The gaping maw of SHNOT.Photo: Everett Bogue
In this morning’s “Critical Shopper” column, Mike Albo goes clothes hunting in a “freshly gentrified neighborhood that is about to become the city’s next overhyped fashion and night life destination.”
Like SoHo in the ’80s, NoLIta in the ’90s, WeChe in the oughts and the meatpacking district in your nightmares, this area is shaping up to be a playground for people who own a luxury handbag for every day of the week. Real estate developers are trying to call the neighborhood Hudson Square, but I think SHNOT (South of Houston, North of TriBeCa) is so much better.
HaHa! we thought when we read this. Imagine if you worked in a neighborhood called “SHNOT.” Every day you’d have to wake up and say, “Bye, honey! I’m off to spend the rest of the day sitting in my SHNOT cubicle! Maybe I’ll eat in one of the fine SHNOT restaurants, but probably just eat something at my desk I picked up from one of the great SHNOT takeout place.”
Of course, like all dummies with the luxury of rearranging events in order to suit a blog post, it was only after having all of these funny thoughts that we realized WE work in SHNOT. We’re knee-deep in it! In fact, New York Magazine’s move here is a veritable symbol of the area’s gentrification: We’re SHNOT pioneers! The above photo is taken from outside our window. We’ve long wondered what this weird “West of Soho, South of Houston, North of Canal” neighborhood would end up being called, and we were really hoping that “Hudson Square” would stick. But now that we think about it, we kind of like saying the word “SHNOT.” In fact, we can’t stop saying it. Hm. You know what? From now on your Daily Intel editors are no longer a Brooklynite and an East Villager. We’re SHNOT rockets!
