Tag Archives: bottletree

Keep ’em coming

Hanging with a hipster-ish crowd

It’s worth reading today’s Atlantic Cities post on Bottletree (above) and the effect its had both on the local music scene, and on its local Avondale neighborhood just east of downtown. In keeping with our recent theme, this is yet another example of why the arts are vital to the City’s development.

And after a steady stream of corruption and bankruptcy articles, it’s nice to see such a positive story in the national press. Thanks Bottletree for all you do for this community!

[thanks to Bradley Nash Burgess for the hipster-ish pic]

Happy Hipsters (2)

There’s an interesting post up at FreeThinkBham: a Hipster’s Guide to Birmingham. As the post states up front, the term “hipster” is a tricky one, with some negative overtones.

But overall, the idea of making the city more attractive to young (and young-ish) creative and “alternative” types who don’t necessarily fit into the football, frat-boy, gated-community-in-the-suburbs mainstream is a good one.

Don’t get me wrong–we need football, frat-boys, and suburbs, if not necessarily gates. But we also need to be open and welcoming to diversity in all its forms, because the growth of any city depends on it’s openness to new ideas and different ways of thinking.

Richard Florida, anyone?

Photo courtesy Wes Frazer.