Ernest Hemingway wrote in A Farewell to Arms that “only the names of places had dignity.” Has a history of cookie cutter, master-planned development robbed our places of value?
Marylys Harris writes of the anodyne names that populates maps of the Twin Cities metropolitan area: “everything within five miles of the Ridgedale shopping mall is named Ridge Something: Ridge Center, Ridge Village, Ridge Park, Ridge Point — the list goes on and on.” Much of the current nomenclatural blandness stands in contrast to a time when naming inspired more creativity: “both our cities launched with much more originality. Once upon a time, St. Paul was Pig's Eye…Minneapolis is a mash-up of the Dakota word ‘minnehaha’ for waterfall and polis, the Greek word for city.”
The problem with naming every place after a synonym for vanilla? Harris explains: “In survey after survey, it turns out that places people love prosper more. And, while a city's beauty, climate and cultural offerings count for a lot, names can help bolster an identity.” She also recommends mining the historic and cultural context of places for more lovable names.
FULL STORY: Identity crisis: Names of places in Twin Cities lack creativity
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Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Nashville Planning Department
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
Journal of the American Planning Association