Hipsters: Either you are one or you hate ’em (or, more likely, you hate them even though you are one). But according to a new top 10 list from Movoto Real Estate, Memphis is practically a hipster-free zone.
Memphis is number seven on the list that’s topped by El Paso, Texas. Other not-so-hip cities include Jacksonville, Florida; Fort Worth, Texas; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Houston, Texas; Charlotte, North Carolina; San Antonio, Texas; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Dallas, Texas.
How did a real estate company — an industry not exactly known for being uber-hip — determine the Bluff City wasn’t a fit hotspot for the PBR-guzzling, fixie bike-riding cool kids?
They looked at the population of young people, the walkability and bikeability of the city, and the number of thrift shops, vinyl record stores, vegetarian restaurants, dive bars, and artsy jobs. And they used a combination of internet resources, such as Yelp, WalkScore, and bicycling.com, to determine the prevalence of these criteria.
We’re not saying Memphis is a bastian of hipsterdom or anything, but we beg to differ with Movoto’s findings. Memphis was named most improved city for bicycling by Bicycling magazine in 2012, after the city added 50-plus miles of bike lanes. Midtown surely has as many dive bars as churches, and Memphis is now home to three totally vegan restaurants (plus, oodles of vegan-friendly eateries) and at least three vinyl record stores. And while all of Memphis probably isn’t very walkable, Midtown gets a score 78 on WalkScore. And we all know that Midtown is Memphis anyway. Oh wait, do we sound like hipsters now?
