Gawker readers (also now Gawker researchers) chose Uptown as the Williamsburg of Minneapolis (with "Northeast/Uptown/North Loop" tied for its Bushwhick) in a recent cockamamie study called, "What's the Williamsburg of Your City?". St. Paul's nomenclaturely misleading Lowertown got Williamsburg status with nothing in Pig's Eye making "Bushwick," leaving just one more concern for Mayor Chris Coleman.
Anyway, the study tracks neighborhoods best known to locals for "art galleries and the boutiques and the lines for brunch." And we should be happy we got mentioned at all in the study that notes Boulder is Boulder's Williamsburg. Neighboring states North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa didn't even receive results, likely enraging residents of Sioux Falls's Phillips Avenue, Des Moines' East Village and North Dakota's Bakken Shale gastro-pub neighborhood.
But the report really comes up short. What about Duluth's Williamsburg? Or Rochester's Bushwick? Or Cannon Falls' Meatpacking District?
We had a track coach in Wells, Minn., who refused to tell people where our hometown was in relation to the Twin Cities. Instead, he'd respond, "We're 400 miles south of Blackduck."
What the heck is Blackduck's Bushwick?!
Guess we'll never know. Regardless, this is the sort of study that feels like a "Which-'Game of Thrones'-character-is-your-ex"-ification of the Internet. But I suppose it's useful if you want to know when/where to plan a photo essay about crop-tops/gentrification of old railroad yards in America.
Check it out and offer revisions (or check out the results page to see someone suggested Eden Prairie for Williamsburg). Maybe write-in who's your "Eden Prairie of New York City?" Or better, who would you rather run into at Eden Prairie's Wildfire Grill—Paul or Woody Allen? Hmmm?!