What's in a name?
The use of different neighborhood definitions and names can serve to legitimize one's presence in a community by evoking a sense of place and belonging for residents.
gentrifying. revitalizing. improving. demolishing. ignoring. erasing.
What's in a name?
Neighborhood renaming is nothing new. Some of the longtime Black residents living in the neighborhood called it Across the Tracks or simply, South Philly. The name Graduate Hospital was concocted by developers and real estate agents in the 1970s to entice home buyers to this "up and coming" neighborhood. The neighborhood is now erroneously and widely known as Graduate Hospital. The hospital for which it was named was never situated in the boundaries of the neighborhood and is no longer in existence.
This name-changing initiative was carried out by people with little or no personal connection to the area they renamed. Nor did they consult with the people already thriving in the neighborhood. Non-Black residents have since referred to this area as:
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G-Ho
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South of South
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SoSo
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Schuylkill West
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Southwest Center City
These new names can shape perceptions and stereotypes about who belongs or does not belong in the community; and may influence social interactions and behaviors. The renaming of this neighborhood has interrupted the dynamics of the sense of community force, a term used to describe the process by which various elements work together to produce the experience of sense of community.
All of this is "what's in a name".
departures.
“I really didn’t want to leave,” said Bishop Benjamin Thompson 3d, New Light Beulah’s pastor for 30 years. “To see the (old) neighborhood change, it makes me feel sad and empty, like history is being lost.”