One of the things I didn't really get as a kid - and still don't -

[conuly]

is the idea that neighborhoods can change names. Not just residents and culture and character, but actual names.

When my mother goes to chemo, she usually takes a cab up and a bus back. Now, the cab drives past "Two Bridges Apartments", and I noticed when we did high school admissions that many high schools Ana was interested in were listed as being in "Two Bridges". I would call that neighborhood Chinatown, and that's what InsideSchools calls it, but the DoE says "Two Bridges" is not quite the same as "Chinatown". And then we take the M15 back through that same neighborhood at the end of the day, sandwiched between those same two bridges, and pass The Five Points Mission. That name is above the door. Same location, three neighborhood names.

I live in Stapleton. Stapleton has a reputation, so if you live up on the hill a bit you might say you live in "Stapleton Heights". This isn't really a thing, but it kinda is - larger, older, costlier homes, with all that implies about the residents compared to two blocks away.

Meanwhile, when we read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn last year, Williamsburg is still Williamsburg, except nowadays nobody would describe it as a slum.

I have undoubtedly thought more about this subject than it really deserves, so now I'm sharing the love.

Comments

[zhelana]

I grew up in Peachtree corners - except that was the name of the subdivision, not the whole city. Now Peachtree corners has broken off away from Norcross, and is a whole city unto itself with a town center, capitol, mayor, etc. Mail addressed to that address in Norcross won't get there.

[conuly]

In Queens, for some reason, you address mail to the particular neighborhood, not to Queens. So addresses are in Astoria, in Flushing, in Corona - but never in Queens. (In NYC, addresses are generally made out to the borough in place of the city.)

[zhelana]

Yeah, there's a small area that gets mail addressed to "Atlanta" but almost all of the city has mail addresssed to something else. Like i'm in Norcross, even though really, this is Atlanta. I think it's because of how big and fast the city grew unexpectedly, though. When my parents moved out here it was decidedly suburban. Now it's pretty urban.

[redbird]

The subject definitely deserves attention, since it ties into class and other economic issues. When I lived in Inwood, we'd notice the real estate people trying to sell parts of Washington Heights as Inwood, since people thought of the Heights as dangerous and Inwood as quieter and safer.

This post is the first I've heard of "Two Bridges," by the way; at least the name isn't another stupid acronym like "Nolita."

[conuly]

Yeah, the only reason I didn't make this post in November is that it took me this long to decide that Two Bridges might actually be a thing.

[conuly]

Though Google now tells me that Two Bridges is, in fact, the most stubbornly ungentrified part of the Lower East Side (directly abutting Chinatown and with an awful lot of Asians, which is why I figured it was Chinatown) and it's been called that for a few decades. It's just that nobody outside the area calls it that.