site study-hipster's OMG

DETROIT HIPSTERS:

WHO: 20-something, middle to upper class suburban kids

WHAT: Moving to the city of Detroit, usually to attend CCS or Wayne State college. A substantial population of what I will refer to as “hipsters” has created a nodal system of hangout spots within the city of Detroit.

WHERE: Detroit Michigan: specifically downtown and midtown areas.

WHEN: NOW.

WHY: The city offers a sense of escape and freedom. It is a way to experience a culture different from the burbs. Detroit is graffiti: it’s a post-industrial, brick, concrete, steel and glass city intersected with a neon and inventive culture that spray-paints its way across decaying surfaces. It combines the nostalgia of an era our parents generation experienced: a booming industrial heart of the Midwest that ignored class and race issues before the ’67 riots, which many consider the “downfall” of Detroit. This new and bright hipster culture offers a positive and bright future for the young generations perspective and impact on the city.

Why should people care about the hipster crowd in Detroit?
They are young, hip and optimistic. They bring money to businesses and have created a new art and music culture in the city. They are in love with Detroit. They take pride in the history, its current state and what they have to offer in the future. Though somewhat transient, they are a crowd that appears to maintain their population within the city—offering an optimistic perspective when comparing it to the overall loss of almost fifty residents a day.

What mode of transportation do they mostly use?
Carpooling, walking and biking are the most common modes of transportation within the hipster community. Roads, that some think of as too wide for today’s traffic, offer a safe and perfect biking surface for those without cars. In our immediate site area, there is an endless amount of parking available for those within and outside the immediate city to migrate, park and come together as a collective.

What are advantages of the nodal system?
Leisure activities within the hipster community are spread out in a series of nodes between downtown and midtown. Woodward Avenue becomes the most convenient way to travel between nodes, thus is the most used street; it is the spine of the hipster community. Though there isn’t a concentrated three block radius of this specific community, there are advantages of having diffused places of leisure. Since leisure nodes can be found in the Eastern Market, Corktown, Midtown, Cass Corridor, Downtown, Greek Town and New Center areas, there is more opportunity with interacting, and hopefully integrating with other communities and cultures in the city of Detroit. This simple act of traveling between nodes means there is a more traveled surface area, thus more post-industrial and abandoned buildings realized. This creates the possibility of a hipster seeking out future places of business and leisure between nodes. Thus, there is an opportunity for nodes to extend to farther boundaries and areas in the city, as long as this trend and culture continues to thrive.

What are the disadvantages of the nodal system and how does it compare to Manhattan?
When comparing the hipster community in the city of Detroit to Manhattan, there is an obvious difference. In Manhattan, there is a concentrated 3 block radius referred to as the Williamsburg district. This type of community formation allows individuals to reside and live in a condensed area where their culture thrives. New coming hipsters to a city of Manhattan could easily seek out this Williamsburg because it is so concentrated. Therefore, visual references to the community could easily lead them to this area, submerge them in the culture and make them feel at home. In Detroit, the nodes don’t allow for a strongly condensed and visual hipster culture, which could potentially leave a newcomer to the city feeling lost. This leaves the incoming hipster wondering how to connect with and where to find other hipsters. The disadvantage of a concentrated community is the less likelihood of people involving themselves in activities outside of Williamsburg. People who don’t associate themselves with this community would probably not feel as welcome to hangout at bars, cafes and venues in such a concentrated area of hipsters. This results in less integration of communities and cultures within a city.


ART SPACES:
Graffiti. Historical images collaged with the young and new. Paintings cover concrete walls and brick. Beads and neon lights hang from the ceiling. Creative work is based on the group dynamic and a certain in-the-moment spontaneity. Hipsters produce, they don’t think about how they are going to—they just do it.

HANGOUTS & EATERIES:
Places that haven’t been updated in 20 something years combined with the new, obscure and creative businesses that have popped up. Detroit is home to the dinner of coneydogs, beer, cigarttes and grungy, hole-in-the-wall spaces.

OUTDOOR LEISURE AND ACTIVITIES:

The fairs and festivals of Detroit bring all kinds of people to one place. They become a temporary utopia created for one hot and humid summer night. Fairs and festivals in the city offer the best sights, smells and overall are a pure representation of the immense mixture of culture and communities within the city. They are a spectacles for out of towners and holidays held with the same importance of Christmas for city-dwellers. The Dequinder Cut offers exactly what the hipster culture represents: a post-industrial, urban area collaged with a fresh coat of hot pink paint. Belle Isle is available to those who want to escape the urban setting: smoking cigarettes in the park or drinking beer on the beach and diving into the Detroit River; it’s a little green combined with the grunge the city-dwellers bring with them.

MUSIC AND DANCE VENUES:
Detroit is the birthplace and celebrator of many genres of music. Motown, soul and jazz. Detroit Rock City. Funk and Punk. Techno. Rap. Today’s hipsters pride themselves in inhabiting a city with such strong music traditions. Venues offer jazz one night, rock another and noise shows another. The current venue and sounds of Detroit is a diverse collage of all the historic sounds of Detroit: it is fresh, noisey, hip, dance-able and head-banging. Venues are dark, dirty, sweaty and crowded. They bring together anyone who embraces the current music scene Detroit has to offer.