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
SoSlo!!! for South slope please.
GoCaGa is the silliest thing I’ve ever heard in my life. I’ve heard more intelligent sounds from teething babies.
What’s next? NeToThProPaBiLa? (Next to the Prospect Park Bike Lane) How about BeBoPaPoo? (Behind Borough Park Pool)
This is fun!
I keep hoping that Douchebo will replace Dumbo.
“why is park slope and bedstuy so large and cobble hill and
carroll gardens so small?”
Neighborhood boundaries change over time. Park Slope is much bigger now than it once was, because it is a marketable brand. Areas east of 7th Avenue or south of 3rd Street, or 9th Street at the most, would have been plain old South Brooklyn before.
i like how gowanus sounds too. when people ask me where i live i usually say gowanus. i dont like the connotations that go along with living in park slope. plus 5th ave is def. upper gowanus anyway
*rob*
GoCaGa?
ha
I think Gowanus sounds nice. Regardless of how nasty the body of water is I think its a nice name.
ENYARSIE
Say it fast.
BoCoCa
GoCaGa
SunSlope
It’s not surprising that these goofy, unimaginative anagrams haven’t caught on.
As to the philosophical… I think it is the people whom you know and know you as you walk around (possibly even crossing real estate “boundaries”). Long after (like 15 years) I left the village, and before it finally closed, the fish guys at Jefferson Market still knew me when I walked in. I still felt like it was my neighborhood then.