Saturday, April 6, 2013

The New Italian Market

Helen Urbinas's puff piece on Philly.com has managed to shove the proverbial stick further up the traditional Philadelphian's ass.

This benign article wasn't mean to spark debate, just fill space, but we all know that down the rabbit hole known as the internet, it takes about three posts on message boards or comments sections before the discussion turns racist.

The proposal and conversation is an irrelevant nonstarter. As far as I know, the only official designation of any neighborhood is its District or Ward.

"The Italian Market" is a website, not a legal demarcation.

People will call it what they call it. Developers attempted to rebrand the Gayborhood as Midtown Village, but people still call it the Gayborhood and will as long as Woody's continues to expand. Chinatown is full of Japanese, Korean, Malaysian, and Thai restaurants but will always be called Chinatown.  

It's real estate mumbo jumbo. Call it whatever you want: Little Mexico, Vietnamesetown, International Village, or The Italian Market. Who cares? As long as they keep selling live chicken and kangaroo meat, I'm happy it's there.

1 comment:

  1. I agree. "Italian Market" is a historical name, like "Antique Row"and "Midtown Village" will never pass my lips without a smirk. As long as a name isn't racist, homophobic or patently offensive, there are more important things to worry about than what you aptly called "real estate mumbo-jumbo." As a 9th Street resident, I, too am just glad the Market is there.

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