Mpls. North Loop Ranked Among Best Hipster Neighborhoods

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- No doubt to the horror of any and all hipsters who live, work or play there, Minneapolis' North Loop was named one of the best hipster neighborhoods in America by Forbes Magazine.

Forbes praised the North Loop (i.e. the Warehouse District) for how it's converted the area's large warehouses into apartments, shops and restaurants.

"Bike trails, a park and an arts collective Traffic Zone Center for Visual Art also boost the hipness quotient," wrote Forbes' Morgan Brennan.

The Warehouse District ranked 12th on their list, overall.

Though the definition of "hipster" is ferociously subjective, Forbes said they used a systematic and numerical method to determine their rankings. Neighborhoods were judged by their "walkability" index; the number of coffee shops per capita, the presence of food trucks and farmers markets, locally-owned bars and restaurants, and the percentage of residents who work in artistic occupations.

The list was topped by Los Angeles' Silver Lake neighborhood, which took top honors, San Francisco's Mission District, and New York's Williamsburg, The top five was rounded out by Chicago's Wicker Park and Portland's Pearl District.

The hipster inhabitants of two other popular Minneapolis neighborhoods -- Uptown and Northeast Minneapolis -- could not be reached for snarky comment.