Lower East Side Neighborhood Nickname Alert

The local real estate industry is at it again with their crazy neighborhood nicknames.  Ultimately, the goal with any new designation is gentrification.  In essence, it entails carving a chunk of land from an established community with the intention of enticing prospective buyers and renters.  The phenomenon is nothing new.  After all, the East Village was considered Lower East Side until the 1960s when agents began marketing the area as a cheap alternative to the then hot Greenwich Village.  More recently, though, monikers like Nolita and even ProCro (Brooklyn) tend to make the blood boil.

The Lower East Side has largely remained uncarved, with the exception of Two Bridges.  However, there are unofficial nicknames in the blogosphere – Curbed (and Dealbreaker) coined micro-hood Hell Square and also tried to get momentum behind BelDel (south of Delancey and east of Allen).  With regard to the latter designation, it seems the powers-that-be would love to rechristen this area as “LoDel.”

We first noticed “LoDel” while perusing Con Edison’s Storm Center map last weekend.  So far, it hasn’t really received much traction in real estate parlance.  Yet.

[Photo Credit: Eater]