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The Hipster Capital Of America Is... Hoboken?

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A new list of rankings has concluded that the most hipster city in America is in the Tri-State Area, but it's not Brooklyn.

It is, in fact, Hoboken, New Jersey.

A new article by FindTheBest.com characterized hipsters as being "all about non-conformity and effortless nonchalance," and conjured an image of people "reading Proust over an overpriced cup of coffee."

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FindTheBest determined the top 19 municipalities using certain attributes to define them as the top hipster cities. Their criteria were a population of 50,000 or more, a large population of people between the ages of 20 and 34, a high percentage of residents with at least a bachelor's degree.

The Hipster Capital Of America Is... Hoboken?

But the final calculation was determined by, of all methods, multiplying the number of yoga studios by per 10,000 people by the number of cafés per 10,000 people.

Hoboken ranked at the top, with a population of just over 50,000, a total of 47.2 percent of the population being between 20 and 34, and a total of 73.5 percent of residents holding at least a bachelor's degree. Hoboken also has one yoga studio and 13.1 cafés per 10,000 people.

Of course, Williamsburg, Greenpoint and these days even farther-flung areas of Brooklyn are widely known as the hipster capital of the world – from sculpted mustaches and ironic eyewear to fashionable thrift stores, vinyl record shops, and craft beer bars with fixed-gear bike parking on the patio.

The Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn a couple of years ago even put up advertising Jesus as the "original hipster."

But Brooklyn did not make the list based on the qualifications, nor did anywhere in New York City.

CBS News reported that while Hoboken "might have once been too homogenized and flavorless to rank high on the hipster charts, lately it's becoming the new refuge for people fleeing Brooklyn's high prices and fast-paced gentrification."

The New York Times noted that the average condo in Hoboken cost $590,912 last year, while in North Brooklyn, the average condo cost $1.5 million.

The rest of the list behind Hoboken was largely dominated by college towns around the country, and a handful of big and medium-sized cities. Coming in behind Hoboken were:

• Ames, Iowa, home of Iowa State University;
• Boulder, Colorado, home of the main campus of the University of Colorado;
• Cambridge, Massachusetts, home of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
• College Station, Texas, home of Texas A&M University;
• Somerville, Massachusetts, which together with neighboring Medford is the home of Tufts, University;
• Arlington, Virginia, outside Washington, D.C.;
• Auburn, Alabama; home of Auburn University;
• Santa Monica, California, outside Los Angeles;
• Davis, California, home of the University of California-Davis;
• Berkeley, California, outside San Francisco and home of University of California-Berkeley;
• Provo, Utah, home of Brigham Young University;
• Bloomington, Indiana, home of Indiana University Bloomington;
• Seattle, Washington;
• Ann Arbor, Michigan, home of the University of Michigan;
• San Francisco, California;
• Iowa City, Iowa, hoe of the University of Iowa;
• West Des Moines, Iowa;
• Corvallis, Oregon, home of Oregon State University.

Back in 2012, Forbes did another survey of the top hipster neighborhoods that had some places that the average hipster might find a little more familiar. Williamsburg, Brooklyn did indeed make that list, but behind Silver Lake in Los Angeles which topped that list and the Mission District in San Francisco.

Also on the neighborhood list were Wicker Park in Chicago; the Pearl District in Portland, Oregon; the H Street Corridor in Washington, D.C.; East Austin in Austin, Texas; Capitol Hill in Seattle; the Uptown in Oakland, Calif., and the Warehouse District in New Orleans.

The term "hipster" dates back to the 1940s, during which time it referred to fans of bebop and other fans of jazz music.

The Urban Dictionary these days defines hipsters as those who "value independent thinking, counter-culture, progressive politics, an appreciation of art and indie-rock, creativity, intelligence, and witty banter," and mentioning Wicker Park second only after Williamsburg among centers of hipster cultures.

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