Cry Me A Hipster New York Times

The New York Times went with an article today on the woes of the hipster class in these trying times. In what seems like is becoming a series of articles, the Times continues to highlight the rich who cry poor in this recession. Unlike the poor elites who have trouble getting by on less than half a million a year, today's article focuses on the privileged youth that live in gentrified Williamsburg.

From The NY Times:

Luis Illades, an owner of the Urban Rustic Market and Cafe on North 12th Street, said he had seen a steady number of applicants, in their late 20s, who had never held paid jobs: They were interns at a modeling agency, for example, or worked at a college radio station. In some cases, applicants have stormed out of the market after hearing the job requirements.

“They say, ‘You want me to work eight hours?’ ” Mr. Illades said. “There is a bubble bursting.”

Famed for its concentration of heavily subsidized 20-something residents — also nicknamed trust-funders or trustafarians — Williamsburg is showing signs of trouble. Parents whose money helped fuel one of the city’s most radical gentrifications in recent years have stopped buying their children new luxury condos, subsidizing rents and providing cash to spend at Bedford Avenue’s boutiques and coffee houses.

While the Village Voice feels bad for the way the Times rips these carefree 20-somethings, I would rather the Times use ink in more industrious ways.

The article includes an in-depth exposé on trustafarians and their parents. Summing it up, the balance scale has tipped, meaning less money from the parental units and more time in finding a job that pays for Williamsburg apartment life. Now, it isn't as if I don't sympathize a little, but really, the Times should be focusing more on the real pain the recession is causing, like the foreclosures in Southeast Queens and the rise in crime there that the Bloomberg Administration would love to keep under wraps. Now to be fair, the Times does have a "Living With Less" section online, but many of those stories do not get the prominence in the paper that they deserve.