Katie Gillett (pronounced like the razor) is a multimedia storyteller with roots in Orlando and pieces of her heart across the globe. In 2010 she quit her theme park photographer job to go on a cross-country road trip from Florida to California—via Canada—with: 6 of her best friends, an unregistered yellow Mustang, a Toyota Corolla named Tinkerbell, 2 walkie talkies, and the motto “No pants, no plans, no prioritiesâ€. The plan was to “find herselfâ€â€¦or something. She now finds herself living at home again. She enjoys rewriting pop lyrics to make them relevant to social justice issues and making socio-environmental documentary films. You can check out her work at:
www.groundwaterup.com and reach her at: gillett.katie[at]gmail.com.
Cartographer Katie Gillett’s Post-Grad Hipster’s Guide to Inhabitable U.S. Cities:
199 responses
Omaha “The rent is cheap and I have friends who were friends with Conor Oberst” Nebraska
No Chicago? WTF?
Come up with your own for Chi-town, Rob. Additions welcomed!
Pittsburgh “I’ll just buy this ultra-cheap Victorian with my student loan money and fix it up while I start my own web start-up” Pennsylvania
Dayton “wearing flannel and John Deere hats unironically for decades. And the Deal sisters…” Ohio
How about Atlanta? “Sweating balls and drinking heavily while holding down my day job at Turner and playing in a punk band at night”
Atlanta: So what if you actually live OTP (outside of the I-285 perimeter) as a free-lance journalist? You can still crash on your friend’s couch in Cabbagetown after a Black Lips/Deerhunter concert in a PBR American Spirit haze.
Nashville “the flat land is easier on my fixie” Tennessee
@Jon Omaha’s great, but not because of that whiner Oberst.
St. Petersburg – Riding my fixed gear to get taco bus and craft brews before hitting the Dali for that industrial fashion show.
Chicago “I was the coolest kid in Madison” Illinois
@Mark yes, but every hipster friend I have there (I grew up in Omaha) has in some way related themselves to Oberst through friends.
Eugene “I promise not to get into the drug scene” Oregon.
I’m hung up on trying to figure out the difference between “habitable” and “inhabitable.”
But what would you expect from an Austin resident?
@Rob, Ack- you’re right! How DID I miss Chicago?
Keep up the suggestions, everyone. These are hilarious!
Nashville “My cowboy hat and bumpkin beard are ironic. Or are they?” Tennessee
(Seriously, every time I go home (to Nashville), I’m ever more amused by the new crop of affectedly festooned 20-somethings. Nashville so wants to be Austin. It’s so cute how it tries.)
I believe San Antonio, Texas should be included in your list.
“Baltimore: cool by proximity?” Proximity to what? The ocean?
How about “Baltimore: join your comrades in trying to sell home-made jewelry no one buys because they are trying to sell homemade jewelry no one buys.”
Honolulu “If a hipster falls on the beach and no one can be bothered to hate it, does it make a frown?” Hawai’i.
Providence “Nearly out of flash-bangs, fifty-eight minutes door to door from Cranston, where housing is newer than 1880 and cheaper than that, to Newton, MA., where the work was” Rhode Island.
Chicago “Lots of bike lanes for riding my fixie to the new microbewery/gastropub that just opened” Illinois
Fort Lauderdale “we’re not rich enough to be in either South Beach or Boca Raton” Florida?
Fresno “I live in a racist & polluted city but the rent is hella cheap & if I repeat t myself that I am halfway between SF & LA & if I open/visit a craft boutique/Organic Bistro Truck/Bike everywhere it’ll make me feel cool” California
St Louis, a city I love but will try to dis…(does “dis” count as retro yet?) “twenty years behind politically, in the middle of absolutely nowhere except the turn of the 19th century, but great music, great food, and low rent” MO
Buffalo “hey, at least it’s not Detroit’ New York
Tallahassee “This must be like when they introduced the Pill for the first time” Florida
Pittsburgh “holy shit is rent really that cheap i guess I can deal with the whiteness/i ride a fixie with no brakes in a city built on mountains SO BEAT THAT” Pennsylvania
Los Angeles “Hoping that my tight jeans, scarf, and funny hat will distinguish me from the thousands of other hipsters here enough to get a show on cable” California
Scha! Boise. Get with the program.
Chicago “I meant to move to New York or San Francisco but I’m too broke and this is a big enough city for me anyway, I still get lost all the time” Illinois
Tucson “Vampire-style hipsters only come out of their ridiculously cheap rental houses at night to drink pony beers and eat delicious Mexican food” Arizona
Flagstaff “don’t stand upwind from the hippies on the downtown corners” Arizona
Los Angeles “Echo Park’s the new Brooklyn, but with more sun and potential producers for my script” California
Rest of the world “At least I’m not in the US…let me just go find myself in this market place…oooh! air conditioned coffee shop!”
Indianapolis “Vonnegut and Steak n Shake are our crowning achievements,” IN
Pittsburgh “rent is so cheap even if I will freeze in this old house with no insilation while I eat my sandwiches with fries inside and ride a fixed speed down the rivers” Pennsylvania
Silverlake/Echo Park! “David Eggers has a Time Traveller Supply Store in Echo Park, suck on THAT Park Slope”
LOVE the buffalo one! CO represent! There is nothing wrong with getting 50+ days a year of skiing! At least we are happy!
Chicago hipsters also get the ability to judge people based on their neighborhood/train stop.
Tulsa: “I’m surrounded by Republicans, but i can buy a house while in college.”
Mexico “Jesus Christ, open your eyes and look beyond the country you were born and probably will die in, and you can live here like you would in NYC with money and the weather is perfect” City.
Jersey City “I read on craigslist this was close to Manhattan and its really very pretty if I never leave my block,” New Jersey.
Lawrence, Kansas: “Damn, we’re in the middle of nowhere but i seem to see hipsters everywhere.”
First off, I have it on good authority that labazro is actually a canine. People, don’t tell me you’re still feeling guilty about gentrification. Here’s how I got over it: I read something in a local paper here in DC: black people in gentrifying neighborhoods see an ideal mix as being something like 35% black, 35% white, and the rest “other”. Reading that actually DID make me feel less guilty. I’m wanted! Yay! (I can also say that my own neighborhood has been absolutely, unambiguously improved by its influx of professionals of all ages and colors…there’s nothing life-affirming or bettering about used syringes and piles of broken glass…)
Missoula (but don’t tell anyone) Montana
Madison “What was I going to do between graduation and rugrats again? Go to the Dise on Tuesday night and get felt up on my way to the ladies room? Eff my life.” Wisconsin.
Milwaukee “We have diversity and the East side and at least it’s not Madison” WI.
Anchorage “It’s almost like Seattle and we have KBC! Only there are only two cool places to be seen in and disdain must be cultivated for anyone who doesn’t shop at Nordies and eat at the Roadhouse,” AK
My city (Austin) made it, so no worries here, though I often think of it as: “Why do I live in the only hip city with months of 100+ temperatures?”
Tip o the hat to the dude who worked in a Primanti Bros. reference for Pittsburgh.
Davis “My coffee is roasted on a bike tumbler and delivered by bike and we have bike roundabouts on campus because there are more bicycles than bipeds” California, “Oh, and the US Bicycling Hall of Fame is here too”
Oop, sorry, that was Katie, not a dude.
Inner Loop Houston “best-kept secret for hipsters who can’t be bothered with copping an attitude, plus great music, sunshine and trees” TX
Columbus “Only other Ohioans consider it hip, but at least I didn’t have to move too far from Mom and Dad,” Ohio
Wilmington “All Roads Lead Out Of” Delaware
Washington “Grid lock 24/7, Reclaimed swamp land infested with tourists, getting poorer each summer running my A/C” D.C.
Richmond “it’s cheap and full of pretty girls riding bikes” Virginia.
Kansas City “We grew up on the Kansas side in the pretty houses and drove beamers but misery is where it’s at” MO
McAllen “There’s a drug war on the other side of this border but at least the Margarita’s are cheap” Texas
Thank you for not including Chicago. We have enough “slum it in the city and then go work for daddy” arty types here as it is.
you definitely forgot:
wicker park, chicago
silverlake, los angeles
2 of the biggest hipster neighborhoods in the US
Somerville “We’re nothing like those rich white Harvard fucks, man, let’s smoke a jay and get a beer and play PS3 in our ridiculously cheap house and try to initiate a 3-way with my ex and the girl she picked up at the bar,” Massachusetts
Atlanta “my Rainbows and grosgrain are pastellar than yours, but at least we don’t have beards”, Georgia
Do we need more of these slugs in Chicago? How about “I can find the stuff at Farm & Fleet that’ll be five times more expensive at Urban Outfitters next school year. And Pabst’s headquarters is out there in Woodridge!
Cincinnati “I live in a shroud of mystery; a twilight zone of civil war-era social structures. Being skilled at a useless craft here is rad given my flossing ability to avoid violent brutality walking down to the local gay bar/cafe gallery.”
San Diego “Syphilis by the Sea” California
Pittsburgh “I make a living off my Etsy knitting store and spend most of my time at the artisanal coffee shop because my 1880s house is so cheap (but the heat is too expensive to stay home)” PA
Columbia “Come for the film festival, stay for the pretentious afterparty” Missouri
Savannah “I go to SCAD, I go to art school” Georgia.
Phoenix “Where… wait, this city city sucks for hipsters”, Arizona.
Austin “I just moved here from NYC/SF/L.A.; I’m happy to educate you on how much cooler I am than you and why the city I moved from is better than this place while simultaneously contributing to all the reasons why Austin is quickly losing its identity and becoming way less cool/livable than it was in the first place” TX.
Durham “All the aging hipsters from Chapel Hill moved here, and now cupcakes cost $2.50” North Carolina
Chicago: “Too smart for LA, too funny for NY, too fat for either.”
Pittsburgh “Why are yinz pants so tight n’at?” Pennsylvania.
Kansas City “How come all the good bands play in Lawrence?” MO
Chicago “I live in Wicker Park cause the rent is cheap (but really mommy and daddy still pay it ) and I like the proximity to over-priced thrift stores” Illinois.
Milwaukee “fueling hipsters with PBR well before the coining of the word ‘hipster,’” Wisconsin.
Chicago “We’re all really from the suburbs living off trust funds” Illinois
Berkeley “nuff said”
I live somewhere super obscure, you’ve probably never heard of it…
-Chicago Hipsters
Hartford, CT — halfway between Boston and New York, and you qualify as hip as long as you don’t work for an insurance company.
Athens,” I used to be a frat boy, but now I’m a hipster..Did you see Michael Stipe last night?”, Georgia
Rockport, “Even the Baptists wear sandals and ripped jeans to church.” Texas.
@Benjy your Chicago sounds a lot like a lot of these places. What makes it distinct?
I’m from Chicago, but moved to Portland in 2005, and if yours is correct you might need to add “and it’s kind of a brutal and tough city where all of these hipster things cost WAYYYYY too much.”
That’s just my Portland/Chicago comparison though.
Silverlake/Echo Park/Koreatown/Los Feliz – “My neighbor is using his trust fund to finance his art career … on Saturday night I find dates in the taco truck line … All my friends have better jobs than me … Downtown LA is the best place to party … and PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION IS THE REAL LOS ANGELES SUCKERS! LA METRO 4-EVA.”
Miami, “Que mas fixie que que mas fixie–pretty much resign yourself to driving/Home of the Latin Hipster,” FL
Miami “The bigger your trust fund the poorer you dress. my clothes cost 1000 dollars but look 50 cent, lets take my dads boat out” Florida
Greensboro, “You don’t have to be intelligent to be a hipster” North Carolina
San Francisco, “My God. I never thought my own personal left-of-the-middle politics would be ever be aligned with the Bush-Cheney Administration in this town”, California
You absolutely need Chicago, “Second-City my ass!” Illinois.
irreverentguidetolife.com
I know so many people who moved to New Orleans after graduation and I cannot stand hearing them squawk with ~NOLA pride~ and post Instagrams of run down post-Katrina buildings. I just want to scream, “You have lived there for three months! THREE! Years after the hurricane! Stop exploiting other people’s tragedies for your Facebook-esteem!”
Pittsburgh – For people who think Cleveland is too exciting
Pittsburgh, “rent is so cheap that i can work part time at a restaurant, and spend all my free time swimming in the dirty dirty allegheny under the 40th street bridge. it’s too bad i don’t have health insurance because that river water gave me a staph infection” Pennsylvania.
Atlanta ” I’m pretending to live in a real major city” Georgia
Pittsburgh “There’s a pool on Polish Hill where all the beautiful bike punks swim in makeshift bathing suits and mad tats and I don’t think any of them are trustfunders Get your ass out of the dirty river” PA
San Luis Obispo “I don’t own a TV, but screw Oprah for calling this place happy” California
Islands: “I’m running away from reality, but hey there’s always fresh fish”.
Tucson “I hang my Nalgene from my handlebars as I avoid potholes and squint because of the sunlight even through my sunglasses” Arizona.
Nice to see the two cities I’ve considered moving to are on here. I can work on becoming a real hipster!
Cleveland: “Better than it looks, with all it’s culture and music, but gettin’ a Bad Rap all round’
Staten Island “It ain’t Brooklyn, rents are much cheaper, the ferry is free, it’s-so-not-ironic-it’s-ironic” New York.
Albany “It’s upstate but there’s tons of ex-Manhattanites along the Hudson in smaller towns just south of here that have way better clubs and restaurants than we do here, but hey, a HUD house costs less than $50K and they say we may even get a Trader Joe’s soon” New York.
Scranton “Did you hear the latest Nirvana single that just came out?” Pennsylvania
Indianapolis: Wow! Pretty clean and I can afford to live in the heart of downtown. Something must not be right? Oh yeah… it’s Indiana.
Pittsburgh – Where hipsters go when tired of getting into pissing contests with DC, Baltimore, and Philly hipsters. Did I mention cheap rent, good food, and a penchant for PBR Pounder specials? Pennsylvania.
Richmond “there are still a bunch of art school hipsters -cigarettes are the cheapest they’re going to get- and at least everyone is as broke as me” Virginia
I’m from Seattle and there’s nothing hipster, or hip for that matter, about punk. I don’t even now where I’d go to see a punk show here.
Louisville “I never thought I’d live in” Kentucky
Miami “might as well lay on a beach and party with DWade while I’m still pretty” Florida.
Spokane “It’s only four hours to Seattle and one hour to Canada” Washington
Northern “I’d rather hang here and squat on my friends’ couch where rent is ridiculously expensive where my vote actually counts and Metro everywhere, including Clarendon or Old Town, than live in DC” Virginia
Reno “I’m stuck in this black-hole-of-a-town only known for Reno 911 and quickie divorce, so I’m gonna go to an Aces game or Farmer’s Market and ask everyone I run into (the same people I ran into last week) what they have been doing since high school” Nevada
Raliegh “I gave up on being hip” North Carolina
I second Athens, GA.
Nashville and Los Angeles. Two very different breeds of hipsters.
I third Athens, GA. Getting the Michael Stipe reference really nailed it.
You can’t spell STyLe without STL
-St. Louis, MO
St. Louis: Where we will hand you part of the city for free and you can add your own PBR can sculpture. Artist revival!
Bellingham “Seattle’s so hipster cliché (and expensive. but mostly cliché.) and Death Cab are actually from up here, anyway” Washington
Spokane “Urban post-chic, best local music for 300 miles and killer brews (no really)” Washington
Spokane “I can get PBR on Wednesday nights at 50 cents a pint, and then wander around listening to bands from bar to bar” Washington
Silverlake “Where a converted garage is more expensive than a two-bedroom in the Valley but it comes with a palm tree covered in graffiti” California
this needs to be a book.
Baltimore “I got this great rowhouse down in Pigtown, hon. The far gins get loud at night but it’s ok because I’m sitting on my stoop”, MD
Washington “Northeast, man. Northeast”, DC
Brooklyn, “I remember when this place wasn’t so common” NY
Austin “Tacos and food trucks bike trails so I can get anywhere I need… and the buses have bike racks”, TX
I lived in all four places. My Baltimore roots love the Pittsburgh hate in these comments. 🙂
Charlotte “The chics here are actually hot and it’s not just all about NASCAR” North Carolina
Providence definitely needs a spot on here…
Providence “we re-named ourselves ‘the creative capitol’ from ‘beehive of history’ to try to bring in hipsters from boston and it worked way too well” Rhode Island.
or
Providence “you mean Brown and RISD?” Rhode Island
or
Providence “half genuine Ivy league hipsters, half genuinely poor artists!” Rhode Island
or
Providence “these old abandoned condemned mills make such a statement being remodeled for artist villages and farmers markets and over-priced studios” Rhode Island
**** beehive of industry not history
Annapolis “I blow smoke at shirtless runners as they go past me on this nameless cofeehouse on West street’s sidewalk table”, Maryland
Louisville “I moved away and came back to get lucky in Kentucky” KY
Altoona “Where we sell hotel pizza and our town’s identity for roughly the same price” Pennsylvania.
San Jose, CA – We don’t get no respect (mainly because we don’t respect ourselves).
“I’m almost 40, burnt all my money, and now back home with my parents” Main Street, USA
I fourth Athens “Ugh would these freshmen get over themselves and realize that there’s more to beer than Natty Lite” GA
When did Detroit qualify as inhabitable? Clearly you’ve never been there.
St. Louis “Rent low enough that I can afford those Prius payments and organic granola” Missouri.
Auburn “no hipsters in this college town and all the hippies moved to Waverly,” AL
Albuquerque aka ‘Burque, aka The Duke City, you can’t hardly throw a breakfast burrito without hitting a poet
Cleveland “Rocket from the Tombs and the Electric Eels basically invented punk and our bands still rock, but we don’t need your validation anyway” OH
Cleveland – “Hey- where did everyone I used to know here move to?” – Ohio
Greensboro “Asheville is too mainstream” North Carolina
Cleveland- world class orchestra, art museum and medical and educational facilities. Three professional sports teams, with avid fans. Four seasons of weather-some beautiful, some not, but it creates character. Lake Erie. One of the best migratory bird routes in the country. Ditto National and local park systems. Second largest theatre venue eastern U.S. Fab restaurants (mike symon too). Affordable housing in all price ranges. R&R Hall of Fame. Visit. You’ll see.
Albuquerque “It’s the Glasgow of the Southwest, I can work in movies and not have to live in LA, and I can work on my Spanish” New Mexico.
Oakland “I’ll defend its kick-ass arts scene, sweet urban lake, awesome weather, and hip hop scene (Too Short and Hammer, anyone?) forever, or at least til I get priced out of the bad schools, inhumane housing costs, and random violence” California.
Indianapolis – “The only liberal part of” Indiana
Los Angeles “Where hanging out in coffee shops pretending you’re waiting on a call from your agent is already a way of life” California
There is some kind of hipster homing beacon in Silver Lake, I just know it.
And my hometown:
San Jose “Everywhere cooler is too expensive” California
Portland “We were Portland before the ‘other Portland’ was Portland” Maine
South City St. Louis ‘I’m secretly glad that gay people moved in first and cleaned things up’ Missouri
Detroit “Still more good stuff than Buffalo, without the blizzards”, Michigan
Dang – the “at least it’s not Detroit” one was taken. (j/k Detroiters. We love you.)
Grand Rapids “Hipsters can attend prayer groups without apology or ironic self-detachment” Michigan.
Madison “I saw y’all protesting in the New York Times and I want to be angry in townie bars too!” Wisconsin
Tampa “Half of everybody moved here from Detroit…just like me” Florida
Anywhere in “wow, it smells like woodsmoke and poverty here” Michigan
Savannah, GA – dominated by an art college, beautiful city and weather, plenty of culture, and you can run an errand in five minutes that would take an hour in most cities
Gainesville “There’s tempeh in my beard and mosquitoes in my PBR” Florida
The San Francisco Bay “I’m glad real estate bubble has burst so that households making 90K can maybe oneday buy a shack in the hood” Area, CA,
How could you miss Chicago? Chicago is awesome.
Santa Fe “if I live long enough I can join the over-50 gray-haired ponytailed hipster lawyers and real estate agents with their keens and crocs and birkenstocks juggling chai and androids at the latest ten-piece bearded and/or granny dressed ukulele strumming Americana band’s outdoor concert on the plaza†New Mexico
How about Chicago “I moved here before it was cool” Illinois.
Asheville to a ‘T’
Charlotte, maybe?
Visting you see a lot of them gather in alleys and smoke.
Austin “50 year old realtor trying to come up with enough hipster code words to make this entry believable” Texas
durham!, NC. It was so much cooler before it was “cool.” But now there are good place to eat and drink. However, “Main Street” might give you the wrong impression.
Big Island “the only hipsters are WWOOFers” Hawaii.
The Albuquerque liners are spot on. Too funny.
Jacksonville “play bike polo and do ‘art’ at UNF and NEVER EVER LEAVE” Florida
Everett “close enough to Seattle to say I live there and far enough away so that I can afford to rent this 1910s Craftsman house” Washington
Oxford, packed with frat stars and sorority brats but has a burgeoning hipster music/arts scene full of drop-outs and post-grads that claim they are from Oxford but are really from Jackson, Mississippi.
I left there two years ago after being there for almost 8 years and honestly I am ok with the “scene”. There is a lot of good music coming into Oxford due to a great indie label and a bunch of good “local” musicians. It’s one of the more Hipster-friendly communities in the South.
Washington “I spend way too much to live in a Bloomingdale rowhouse closet, chain smoke Parliments, spend my change on wine & Bulleit Rye so I can look cool in my Urban Outfitters & American Apparel – that is when I’m not bartending to pay for my self-released album. I know Eric Hilton” DC.
Seattle “So angsty, i have to go to Starbucks and write a screenplay for some discreet theatre while also being introspective about being hipster undreneath this rainjacket” Washington
McKinney “nothing better to do than surf free wi-fi at Starbucks, skim the thrift store for designer clothes, and sit in the office at edward jones and offer commentary on my father’s retirement fund; balancing my interest in the 18 year old women at the three highschools, with my continued participation in the small time commodity trading market” Texas
Tucson “I’m only staying here till my music gig works out. While I wait I can enjoy the music/art scene, Mexican food, cheap gas that I hardly ever fill my Prius with, and talk the manager at Bookmans into giving me a job” Arizona
What about Charlotte “we drink the most pbr in the country” North Carolina
Columbus “I’m really more like a indie/yuppie type.Glad im finally got away from the burbs of my small town to attend Ohio State, but I guess I’ll stay since i’ve graduated and move back to the burbs of Columbus while still dressing the part of an indie/yuppie and party downtown in the Short North every weekend while also eating at the many locally owned restaurants availiable just enough to maintain my cred but im really an elitist” Ohio
Cleveland “Our hipsters are more jaded than yours.” OH
Dude Chicago like the hipster capital of the world on the north and northwest sides. Lincoln Park, Wicker Park etc.
Cincinnati “Over-The-Rhine is coming back. Really guys, it is”, Ohio
Austin, “why is there not even one seat in this coffee shop?, I guess i”ll try another, oh wait this one is full too,” Texas
Hartford “People in New York are too fucking nice” Connecticut
Rochester “I shop at Wegmans, hang out at a museum with cool toys and an old school arcade, buy my gear and tunes at the House of Guitars, and knew Phillip Seymour Hoffman back in the day” NY
Bloomington “where liberal and hipster Hoosiers go to die” Indiana
Indianapolis “that place where they had the Superbowl that one time” Indiana
Louisville, “the city of fundamentalist Christian hipsters”
Portland,” Oh God,not another New Yorker!” Oregon.
San Antonio, “outside of Southtown, NoFlo, and pockets of the east and north sides you’re in Mexico” Texas.
San Antonio, “we’re riding bikes now. I guess that means we’re cool now. Let’s go drink Lone Star, vato!” Texas.
Atlanta, “trying to impress hipsters with “underground” bands I heard on 104.7:he Fish the other day. Why should liberals have all the hipster fun”, Georgia.
Montreal “at least it’s not america” CA
Yes, Las Vegas is definitely inhabited by post-grad hipsters. Like many of the places referenced in this list, no one would suspect that’s the case. (There’s a reason why Zappos is making downtown Las Vegas their new headquarters and our empty highrise condos are filling up.) A couple old buildings house dozens of creative businesses each. There’s a culture of the bizarre fed by people from all over the world that visit and then stay. Over two million people live here in the valley. The temperature hardly ever drops below freezing so the hardcore bicycle here year round. I moved here in 1999 to get my MFA and never left. Myself and so many others… now I teach at a design college and live in a neighborhood of houses built in the 30’s through the 60’s. We enjoy continuous spectacle (when we want it) and constant clear, sunny skies. If you ever visit you must see the Neon Museum. Skip the strip and stay Downtown. Drink N Drag has drinking and bowling all night with drag queen employees. The Heart Attack Grill is another place to visit… and to eat if you dare. The Burlesque Hall of Fame, The Erotic Heritage Museum… The Springs Preserve, The Emergency Arts Building… the list goes on. I can bike to an indie coffeehouse or locally owned Thai, Sushi, or two Vegan restaurants from my house. This place is great, mostly! There’s that one street that’s Disneyland for adults but most of the tourists are kept there since they don’t often rent cars… Thought you’d like to know.
Jacksonville, Florida where hipsterism hasn’t changed since the 1990’s, and the aging hipsters are still drunk in the bars and at Riverside house parties telling the younger hipper-snappers about it. On the upside, it’s too damn hot for the scarves, hoodies and hats, so we’ve managed to invent and rock the pretentious hipster jorts.
DENVER “weed,beer,snow” COLORADO
Pittsburgh-so many hipsters moved to my neighborhood I can sell my house and make enough money to move to New York
milwaukee “i feel depressed and cold and irrelevant” wisconsin
milwaukee “im ok with my life being mediocre because rent is cheap here” wisconsin
every urban area “this place should not have been built I feel polluted” USA
I wanted to know about Minneapolis hipsters 🙁
Looks like I’ll be leaving this Arizona hell-hole for Chicago, Austin, Seattle, or Minneapolis. Providence, Kansas, and Las Vegas sound interesting though
Springfield “Y’know, if you think about it, Jesus was kind of a hipster” Missouri
I’ve looked for info on Las Vegas, but the neighborhood utopia that Amanda mentioned has been elusive. Also, during a recent visit I saw a single cyclist in the three days I was there. What am I missing?
Baltimore: I’d live where they filmed The Wire, but I’m too scared. So I just go to blue collar bars.
Salt Lake “I swear Im not a Mormon. See?? I’m drinking coffee and wearing loafers” City
Utica “At least we’re not Detroit… we’re worse… and I think it’s affordable because the politicians tell me so!” New York.
I’m getting tired of hearing how cool Austin is. I wasted my savings trying to live there a year, unable to find work. Too many people moving into the area. Job market very competitive. Yeah, I’m bitter–disappointed. Music scene is awesome but the general feel of the city trending more yuppie than indie. My picks: Philly, Albuquerque.
Los Angeles “We’re too grunge, too beachy, too tan, too fit, too famous, too self-absorbed, and too busy taking over ethnic enclaves for this map, dude.” California
Savannah “I’ve got a trust fund waiting for me, but I live in the Starland District because I want to pay my rent with my paycheck from Civvie’s” Georgia
Madison “we are way too smug to have to inform everyone of how hip we are” Wisconsin
Pensacola “we have a coffee shop that serves handsome coffee” Florida
Gainesville ” crusty granola hotties battling for harriest gender, PBR, and who can eat the most kale. “Florida.
As an itinerant actor I’ve had the pleasure of living in a lot of different towns. These are the top and bottoms:
Top:
Edinburgh, Scotland
London
Minneapolis
Duluth
Santa Cruz
Boulder
Beacon, NY
St. Louis
Charlottesville
Bottom:
Montgomery
Charlotte
NYC (how can you really be a hipster under an apartheid rent system)
Jersey City
D.C. (nice architecture. however, the racial segregation and hypocrisy in the city is blatant and disgusting.)
Cincinnati (D.C. minus the nice architecture.)
Orlando: I want to be a hipster Head Quarters. Where Micky Mouse and mainstream intersect to make the attitude of “I am literally going to sip my Starbucks and complain about my dad. Seriously.”
Atlanta, ‘The Yankees burned down our historic district’ Georgia
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