City Hall Dispatch: Holy marketing ploy, councilman!
One way you know you are a local is when you start hating your hometown's nickname. In SF, for example, residents bristle at the stupid beatnik handle, "Frisco."
In the big city, we got lots to hate. Surely, no self-respecting New Yorker refers to their hometown as "The Big Apple" or "Gotham" in mixed company.
Well, Queens city councilman Hiram Monserrate is taking the law into his own hands, as he tries to push the city council to officially designate our home base "Gotham City."
The reason for this new appellation? The summer release of the newest Batman feature, "Batman: The Dark Night."
He tells the Village Voice's blog:
I see that as a marketing tool, ‘Come visit the real Gotham City,’ taking advantage of this movie which will be one of those gate-breaking, record-selling movies like it always is.
When we talk about Gotham we also talk about the rich architecture that our City enjoys. A lot of Gothic architecture exists in New York City. So Gotham’s also obviously related to Gothic and Gothic architecture which is a form of art, so it’s very important for our art community to strengthen its reconnection to being a Gotham City
We actually kind of like the way Gotham looks on the silver screen--all canyons and towers of skyscrapers, everything sharp and art deco.
But The City Council hawking naming rights to The City of Fear, The City that Never Sleeps, The Capital of the World?
That we're just so-so on.
Councilman Goes to Bat for Gotham City: VV
---David Freedlander
