Hipster

I'm slightly too old, chubby, and gray-haired to fully comprehend the definition of hipster.  Furthermore, living in suburban tract housing automatically disqualifies me from having a proper opinion on the matter.  That said, I can drink third wave coffee, listen to indie music, and throw back microbrews with the best of them.  Fortunately, Rochester offers this scene in abundance.  In fact, the hipster scene in Rochester is one of the most vibrant in the country, at least by one measure.

Infogroup, a big data, analytics, and marketing services provider, sought to identify the Top 10 Most Hipster U.S. Metro Areas among metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) with over 1 million residents.  Nine types of businesses were identified as being closely related to hipster culture:

• microbreweries
• record/tape/CD retailers
• music dealers
• non-chain coffee shops
• beer/ale retailers
• thrift shops
• bicycle dealers
• tattoo parlors
• music/live entertainment

MSAs were then ranked by their concentration of these hipster businesses per 10,000 residents.  The top 10 were:

1. Seattle, WA
2. Portland, OR
3. Denver, CO
4. Sacramento, CA
5. Grand Rapids, MI
6. San Diego, CA
7. Providence, RI
8. Pittsburgh, PA
9. San Francisco, CA
10. Rochester, NY