re: Stupid journalists thread: Why Old Timey Jobs are Hot Again

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When they don't, they crowd into trendy, relatively cheap neighborhoods and resort to the service industry to get by

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The "edgy" neighborhood, plastic rim glasses, and flea market clothes that are hipster-essentials today are as much a style statement as a indicator of their economic reality. Make no mistake: this is the product of almost 8 years of weak economic prospects for young graduates in many fields.

Usually the presence of a gay community is the first sign of a neighborhood gentrification. In places like Baton Rouge, Atlanta, Memphis, or Birmingham....that was because the gay community wasn't always embraced and thus sought out an area more isolated from their heterosexual colleagues and friends. Once the gay community is there long enough to establish a few businesses and upgrade the housing stock...the hipsters move in to take advantage of the now (relatively) safer area and new service jobs.

The "hipsters" are often followed by younger professionals, who end up driving rental prices up. The young professionals usually don't have kids yet and are attracted to the affordable housing an amenities that are new to the area. After that starts to happen, more higher level amenities are brought in to service the new higher income residents. At that point the neighborhood has local "buzz". Smaller local developers (and maybe some larger national developers) are investing in the area. The hipsters that haven't moved into the "young professional" categories are priced out and move somewhere else. Either a cheaper Brooklyn neighborhood or out to other cities that are reinventing themselves - like Pittsburgh, Oakland, or Portland.