[770 Broadway as seen in the reflection of the Death Star]
As various media outlets reported this week, Facebook is moving its NYC HQ to 770 Broadway at East Ninth Street.
And various media outlets noted that this was the latest tech company to move to Midtown South.
Right!
Sydney Brownstone at Runnin' Scared was as confused — and annoyed! — by this as anyone else around here.
When did the area immediately surrounding Astor Place (i.e. the Village) become Midtown South? Was it when 51 Astor birthed that terrifically lame office building? Did Midtown suddenly annex the rest of the world, turning Brooklyn into Midtown East and Canada into Midtown North?
We weren't the only ones surprised by the characterization of the 'hood.
"I am fairly certain that Astor and Broadway are not considered to be within our boundaries or even generically considered as Midtown South," wrote John Mudd, president of the Midtown South Community Council, in an email to the Village Voice.
And the Voice helpfully posted this map from Midtown South Community Council:
Meanwhile, some EVG reader reaction:
Richard Bensam said...
We have to fight this. No, I don't mean Facebook moving in -- we have to fight the "Midtown South" label. Slapping a classy-sounding new name on a neighborhood can be worth millions in real estate. This name is a big deal to them. Deny them this victory. Don't use it. Don't let the developers colonize and gentrify our very language and thoughts the way they do our streets and buildings.
And!
Alex in NYC said...
What the fuck? They call it MIDTOWN because it's in the MIDDLE OF TOWN. Astor Place, meanwhile, is DOWNTOWN, because it, by its very geography, is SOUTH (i.e. DOWN) from the MIDDLE OF TOWN.
So no.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Facebook is moving into the neighborhood; Midtown South expands its boundaries, apparently
Midtown South covers the area south of midtown in the office leasing world. It is nothing new, nor is anyone suggesting this is the actual neighborhood. It is just an area on a map to describe parts of manhattan for office leasing people. In this parlance Astor Place has been midtown south for a long time.
ReplyDeleteActually the real estate moguls who shape NYC like so much silly putty in their dirty little hands have a few other names planned for the area formerly known as the East Village:
ReplyDeleteSoFaBo: South of Facebook
NoFaBo: North of Facebook
ZuckerVille: where Mark Zuckerberg lives, right next to FarmVille.
LoJackita: the neighborhood to which your car was towed to make room for the new CitiBike racks.
BroHo: in honor for the residents who have recently moved in from places like Ohio. As in, "Yo bro, you seen my ho?" Also known as WooHooville.
Stuyversy: The merger beween Stuytown and Gramercy into one giant neighborhood with lots of trees, no stores, and thousands of drunk NYU students. You'll know you live there when they raise your rent mid-lease by 50% and you have to move out.
CitiBike City: for the place formerly known as Alphabet City. Avenue A will be Adventure Avenue, B will be Bankster Boulevard, C will be Cupcake Drive, and D will still be Avenue D, since no developer can ever seem to figure out how to gentrify it.
Who all is here? AOL/Huffington Post, Facebook, Foursquare, Nielsen... and whatever high tech places end up at The Deathstar building.
ReplyDeleteSomeone smart should come up with a new name that isn't midtown south, as I'd never want to work in the dusty area of midtown south. But this new happening area???
(MUDTRUCKLAND!)
Everyone knows that The East Village was a term coined by Real Estate people. The reason nobody objects to it is because "The Village" is/was cool, and so the association is/was flattering. Nobody who lives south of 14 street thinks midtown is cool, which is why everyone objects. I personally was horrified to hear the term Midtown south being applied to Astor Place. And I know a lot of real estate people, and not one of them has ever heard the term midtown south being applied to Astor Place, or anyplace else below 14th street for that matter... The people marketing this new term for Astor Place must not be very good. These cool tech kids would rather die than be associated with midtown, which is precisely why Huff Post, and Facebook are either in the East Village or relocating here, and why Google is in Chelsea... Tons of others in Tribeca too...
ReplyDeleteTo June 6, 2013 at 6:41 AM,
ReplyDeleteMidtown South is an actual area. It doesn't mean "south of Midtown". It means, the "southern portion of Midtown," as indicated by the community council map.
The writer of the article that labeled Astor Place as Midtown South is ignorant in his/her neighborhood geography of Manhattan.
@Giovanni "D will still be Avenue D, since no developer can ever seem to figure out how to gentrify it."
ReplyDeleteFucking Hilarious and TRUE!
Giovanni-- "Stuyversy" is a great one.
ReplyDeleteJust brainstorming here.
ReplyDeleteCentral Village
Middle East Village
Mid West Village
Union Square Village
Astorville
Cooperville
Lower Midtown South
The name East Village came not because the area was "cool" but because real estate interests wanted to portray it as "cool". It was a poor part of the Lower East Side, not a groovy name, by itself.
ReplyDeleteRegarding Avenue D being safe from from gentrification, people need to remember what happened to public housing in London, and then take a look at the land leasing that's already starting here.
Grieve:
ReplyDeleteYou really need to give an award or some kind of honorary title to Giovanni for his updated neighborhood names. Best post of the year so far, in my opinion.
Midtown South or MiSo, as in me so selfie.
ReplyDeleteDoes this mean Midtown is now Downtown North or DoNo?
Giovanni can now be the president of the International Coalition of Tree Tossing in the Spring and Summer(ICTTSS)in the EV and get the title as its spokesperson, formerly held by Gruber MacDougal, who has been lame duck and performing its duties in an empty chair, when interviewed by Dirty Harry.
@Giovanni.......shhhhhh, dude......that BroHo is good enough to catch on IMMEDIATELY! :+)))...
ReplyDeleteA belated A+ to Giovanni!
ReplyDeleteMidtown Deep South.
ReplyDelete"The East Village" appellation for the Lower East Side between 14th and Houston derives from the old hippie name for the area, which gave rise to the name of the underground magazine "The East Village Other" in the later 1960s. Real Estate agents then picked up the name in the later 1970s.
ReplyDeleteThe corner of Houston and Mott streets is HoMo. Houston and Pitt may be HoPi, Columbia and Houston may be CoHo, and St Mark's and First avenue may be SaFi, which is at least only a block from the hardware and garden shop at the corner of 7th street.
ReplyDelete