Name My Neighborhood!
February 7th, 2006I live in Prospect Lefferts Gardens in Brooklyn.
It’s a neighborhood that no one knows and no one cares about; so much so that I’ve stopped saying the name of my neighborhood entirely to avoid the blank stares. I say, “I live on the east side of Prospect Park.” Or for the truly hopeless I say, “Do you know Park Slope? I sort of live near Park Slope” because even Manhattanites know Park Slope
When you say to friends, “hey, you should stop but my place and we could hang out” they look at you like you’re hopelessly naïve or possibly retarded, even though they live in Park Slope, one stop away.
The problem is that my neighborhood sucks ass. There are no decent bars. There are no great restaurants. There are no boutiques, no bookstores, no coffee shops. The only thing that Prospect Lefferts Gardens has going for it are some nice streets of limestone townhouses and its proximity to Prospect Park.
But the name sucks.
Prospect Lefferts Gardens is too wordy, too weird, not catchy enough. I’m hoping that if I rename my neighborhood and spread it around, I’ll have a local place to drink in a matter of months.
It seems that my friend, Doc (a Prospect Lefferts Gardens resident) had the same idea and came up with Pro LeGs.
I prefer ProLefGa.
February 8th, 2006 at 2:39 am
How about “Pooptown”
February 8th, 2006 at 3:02 am
Stickyopolis.
This joke is stolen from Dave Letterman, circa 1992. Really.
February 8th, 2006 at 1:09 pm
Babyrapeville
February 10th, 2006 at 1:51 pm
West flatbush?
March 8th, 2006 at 12:48 am
Your post got some folks talking last week. Those folks were: Alex, Jes, Shandi, Amy, and I. We came up with some options. Most, unfortunately, exclude you as you now live south of the little triangle where we all live.
WEB Empire (Washington-Eastern Parkway-Bedford-Empire Blvd)
TriByBoGa (Triangle by Botanic Garden)
TriByBroBoGa (Triangle by Brooklyn Botanic Garden)
Institute Park: the actual name for the triangle including the library, museum, and garden.
Here are some (of astounding quality) that I just came up with:
Fast Food Heights (for reasons obvious to anyone who has visited the neighborhood)
Empire’s End (according to the street numbers, it’s actually the beginning, but Empire’s Beginning doesn’t sound as cool)
Epol Skrap (Park Slope backwards? Does that make any sense?)
Prospect East (oh, so high-falutin’)
West Wing (West of Wingate)
Mitchell Flats (let’s dress you up on Sundays and follow you around in a parade until they adopt this name)
March 19th, 2006 at 8:00 pm
PLG is what it is.
I recently found a web group.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OceanByThePark/
March 19th, 2006 at 11:14 pm
thanks for the heads-up, Mike.
PLG, huh? I still like ProLefGa.
Also, since I wrote this, an actual coffee shop has opened with some insane name that involves a dunebuggy. Good luck, my crazy-named coffee house!