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I HATE the acronym or portmanteau neighborhood names that are propagated by hipster newsletters and craigslist ads. It seems to have started with SoHo (South of Houston Street) back in the 60s. It then took off and is now out of control!
After SoHo we got NoHo (North of Houston), then
TriBeCa (Triangle Below Canal St) which is near the HoTu (Holland Tunnel)
NoLita (north of Little Italy)
DUMBO (Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass)
and now RAMBO (Right After Manhattan Bridge Overpass)
BoCoCa (Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens)
Even non-hipster neighborhoods are getting in on the craziness. I nearly flipped out when I saw an ad for an apartment rental in "desirable SpaHa"! SpaHa??? Is that what we have to call Spanish Harlem now??
I can't wait til I can tell people I no longer work in Midtown, I work in MiTo. Or more specifically our area of Midtown called Murray Hill is now MuHi. Or because I'm east of Herald Square I work in EaHerSq or the Rectangle Below 34th Street, RecBe34.
Furthermore, I hate the total renaming of neighborhoods that is being pushed by the real estate industry, effectively erasing the historic names of neighborhoods. Despite the desire for "edginess" in NYC, I suppose real estate agents found the name Hell's Kitchen to be a little too frightening. So now that whole area of the West 40s and 50s has assumed the tamer name of Clinton.
Williamsburg (I am one who refuses to call it Billyburg) is Hipster Mecca. Every emo hipster is required to make one pilgrimmage to Bedford Av once in his/her sad depressing life. Williamsburg is now an expensive place to live, but next door is Bushwick. Bushwick is not expensive or particularly desirable (frankly, quite dangerous). How do you sell Bushwick? Change the name to East Williamsburg! POOF! Presto changeo, now you have a desirable neighborhood and rents take an immediate leap!
This is why Greenpoint is now North Williamsburg
This is why Union City is now West Hoboken
This is why Steinway is now North Astoria
Soon Bedford-Stuyvesant will be South of East Williamsburg (SoEaBillBurg),
Weehawken will be North of West Hoboken (NoWeHo?),
and LaGuardia Airport will be The Airport East of North Astoria (AirEaNoAst)
In Youngstown: (not all are cool, but I think some are unique)
-Brier Hill (a type of pizza was invented here)
-Smoky Hollow (where the smoke from the mills settled)
-Fosterville (home to an imfamous theater)
-Lansingville
-Brownlee Woods
-Cornersburg (SW corner of the city)
-Oak Hill
-Salt Springs
-Sharon Line
Some St. Paul nweighborhoods with cool names--
Frogtown (depending on whom you believe, named after either the frogs that lived there when it was a swamp, or the first settlers, French-Canadians, whose descendents have since moved to the burbs)
Swede Hollow (neighborhood's gone but the hollow's still there)
Crocus Hill (never heard the origin of the name, but it's always been upper-middle/upper class)
Railroad Island (a triangluar shaped neighborhood bounded by the main lines of the Great Northern, Northern Pacific, and Chicago & Northwestern railroads)
Midway (located halfway between downtown St Paul and downtown Minneapolis)
West Seventh (named after its main commercial street)
Rondo (most of neighborhood buried under I -94)
West Side Flats (residences gone, now mostly industrial & ugly 60s re-development)
Seattle: TangleTown, Rainier Beach
Portland: The Pearl
San Francisco: Tenderloin
Pittsburgh: Squirrel Hill
New York: Meatpacking district ( I have also always liked BedStuy in Brooklyn)
Chicago: Wrigleyville
Philadelphia: Avenue of the arts
The old French neighborhoods of St. Louis:
LaSalle Park
Lafayette Square
Soulard
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