Bloomberg continues to take away affordable housing

From http://gawker.com/5983190/is-building-luxury-housing-on-the-playgrounds-of-public-housing-the-worst-idea-ever-yes-yes-it-is

Looks like Bloomberg is making it increasingly difficult for lower-class and middle class people to live and work in New York City and he continually gives developers contracts to make luxury housing.

Why do people let politicians get away with this?

This is amazing.

This is why hipsters are invading Die hipster’s territory – because they can’t afford to live in these types of buildings.

Even though most have mommy and daddy to support them, Mommy and Daddy won’t give them more than 1200 dollars a month to live their dreams in New York City.  The luxery condo go for at least $3500 around for a one bedroom.

This is what I keep talking about -this is the bigger issue why your rent is so high, why you have to move out of your neighborhood.  It’s a bigger issue than just hipsters.

 

Ed Koch’s Pre-Hipster New York

The big news of course of the past week is Ed Koch’s passing.  Former mayor of New York during the 80’s.

This was the glory days of New York for Diehipster and his sockpuppets.

I was a kid in the suburbs of Connecticut.  I would go into the city sometimes as a kid like to the Bronx zoo.

But in the 90’s I would go in with some friends to see bands at places like the Knitting Factory.

And New York was so incredibly cool to a suburban boy like me.

Now look at it – is it still cool?  How has it changed?  The rents have increasingly gone up everywhere.  Crime is down.  Times Square went to Disneyworld.

But what do real honest New Yorkers have to say about it.  Is it possible to accurately gauge it without the eyes of Nostalgia?

Leaving New York

More and more of my friends have started to leave New York, as the cost of living has gone up too much for most young people to afford.

Also its not easy trying to find work out here.

And in the end, why do we all want to live in a place that has so much hostility?

This is more than Hipsters being to blame.  This is more landlords keeping rental vacancy rates in the city around 1%.  It’s a very tough housing market for anyone looking to just rent.

You could live in Austin, Texas for 1/3 the cost of New York.

What in the end do we all get out of New York?  I love it here, some days.  Biking around, discovering new areas.

Living in a walkable city.

But at what cost?

This anger fueled the website, Die Hipster.  But his mistake was putting all blame on the hipsters.  So many factors made this city tough.

As one commenter said, New York changes every 7 years.  Right now, in 2013, this is a city I don’t see increasingly as a place for young people throughout the country to move to.

Unless there really is enough employment for people to justify moving here. And man, I really don’t understand how the lower middle class can possibly survive here.  Maybe commuting everyday from Long Island – where is there cheap rent still?  Subsidized housing?  Is there really still enough of that to go around?

So guess what, in the end Die Hipster wins.  I see less and less people trying to struggle to make it out here.  So New York may return to what it was – more localized, less people moving from the Midwest.

I’d be curious to see the trends in 2013.

And how New York changes by 2020.  How Diehipster’s kids will see the city.

The Love Diehipster Craves – he loves all the blogs talking about him.

More and more since the ending of Diehipster there has been a lot of blogs writing about the matter:

http://greenpointers.com/2013/01/07/worst-blog-diehipster-ends-finally/

http://www.brownstoner.com/blog/2013/01/die-hipster-gives-up/

http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/36/2/all_diehipster_2013_01_11_bk.html

http://brooklynbased.net/blog/2013/01/die-hipster-save-the-sticks/

And the more blogs, the more Diehipster has been tweeting about it.  He’s an attention-whore just as bad as me and any other modern blogger type person.

And that’s what makes him interesting – in that he’s anti these blogs but in the end, lives and thrives from them.

Oh the hypocrisy.

My Brooklyn – a great documentary about gentrification OR there is more to rising rents than hipsters

Just saw “My Brooklyn” tonight – highly recommend it. Shows the histrory of gentrification in Broklyn focusing on Downtown Brooklyn and how the local government and businesses can change areas faster than Megans and Joshes.

http://www.mybrooklynmovie.com/

Specifically it also dealt withhow to become politically active to have a voice to prevent the disintegration of communities.

And this is something I wish the diehipster.com website would deal with sometimes – to put the anger on the site towards political action instead of just pure frustration.  But I guess the site is a starting point for that.

Diehipster ended his blog upset that hipsters have invade Southern Brooklyn and in the end, he quit.  And we can’t do that.  If you don’t want gentrification coming to your home, you need to continue to fight it.  If you like where you live and your rent is livable, you have to defend it.  Fight or flight.

Please sign my petition about subway platforms:

http://www.change.org/petitions/tom-predergast-install-platform-doors-at-dangerous-nyc-subway-stations

Trying to help further protect NYC from horrible deaths.

Comments on this?

Diehipster.com is over. I am surprisingly sad.

So diehipster.com looks like its over for now: http://diehipster.wordpress.com/2013/01/05/the-end/

At first I didn’t care.  But I am starting to reminiscence a little now.  With all the hate and anger on the site, the more I looked at it, the more I liked it.

Yes there was horrible teasing and bullying on the site, but there were also some great passionate discussions about gentrification and the changing face of New York City.

Good with the bad, I guess.

And in the end, this second to last comment pretty much sums it up, someone pours their thoughts out onto the site in a really well thought-out way and some commenter just completely makes fun of it.  Ah the Internet.

T Nails says:

January 4, 2013 at 7:31 pm

I’m not a native New Yorker. Who really is when you get down to it? Real New Yorker? You decide.

I came to NYC in 88. I now work as a union cameraman on TV, commercials and films. Since that time, I reckon you get a new city every 7 years. Like lungs after you quit smoking. I’ve seen at least three different NYC’s since I came here. Post Koch/Dinkins World, Herr Gulliani’s Empire, and now Bloomyville. My mother used to live in the City in the 50′s and she warned me to make sure I have enough ties when I moved to the City, from her misty memory everyone wore then – not ironically.

When I came to the city, you could make rent in a week, find a studio on the Upper East Side for 450 or less; a full floor in Williamsburg for the same; and the “Deuce” gave you quite a show for a dollar. I tended bar or painted office buildings while trying to work my way up the film industry feeding chain. You could say, I came in the late wave of people wanting to break into the arts or entertainment during the 80′s. Yes, I know there seems to be some anti-creative types here, but NYC as far as anyone can remember has always been a home to artists emigrating from someplace else for well over 150 years. But this current era is different.

I have no idea how anyone moving to the City can afford it, even “below the line”. When I was getting established you worked, paid rent and had something left over for booze, broads, fun, and savings or invest in your work. Bringing a six pack to Julien’s on top of the old Palladium was pay well spent – and a perfect evening. Seeing David Rankowitz before he murdered his proto hipster roommate, with his pet rooster was part of the scenery. The City was a bit more rough and tumble and dressing in work gear was not an ironic statement. A Carhart kept your warm, not kewel.

So what’s my dilemma? I love the fact I no longer amble over crack whores on my doorstep; my street doesn’t smell like piss; or the fact that NYC is no longer Dodge City (Murder rate is more than 4x less than what it was when i moved in). The Guardian Angels went the way of the Savage Skulls. I just find it hard to relate to kids trying to “break in” while paying enormous sums in rent. Do you really have to break in with that kind of cheddar? Just buy the theater or put the movie on charge. Oh wait a minute that’s happening. So while I lament that high rents have definitely altered NYC’s creative landscape as many genuine artists are finding cheaper cities, what we have left are kids with big pockets and little originality. NYC’s art scene is really about gallery owners and wall street douches having openings and haggling over dead sharks in formaldehyde (the ultimate Hipster con job).

It’s been awhile since the city had a truly groundbreaking and original art and music scene, which is sad. Well over a hundred fifty years it was home to the country’s best artists, writers, dancers, entertainers, etc. Caleb, Molly and Meegan with their Fisher Price level of craft don’t cut it. Without setting the pace for the countries arts and entertainment, NYC loses something vital that it always had – it’s soul.

Done, ranting and reminiscing.

AND THEN THE REPLY:

• Scooby Doo says:
  January 5, 2013 at 4:20 am
  who the fuck is going to read all of that? what a waste of your time…Reply

What are your thoughts on it ending?  Are you upset? A part of our post-modern lives goes away.

UPDATE: How the Internet is responding:

http://greenpointers.com/2013/01/07/worst-blog-diehipster-ends-finally/

http://www.brownstoner.com/blog/2013/01/die-hipster-gives-up/

http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/36/2/all_diehipster_2013_01_11_bk.html

http://brooklynbased.net/blog/2013/01/die-hipster-save-the-sticks/

Remember to Register to Vote with This Nifty Website

https://www.gottaregister.com/

Hipsters don’t vote.  Do you vote?

The End of this Blog.

This blog is closed.  Moving on with my life.

The name, “Ripshop” has been retired. And the search for Bill Baerga

Goodbye Ripshop, you poor hypocritical fool.  You who cast the first stone.  Who made fun of a musician on kickstarter but was shown to be just as bad or possibly worse as a musician.

As the Little Prince says, “the hardest person to judge is one’s self.”

From Diehipster.com,

“What’s up everybody? I have been refraining from posting on this blog because of special edd and his posse of obsessed male groupies that look for any reason to derive content for their stupid blog. I ended up getting “exposed” yet again…but this time he felt the need to include a video of me that I posted on youtube 2 years ago and a picture of me from 4 years ago from my (now inactive) myspace account.

Rather than give him the internet back and forth argument he so desperately wanted, I just blew up his spot and posted links to all of my music and sites to promote myself and steal his thunder. I really don’t know why he (or they) spend so much time to a site they hate…why not avoid it and carry on?

I just moved to New York and I don’t need weirdos on my jock…I just posted on here to express my disdain towards my generation (the hipster generation) and vent about how some of my favorite avenues of culture (art, music, etc…) were being polluted with BS because of hipsters. What is up with these guys? I know their blog sucks and is devoid of any real substance, but it seems like they wanted to pick on me out of the many people that post on here. I don’t know.

With that said, I’m going to retire this handle and come back under another handle. I don’t want these people trying to pry my personal info when all I’m trying to do is talk about things without the intent of harm.”

It doesn’t feel good right, to get bullied on the Internet.   “Why me?” you ask.  Because you’re a douche who posts on a douchy website.  You deserve it, buddy.  Move on with your life as I should.

And speaking of which, I just spent an hour looking into Bill a.k.a (Mr. Baerga) aka William Baerga and all I could find is possibly his home address in Staten Island and possibly a community service he works for to improve the area (go Bill, that’s great!) and the fact that he has posted on a bunch of hipster blogs including Brooklyn Paper and Brooklyn Vegan.  But what fun is that?

And why does he keep using an IP address from Lima , Peru?  Could it be that he moved there and he is just keeping up with his former stomping ground via the Internet?

It makes a lot of sense.

Since pretty much no one besides I think Hipsterminator and Diehipster actually live in NYC.  All that anger because they are away from it.  Which I don’t understand, because I have a strong love/hate relationship with NYC.  But maybe that’s just me, being the transplant from Connecticut who has only lived there now for ten years.

But who knows, maybe Bill is just using a fake IP address which actually makes more sense, because every post he does, it keeps changing the address.  Including two posts he made to DDH that took place in the span of a few minutes.

Will I ever find his identity?  Will I find DH and Hipsterminator’s identity as well?  If I found them I would finally feel satisfied?  Of course not.  It’s an endless game, this revenge thing.

But I will say I’m on this right now especially because they are picking on Matt Silver.  And I don’t like that.  I don’t stand for bullies.  I fought them when I was younger, and now I will fight the online nerdy dumbass ones too.  That’s just who I am.