Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Manhattan Neighborhood Acronyms


Neighborhoods don't stay unnamed for a long time in New York City. It's astounding that such a small landmass keeps reinventing itself - new neighborhood acronyms pop up every year. Some of these acronyms are rather boring, like Midtown, which is obviously in the middle of the town. In that case it's easy to guess where the certain neighborhood is located, but what about SoHo, for instance. It's hard to tell where this neighborhood is located if you are not familiar with the area at all - it's short for "South of Houston". Same with TriBeCa, short for "Triangle Below Canal Street", or Nolita for "North of Little Italy". Brooklyn's DUMBO is really hard to guess as it's for "Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass". More recently, the acronym NoMad popped up, created by a real estate developer who tried to attract condo buyers and new businesses. NoMad stands for "North of Madison Square Park" and is a good example that his plan seems to work out well, as NoMad is becoming quickly one of the hottest neighborhoods of Manhattan.