Obscure or antiquated place Nicknames

April 5, 2016 8:01 AM

While reading this article on buried German WWII saboteur treasure in the Catskills I came across the name "Borscht Belt" for the Catskill Mountains. What other interesting defunct (or still funct) colloquial nicknames do you know for geographical regions?
posted by srboisvert to Society & Culture (36 answers total)

Lots of these in Boston and New York City, including Pi Alley and the Meatpacking District.
posted by Melismata at 8:05 AM on April 5, 2016

Nobody quite knows why Cabbagetown, Atlanta is called Cabbagetown.
posted by workerant at 8:30 AM on April 5, 2016

Some of my relatives used to live in Sugartit, KY.
posted by in a dark glassly at 8:46 AM on April 5, 2016

South Street Seaport
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:46 AM on April 5, 2016

The Big Smoke is a nickname that has been applied to a number of cities.
posted by pipeski at 8:51 AM on April 5, 2016

Skid Row for the Bowery in lower Manhattan.
posted by flourpot at 8:52 AM on April 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: The North Coast of California (Mendocino, Humboldt, and Del Norte counties) is behind the Redwood Curtain. Within that area is a smaller coastal range called the Lost Coast.
posted by stefanie at 8:57 AM on April 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

Bathtub Row in Los Alamos, NM was so named because at the time of the Manhattan Project, the houses on that street were the only ones containing bathtubs.

Furnace Creek in Death Valley was named because it was effing hot there.

There's also Poverty Point on Cape Cod, a reminder that living on the water used to be an undesirable thing, what a concept.

I live on Whitman Road. The streets next to mine are: Tennyson Road, Byron Road, Emerson Road, and Longfellow Road. My only theory is that some developer in the 19th century liked them.

My friend lives on Miller's Farm Road, a sad reminder of what used to be.
posted by Melismata at 9:07 AM on April 5, 2016

workerant- Cabbagetown is called that because it used to be where all the factory workers lived and they ate a lot of cabbage because it was cheap. The factory is now loft homes and the workers homes are now gentrified.
posted by shaarog at 9:08 AM on April 5, 2016

Best answer: The Redneck Riviera is another name for the Florida Panhandle's beaches.
posted by Carol Anne at 9:10 AM on April 5, 2016 [2 favorites]

Bedpan Alley, which upon googling can refer to a couple different groups of hospitals in NYC but I've always considered it the stretch of First Avenue that includes Bellevue, NYU, and the VA hospital.
posted by yeahlikethat at 9:10 AM on April 5, 2016 [2 favorites]

Skid Row for the Bowery in lower Manhattan.

Likewise, the still going Skid Row in Los Angeles in the area around 6th and San Pedro streets.

In reality, though, wouldn't most neighborhood names fall under this category?
posted by Sara C. at 9:16 AM on April 5, 2016

But didn't the real Skid Road start in Seattle, where logs were skidded?
posted by Ideefixe at 9:19 AM on April 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

I mean, Space City is pretty defunt for Houston, considering we didn't even get a retired shuttle.
posted by Brittanie at 9:22 AM on April 5, 2016

Also, Clutch City is about 20 years outdated at this point.
posted by Brittanie at 9:24 AM on April 5, 2016 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Belt regions of US on Wikipedia
posted by ReluctantViking at 9:31 AM on April 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

I've always liked the Northeast Kingdom, a term for the sparsely populated northeastern corner of Vermont.
posted by Rock Steady at 9:34 AM on April 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

The Panhandle in Texas.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 9:38 AM on April 5, 2016

Just now, as I closing my laptop, I heard the actress movie I am playing in the background (Designing Women, 1957) mention the "Borscht Circuit", what performers called the Borscht Belt.
posted by ReluctantViking at 9:40 AM on April 5, 2016

Cannery Row
Space Coast
Lodo
The Gunks
Eldo
DF ctrl+f nicknames
Taper Section ctrl+f tapes
posted by j_curiouser at 9:43 AM on April 5, 2016

Texas also has The Caprock and Llano Estacado.

Then there are the various "Peoples Republics" of Berkeley or Austin or Madison.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 9:44 AM on April 5, 2016

Coastal Northeast Florida is often called the "First Coast."
posted by saladin at 9:50 AM on April 5, 2016

Alphabet City in the lower east side of Manhattan (The streets A, B, C, and D, which are the only streets in NYC named for a single letter).
posted by archimago at 10:02 AM on April 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

Alphabet City in the lower east side of Manhattan (The streets A, B, C, and D, which are the only streets in NYC named for a single letter).

Not so! There are alphabet-named avenues in Brooklyn, A-Z with a couple dropouts.
posted by praemunire at 10:33 AM on April 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: The Region
posted by Thorzdad at 10:37 AM on April 5, 2016

Frogtown in St. Paul
posted by Flannery Culp at 11:30 AM on April 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

"Frisco"
posted by aspersioncast at 12:09 PM on April 5, 2016

A British friend recently asked me why the Foggy Bottom area of DC was so named. It's because there used to be a large coal-burning industrial plant there right down by the Potomac, around the turn of the 20th century. It did indeed get very foggy back in the day, but not so much now.
posted by backwards compatible at 12:19 PM on April 5, 2016

My mother grew up in "Goosetown" which you can see referenced in this bio of baseball player Johnny Blatnik. I've never heard a story, apocryphal or not, on its origins.
posted by mmascolino at 12:24 PM on April 5, 2016

Troy, NY is the Collar City because the detachable collar industry was huge here in the early 1900s.

There's some debate as to whether Rochester, NY is the Flour City or the Flower City.

Syracuse, NY is the Salt City because of the Onondaga salt springs.
posted by Kriesa at 12:44 PM on April 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

I've heard Chicagoans refer to Wisconsin as being beyond or behind "the cheddar curtain."
posted by writermcwriterson at 2:18 PM on April 5, 2016

Best answer: Tornado Alley
posted by MsMolly at 3:09 PM on April 5, 2016

There are two Dogtowns people might have heard of in the US: The one from the skateboard movie in CA and the ghost town in MA. I am very fond of the Northeast Kingdom mentioned above.
posted by jessamyn at 4:11 PM on April 5, 2016

Pill Hill.
posted by Violet Hour at 10:45 PM on April 5, 2016

Best answer: The Weisswurstäquator, building a cultural 'border' between Bavaria/Southern Germany and the rest of Germany.
posted by LoonyLovegood at 12:33 AM on April 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

My town has two names. See also Cottage City, Holmes Hole, Great Harbor, and Podunk.
posted by vrakatar at 6:09 PM on April 8, 2016