I'm 33 and have actually only lived inside of 128 for the past 2.5 years. I'm an "old timer" I guess?
We'll see how this goes. It's going to be hard to "brand" this area as "Uptown" when it's pretty deeply rooted as the Bulfinch Triangle and also happens to be on the periphery of the North End, West End, and Government Center. Too many names to just toss another into the hat.
I will say this though - the tidbit about the Leather District being "created" in the 90s was interesting to me. I use the term to describe the area and sort of thought it had a long-standing tradition. Apparently not. Don't see this happening with Uptown though.
Brian Koop said:“Old-timers call it the Bulfinch Triangle. We don’t like that name,” Koop said. “We’re trying Uptown.”
Whatever your personal opinion of the piece is, your claim that statler's rebuttal is "obvious to anyone" is just false. Here's an NBER paper making a convincing argument that for colleges, nearly all press is good press, with a mechanism of action (increased media coverage) that is identical to the effect you dismissed: https://www.nber.org/papers/w24852
Personal attack away, but don't do it with data you don't have.
The developer doesn't like "Bulfinch Triangle". Tough shit!
See also: DTX. I was shocked to learn that was a branding effort. Always thought it was organic.
“Old-timers call it the Bulfinch Triangle. We don’t like that name,” Koop said. “We’re trying Uptown.”
lol
That's what you get paid for, Koop!
I think you need to be more specific with your nomenclature.
"Downtown Crossing" was absolutely a top-down imposition/marketing innovation by the Mayor White Administration ca. 1978-79, part of the creation of the (much-maligned) pedestrian zone. Hard to find citations to it from a quick Googling, but the proof--which I've seen first-hand--is the very rare Red Line subway car that has a Red Line corridor map showing "Washington Street" as the name for the stop now called "Downtown Crossing."
But, you're saying "DTX" didn't emerge organically from street slang? That the BPDA and/or an urban placemaking firm actually coined it and was paid/worked professionally to get it traction? Hard to believe but I suppose it's plausible...
Fair.
I was using Downtown Crossing and DTX interchangeably, but an argument could be made they are, in fact, distinct and that DTX is an organic offshoot of the original branding effort.
To salvage something out of this, here's my best shot at crayoning a new growth (sub)neighborhood near North Station that BXP could name whatever it wants:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1BrZaPoO-npUxLi_8GcbgjNxZvagj2qGL&usp=sharing
Some of you may recall that when Atlantic Wharf was launched, Boston Properties christened the neighborhood "The Waterfront District" because "The Financial District" is a bad brand for a mixed-use development.
This same conversation that we're having right now played itself out back then too. The purists and curmudgeons were outraged! A few tragically hip people thought it was cool. Most sensible people didn't pay it any attention at all. Yet the brokers and marketers believed that it was a good way to tell the story to prospective businesses, residents and retailers... and it likely was.
Eight years later, there's no "Waterfront District" and eight years from now there will be no "Uptown" either. But why would BP care? They are one of the smartest and most successful developers this city has ever known. They know exactly what they are doing.
PS: "The Waterfront District" lives on! At least in two places:
https://www.atlanticwharflofts.com/locale/
https://www.atlanticwharfboston.com/location/