It is now several decades since estate agents in New York found that they could turn a district of leaden property into a golden, aspirational zone with the careful addition of an acronym.
After the area south of Houston Street in Manhattan became SoHo there was NoHo, north of the same thoroughfare, TriBeCa, the “triangle below Canal Street”, and Nolita, the northern segment of Little Italy.
All flourished, as did Dumbo, which was Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass — the word overpass added, according to the comedian Jerry Seinfeld, because no one wanted to live in an area that was “dumb”. Now estate agents in a more northerly neighbourhood have begun trumpeting another up and coming district: NoMa. It is a wondrous neighbourhood to be filled with young aspirational couples; a place that is “north of Manhattan” — a place known to the rest of the world as the Bronx.
“North of Manhattan is not about trends, it’s about values,” reads an advertisement for a new development, featuring a young woman jogging in a sports bra. The development is in Riverdale, a prosperous northwest strip on the Hudson River. It is still in the Bronx, however, a borough better known to outsiders for the arson, anarchy and violence of the 1970s and 1980s.
Some remembered how in 1977 the baseball commentator Howard Cosell broke off from his coverage of the World Series to say: “Ladies and gentleman, the Bronx is burning.”
Then there was the 1981 film Fort Apache, starring Paul Newman, which likened a police station in the South Bronx to a Wild West outpost. Estate agents have since renamed the South Bronx “SoBro”, and borough officials have also been busy. “Don’t dump on the Bronx” was removed from litter bins and replaced with “Beautiful Bronx”.
Estate agents argue that “NoMa” will further this revitalisation. “Lamentably da Bronx still needs to reinvent its image,” wrote Susan Seidner Chasky, of Sotheby’s International Realty, in a blog. “So without further ado, let me introduce you to: ‘NoMa’ the ritziest suburban destination inside the city, just north of Manhattan.” Many Riverdale residents have been outraged to see their suburb rebranded according to its proximity to Manhattan. “Excuse us if we take umbrage with the idea of being lumped together only to be defined by our southern neighbours, said the Riverdale Press newspaper.
In the New York borough of Brooklyn, a state assemblyman has even sought to halt the citywide rebranding altogether, with a Bill that would penalise estate agents for creating acronyms: The Neighbourhood Integrity Act — or NIA, as no one dare call it.
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