# The term "neighborhood" **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 18, 2015, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-term-neighborhood/713048 "2015-02-18T23:56:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-term-neighborhood/713048/21 "2015-02-19T18:51:10Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Chicago has well-defined neighborhoods as well (although new ones are added as areas are gentrified or otherwise developed). That said, I use the term more loosely than what the map says. If someone asks what neighborhood I live in, I give the actual name (Archer Heightss) but, depending on context, “the neighborhood” can be geographically smaller (like down to the parish or even the half square mile between major street boundaries) or bigger, to encompass more of the Southwest Side. “Midway neighborhood” being one geographic shorthand. Same here. I live in [North Center](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Center,_Chicago), but I really consider the boundaries to be Montrose, Addison, Western and Ashland. Roscoe Village is technically part of North Center, but I would never say “I went to Costello’s in North Center.” I would say “I went to Costello’s in Roscoe Village.” ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-term-neighborhood/713048/22 "2015-02-19T19:16:22Z")
Sacramento has a few very well defined neighborhoods. I live in Natomas. It has specific boundaries. It is very large (large enough really to be it’s own city/suburb) and probably not what most people think of as a neighborhood, but that’s what it’s called. To be further specific, I live in South Natomas, which is on the south side of the freeway from North Natomas. Some neighborhoods here are only a few city blocks. Some are huge like mine. ---
**Author:** ![Octarine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/22d042/32.png) [@Octarine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octarine)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-term-neighborhood/713048/23 "2015-02-19T20:01:05Z")
I’m in the suburbs. When I sit on my roof, all the houses I can see are in my “neighborhood”. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-term-neighborhood/713048/24 "2015-02-19T23:08:33Z")
> [@Caffeine.addict](#): > > I have to disagree with you on NoMa being racist. I think that as branding goes, it is incredibly stupid since anyone who lives near Union Station isn’t going to claim they live in NoMa as opposed to Capitol Hill or off of H Street. The only part where the name stuck is that part north of H (or really K Street) where all the new development is. Again, I said vaguely racist, but my point was that new and often white people move in and rename it. Mostly what I hate about the new neighborhood names is that they’re trying to be New York with names that sound like SoHo. White DC has always had an inferiority complex to NYC. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2015, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-term-neighborhood/713048/25 "2015-02-20T05:06:53Z")
I’d like to inject a note of caution on Chicago: neighborhoods have neither fixed names nor boundaries. Neighborhoods expand (Bucktown) and contract (Uptown), are invented (DePaul, Bronzeville, Little Village, Buena Park, Boys Town) or forgotten (Meekerville, Towertown, Schorsch Village, New Town). There’s also the problem of sub-neighborhoods, such as Printers Row within the South Loop, or Pill Hill within South Shore. And people who live in Lake Meadows or Lathrop Homes think of that housing project as their neighborhood. Fifty years ago, I’ve heard that Irish South Siders often replied with what parish they were part of rather than a subdivision or neighborhood name. African-Americans often give a nearby intersection when answering “where do you live?” I hear so much attention to this subject from millennials—mostly recent arrivals in the big city—that I’ve come to regard neighborhood names as a Thing White People Like. In the 1920s, University of Chicago sociologists divided Chicago into 75 (now 77) “community areas,” but it’s best to think of these as statistical divisions rather than neighborhoods. Along the lakefront, these track pretty closely our perception of neighborhoods, but many of the inland designations (Lower West Side, New City, North Center) are catchalls of convenience that lumped together several separate ethnic and community groups. Even when the general area of a neighborhood can be identified, it’s hard to determine exact boundaries that everyone agrees on. But if you **have** to have a neighborhood map, [this one doesn’t seem too bad.](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1938060/City_Neighborhoods_11x17.pdf) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2015, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-term-neighborhood/713048/26 "2015-02-20T05:40:52Z")
> [@Mr\_Downtown](#): > > Fifty years ago, I’ve heard that Irish South Siders often replied with what parish they were part of rather than a subdivision or neighborhood name. It’s not even an Irish thing, nor that long ago. I was born in 1975, and growing up in a fairly Polish neighborhood, it was common to identify where one is from by mentioning the parish. I still hear people talking about neighborhoods down here in terms of parishes, but it tends to be from people slightly older than me. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2015, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-term-neighborhood/713048/27 "2015-02-20T12:27:43Z")
For me, my neighborhood is the part of the city that I know very well. I’ll be driving across town and all of a sudden, I kind of pop out onto a street that says ‘home’ to me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-term-neighborhood/713048.md?page=1)