unique

 
Me and a friend are going to a poetry reading night at a small café in Williamsburg tonight. A former teacher has just launched a new poetry book and will, together with a couple of friends, have a reading. It’s fairly small and unformal but with drinks and mingle, so it should be really nice.I really like Williamsburg. It’s a really fun and interesting area. It’s located in the borough of Brooklyn and consists of three major areas: Bedford-Stuyvesant, Greenpoint, and Bushwick. It’s mainly an artistic and hipster area with a lot of influences from Indie-rock. Over the years it’s become one of the most diverse areas in terms of ethnicity as many Germans, Italians, Puerto Ricans, and Dominicans live there.

In recent years, Williamsburg have become more and more of a comeditor to Manhattan in terms of live music and incubation for new bands. Many legitimate commercial music venues opened in the neighborhood including Pete’s Candy Store, Union Pool, Northsix, Galapagos, Spike Hill, , The Lucky Cat, the Woodser, and the Local (aka “Rock Star Bar” aka “Ship’s Mast” aka “Rocky’s” aka the “Mermaid Bar”) and Lower East Side open-mic-night stalwart The Luna Lounge, which relocated to Williamsburg in January 2007, with financial and booking backing from Live Nation. In late 2006, Bowery Presents, a Manhattan based promotion company, purchased the location of the former indie rock club Northsix. The company gutted the existing building and reconstructed a new club in the mold of the Bowery Ballroom. The venue re-opened as The Music Hall of Williamsburg on September 4, 2007, with Patti Smith performing the inaugural show.

Low rents were a major reason why artists first started settling in the area, but that situation has drastically changed since the mid 1990s. Average rents in Williamsburg can now (in 2007?) range from approximately $1400 for a studio apartment, $1,600-2,400 for a one-bedroom, and $2,600-4,000 for a two-bedroom. In many buildings, the rents have more than doubled in the past few years alone.

y favourite parts of Williamsburg are definately Bedford Ave and the streets around it. I just love all the small, cozy, low key cafés and restaurants and I especially love the secondhand shopping (Beacon’s Closet being the absolute favourite one). And if you’ve never been in Williamsburg, a trip to the wonderful restaurant Sea is a must! I tell you, it’s one of the best ones in this city.