“This has to be a community decision,” Bell said. “Do we want to keep raising rents and just have a Disneyland of corporate entities?”
Adweek was out and about in the neighborhood interviewing us locals. Several different perspectives come into play. They were definitely going for the anti-Starbucks voice, and they got it. Very calm and logically explained, its the comment trolls that just assign anyone around here with the Hipster label… making it a bad word, commenting irately. Fine then, we will just assume that all of the haters live in apartment/condo/duplex complexes parked behind some strip mall plaza in the middle of nowhere.
Quick history: for many years Williamsburg was devoid of corporate branding. It felt independently strong, with all of the old time businesses and newer businesses operating side-by-side. This is of course after all of the criminal of the bike gangs got squashed, and the drug dealers, and no good thugs got pushed out… when 80 something year old Marie (who was born on Marcy Ave.) could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Who remembers walking home from their restaurant job in the city, with wine key in hand?
WG News wrote a great piece about the signaling shift to corporate franchises claiming their stake in New York City’s most loved and hated neighborhood. Topping the article off with a fitting Mae West quote:
