Odd Side Social Commentary

So I put this little nugget aside a few years ago while revisiting Hunter S Thompson's collection the Great Shark Hunt.  This little morsel encapsulated what is happening in Brooklyn so well, that I flagged it for future reference when I didn't have a restaurant to review (which is currently the case as I am forbidden to write about Virginia Beach by wife #1).

After re-reading, its not so much a crime or drug thing, though that is prevalent, but rather a real estate thing.  But overall the gist is there:

"The pattern never varies: a low-rent area suddenly blooms new and loose and human--and then fashionable, which attracts the press and the cops about the same time.  Cop problems attract more publicity, which then attracts junkies and jack-rollers.  Their bad action causes mobile types who dig the menace of "white ghetto" life and whose expense account tastes drive local rents and street prices out of reach of the original settlers...who are forced, once again, to move on." (Thompson, The Great Shark Hunt, pg 156--Rolling Stone #60, 1970).

Okay.  A few thoughts here that actually pertain to restaurants, as the are a component of the catalyst in the gentrification of a neighborhood.  And not to be too philosophical, but the attraction to Brooklyn is not so cut and dry, it involves a tremendous amount of peduciary factors, especially on a personal level.  With that said, however, there is something to selecting North West Brooklyn as opposed to The Bronx, or other parts of Queens that have as many amenities, low rents, etc...  Why is it that this particular neighborhood blew up versus Woodside queens for instance?  And the answer to that question, and the application of Mr. Thompson's theory are what I am trying to zone in on.  It's why there are now a bazillion restaurants and people who once lived in the East Village that swore they would never go to Brooklyn are now their biggest proponents.  There was a cache, created by artists, drug addicts (cokie's anyone?) and overall derelicts that settled Williamsburg.  They have now moved on pushed out by the mobile types.  They are now infiltrating Bedstuy and Bushwik.  There was an article in the Sunday Times Magazine (7/15/12) that talked about this--for the record the exact same article was published on line prior to the magazine, here's the linkehttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/magazine/bronx-economy.html?hpw...  Interesting.  That's all.