City Nicknames Reflect True Identity?
Down in Florida, Coral Gables and Orlando were preparing for an all-out war over who gets to claim the nickname “The City Beautiful,” which seems like such a silly squabble, because beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But, truth be told, Coral Gables is probably much more beautiful than Orlando’s theme-parked environs. It just has to be. Especially considering that Coral Gables has a Zindex of $581k and Orlando is $224K.
Do you know the nickname for your city? I’m talking about the official nickname as bestowed by public officials or something that may have been voted on by the city residents. In Seattle, we are officially known as the “Emerald City,” for obvious reasons. Which reminds me of a flight I was on from New York to Seattle last January. Most East Coast passengers, who were snow-laden and deprived of any color other than white and mud, oohed and awed when the lush, green color of Seattle appeared as we circled overhead. Someone from the flight crew piped in over the loudspeaker, “There’s a reason it’s so green down there.” Yeah, don’t remind us.
Back to city nicknames. I used to live in Baltimore where the nickname is “The Greatest City in America” as well as “Charm City.” For anyone who has visited Baltimore or lived there, I think we can all agree that this is an overstatement. I actually thought it was a joke being circulated by some snarky radio station. Benches all over Baltimore actually have the nickname stenciled onto them (photo above of litter strewn around a Baltimore bench from blogs.indiewire.com). For all of Baltimore’s shortcomings, the Baltimore people are fantastic and are trying hard to change it. From the looks of it, the population is slowly turning around. Maybe their new nickname should change to, “Gritty City and Proud of it.”
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