BostInnovation - Most Bostonians are familiar with the city’s neighborhoods: the North End is Boston’s take on Little Italy, Cambridge houses the smartypants from MIT and Harvard, Allston is the Hub’s hipster hangout and Charlestown is for yuppies and bank robbers. But what is the West End? Where are its boundaries? Who lives there? Even native Bostonians have trouble answering these questions. Wikipedia defines the West End as the neighborhood bounded by Cambridge Street to the south, the Charles River to the west and northwest, North Washington Street on the north and New Sudbury Street on the east. Essentially, the MGH campus. However, others would argue the West End also includes TD Garden and its numerous sports bars. The only thing I know about the neighborhood is that a few of my friends live in a luxury high rise in the West End...Still confused? Us too. Today, the controversial Urban Renewal of the 20th century still leaves many longing for the good ole days. For example, take Yasmin McCarthy and Jimmy Guzman, co-creators of the community group SoCA...they’ve decided to draw artists back to the West End by giving the entire area a new name. Dubbing it “South of Canal Street,” or SoCA for short,
Wait, wait, wait...Boston has a West End? What? I'm going to be honest, for years my friends and I have struggled with what to call that area, generally referring to it as the Garden area, "those bars by Canal and Friend Street," and one particular friend who steadfastly believes it's a part of the North End, despite everyone he knows telling him otherwise. So if we want to clear this up and just call it the West End once and for all, I'm all for it, I just feel like maybe a full page ad in the Globe should be taken out, just so everyone's on board and there's no more confusion (and I'll hand deliver a copy of that paper to my geographically confused friend as final proof).
That said, I will not be calling it SoCA. That's just about the most-unoriginal and hack-y name I've ever heard, just edging out SoWa. I thought artistic people were supposed to be creative? How come everytime an "artistic" neighborhood in Boston springs up, the first thing the hipsters rush to do is name the neighborhood after SoHo in New York? Really? You've got nothing better? West End isn't trendy enough? It's a brand new name, like I'm guaranteeing 70% of Boston'ers have no idea where the West End is. That's trendy! Do we really have to copy NY, again?
If that's the case, and you really want to go with an acronym, go with WeGa (West of Greenway, pronounced We Gay). It reflects the geographical area and the refusal to come up with any sort of original naming acronym, in favor of just succumbing to the cities inferiority complex when it comes to all things NY.
