Creative (Desperate?) Neighborhood Rebranding
A Daily News article this morning takes a look at the ways brokers are continually slicing and dicing the city map in an effort to concoct catchy neighborhood names to aid in their sales efforts. (The Times wrote the same article five years ago.) On the Brooklyn front, the author gives a shout-out to BoCoCa…
A Daily News article this morning takes a look at the ways brokers are continually slicing and dicing the city map in an effort to concoct catchy neighborhood names to aid in their sales efforts. (The Times wrote the same article five years ago.) On the Brooklyn front, the author gives a shout-out to BoCoCa (Boerum Hill + Cobble Hill + Carroll Gardens) but says the name “never caught fire.” And evidently attempts have been made to popularize GoCaGa (Gowanus + Carroll Gardens) and SunSlope (Greenwood Heights = Sunset Park + Park Slope). The topic is close to our hearts, as the first article we ever published was a 1994 first-person piece in The Times suggesting a bunch of names for our ignored micronabe next to the mouth of the Holland Tunnel. You can read it here [PDF].
Brokers Behind Push to Rebrand City’s Neighborhoods [NY Daily News]
Image from Gothamist
And let’s not forget that we the blogoscenti punked the New York Times with “NoProPaSo” (for the almost-as-absurdly-really-named “Caton Park”):
http://crazystable.squarespace.com/journal/2008/3/16/nopropaso-kneel-before-your-creator.html
I met her in a club down in old Soho
where you drink champagne and it tastes just like Cherry Cola
C-O-L-A Cola.
She walked up to me and she asked me to dance.
I asked her where she’s from and she said, “BoCoCa”
B-O-C-O-C-A BoCoCa, lo lo lo BoCoCa
“NeToThProPaBiLa? (Next to the Prospect Park Bike Lane)”
HA! LOL!!
And what is with the caps in the middle of the terms? I mean Tribeca kind of works because it looks like a real word of some kind. And does anyone write SoHo? no, you write Soho. (not that this would save Gocaga–which does sound like a command you would give to a toilet training toddler).
I have one word for this….
ARRRGGGHHH!
Williamsburg is being eliminated, too many bad memories
West Bushwick for everything east of highway
and South Greenpoint for all else….
I’m still proud of DuBQE (down under the BQE), or Dubuque.
I always thought BoCoCa was a horror. GoCaGa is worse. I agree that Gowanus is a good name for a neighborhood, canal notwithstanding.
Slippery Slope for anything past the Expressway or below 4th Ave.