Does this mean I live in JEMadSquaPa?

That is, Just East of Madison Square Park?

As reported in therealdeal.com, in a survey by the Real Estate Board of New York (12,000 members), “40 percent of the brokers [who responded] reported finding clients more responsive to properties using neighborhood names than to those not including them.”

I have noticed that out-of-towners often think the name Tribeca refers to something mysterious and exotic, when actually it just means Triangle Below Canal Street—quite  mundane. 


Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass sounds like where you could go to purchase illicit substances.  DUMBO is much nicer.

SoHa (South Harlem) has a happy connotation for me.  It’s sort of like the neighborhood is saying, “So, ha!  You thought we’d never have shiny new condos and M.A.C. stores.  Well, guess what!”

Some names are designed to gentrify the neighborhood.  It doesn’t always work.  Personally, I’d rather live in Hell’s Kitchen than in Clinton, and I thought the “Hell is Cool” tag line for one development in that neighborhood was brilliant.

Some other names are almost unknown.  I lived in Rose Hill for ten years without ever knowing that was its name. 


Would I have been happier had I thought I was living in Rose Hill rather than at 25th and Second? Naah.  There would still have been a methadone clinic across the street. 


JEMADSquaPa is too hard to spell.  "Near Madison Square Park" is too long.  "Madison Square" would be shorter, but pretentiously British.  Guess I'll stick with "East 20s."


Actually, the neighborhood name reference was a minor part of therealdeal.com’s article.  The headline was “Brokers See Slow, Steady Progress for New York Residential Market.”

Definitely hope those brokers are right. 

Here’s the link: http://therealdeal.com/newyork/articles/brokers-see-slow-but-steady-progress-for-new-york-residential-market-according-to-the-real-estate-board-of-new-york