Real Estate Broker’s Effort to Rebrand Harlem Faces Criticism

Jul 05, 2017

A real estate brokerage’s effort to rebrand an area of the Harlem section of New York City is facing charges of disrespect to the celebrated neighborhood.

According to a NY1 News report, the local Keller Willams brokerage has used the term “SoHa” to describe between 110th and 125th Streets; the term is clearly inspired by “SoHo,” which has been used for years to define the neighborhood south of Houston Street in the city.

However, State Sen. Brian Benjamin took umbrage with “SoHa.” "The real issue comes when you want to abbreviate the name Harlem,” he said. “Because once you take the name Harlem out of the definition you are now coming up with a whole new classification of this location. And Harlem is an historic name, representing an historic village. And we want to make sure that anytime anyone represents Harlem, Harlem is in the word, Harlem is in the vocabulary,"

However, the brokerage did not respond to Benjamin’s statement and is still using the “SoHa” label to mark out the neighborhood.

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Phil Hall

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Jul 05, 2017

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