A neighborhood by any other name…

The madness of the real estate market here never ceases to amaze me, as I’ve touched on before. Possibly the silliest by-product of the development craze has been the invention of new neighborhood names, or the invention of names in order to make existing hoods sound more, um, top-draaawer dahling. For example, saying Dupont East instead of Logan Circle or Shaw. A real estate agent friend of mine just stopped by tonight and alerted me to a new example that really takes the cake.

“There’s a condo being built just down the street from you,” he said, pointing down 11th, “that’s advertised as being located in ‘Logan Heights’…”

Logan Heights? I’m sorry, what? Aren’t we in the U Street Historic District? Or Shaw? Or Old City, as the old maps say? Heights? Where the hell is the hill? Logan Slopes, more like it, or Logan’s Bottom. Heights, my ass. Please, developers, get a bloody grip.

As if calling a condo building off 14th Street “Saxon Court” wasn’t bad enough.

Good grief.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

As one of the founding editors of We Love DC, Jenn’s passions are theater and cocktails. After two decades in the city, she’s loved every quirky, mundane, elegant, rude minute of her DC life. A proud advocate for DC’s talented drinks scene, she’s judged the Corcoran Gallery of Art’s ARTINI contest, the DC Rickey Month contest, the Jefferson Hotel’s Quill Cocktail competition, and is a founding member of LUPEC DC. A graduate of Catholic University’s drama program, she toured the country as a member of National Players, and has been both an actor and a costume designer before jumping the aisle to theater criticism. Writing for We Love DC restored her happiness after a life-threatening illness, and she’s grateful to you, dear readers. Send your suggestions to jenn (at) welovedc (dot) com and follow her on Twitter.

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