City nicknames lists (1881, 1883, 1884, 1889, 1894)

[Frank Abate]

Special thanks to Geoff Nunberg for pointing out "The City That Waits For
The City That Waits To Die To Die", the nickname of Colma, CA, where San
Franciscans are often buried.

For general knowledge of those on the list, I am interested in in-use and
documented nicknames for American places.  The historical ones that Barry P
has posted are very useful, as they often reflect things that a city was
once famous for, but is no longer.  But current nicknames are important,
too, esp. ones in widespread use.

The ones promulgated by local chambers of commerce, many of which were
clearly written by PR people purely for promotional value (and are often
somewhat to very flattering), are NOT of great interest, at least not to me.
I am looking for "real" nicknames that have (or had) popular currency.  One
way you can tell the "real" ones is that they often occur in names of
businesses and such.  Older ones, such New Haven as "The Elm City" (most of
the elms are gone now, of course), often are still in commercial use -- in
this case, there is an Elm City brewery (and ale) in New Haven.  For
Middletown, CT, it is "Forest City" (also used of Cleveland, OH), which is
not in popular use, but is the name of a dry cleaning business in
Middletown.

So one can verify the nicknames often by checking the Yellow Pages.

Frank Abate
(at work on a dictionary of American Placenames)