“The borough has become a Valhalla of bars and restaurants and parks and hotels where you can play shuffleboard, cheer a professional basketball team, buy taxidermy, pretend you are in New Orleans or Chiang Mai, enjoy the forgotten muscle memory of flipping through vinyl records, sip good coffee, watch Stephane Wrembel play and frolic in parks … But Brooklyn is still Brooklyn.” Only now, Vinnie Barbarino and Juan Epstein drink lattes and work for a tech startup. In the NYT, Wendell Jamieson looks at Brooklyn,Then and Now.

+ From the SF Gate: Are tech-sector newcomers elbowing out Mill Valley’s funky-arty vibe? Even people from Marin County are complaining about the influx of money. That’s like Brazilians complaining about an influx of people who are really into soccer.

+ How do you know when the housing and economic divide has gotten out of hand? When people are building backyard treehouses that are nicer than your home.