Community Corner
Is There a Hipster Crisis in Somerville?
A Boston Globe article says "Somerville worries it's growing too hip."
An article published in the Boston Globe Friday says, "Whatever they are, they’re amassing in Somerville."
It's talking about hipsters.
It's a group that can be hard to pin down, according to the article, but they've been flocking to Somerville. We're talking waves of skinny jeans, plaid shirts, tattoos and facial hair.
The article lists a number of factors contributing to the "Cambridge-fication" of Somerville: "prominent chefs flocking to open new restaurants in Somerville, the pending opening of Green and Orange Line stations, a Yelp Wordmap showing frequent 'hipster' mentions in reviews of Davis and Union Square establishments, the development of 'luxury' apartments, events like decentralized music festival PorchFest, and the recent appearance of Brooklyn Boulders Somerville, a rock-climbing club."
It continues: "The scene has become so intense the hipsters themselves are worried."
On a recent summer evening in Union Square, "the spirit of Brooklyn was in the air," the article says.
Others in the city are worried, too, that Somerville may be losing some of its homegrown character and culture, and that longtime residents are getting priced out of the city, the article suggests.
The article's a great read, and you should to take a moment to check it out.
Caution: editor expressing a mild opinion—At the risk of being opinionated, I'll acknowledge that by Boston standards Somerville has a a hipster vibe. It seems to exist mostly during evenings and weekends. Walk around during the day and you won't find it. By national standards, however—again, I'm being opinionated—Somerville's hipster cred seems junior varsity. During a recent trip to Chicago, for instance, I ate at a place called Parsons, an outdoor fried chicken restaurant where customers eagerly waited hours for a table while drinking negroni slushies and playing outdoor ping-pong. The crowd made Somerville's hipsters look like models from an L.L. Bean catalogue. Ever been to Seattle? Brooklyn? Allston, for that matter?
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