Instagram is nothing but death and consumerism,
so I miss the optimistic vibe of 2010s’ Willytowne...
With music and mayhem and shared warehouse space,
Williamsburg had a moment that’s still being chased.
Once long-fertile ground for the strangest delights,
it changed over the decades…and again overnight.
We were just shy of what spells real adulthood—
which is tragedy or pregnancy—
living on craft beer, bad decisions, and borrowed rent,
believing the East River shimmered just for us,
between my Manhattan and her Brooklyn.
Now the streets feel curated, the chaos buffed clean,
and all that’s left is the residue of fine gone youth
lingering like her perfume in a thrift-store coat—
proof we were young once,
and stupid enough to think it would last.