Has Southie gone completley bonkers? – Update*
Last year, The Boston Herald reported on a push for a name change to the Broadway Station area of South Boston. “Broadway Village” was the answer to a question posed by a billboard that sat on top of the now-demolished Quiet Man Pub building. The billboard read, “This corner needs a name,” and then an email address to which you could send suggestions. Broadway Village Real Estate put up that sign, and according to them – “Broadway Village” was just one of the creative suggestions they received. Hmmm….
Broadway Village was also chosen in an online poll, with 50% of the 200 people voting in favor of it. So now what? Like that, It just becomes Broadway Village? Everyone knows you can’t just give yourself a nickname. It should happen organically. Well, we guess it stuck – it has come to our attention that Broadway Village Real Estate is selling and renting real estate in the neighborhood of Broadway Village.
Triple O’s – the seedy bar where notorious gangster Whitey Bulger was a fixture – is long gone from this area. Whitey is now spending the rest of his life in prison, and across the street from Whitey’s infamous shake-down joint is a brand-new Starbucks. The old reference name of this neighborhood, the Lower End – has been replaced too many times to count – the West End, The West Side, City Side and now Broadway Village. This is a symbol of a new era for South Boston – the gentrified one -with multi-million dollar condos, yoga and cycle studios, trendy restaurants, and now a potential new name. But underneath all the shiny-new buildings and inflated real estate prices is the grit and heart of our working-class town – the heart that made South Boston appealing in the first place.
We don’t need a marketing gimmick to sell more overpriced real estate. First, there was the Seaport District, then the Innovation District, and now Broadway Village. Honestly, everybody relax. It’s South Boston – near Broadway Station – it’s as simple as that. If it’s good enough for generations before, shouldn’t it be good enough for us?
*Correction: CIS initially stated that the “Broadway Village” subject was voted on at a recent West Broadway Neighborhood Association meeting. We were erroneous in that fact and apologized to the WBNA for any undue stress it may have caused.
Maureen Dahill is the editor of Caught in Southie and a lifelong resident of South Boston sometimes mistaken for a yuppie. Co-host of Caught Up, storyteller, lover of red wine and binge watching TV series. Mrs. Peter G. Follow her @MaureenCaught.
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I am not sure why there is need to change ?
Amen
On Saturday, at Mayor Walsh’s BPL Arts Hearing, a ‘developer’/supporter of the arts’, called for the rebranding of East Boston. Can you believe it?
At the Arts Hearing on Saturday at the Copley BPL, a woman who introduced herself as a ‘Developer’ in East Boston suggested the neighborhood be rebranded. I nearly choked.
It seems tha t most of these people favoring renaming everything have been here since lunchtime. They wish to change anything that doesn’t fit with whatever it is that they fancy. Then they move.
So in all reality this is really the block between A and dorchester. I don’t think that any of these people really understand how small of an area it is to be renaming. This is almost as silly as Bay village in the back bay, its like 5 blocks! even as a new comer (lived here almost 5 years now) I think its dumb. I wish contractors would build some new single families so that we could bring families with kids back to Southie and quit with these high rise condos.
I am not categorically against rebranding, but the developers need to be rebranded. “Develop” sounds too innocuous,too innocent, suggesting something amost noble being done in this neighborhood. Let’s call the developers money grubbers and let’s call the area West Broadway. That always worked just fine for me, has this nice accuracy thing going for it, and sounds lovely. West Broadway was my T-stop and my neighborhood, and it’s not the developers that made it a great place to live.
lived in Southie when it was Southie it is changing lets just hold to our GREAT memorize
It takes a village to live in such a wonderful community and we are one!
Lets get it straight, it’s called Big Broadway…or that particular area, The Lower End.
These people moving in are only seeing $$$ here in Southie….this is why this neighborhood is losing it’s community feel. Everyone’s out for themselves,
Sorry locals. You are now outnumbered 2-1. We will change things as we see fit. It is not your neighborhood anymore!!!!
Boy would this conveniently go well with her Real Estate Agency. Goddamn Village name in the middle of the bustling city area. What’s wrong with West Broadway?
I am not a lifelong resident and only moved to the neighborhood 4 years ago, but still I moved here because of the "grit and heart" and i feel like that is being washed out by a bunch of whiney soccer moms and yuppies that cant bear the site of something old. I love my neighborhood and i dont want to see it change anymore i moved here to live with real people.
Lived in Southie 50 years i have always known it as West Broadway being from the Lower End I think City Point called it Big Broadway.
It's not our neighborhood anymore???? Really??? So even if I have lived here for fifty years not my neighborhood…..hmmmm where is my neighborhood then!!
thumbs up!!
Next Andrew Square will be renamed Washington Village. That was it's name before it was called Andrew.
It will always be South Boston, were do you think this is Beacon Hill, it should be left alone for those of us that were brought up in Southie all of it will always be called Southie.