Saint Patrick drove the snakes outta Ireland...

...high rent drove the normal people outta Williamsburg.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Guinness Pudding, oh my!

I got to celebrate with southern barbecue (I made some Irish-inspired sides to keep it spirited) at my friend/coworker Kaydee's house in Williamsburg Proper.  That's what most people call the desirable part of Williamsburg, as opposed to the homelier part I live in.

Black Velvet is better than Red.

We had irish-style potato salad and coleslaw,  sipped Pegu Sours and Black Velvets (made with champagne and Guinness -- delicious!  Although I think you need a sweeter champagne than the ones we found to really pull off the cocktail), and Kaydee had slow roasted some sort of saucy barbecue, but what really stole the show were the Guinness Chocolate Pudding cups James and I had made earlier in the day.  To make them, we whipped egg yolks with sugar, heated half a cup of Guinness stout in a saucepan and whisked heavy cream into the pan until it just bubbled around the edges, then whisked the beer and cream mixture into the eggs quickly so nothing would curdle, and returned it to the heat, adding 70% cocoa Ghirardelli chips, stirring until it thickened.   The topping is where most of the Guinness flavor comes through: it's an entire cup of beer cooked down to 1 TBSP of syrup which is then added to whipped cream and sweetened with a touch of sugar.  I'll definitely be making this pudding again, it was such a delicious crowd pleaser.

This image must have been taken from a bit north of
Kaydee's place, but has a similar view.

Kaydee's apartment was incredible, too: it even has a sizzle reel:

   

Kaydee recently broke up with her boyfriend of 7 years and got herself a studio apartment in one of Williamsburg's new developments.  She has an incredible bathroom, a stunning kitchen, and great views from her windows and deck.  She also has roof access, a doorman, a screening room and pool hall downstairs, laundry in her apartment, a gym, and a park two blocks up the street.  She feels very safe in Williamsburg, which is the main reason she decided to spring for the cost of the place.  Especially living on her own for the first time in almost a decade, she felt that she needed to have an easy-to-care for, secure place to come home to.  The pricetag?  $2200 a month for a 400-square foot studio.  Williamsburg is outrageous!  And although Kaydee is incredibly talented (she just finished working on the motion graphics that played during the Superbowl halftime show) I can tell she worries a bit about maintaining her freelance bookings now that she has doubled what she pays in rent.  She makes a great rate when she's working (enough to pay for the place in 5 workdays), and for the last year she's been consistently employed, but I can definitely understand her fears now that she's got such a constant and hefty expense to consider. Then again, she's incredibly fortunate because her work is worth so much and she doesn't have other financial responsibilities (like kids, loans, that sort of thing).  You really can't feel badly for her, you can only drop your jaw that a tiny space could cost so much in this city.

The skyline from Williamsburg, cha-ching!

We ended up having an interesting conversation about rent prices in New York that night.  It's complicated to understand what determines the value of an area (especially the way I see Bushwick/East Williamsburg's prices rising without any noticeable fixing up of the area) and I know it's a combination of many factors -- but I keep feeling that something's gotta give with the current rise in neighborhood rent prices.  When I first moved to NYC, it had only been seven months since the housing crash, which meant there were some options for getting into less expensive housing in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens (I'm ignoring the other two boroughs).  But now, two years later, friends who are just moving to the city are finding affordable places further and further out on the subway lines, which is an indicator of how far the high-cost rent is spreading.  The people who have lived in an apartment for long enough to pay low rent (is there such a thing? I'd forgotten!) are holding on for their lives.  Many of the families in my neighborhood are low-income and there are often extended families all living under one small roof.  They know that they can't afford to move because they'd have nowhere in the near vicinity that would even come close to being affordable at this point in time.  It's a source of tension between newcomers and people who have lived in areas through the bad patches, but it also is something that I suppose has been the natural cycle of cities throughout history.  People definitely reach a point where they just can't take it anymore, though: there were rent riots in the 80's in Manhattan -- I wonder if it would ever come to that again...

Anyway, I am incredibly grateful for my apartments; places I managed to afford through three internships and an unsteady start or two out here.  I'm pragmatic, so my brain will always want to play it safe and keep costs low so I have some wiggle room, but I know people who make their biggest financial sacrifice their apartment out here, and I can definitely see why.  Having been to some really great apartments in safe and clean areas lately, I see what a difference it would make on your outlook on life in the city to go home to a place you loved at night.  Don't get me wrong, both of my apartments out here have been fine and offered many character-building opportunities.  But as far as having a happy place to hang my hat at night, and living on my own without roommates?  It looks like that won't be happening anytime soon for me here or now, but a girl can dream!  And visit her friends in Williamsburg.