Gold Coast?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A couple years ago, I was chatting with a coworker about our recent decision to buy in DC. He asked what neighborhood, and when I replied Shepherd Park, he smiled and said, "Oh, that's the Gold Coast." That was the first time I'd heard of it, although I'm AA (new to the area). My coworker is an AA older gentlemen--who lives in McLean.

It doesn't denigrate AA history in DC that other areas, including part of NoVa, are referred to as the "Gold Coast."

It's not exactly a unique term, and people who use the term may travel in different circles.

Exactly. Good luck getting that point across to the angry PP though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had never heard of DC's gold coast, only the one in Chain Bridge- that name always stuck with me because it's high on the bluff along the coast of the Potomac and made sense as far as the name.

Rivers don't have 'coasts'. They have banks, bluffs, even shores. Not coasts. In English, at least in America.

The usage for real estate (as opposed to African places that export gold) is very loose (even for Chicago) and need not be associated with a body of water, which is why I think the gold coast in DC is called that. Though I don't here that name much anymore either - but never for the Chain Bridge area in Va - but I live in Alexandria. Maybe this is something only used in the area itself? Or only by realtors?

Or maybe it gets used by realtors, and then picked up by journalists writing about real estate, and then repeated by people who read what the journalists write...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/where-we-live/wp/2015/06/08/former-home-of-alexander-haig-returns-to-the-market/?utm_term=.a1605bd33544

https://www.washingtonian.com/2008/07/31/luxury-homes-august-2008/

http://washingtonlife.com/2007/06/01/the-2007-wealth-list/2/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've lived in DC for a decade and have never heard of anyone refer to the "Gold Coast" except to refer to Arlington/mcclean by the river.

Same here

Now you know! As a DC native I wouldn't expect transplants to know about the name and historical significance. But growing up here the term was readily used like "she lives on the gold coast." I don't know if that's still true with youth today what with all the ways the city has changed.

Sometimes it is exhausting when transplants want to act like they know everything about DC. And it is still called the 'Gold Coast' by black ppl from the area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've lived in DC for a decade and have never heard of anyone refer to the "Gold Coast" except to refer to Arlington/mcclean by the river.

Same here

Now you know! As a DC native I wouldn't expect transplants to know about the name and historical significance. But growing up here the term was readily used like "she lives on the gold coast." I don't know if that's still true with youth today what with all the ways the city has changed.

Sometimes it is exhausting when transplants want to act like they know everything about DC. And it is still called the 'Gold Coast' by black ppl from the area.

So? do you think that makes it more or less significant to what mainstream society calls it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've lived in DC for a decade and have never heard of anyone refer to the "Gold Coast" except to refer to Arlington/mcclean by the river.

NP who is embarrassed to say I have lived here since 1994, 3 of those years in Cleveland Park, 15 on Capitol Hill, and the rest in Arlington, and I've never heard any neighborhood in the DC area referred to as "the Gold Coast." (Well, I'm not really embarrassed about the VA Gold Coast, but I am embarrassed not to know of a historic neighborhood in DC.)

I've heard it, but not often - I think its a fairly old fashioned name for the area.

NP. Absolutely not true. Gold Coast (in DC) is still as prevelant as ever. It's a fixed term deeply rooted in native DC/black terminology. It's as common as saying you live by the big chair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've lived in DC for a decade and have never heard of anyone refer to the "Gold Coast" except to refer to Arlington/mcclean by the river.

NP who is embarrassed to say I have lived here since 1994, 3 of those years in Cleveland Park, 15 on Capitol Hill, and the rest in Arlington, and I've never heard any neighborhood in the DC area referred to as "the Gold Coast." (Well, I'm not really embarrassed about the VA Gold Coast, but I am embarrassed not to know of a historic neighborhood in DC.)

I've heard it, but not often - I think its a fairly old fashioned name for the area.

NP. Absolutely not true. Gold Coast (in DC) is still as prevelant as ever. It's a fixed term deeply rooted in native DC/black terminology. It's as common as saying you live by the big chair.

Newcomer here. What does that mean?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've lived in DC for a decade and have never heard of anyone refer to the "Gold Coast" except to refer to Arlington/mcclean by the river.

NP who is embarrassed to say I have lived here since 1994, 3 of those years in Cleveland Park, 15 on Capitol Hill, and the rest in Arlington, and I've never heard any neighborhood in the DC area referred to as "the Gold Coast." (Well, I'm not really embarrassed about the VA Gold Coast, but I am embarrassed not to know of a historic neighborhood in DC.)

I've heard it, but not often - I think its a fairly old fashioned name for the area.

NP. Absolutely not true. Gold Coast (in DC) is still as prevelant as ever. It's a fixed term deeply rooted in native DC/black terminology. It's as common as saying you live by the big chair.

Newcomer here. What does that mean?

Anacostia, girl!

[Anonymous]

The Jefferson memorial.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had never heard of DC's gold coast, only the one in Chain Bridge- that name always stuck with me because it's high on the bluff along the coast of the Potomac and made sense as far as the name.

Rivers don't have 'coasts'. They have banks, bluffs, even shores. Not coasts. In English, at least in America.

The usage for real estate (as opposed to African places that export gold) is very loose (even for Chicago) and need not be associated with a body of water, which is why I think the gold coast in DC is called that. Though I don't here that name much anymore either - but never for the Chain Bridge area in Va - but I live in Alexandria. Maybe this is something only used in the area itself? Or only by realtors?

Or maybe it gets used by realtors, and then picked up by journalists writing about real estate, and then repeated by people who read what the journalists write...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/where-we-live/wp/2015/06/08/former-home-of-alexander-haig-returns-to-the-market/?utm_term=.a1605bd33544

https://www.washingtonian.com/2008/07/31/luxury-homes-august-2008/

http://washingtonlife.com/2007/06/01/the-2007-wealth-list/2/

evidently.

Three citations, of which two are from 2008 or earlier. Two of the three are real estate columns. The third is from a mag I've never heard of that focuses on the wealthy.

Which might explain why did not see them when googling on "gold coast virgina" In fact references to colonial era virginia and the african gold coast come up earlier. In contrast to googling on gold coast DC, which brings up lots of links to stories about the 16th street area.

So its a really obscure usage, mostly in high end real estate circles, versus a fairly widespread, if somewhat old fashioned usage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had never heard of DC's gold coast, only the one in Chain Bridge- that name always stuck with me because it's high on the bluff along the coast of the Potomac and made sense as far as the name.

Rivers don't have 'coasts'. They have banks, bluffs, even shores. Not coasts. In English, at least in America.

The usage for real estate (as opposed to African places that export gold) is very loose (even for Chicago) and need not be associated with a body of water, which is why I think the gold coast in DC is called that. Though I don't here that name much anymore either - but never for the Chain Bridge area in Va - but I live in Alexandria. Maybe this is something only used in the area itself? Or only by realtors?

Or maybe it gets used by realtors, and then picked up by journalists writing about real estate, and then repeated by people who read what the journalists write...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/where-we-live/wp/2015/06/08/former-home-of-alexander-haig-returns-to-the-market/?utm_term=.a1605bd33544

https://www.washingtonian.com/2008/07/31/luxury-homes-august-2008/

http://washingtonlife.com/2007/06/01/the-2007-wealth-list/2/

evidently.

Three citations, of which two are from 2008 or earlier. Two of the three are real estate columns. The third is from a mag I've never heard of that focuses on the wealthy.

Which might explain why did not see them when googling on "gold coast virgina" In fact references to colonial era virginia and the african gold coast come up earlier. In contrast to googling on gold coast DC, which brings up lots of links to stories about the 16th street area.

So its a really obscure usage, mostly in high end real estate circles, versus a fairly widespread, if somewhat old fashioned usage.

Fair enough, but what's your point? The question has been all along whether another usage exists at all, and whether therefore the person who thought OP meant the area just across the river should be embarrassed or not. I think that is all PP was trying to prove.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had never heard of DC's gold coast, only the one in Chain Bridge- that name always stuck with me because it's high on the bluff along the coast of the Potomac and made sense as far as the name.

Rivers don't have 'coasts'. They have banks, bluffs, even shores. Not coasts. In English, at least in America.

The usage for real estate (as opposed to African places that export gold) is very loose (even for Chicago) and need not be associated with a body of water, which is why I think the gold coast in DC is called that. Though I don't here that name much anymore either - but never for the Chain Bridge area in Va - but I live in Alexandria. Maybe this is something only used in the area itself? Or only by realtors?

Or maybe it gets used by realtors, and then picked up by journalists writing about real estate, and then repeated by people who read what the journalists write...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/where-we-live/wp/2015/06/08/former-home-of-alexander-haig-returns-to-the-market/?utm_term=.a1605bd33544

https://www.washingtonian.com/2008/07/31/luxury-homes-august-2008/

http://washingtonlife.com/2007/06/01/the-2007-wealth-list/2/

evidently.

Three citations, of which two are from 2008 or earlier. Two of the three are real estate columns. The third is from a mag I've never heard of that focuses on the wealthy.

Which might explain why did not see them when googling on "gold coast virgina" In fact references to colonial era virginia and the african gold coast come up earlier. In contrast to googling on gold coast DC, which brings up lots of links to stories about the 16th street area.

So its a really obscure usage, mostly in high end real estate circles, versus a fairly widespread, if somewhat old fashioned usage.

Fair enough, but what's your point? The question has been all along whether another usage exists at all, and whether therefore the person who thought OP meant the area just across the river should be embarrassed or not. I think that is all PP was trying to prove.

The person who responded to OP said flat out that Gold Coast means the Chain Bridge area. No qualifications that it MIGHT mean something else. Being 100% certain of something, that turns out to be incorrect (IE Gold Coast, though occasionally used by a few RE pros in that area to mean McLean and N arlington, is WIDELY used for the 16th street area of DC) would embarrass me if I did it. Plus its likely the user is a RE pro themselves, given that is who primarily uses it that way - and for a real estate pro in the area to be that wrong about a widespread usage of the term in DC, would seem even more embarrassing.

TLDR - before you make a definitive, even slightly insulting statement, maybe google to make sure you are using terms correctly?

[Anonymous]

"Its not what you don't know that makes you a fool, its what you know that isn't so"

[Anonymous]

More on DC's Gold Coast for those interested--20-min documentary (haven't actually watched this myself, but it's on my list since we now live in this area).

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8c_yutpWlug

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I had never heard of DC's gold coast, only the one in Chain Bridge- that name always stuck with me because it's high on the bluff along the coast of the Potomac and made sense as far as the name.[/quote]

Rivers don't have 'coasts'. They have banks, bluffs, even shores. Not coasts. In English, at least in America.

The usage for real estate (as opposed to African places that export gold) is very loose (even for Chicago) and need not be associated with a body of water, which is why I think the gold coast in DC is called that. Though I don't here that name much anymore either - but never for the Chain Bridge area in Va - but I live in Alexandria. Maybe this is something only used in the area itself? Or only by realtors?[/quote]

Or maybe it gets used by realtors, and then picked up by journalists writing about real estate, and then repeated by people who read what the journalists write...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/where-we-live/wp/2015/06/08/former-home-of-alexander-haig-returns-to-the-market/?utm_term=.a1605bd33544

https://www.washingtonian.com/2008/07/31/luxury-homes-august-2008/

http://washingtonlife.com/2007/06/01/the-2007-wealth-list/2/
[/quote]

evidently.

Three citations, of which two are from 2008 or earlier. Two of the three are real estate columns. The third is from a mag I've never heard of that focuses on the wealthy.

Which might explain why did not see them when googling on "gold coast virgina" In fact references to colonial era virginia and the african gold coast come up earlier. In contrast to googling on gold coast DC, which brings up lots of links to stories about the 16th street area.

So its a really obscure usage, mostly in high end real estate circles, versus a fairly widespread, if somewhat old fashioned usage. [/quote]

Just because you may not be personally familiar with much high-end real estate does not make a term that is well known to others to describe part of NoVa obscure.

[Anonymous]

I've heard of the Gold Coast name for the 16th st. heights. But I don't think this area is a marker for the affluence the name aims to connote.