Williamsburg missed a crucial stage of gentrification; the phase where gay people were supposed to pioneer a neighborhood before the young hipsters could supplant them. The social hop-scotching has left gay people out in the cold in Billyburg, unwelcome in what should be a pioneer ghetto. The nightlife reflects the less-than-edgy environment that marginalized NYers try to seek out.
“There’s like one go-go boy, what is that?” grumbled Matthew Kane, a scruffy 22-year-old photo agent. Still, he gazed at the sweaty man and reported, “He’s relatively hot, like hipster hot — you know, vaguely alternative and imperfect.” That description could also apply to Sugarland, where nearly everyone was under 30, weighed less than 160 pounds and wore a V-neck T-shirt and about three days of beard.
With the state of gay night life in Manhattan a sad tale of shuttered clubs, police raids and a disturbing lack of dance floor space, the boys in Brooklyn (and some women, too) are practically tripping over their Converse sneakers and cowboy boots to sweat it out on their home turf at Sugarland, which opened in September in what was Capone’s, a bar known for its free pizza.
Maybe we should take it as a strong indication of progress from the city that gave us the Stonewall riots, that gay people have to complain about L train service, like the rest of us. Perhaps that's a true crie de coeur of a New Yorker, one isn't truly welcome until one is priced out. Welcome homosexuals! You've been priced out of the neighborhood. Others continue to seek out more far-reaching neighborhoods.
The Williamsburg Savings Bank, by Triborough at flickr
