Many were surprised to find that, despite the wave of Bernie media attention, he buckled under the quiet, pragmatic Hillary voters hiding in plain site. For the most part, HRC prevailed easily in Williamsburg and the Lower East Side. The East Village was as divided as we expected it to be, with Hillary faring better in Alphabet City than she did further west. Meanwhile Bernie won Greenpoint by a landslide, and there’s now a new dividing line in Bushwick (North Bushwick went to Bernie, South to Hillary).
We’ve rounded up a selection of armchair analysis floating around the Twitter-sphere, from thoughts on Bernie’s overwhelming Greenpoint victory to the breakdown of Hillary voters in Williamsburg–and, don’t forget, the #JewsforCruz phenomenon was going strong in Brooklyn, even if Trump eventually prevailed.
@scottbix Gotta love the 10 Republican votes.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 20, 2016
@scottbix It was Debbie from next door who always puts her trash in your bins.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 20, 2016
New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow weighed in early on with a tweet about the gentrification of North Brooklyn:
Sanders cleaned up in hipster, gentrification, “Girls” Brooklyn… pic.twitter.com/Fcr3lEmNML
— Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) April 20, 2016
Well, sorta…Blow was overgeneralizing a bit. The map, filled with Sanders green, looks like there’s widespread support for Bernie all over North Brooklyn, but when it comes down to numbers, Hillary swept Williamsburg with 60 percent of the votes, versus Bernie’s 39 percent. And as commenters pointed out, perhaps this shouldn’t be surprising. The bohemian radical-lite “hipster” label no longer really sticks in Williamsburg. With it’s shiny waterfront condos, it’s the most gentrified and expensive part of North Brooklyn now.
@CharlesMBlow hilariously clinton won where all the gentrified high rise towers are #wheresourpark
— Smo (@Smomotion) April 20, 2016
@JoyAnnReid Looks like Hillary won Williamsburg, arguably the most gentrified part of BK
— Myles (@mykfmn) April 20, 2016
@eugeugeug the blue on the water is higher income ppl, idk what north williamsburg is rly pic.twitter.com/ZaMI4gReHZ
— jay (@jaydgoss) April 20, 2016
Breaking News: trust fund babies in Williamsburg vote like their parents on the upper east side, shocking no one.
— nigel punishamonster (@blatantdoomtrip) April 20, 2016
But Bernie did win big in the Girls homebase Greenpoint–in fact, it was his best New York neighborhood, with 63.8 percent of the vote.
Just informed that Williamsburg is just gentrified now, not hipster. Greenpoint now evidently has the hipsters. Biggest Bernie NYC win @64%.
— Patrick Miller (@pmiller1693) April 20, 2016
But was it the incoming Girls-watching hipsters or the middle/working class Polish community that made the difference? Twitter wasn’t sure:
Sanders
53.8% Bushwick North
63.8% GreenpointSafe to assume the ten point spread is the Polish vote on top of the hipster vote?
— devpuppy (@devpuppy) April 20, 2016
Curious how NYT concluded Sanders won these neighborhoods cause of “young gentrifiers” and not working-class Dems? pic.twitter.com/TmKHn1fYIK
— Tana Ganeva (@TanaGaneva) April 20, 2016
@TanaGaneva He did better in Greenpoint and Bushwick than in Williamsburg and that’s no coincidence. Rich hipsters vs struggling freelancers
— David Klion (@DavidKlion) April 20, 2016
@TanaGaneva He did better in Greenpoint and Bushwick than in Williamsburg and that’s no coincidence. Rich hipsters vs struggling freelancers
— David Klion (@DavidKlion) April 20, 2016
@billymeltdown boy does that shows how Williamsburg has went to the trust funds. It’s basically he upper east side now.
— Steven (@stevenhubertron) April 20, 2016
Either way there are some pretty upset people in the neighborhoods where Hillary cleaned up:
them williamsburg fucks voted for clinton. let me catch them riding their unicycle…..
— krissy skywalker (@biloandbiggles) April 20, 2016
I’m screaming at the Williamsburg unicycle tweet. Even the rats on the L train were feeling the Bern. What happened lmfaoooooo
— najma (@overdramatique) April 20, 2016
#Bernie lost Brooklyn to #Hillary by 20 points. Someone get the NYPD to the Williamsburg Bridge–there’s going to be jumpers #NYPrimary.
— David Maciewicz (@dvd_mcwcz) April 20, 2016
We’ve mainly focused on the Dems but there were a few Republican voters, after all…though not many (say what you will about the high-income trust fund gentrifiers, there were only 94 Republican voters in all in Williamsburg). Enclaves of Trump supporters dotted around B+B neighborhoods usually consisted of something like 4 or 5 voters.
so there are maybe like… maybe 150 voting republicans in north bushwick? pic.twitter.com/ZU0c3HLMFf
— Nicole Cairns (@nicoleindc) April 20, 2016
Ah, Williamsburg! I love how Cruz won my district with 50 votes. Yes, 50. Surprised even that many Reps here, haha. https://t.co/B8kXCIG4em
— Logan Beaux (@LoganBeaux) April 20, 2016
And apparently there’s even a #JewsforCruz movement going on, giving the ultra-conservative Christian an edge in South Williamsburg with his #JewYorkValues? We had no idea — But this election season is so wacky, nothing surprises us anymore.
The majority of Boro Park, Far Rockaway, and south Williamsburg voted for Ted Cruz! I’m so proud!#JewsForCruzpic.twitter.com/w7F3qVgx9T
— Yeedle Melber (@YeedleMelber) April 20, 2016
(Don’t get too excited, Yeedle – remember, only 94 Republicans in total came out in Williamsburg.)
#Cruz won Boro Park, Far Rockaway, Crown Heights, and South Williamsburg, basically all the frum neighborhoods.#JewsForCruz#JewYorkValues
— Wired-Up Patriot (@ADHDPatriot) April 20, 2016
And for all you disappointed Bernie supporters, hopefully you can bounce back:
To all hipster #BernieBros in WIlliamsburg, Brooklyn: don’t be depressed, today is 420 day. Have a good day. #fourTwenty
— Joe Zou (@zzbar) April 20, 2016