Monday, February 16, 2009

nicknames for the area?

with this comment on dcist, a joke was born about how to abbreviate our neighborhood's name so it could conform with the hipster shorthand for other neighborhoods in dc ("admo" for adams morgan or "cohi" for columbia heights, for examples). i really think that "blomi" does a great job of poking fun at this form of linguistic construction.

anyway, in scott roberts' bloomingdale listserv post on saturday, i saw the lastest nickname for bloomingdale—a resident of the neighborhood from the 100 block thomas street nw said, "We are in South East of North West Washington..."

so, as far as northwest DC goes, we are in the southeast part of it. guess the connotation is meant to go along with the thought that "southeast" is often shorthand for the "rough" or even "dangerous" part of DC.

while bloomingdale's crime profile is certainly not as rosy as the palisades or normanstone terrace, i think we live in a pretty un-rough part of the district. i don't mean to call this person from thomas street out, i just thought it would an interesting thought to share.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure, but the Why I Hate DC blog may have coined Blomi in their latest post, but I think they intended it to be pronounced BloMi(Blow Me). I could be wrong though.

IMGoph said...

t unit: those folks came to the name from dcist, where it was coined first.

DCBuppie said...

LMAO at "BLO Mi" LMAO LMAO.

How about good ole Bdale?
Or Da'Dale?

Anonymous said...

i thought "bloomingdale" WAS the hipster name.

older residents don't call it that.
a neighborhood is what it is today, not necessarily what history tells us it is.

IMGoph said...

well, mr. anonymous, since you're the expert around here, what do older residents call the neighborhood where they live?

PoorLilRichBoy said...

Bloomingdale/Shaw is far from the SE of NW. I'd be interested to see a comparison of crime statistics between G'town, Dupont, Capitol Hill, and Bloomingdale.

A lot of this is just assumptions based on race and finances and not real statistics. You chose to live here, embrace the diversity.

IMGoph said...

poorlilrichboy: just so we're not getting things mixed up here, i do embrace the diversity of this neighborhood, and i don't think it's some kind of crime haven. i was just reporting what others said...

hipchickindc said...

I vote for B'dale.

Anon, I've only heard longtime residents call the area "Bloomingdale". The Bloomingdale Civic Association is one of the oldest and most continuously active in the city, from what I understand.

IMGoph, I was trying to find an e-mail address for you and couldn't. If you get a chance, e-mail me at my screen name at yahoo. I want to ask you something about the business district area. Thanx