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Harlem shuffle

文章选自2017/7/29的The Economist。 这里对文章进行生词释义和句子分析，仅供学习使用，欢迎交流。

导读： 本文讨论了纽约几个区改名字的历史。

• Harlem shuffle: 滚石的一首老歌， 在这里比喻纽约路名的变迁

Why some names stick and others do not

为什么一些名字还在使用， 一些却不再使用了

• stick(v.): 仍在使用
  e.g. They called him 'Snoopy' at school, and the name stuck. 有人在学校叫他“史努比”, 后来这名字就叫开了。

HARLEM’S Apollo Theatre, where Ella Fitzgerald first sang, and the Hotel Theresa, which counted among its guests Josephine Baker, Muhammad Ali and Fidel Castro, are landmarks. Malcolm X, who called Harlem “Seventh Heaven”, preached on the corner of 116th Street. Stretching further back, in the 1920s and 1930s the Harlem Renaissance gave rise to an outpouring of literature, art and music. Harlemites are proud of this history, and proportionately upset that estate agents are trying to rebrand the southern part and call it SoHa.

哈林区的地标有：Ella Fitzgerald的首演地--阿波罗剧院， 还有被Josephine Baker，Muhammad Ali和Fidel Castro高度赞扬的特蕾莎旅馆。

• count(v.): 有价值，重要
  e.g. Every second counts! 每秒钟都很重要
• an outpouring of: 迸发，井喷
  e.g. an outpouring of grief 悲伤情绪的宣泄
• give rise to: 带来，导致
• preach(v.): 布道，宣传
• proportionately(adv.): 相应地
• upset(v.): 打乱，搅乱
  e.g. A deal that would upset the balance of power in the world's gold markets. 一桩将会打破全球黄金市场均势的交易
• estate agent: 不动产经纪人
• rebrand(v.): 重塑...的形象(企业)
  e.g. There are plans to rebrand many Texas stores. 有计划要重塑德克萨斯州诸多门店的品牌形象

Such rebranding is nothing new: New York was once called Nieuw Amsterdam and before that Mannahatta. Pigtown, in central Brooklyn, is now called Wingate. Gas House District is now Stuyvesant Town. Yellow Hook became Bay Ridge after a yellow-fever outbreak. Blooming-dale became the Upper West Side. Neighbourhoods can be fluid, with vague borders. Some have disappeared. Shapes change: in Brooklyn, Park Slope keeps getting bigger and Flatbush keeps getting smaller. Chinatown has been taking over Little Italy.

这样的重建并不少见：纽约曾被叫做Nieuw Amsterdam，在那之前叫做Mannahatta. Pigtown，在中央布鲁克林，现在叫做Wingate.

• yellow fever: 黄热病
• fluid(adj.): 流动的，不稳定的
• vague border: 模糊的边界
• take over: 取代，替代

SoHo, so-called because it is south of Houston Street, was better known until the 1960s as Hell’s Hundred Acres. It was the first to use an acronym, and has spawned imitators. Tribeca (triangle below Canal Street) emerged in the 1970s. Despite, or perhaps because of, its silly name, Dumbo (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) is one of the most sought-after areas in the city. NoHo (north of Houston) and NoLita (North of Little Italy) are now on maps. Others, like SoBro (south Bronx), BoCoCa (Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill and Boreum Hill, which is in fact flat) and Rambo (Right after the Manhattan Bridge Overpass), mercifully did not stick. “None of these worked,” says Philip Kasinitz, a sociologist at City University of New York. “At a certain point they got too silly.”

SoHo, 被这么叫是因为它位于休斯顿街， 闻名于六十年代创建的步行街--Hell’s Hundred Acres. 这个区首次使用了缩写做名字， 并派生了许多模仿者。

• sought-after(adj.):受欢迎的
• overpass(n.): 天桥
• mercifully(adv.): 仁慈地

They also didn’t work, he says, because their residents objected. ProCro, a rebranding of Crown Heights, another historically black neighbourhood in Brooklyn, did not take either. Hell’s Kitchen is equally resilient. Attempts to change the name to the generic Clinton have not been successful. It is a lot easier to rebrand when there are few residents, as was the case in SoHo. Brokers also rely on recent arrivals not knowing the city well.

它们同样没有效果， 他说， 因为它们的邻居都拒绝这样做。

• resilient(adj.): 适应能力强的
• generic(adj.): 普通的

“You can’t talk about this without talking about race,” says Amy Plitt of Curbed, a property blog. Affluent white New Yorkers have flocked to Harlem, followed by restaurants, bars and shops. The stock of cheap housing has dwindled. Longtime residents, already feeling financial pressure, resent what they see as a deliberate move to erase their history. “It’s about identity,” said Brian Benjamin, a Harlem-born state lawmaker. He recently introduced legislation in Albany requiring estate agents to consult the community on any name change, or face a fine. Others see a clumsy attempt to link SoHa to SoHo in the minds of would-be buyers, making it cooler and justifying higher prices. But nowhere is cooler than Harlem.

"讨论这问题一定要考虑竞争的因素，" 一个房地产博客， Amy Plitt of Curbed 如是说。 富裕的纽约白人涌入了哈林区， 带来了大量的餐厅，酒吧和商店。

• property blog: 房地产博客
• dwindle(v.): 逐渐消失
• longtime resident: 长期住户
• financial pressure: 经济压力
• a deliberate move: 故意的举动
• lawmaker(n.): 立法者
• face a fine: 面临罚款
• a clumsy attempt: 不得当的尝试
• would-be buyer: 潜在的买家