July 5, 2006
New York South
We've discussed neighborhood naming on this site in the past; hokey sounding appelations are fine if they have some historical roots, it seems, but blatant attempts to ape famous hoods in other towns are to be scorned. Mercilessly.
But the message has not been gotten in Prince George's County, home also to the Disneyscape rising at the planned National Harbor. According to the Washington Business Journal, Wood Partners, a Vienna based development company, are constructing three massive projects around the Branch Avenue Metro station called Tribeca, Soho North (?), and Chelsea West (??). The sites, which all sit well south of their eponymous New York neighborhoods (though Chelsea West is, in fact, west of London's Chelsea), will be home to several hundred condominium units and thousands of square feet of office and retail space. No doubt they will share the charm of their northern and eastern counterparts.
Why does Prince George's seem to be particularly pursuing glitzy, over-manufactured (even for the Washington area) developments? Are the eastern suburbs aiming to carve out a Vegas-like niche for themselves? Tell us what you think, readers, and leave other egregious neighborhood name appropriations in the comments.
Picture taken by Hoffmann.
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Calcutta West, North Omaha South, Old Towne Gaithersburg
Ah, but you overlook the fact that Prince Georges County used to be home to the Chell-See, Trybehka, and SoHoNo indian tribes. They were constantly at war with the peoples of the "Eastern Village".
It's all covered in Michener's "Chesapeake".
Nothing is better than "Metro Place at Town Center," a development near the Branch Avenue Metrorail station.
Don't blame that on PG, blame that on these snazzy condo devolopers, who think that every condo project should have a NYC reference to it. For instance, there is a developer who has pretty much prefaced all of their new condos projects with the 'Midtown' moniker. Regardless of whether the projects are in Largo, Reston, or Alexandria.
Why does Prince George's seem to be particularly pursuing glitzy, over-manufactured (even for the Washington area) developments? Are the eastern suburbs aiming to carve out a Vegas-like niche for themselves?
Well, because every single developer has ignored Prince George's for blantantly racist reasons for the past 30 years.
While the rest of the DC area has been developed, redeveloped, and overdeveloped, PG has been stuck on the sidelines.
I think everyone should cheer the smart growth idea of building residential, retail, and office near a Metro Station.
The names "Soho" and "Tribecca" don't even have any meaning outside of Manhattan. Last I checked, there's neither a Houston nor a Canal street in PG County near these developments. This is so contrived that it's making me angry.
To be accurate - even NYC steals neighborhood names - Chelsea, as you correctly note, but also SoHo... it was only linked to NY's Houston Street to give it a slight and somewhat torturous conection to NYC itself. And THAT lead to the abominations like Tribeca, Nolita, and Dumbo. Not a good result.
Ha! New York is the biggest "steal" of all, as in the "New" York, the city in the north of England. Though why anyone would have wanted a new "York"... And of course, the Dutch actually started that one.
I hate this naming thing. People trying to name the area south of Logan Circle "SoLo", as in SoLo Piazza, a condo building there. Get over the silly monikers, developers, and let the people give the areas their own names. Or better yet, leave them as they are named now.
It's not just developers getting in on the naming game: the owner of Old Town Alexandria's Faccia Luna pizza joint, on South Washington St., at one point started a campaign to have people start referring to his "neighborhood" as SoFA---"South of Franklin Ave"---which is actually kind of funny, but I don't think that was his aim.
To be fair, it's not as if the people around Dupont or Logan Circles just sorta developed those names over time. They were made up by a planner, just like these silly portmanteux.
In fact, a lot of the planning of DC was nakedly trying to steal some sparkle from other cities (primarily European cities). And how many of our apartment buildings have these really tortured vaguely British-souding names like the Chastleton on 16th?
Not to mention "China"town.
I see someone mentioned that PG county has not been developed becuase of racist reasons or some other nonsense. overdevelopment and suburban sprawl have been a problem in PG county for 40 years. Levitt brothers developed Bowie. Greenbelt was a planned development. more recently there has been a rash of overdevelopment in Largo, Mitchellville, South Bowie, Fort Washington and Hyattsville.
I agree the names are contrived and corny, but development in PG county has not been ignored. It's too bad these developers dont do anything to help the blighted PG County school system, the boys and girls programs, and other aspects of the community. throwing up cheaply built, homes and apartments around a town center that has a foot locker and a fridays does not help the community one bit. but it does line the pockets of rich developers from northern VA.
Blah blah blah....latest social problem....Blah blah blah....racism.....blah blah blah....racial injustice....blah blah blah...reason why latest social problem is due to racism....blah blah blah......
Kinda like the boy who cried wolf? Was that story first reported on DCist?
new developments in homophobic places like virginia should be prohibited from naming new neighborhoods after civilized and accepting neighborhoods like Soho, Tribeca and Chelsea.
Martine Vose (13),
What about places like MD, which is where the PG County developments mentioned are located?
maryland is ok for names like that...besides, it's a new neighborhood. i hope it's nice and transportation smart. not the typical prince georges suburban development. something more creative and not cookie cutter condo's with under-sized rooms.
"new developments in homophobic places like virginia should be prohibited from naming new neighborhoods after civilized and accepting neighborhoods like Soho, Tribeca and Chelsea."
Yes...Prince Georges County is so much more civilized than Northern VA....
actually, tribeca is the name used on the old NYC city planning maps when the area was looked at as a prime spot for a highway. (soho was also an abandoned industrial area but i'm not sure if it's name came from city planning also) chelsea was certainly co-opted from london but i think first just by the hotel.
but nolita and dumbo are certainly later (and bad or at least in the case of nolita) inventions.
too bad my old 'hood in alexandria (i'm now in brooklyn, nee breucklyn) has been renamed "potomac west". long live del ray!!!
I'm all in favor of any attraction that keeps PG County residents on their side of the bridge.
I'm all in favor of any attraction that keeps PG County residents on their side of the bridge.