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

[Laurence Horn]

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

>
>I don't think the North and South names get used much outside officialdom,
>much as calling Sixth Avenue "Avenue of the Americas" marks you as an
>out-of-towner. But Central Park West is Central Park West, not exclusively
>but usually.
>
>Mark, who grew up on 82nd St. less than half a block from CPW
>
>On Dec 5, 2007 2:00 PM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>  On Dec 5, 2007 12:03 PM, David Donnell <David.Donnell at earthlink.net>
>>  wrote:
>>
>>  > The NYC street I live on is widely known as "the Bowery", but the
>>  > official street name is just "Bowery".
>>  >
>>  > Also, I'm not aware of any other NYC street names that are just one
>>  > word--Bowery has no "Street" or "Avenue", etc, as part of the name.
>>  >
>>
>>  Broadway.
>>
>>  m a m
>>
>
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