Imagine that the name of your neighborhood, which has been established for over a century, doesn’t sit well with a local business association. To drum up more interest in the area–to clean things up and make it spiffy–they change the name.
That’s what has happened in San Francisco, where an area was recently rebranded “The East Cut” by a marketing agency. They even whipped up a cute little logo that looks vaguely reminiscent of the Black Flag band logo. They even managed to tell Google Maps that this area should be called The East Cut, not because any real person actually calls it The East Cut, but because the business association and their PR agency thought it would be a fun idea. Thus: The East Cut.
But when it comes to the naming of other streets and areas, it’s instructive to remember that this type of thing happens all the time. The name “Hollywood” was largely (but not completely) invented in the early 20th century to drum up interest in the Hollywoodland real estate development in Los Angeles.
Streets have long been named by property developers, with input from public services such as fire and police. That’s why many older communities have streets with names like Carol, Laurel, Charles, and so on–the names of developers’ children.
