# Places whose names have been tainted by things named after them

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-whose-names-have-been-tainted-by-things-named-after-them/650980>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [February 21, 2013, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-whose-names-have-been-tainted-by-things-named-after-them/650980 "2013-02-21T16:54:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 4

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-whose-names-have-been-tainted-by-things-named-after-them/650980/61 "2013-02-25T18:09:32Z")

</div>

There’s a lot of streets in American cities that are named “[Gay Street](http://goo.gl/maps/gMDwf)”. Most were platted and named before the 1960s, before the current meaning of the word was mainstream.

I’ve seen research studies from real estate organizations – no cite, but I’ve seen them – that show properties on streets with names that may carry negative connotations take longer to sell than those on more conventionally named streets. Where would you rather buy a house, St. Clair Avenue or Detroit Avenue? Happy Valley Road or Gay Street? Edelweiss Drive or [Hitler Road](http://goo.gl/maps/3fmPn)? The City of East Detroit, Michigan went so far as to change its name to Eastpointe because of the negative connotations of “Detroit”.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-whose-names-have-been-tainted-by-things-named-after-them/650980/62 "2013-02-25T18:37:05Z")

</div>

And all this time I thought [**Swastika, Ontario**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika,_Ontario), was bad enough. It was the end of the beginning for me when a Swastika car wash ripped off my car-radio antenna.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e47c2d/32.png) [@Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hershele_Ostropoler)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2013, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-whose-names-have-been-tainted-by-things-named-after-them/650980/63 "2013-02-26T00:53:24Z")

</div>

> [@elmwood](#):
>
> There’s a lot of streets in American cities that are named “[Gay Street](http://goo.gl/maps/gMDwf)”. Most were platted and named before the 1960s, before the current meaning of the word was mainstream.

One is in Greenwich Village in NYC, not far from the Stonewall Inn. That too predates the current usage, not to mention the neighborhood’s current demography.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-whose-names-have-been-tainted-by-things-named-after-them/650980.md?page=3)