And sometimes, everyone associated with a place wants to have it renamed.
The house I grew up in was about half a block from waterfront, within sight of the unfortunately named “N----r Bar Channel” - whose eponymous sandbar is no more, the barrier beaches and back bays shift in storms. In 1963, the government maps officially respelt it as ‘Negro Bar’, which was little better, and didn’t change the locals’ pronunciation of the word.
There are a handful of people there who want the name preserved - claiming that even shameful history should be remembered. But the overwhelming sentiment in the community is that it ought to be renamed. In a less informed era, this would be a simple matter: start calling it something else! But in the modern age, it must appear on the official navigational charts, so that barges headed for the oil terminals in Inwood and Meadowmere can ply their course safely.
Hence there’s considerable bureaucratic inertia surrounding the renaming. (Interestingly, the legislation to do so is being opposed by the GOP in the Senate, for no better reason than that Chuck Schumer introduced it.)
Many suburban communities were named by developers, often overriding older names. Cedarhurst, New York was once Ocean Point. Levittown, New York (and Levittowns in several other states) was the personal hubris of a developer. And Lynbrook, New York was named by a developer who hoped to lure suburbanites to move there from rapidly-urbanizing Brooklyn. (I could wish that it had kept its former name of Pearsalls - my grandmother was a Pearsall.)
I had issues with my building address being wrong on Google, it had been correct for a year I lived there and then randomly it got switched to the lot next door and all my food delivery guys all kept going to the wrong building trying to deliver my food. It was really annoying… I ended up putting in a change request in Google maps and they fixed it within a few days, though it took like a month or two for all of the delivery services to find my building again. Something about their delivery map apps not automatically updating maybe if I had to guess
Google labels my neighborhood “The Compound”. It’s actually the name of the area directly behind my house that consists of un-buildable lots in the St.Johns River flood-plain laid out by a failed land development company in the 1950’s. (the streets were there well before the 80’s despite what the article says)
The name originated with High School kids, who used the area to have bonfires and drag race in the 70’s and 80’s, it’s not an official name.
TL;DR My area’s “official name” was created by underage drinkers getting shitfaced and breaking the law.
When I worked for a city as a drafter one of my jobs was to check paper maps that were sent in. I’d always find a mistake. I was told that those were put in on purpose to catch anyone who copied them without permission.
I don’t disagree, but this is sort of how place-naming works, whether or not the Almighty Googles are in the mix.
Places either get their names because of an autocratic decision, or a canny marketing campaign, or both. (The old chestnut about glacier-bound Greenland being misleadingly named to lure settlers from the comparably fertile and temperate Iceland is actually true.) It’s rarely if ever a community-based, from-the-ground-up affair.
There’s a new development here in Oakland in a previously industrial area that they’re now selling as “Brooklyn.” At first seems like a very crass and artificial naming, but it turns out to be fairly appropriate… At one point there was a city of “Brooklyn” in that general location which was eventually absorbed into Oakland.
We don’t really get to choose where these names come from, but I suppose it’s always nicer when they emerge organically rather than from some reel estate developer’s office… My neighborhood’s name is supposedly the Spanish word for Native American sweat-houses that may or may not have been located in this area… Not sure who chose it or if it’s any better or worse.
I live in this Neighborhood. Thank you for drawing attention to this travesty. No one here will ever call it the East Cut. It is RINCON HILL, or the Transbay district.
Just look at this marketing BS https://theeastcut.org/
The community benefit district said they held a public forum to get feedback, but it didn’t stop them.
They did the same thing when they tried to re-brand the Castro as Eureka Valley because realtors did not want clients to be put off.
Only peripherally related, but I remember hearing that some realtors were attempting to re-brand Hell’s Kitchen in NYC, for fear it would be hard to sell real estate in a neighborhood with “Hell” in the name. I’ve forgotten what they were trying to re-brand it to - anyone know?
(I’ll never get that high a level. I answer questions, but I decline post photos or leave reviews under my real name. I mean, I’d have to admit I’ve been to a lot of rather pedestrian eateries and such… “Would you like to rate your visit to Krispy Kreme Doughnuts?” Er, no, I was, uhm, just nearby at the In’n’Out Burg – I mean I was just working out at the gym across the parking lot, must be some sort of GPS error on Google’s part… :-/ )
“We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality – judiciously, as you will – we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”
And, since most of you think that ‘study’ is an archaic synonym for ‘google’, we’ve got that side stitched up too!
