The area around the new baseball stadium isn’t much more than a construction site so far, but the promise of a bustling entertainment district in what was formerly a bleak industrial sector is enough to leave developers and city officials frantic for a new branding. According to a Post article published today:

Despite appearances, this is just the way District leaders hoped it would be: a ballpark set amid a vast Southeast Washington neighborhood in the middle of one of the biggest overhauls in city history. Some 500 acres are to be transformed, spreading south from Capitol Hill to the Anacostia River, sweeping away an accumulation of old auto body shops, sex clubs and debris-filled lots — so dramatically that officials want to give the area a new name: Capitol Riverfront.

Capitol Riverfront? That’s right. No longer will the area be referred to as the Navy Yard, much less Near Southeast. Like many other up-and-coming neighborhoods — think NoMA, spanning the area north of Massachusetts Avenue between First Street NW and Second Street NE — the moniker Capitol Riverfront was thought up by the developers responsible for the area around the stadium, most of whom are looking forward to brushing away any memories of what used to exist there. Late last year the Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement District (BID) elected its first board of directors, and their snazzy-yet-generic website gives a glimpse of what the area may eventually grow to be. (If you watch the images scroll across the header on the main page, you’ll notice a graphic showing what looks like a big bookstore called “Berdors.” Simple spelling mistake or creative way to avoid paying a bookseller money to use their name? We report, you decide.)

We’re all excited for what the area may soon offer, though it may not include many local businesses or any inspired architecture. But do they have to reinvent everything down to the name of the neighborhood? Experience shows that the new names rarely stick with the locals. After all, do you tell your friends to meet you in the East End? And if they really want to re-brand the neighborhood, does the name have to be as generic as Capitol Riverfront?