GreenTracker
What Makes A Neighborhood Cool? Grist
Most AOC readers know that formerly gritty Brooklyn has become the capital of cool. Consider the reality that housing prices in Brooklyn, in particular, have exceeded those on Manhattan’s Upper East side. According to publications such The New York Times and the New York Observer, young people are migrating to the Upper East Sside, known as one of Manhattan’s ‘squarest’ neighborhoods.
This week The Daily Beast endeavored to explain “Why the Upper East Side Is Now Cooler Than Brooklyn.” Writer Tom Teodorczuk’s reasons: the influx of trendy new bars and restaurants, a smattering of celebrity sightings, and relative affordability.
Unfortunately, Teodorczuk’s arguments show that he has no understanding of what most urban young people actually think is cool. What makes the Upper East Side appealing to bankers and unappealing to artists, and thus condemned to cultural mediocrity, is not a dearth of celebrities or fashionable eateries. The cool kids are attracted to diversity, dynamism, tolerant liberalism, and transit accessibility. The Upper East Side is uncool because it is mostly populated with rich white people, it is too expensive to live there as an aspiring artist or to open an experimental business there, and it is too hard to get to the happening neighborhoods from there. It is still appealing to some young people, the kind for whom street safety, snazzy interiors, and proximity to their office is more important than having diverse or cool neighbors. In most cities, where rich white people didn’t hold down an urban neighborhood, those people are typically found in suburbs or the quasi-suburban periphery: places like West Hartford, Conn., Arlington, Va., and Manayunk in Philadelphia.
Global Street Style Report: Mapping Out the 15 Coolest Neighborhoods in the World Vogue
HealthTracker
The New Habit Challenge: Meditate For 20 Minutes A Day Fast Company
Harvard researchers believe meditation is great at improving our working memories. Scientists at Leiden University in the Netherland believe open monitoring meditation improves divergent thinking, while researchers at Johns Hopkins University found that just 20 minutes of meditation a day tempers anxiety while strengthening the part of the brain known for reasoning.
Is fast food making us depressed? BBC Future
