Harvard Graduate: Places That Aren’t Manhattan Are Scary
Every season on The Amazing Race, the contestants are sent to India. And every time they go there, the contestants experience massive culture shock as they cope with the intense heat, dense population, insane driving, and scenes of poverty. But experiencing culture shock doesn’t have to require traveling halfway around the world, as Harvard graduate and Vanity Fair writer Kate Ahlborn learned when she made the dangerous trek to Brooklyn.
[W]hen I heard that choreographer Noémie Lafrance had a new show opening in Williamsburg, I decided it was as good an occasion as any to venture beyond Manhattan for the first time…So on Tuesday night, I boarded the L train (heading away from the West Village) and made my way to hipsterville. I’d heard from my more global friends that Brooklyn is a charming borough inhabited by cool young families, gourmet cheese shops, and creative intellectuals. It has parks! And trees! And slow walkers aren’t mowed down on the sidewalk! But I’m what you might call a bona fide Manhattanite. Or, to be more precise, a bona fide Upper East Sider. I’ve traveled the world, I said to myself—how exotic could Brooklyn really be?
Ms. Ahlborn certainly has globetrotting experience. She’s travelled everywhere, from Central Square to Davis Square, from Sotheby’s to The Met. However, all this worldliness could not prepare her for Biggie’s home borough.
Perhaps my tweed J. Crew jacket and Tory Burch ballet flats weren’t the best wardrobe choice for that day, but I overcame the fact that I was a total Williamsburg misfit and hoped my foreigner status wouldn’t be glaringly obvious to the natives. (It was.) After narrowly escaping death by skateboard on the Bedford subway platform, I made my way to a rickety building in what felt to me like Brooklyn’s outer banks. (It wasn’t.)
Ms. Ahlborn travelogue has generated strong opinions from other New Yorkers, including the folks at Gawker. But her harrowing experience can help others. For instance, in order to save money in this economy, The Amazing Race could forgo the world travel motif and and just send Harvard-educated, Upper East Siders to the Bronx.
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April 8th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Gawker’s tagline is “Gossip from Manhattan,” isn’t it? They report on socialites, don’t they? Tad hypocritical for them to scoff at this girl, then. Shoulda left it to IvyGate.
April 8th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
If Gawker left it to IvyGate, then IvyGate wouldn’t have posted it, seeing as how IvyGate almost definitely only posted it BECAUSE they saw it on Gawker first.
That’s how IvyGate kinda works.
April 9th, 2009 at 12:24 am
@Y11
You’re an idiot. Gawker primarily reports on gossip in or around Manhattan and anything having to do with journalism and publishing, but it also reports on politics, entertainment, advertising, tech (by way of Gizmodo), and even cars (by way of Jalopnik). So, no. It doesn’t just report on socialites.
But more to the point, why is it hypocritical for Gawker to write a post about this girl (especially when the post is funnier than the above Ivygate post)? Most of Gawker’s posts on socialites are intended to ridicule the socialite in question. Since this girl seems to identify so strongly as a pampered Manhattanite that she insists on writing an article about the danger(!) of Brooklyn, she’s exactly the kind of fodder that Gawker eats up.
Seriously, have you ever read Gawker? You are a dumbass.
April 9th, 2009 at 12:54 am
Wait, I don’t get “jokes” anymore.
April 9th, 2009 at 8:34 am
Thank you for clarifying, you dear, classy, intelligent person. I am glad I will no longer be laboring under the misconception that Gawker sucks… but is in fact a wonderful website that also reports on politics (!), entertainment (!!), advertising (!!!), and even tech and cars (by way of Gizmoroboto and Jellosputnik, of course). It’s fantastic! KATE AHLBORN BLOWS.
April 9th, 2009 at 10:49 am
I’m afraid you missed the point again, you stupid, stupid, stupid person. I wasn’t claiming that Gawker is awesome. I was claiming that you suck. Because you do. You criticized Gawker, but clearly had no knowledge of the website. You claimed that Gawker was a “tad hypocritical” for writing about this pampered bitch. How? This is Gawker’s bread and butter. It’s like saying, “Jon Stewart reports on politicians all the time, doesn’t he? So it’s a tad hypocritical for him to scoff at Dick Cheney!” And by the way, I go to Yale too! You’re just a sophomore, so don’t worry. You’ll have plenty of time in the next two years to learn how to formulate an argument.
April 9th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
I mean… really? @Y11/”FUCK THIS BITCH”, were 3 stupid’s really necessary? I know it’s the internet and all, but I think you went overboard with the personal insults.
April 20th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
Why are we so worried about the Gawker-IvyGate relationship when we should be worried about her Tory Burch flats? Those are OVER.