridge was never built for poverty stricken people. The homes are large and elegant. Many of us who have been here for 10+ years bought abandoned homes. Who exactly is being pushed out of an abandoned home??? In any big successful city there are areas that are out of the reach of the very poor. If we want our city to grow we will have to swallow that bitter pill.
THIS. SO MUCH THIS. Thanks, Katie! Hard to be "gentrified" when we live in a neighborhood that was built by the very rich for the very rich a hundred years ago.
Moreover, larger homes are a huge drain on resources and can quickly fall apart if someone without means attempts to live in one. I have a small army behind me and can barely keep up with mine. In Woodbridge, "gentrification" means "people are buying the houses that can actually afford to live in them." As long as the city's occupancy is less than 40% of what its peak was, I think it's difficult to argue displacement is a leading concern.
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It sucks when rent goes up, but the alternative often is landlords that do the bare minimum and let the housing stock deteriorate. I don't think we'll see rapid gentrification in Detroit or rapid displacement of people from their neighborhoods. What does concern me though is that some investors have managed to buy up large swaths of property in Detroit, and might do something stupid and raze a bunch of historic properties to put in a new development. Even so, that's better than stagnation, I guess.
Unfortunately many of the hipsters I have daily interactions with are the pretentious ones, like you mentioned in your post. Yes, I know there's an organic bakery nearby, thanks for telling me. Yes, I know about the community garden; I helped build the thing. It's kind of like the annoying teenager thinking they know it all when they actually have no real life experience.
If we can get them to stop walking on the sidewalk four across, and shower occasionally, I'll be extending a welcome to every hipster who wants to move to midtown.