The Broncks', the borough of my childhood, fades away

Mark Mandel thnidu at GMAIL.COM
Mon Dec 10 02:40:55 UTC 2007


Oh, quite. That's why I put the winkie face at the end of the sentence, to
balance the "Unaccountably" at the beginning.

m a m

On Dec 9, 2007 1:47 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:

> At 12:51 PM -0500 12/9/07, Mark Mandel wrote:
> >Also Central Park West, North, and South, which are the portions of 8th
> >Ave., 110th St., and 59th St. that border the park on those sides.
> >Unaccountably, the corresponding portion of Fifth Ave. is not called
> >*Central Park East. ;-)
>
> One factor here is that while "Central Park West" is an upgrade over
> "8th Avenue" (given the reputation of that latter thoroughfare below
> the area in question), "Fifth Avenue" needs and wants no euphemisms;
> after all, it's Fifth Avenue.  No doubt, it's all about the money.
> (The North and South ones are so short that the renaming is just
> silly.)  As for 6th Avenue, I've always assumed that while it doesn't
> have the prestige of Fifth (or the bad rep of 8th), it certainly
> doesn't *need* a nomenclatural upgrade, and "Avenue of the Americas"
> is just too cumbersome to serve as one.  I know other countries and
> cities go in for those long names, but we Americans (and especially
> we New Yorkers) are too much in a hurry.
>
> LH
>
>

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