The Cupcake Fad Revisited

The other night during a late night ride home on the A, I decided I had a craving for a cupcake. I remembered the way my boss described the decadent little pink-boxed cakes from the quaint pink and brown painted bakery down the street. (hmm...I thought, "if it comes in a pink box, its gotta be expensive.") I didn't let on when a co-working mate offered to buy a couple for the laptop-strapped kin. They were delicious, and yes, they were wheat and gluten-free as I found out when later visiting the Williamsburg bakery, Cheeks.

Like many other yuppies and dare-I-say-it New York transplants, I have found myself interested in the recent cupcake fad. And though I wouldn't pay $3 for a cupcake, I am still fascinated and dually disgusted by this hip trend.



And yes, I am a little late...The NY Times reported on this in 2003, and Gothamist is been there and done that. But everything I've read has had me exhausted from this glorified cupcake praise.

Cupcakes have taken over NYC as "retro-food chic," says a more recent NY Times article. An entire article on cupcakes, can you believe?

Really, I think it's just an obsession of the upper-middle class to indulge in the tea-party lifestyle. The kind where you don't have to work but can still afford to pay $20 bucks for a dozen of your friends to eat buttercream flowers.

Myrtle Ave. Offers Condos for Brooklyn Yuppies

It's easy to be a voyeur when all the new neighbors have glass windows. A few blocks down Myrtle - in both directions - you can sneak a peak into one of several new condos. While most have been bought, there are many vacant residencies, casting a ghostly glow of newly constructed cement and glass on the bustling avenue below. Myrtle ave, also known as Murder ave, where in the mid-90's Busta Rhymes was mugged in the White Castle parking lot - or at least that's what a long-time resident told me late last night in line for the hallmark creamy small burgers.

Now, Myrtle ave. even as far east as Nostrand avenue, is considered prime real estate for the yuppie. Developers are calling the strip "Clinton Hill," a sort of fraudulent advertising tactic so as not to deter buyers from the oh-so-scary neighborhood of Bedford Stuyvesant (where the properties are actually located).

On the corner of Myrtle and Nostrand, the recently erected "Mynt" condo has its immaculate entrance facing Marcy Playground and offers "refrigerated storage room for grocery deliveries." Who knows why these new residents can't walk, or even drive down the street to the grocery store?



Also, the converted chocolate factory on my corner is advertising a glass enclosed rooftop gym. This building is selling lofts for almost 500,000. Good deal, right? Maybe if you're in that bracket that lets you slide without paying property tax for a while. (more on that later)

The Absolute condo, west on Myrtle on the corner of Steuben street, is offering all the amenities of the modern day condo, not to mention White Castle is just next door. In The Developers Group ad there is mention of a "walk through an eclectic neighborhood to Fort Greene Park" - where, it isn't said, but you could get away from the people of color and young artsy Pratt students (you know, just in case, wink* wink*)





Neighbors, be ware!