San Francisco’s Mission District is Hipster Central for the Bay Area.? (Also mentioned: The Uptown, Oakland.? But that’s in the East Bay, so fuhgeddabowdit.) A recent New York Times column (motto: We Still Think New York Is Important!) notes that not all the East Coast Hipsters are found in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg district, either.
Illustration: Ryan Inzana
A yoga studio opened on Main Street that offers lunch-hour vinyasa classes. Nearby is a bicycle store that sells Dutch-style bikes, and a farm-to-table restaurant that sources its edible nasturtiums from its backyard garden.
Across the street is the home-decor shop that purveys monofloral honey produced by nomadic beekeepers in Sicily. And down the street is a retro-chic bakery, where the red-velvet cupcakes are gluten-free and the windows are decorated with bird silhouettes — the universal symbol for “hipsters welcome.”
You no longer have to take the L train to experience this slice of cosmopolitan bohemia. Instead, you’ll find it along the Metro-North Railroad, roughly 25 miles north of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in the suburb of Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y.
So, barring any proper large city, where would hipsturbia be in the Bay Area?? Is Palo Alto too expensive to qualify?? Is Larkspar too tilted to aging hippies?? Could Hayward, City of Diversity, take the title of the “twee lifestyle”?? How can people who don’t want to be like everyone else find meaning in a subdivision full of identical tract housing?
Well, they can’t, that’s the point.? The challenge is to find low-density but non-conformist older single-family housing.? Or at least older and idiosyncratic housing amid primary low-density population centers and front yards.? We’d say look for neighborhoods near funky downtowns, with low Walk Scores or lots of bicyclists.
We bet you could find something appropriate near the downtowns of Mountain View, San Carlos, or Willow Glen.? Where would you suggest?
Meanwhile, this is also your weekend Open Thread, to discuss any hipster sightings in the Open Houses you’re reporting on.
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