Globe vs. SoWa?

Published Feb 26 2007, 06:46 PM by Adam Reilly

If you read the Globe's op-ed page in its entirety yesterday, you caught this interesting statement in Alyssa Haywoode's "Editorial notebook": "The SoWa nickname has a wannabe quality, an overeagerness to borrow the cache of SoHo in New York or London."

Never mind that the London neighborhood in question is "Soho"--bravo, Alyssa! You're entirely right. Of course, your employer has probably done more than any other local party to rebrand the area located South of Washington. Consider:

--"Crafters who work south of Washington Street (they call that the SoWa district) host the third annual SoWa Holiday Market today." Meredith Goldstein, December 9, 2006.

--"Bill Weddleton spends his evenings cruising the South End's gentrifying SoWa area in a Ford Explorer painted with rainbow-colored tiger stripes and equipped with a Sony minicam mounted to the dashboard and rooftop spotlight." Suzanne Smalley, May 26, 2006.

--"Boston's so-called SoWa neighborhood (south of Washington Street in the South End) is coming closer to the cool cultural currency of its more famous New York neighbor, SoHo, with the inauguration of its first film festival." Calendar section, May 18, 2006.

I fear the battle is already lost. But Alyssa, if you can convince the Globe to rethink its institutional endorsement of "SoWa's" existence, lunch is on me.

New in the Phoenix: New Times wins

Dennis Johnson: the rest of the story

3 Comments

Rick in Duxbury said:

Wow, hypocrisy from the Globe. Who could have seen THAT coming?

February 27, 2007 3:33 AM
kate from new york said:

I choose to see this as canny passive-aggression on Haywoode's part. That Smalley quote is haunting. Jesus, people: Having a film festival doesn't make Boston like New York any more than it makes it like Austin, or Berlin, or any other great city that hosts a film festival. And the inhabitants of those cities don't seem particularly concerned with aping New York, yet they are famously cool destinations. Boston is not New York, it will never be New York, and why should it be? It's a totally different kind of place, and it has so much that New York doesn't. The advice mom gave us holds true for everything: Be yourself. Trying to emulate the popular kids will only keep you from being happy in your own right. And most of us didn't like those kids, anyway. At bottom, this is just realtor-driven bullshit. Aren't you sick of douchebag I-bankers and trust-fund babies relocating from Manhattan? Cause that's who's inspiring the creation of these twit acronyms. Playing along with this junk is a great way to help price yourself out of town. Don't let developers play on your insecurities, Bostonians.

February 27, 2007 6:39 AM
Ron Newman said:

I generally dislike these names, but I'll give "SoWa" a pass, because as far as I can tell, this area never had a name of its own before.

March 1, 2007 12:40 AM

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Globe vs. SoWa?

3 Comments

Rick in Duxbury said:

kate from new york said:

Ron Newman said:

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