Bad Buzzword Alert: 'Downshifting'
"Downshifting" is the new term that everyone is using —okay, so far, that two Observer reporters are using—to describe the phenomenon whereby people who actually live in one neigborhood exaggerate their proximity to a rougher area. Apparently, Erin "West Bushwick" Geld isn't the only person who's blurring the Bushwick-Williamsburg divide. Other culprits include Graham L stop-area waitress Xeniz Viray, who thinks her neighbor-friends "downshift" because "Bushwick sounds edgier than Williamsburg," and the Bushwick Country Club, a Williamsburg bar. But do a few map-illiterate dummies constitute a trend? Well, maybe ("Carroll Gardens," "Red Hook," and "Gowanus"-wise, especially), but downshifting isn't working for us me. Ghettofabricatin'? Hoodwinking? Anyone?
