Comments on Orangington? - Greater Greater Washington

Comment by the lone oranger

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:36:43 EDT

all this nonsense talk about naming a neighborhood after the color of the train that passes by on a daily basis. It's bad enough that metro stop names are neighborhood names. Or are the neighborhoods named after the metro stops? It's the age old question, what came first the chicken or the egg? What came first, Orangington or the Orange Line train? Don't see that the Orange Line is an institution in itself. It is its own state of being. It needs no neighborhood. If anything, the neighborhoods need it, regardless of its spontaneous short comings and delays.

nuff said

Comment by SDJ

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:37:12 EDT

I think the Clarendon-Wilson Corridor could be called the "C-W" or the "C-dub". Orangington is not three syllables it's an akward three and a half syllables and kind of sounds like "Orangutan". Okay, so maybe orangutans are orange too.

As for the Red Line corridor, I think "Conn Ave" for Connecticut Avenue and "Wiskey Ave" for Wisconsin work really well!

Comment by dono

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:10:08 EDT

The O.C. (the Orange [line] corridor)

Comment by Squalish

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:52:26 EDT

RBC(or some expansion therein) or Rallston are favorite creative picks so far... but "Downtown Arlington" seems like the default name, and the one more likely to predominate as an auxiliary name when the neighborhoods won't suffice.

Comment by Cathedral Heights

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:30:18 EDT

"The Place DC People go to Smoke in Bars"

Comment by Brett

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:44:34 EDT

Orangington doesn't work for me. what about "Greater Clarendon", or "Downtown Arlington."

Comment by Josh

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:35:13 EDT

Yeah, leaving out the terrible and meaningless sound, the tryingtoohardington factor, and the fact that the Orange line serves a much greater area, so it's not even geographically neat, it's great.

Not to mention, every place within your proposed "orangington" already has a name. If you say you're going to organgington, where are you going? If you say you live there, where do you live? It begs the question. Skip right to the actual answer - let's meet up in Clarendon. I work in Rosslyn. Last night we went to Ballston to see a movie.

GGW - creating problems where none existed....

Comment by EthanJ

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:51:16 EDT

Rosslyn + Ballston = Rallston

The initial vowels in Rosslyn and Ballston sound very similar - combine them and you get a short and obvious word. Except for the spelling...

Comment by crin

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:20:25 EDT

Or maybe just Clarendon.

Comment by mhoek

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 23:13:11 EDT

go with something "Wilson" related. As the main corridor that ties that series of stations together I think it will be the least contrived and most recognizable choice. "The WB" perhaps (dat dum tsh).

Comment by Rob

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:02:43 EDT

I'd rather repurpose the name somebody already came up with--Nearlington: http://dcist.com/2005/12/09/just_how_far_is.php

I'm not opposed to "Uptown Arlington" either, though that name only really works if you omit Rosslyn.

Comment by Tim

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:02:05 EDT

The area does seem to need a name, but no matter how you slice it, anything with "orange" in it sounds awkward.

Comment by Reid

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:54:49 EDT

Doesn't it always work out that you find yourself talking about the most trivial crap when a tragedy hits?

Comment by stevek_fairfax

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:41:32 EDT

Wilson

Comment by Caro

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:38:29 EDT

What about "Central Arlington" or "Downtown Arlington," kind of like "Downtown Silver Spring"?

Comment by Jeanne

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:32:26 EDT

sorry, but I just don't see "Orangington" sticking. I do think "OLC" as shorthand for Orange Line Corridor has lots of potential though. I'm going to start using it.

Comment by BeyondDC

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:15:29 EDT

English fail, seriously. I didn't realize orange is a two-syllable word :facepalm: But I certainly don't say it that way.

So not four syllable Or-anj-ing-ton... three syllable orn-ging-ton.

It doesn't sound like orangutan at all.

Comment by BeyondDC

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:10:39 EDT

I guess technically speaking orange is a two syllable word, but does anybody actually say it that way? I don't pronounce the a.

Like Wednesday. Nobody really pronounces the d.

Comment by Joey

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:41:49 EDT

Sorry, David's unicode/UTF-8 character translations must be quirked up.

What I was going for was the following:

--------

@BDC, how is it the same number of syllables as Washington, Arlington, and Shirlington? Orange (OR.anj) is two syllables. Or.ange.ing.ton is four, not three as in "Washington".

Even then, I'm not sure how to pronounce it as written. Washington and Arlington follow the format WASH.ing.TON and AR.ling.TON. Is it OR.an.jing.TON, or is it or.ANJ.ing.TON, or or.AN.jing.TON, or maybe or.ANG.ing.TON? If it were three syllables with a drawl, I suppose it could be AURNJ.ing.TON?

Comment by Joey

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:38:16 EDT

@BDC, how is it the same number of syllables as Washington, Arlington, and Shirlington? OrÂ·ange is two syllables. OrÂ·angeÂ·ingÂ·ton is four, not three as in "Washington".

Even then, I'm not sure how to pronounce it as written. Washington and Arlington follow the format WASHÂ·ingÂ·TON and ARÂ·lingÂ·TON. Is it ORÂ·anÂ·jingÂ·TON, or is it orÂ·ANJÂ·ingÂ·TON, or maybe orÂ·ANGÂ·ingÂ·TON? If it were three syllables with a drawl, I suppose it could be AURNJÂ·ingÂ·TON?

@Tsarchitect: Of course I refer to the Red-line neighborhoods by name. The issue at hand is what to call an entire corridor of closely-spaced linear metro neighborhoods. Saying "I live along the Orange line" seems to do the trick. "Central Arlington" would work too, if it were understood.

Comment by Vik

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:14:17 EDT

I agree that saying Orange-ing is awkward. Saying it fast...it just doesn't flow right.

Comment by tom veil

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:13:28 EDT

How about naming it for its easternmost and westernmost stations -- Bal-lyn? After all, if you can afford to live near the Ballyn metro stops, then you're ballin'.

Comment by Vik

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:12:34 EDT

I like RBC of what I've seen on this thread so far. That and Tryingtoohardagain.

Orangeington isn't bad, but it's almost forcing it. Like Frank Costanza's The Manssiere.

I do like the concept though. The area has a name, it's just too long, so a new name or the initials being used sounds like a good idea to me.

Comment by Justin

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:11:26 EDT

I didn't say "hard" to pronounce, I said akward. "Orange" is a kind of awkward word in the first place, and putting two "ng"s so close together makes it awkward. Not necessarily hard to say, just unappealing.

Comment by Stuart

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:08:41 EDT

Orangington is unimaginative and awkward to pronounce. Far worse of a moniker than what I'd previously considered to be a proliferation of clumsy and uninspired names in Virginia: Fairlandria, Arlandria, Fairlington..
Why bother with Orangington, and why not just call it Orange? Orange is a place name used by many towns and counties. Or just call it Arlington, because it's generally clear what parts of Arlington people mean, and if need be you can always specify "off the Orange Line."
WTF, GGW, this is something I hope to see mentioned on why.i.hate.dc.

Comment by BeyondDC

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:06:25 EDT

How is it hard to pronounce? Orange-ing-ton. Easy. Same number of syllables as Washington, Arlington or Shirlington, and similar vowel-consonant arrangement.

It is definitely awkward to spell, but I don't concede at all that it's hard to pronounce.

Comment by Aaron

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:04:27 EDT

I think that line would have better been "The Bozzle, Razzle, Cozzle, and the Clizzle Dizzle"

Comment by Alex B.

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:00:15 EDT

Tenleytown refers to Tenleytown - not the entire Red Line corridor.

Likewise, each of the station areas has its own name and identity already. Hell, the rap alone emphasized this - the clizzle dizzle.

I can't really think of any other areas of a similar scale with just one name.

Comment by Justin

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:55:55 EDT

Another problem is the confusion that would be created with the existing neighborhood names. We already have Ballston, Clarendon, Courthouse and Rosslyn... these are distinct names and people pretty much know where they are. They don't need to be linked together with a catchy new name... Orange Line Corridor will do if you absolutely need to refer to the area as a whole.

Comment by цarьchitect

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:55:32 EDT

What the hell Joey? Really, no Tenleytown? No Cleveland Park? No Tobago?

Or do you just mean that the corridor has no name?

Comment by Joey

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:50:45 EDT

I'm with Justin.

Why does it need a name other than something like "central Arlington"?

What do people call the Red Line stretch from Woodley Park to Friendship Heights? It's about the same length, with comparably spaced stations. I usually just call that whole region "Upper Northwest".

Comment by цarьchitect

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:46:37 EDT

Harbington, because it is a harbinger of the smart growth that came after it?

Comment by Jeff

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:45:14 EDT

How about Tryingtoohardington?

Comment by Arlen

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:38:55 EDT

I like where Ñ†arÑŒchitect is going with that, but I also like tying in the Arlington moniker: Arbington? Arbeengton? RBington?

Comment by Justin

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:33:16 EDT

Sorry, but Orangington is a god awful choice. Beyond the fact that it's awkward to spell and pronounce, it'll take about 5 minutes before people start calling it "Orangutan."

Comment by цarьchitect

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:32:34 EDT

Arbie, or Arbieton.

One does wonder what it would really take to make the name stick...

Comment by Joshua

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:31:42 EDT

BeyondDC

Yeah that seems a little better. Without the e I thought it was pronounced like Orangutan before reading the post. Maybe Arlington should hold a contest to choose a name. That way they can get publicity for the name change.

Comment by Mike Wagoner

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:31:24 EDT

I always refer to the orange line corridor as The R.B.C. - short for Rosslyn - Ballston Corridor.

Comment by Roger

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:30:25 EDT

It looks too much like "Orangutan." Geographically (as part of Arlington County), would the appropriate name be "The Middle East"??

How about something that incorporates the letters of the 5 Metro stations: BVCCR? Of course, the only thing that comes immediately to mind is BoVine CanCeR, which probably doesn't pass the marketing muster... ;)

OK, how about Orangeburg?

Comment by Chris Loos

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:26:58 EDT

I vote for the O.L.C. It has that nice "LBC" rhythm to it.

Comment by BeyondDC

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:26:05 EDT

You're right dcpatton. "North Arlington" means everything north of 50. I wasn't saying 29 is the border; I was saying the term isn't good for the R-B corridor because it covers such a vast area, *including* (but not *only*) the area north of 29.

Comment by iammrben

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:25:43 EDT

To take a cue from Matt!, why not just The Corridor?

Comment by dcpatton

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:20:52 EDT

I think North Arlington is north of 50 (not 29). Unless you break off The O.C. from it.

Comment by Simon

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:17:35 EDT

Arlington High Street.

Comment by Matt!

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:17:31 EDT

I vote for The O.L.C. (Orange Line Corridor) Or heck, even The O.C. Just think of all the drama that will ensue!

Comment by BeyondDC

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:14:38 EDT

What if you add an "e"... Orangeington? Technically speaking it shouldn't be there, but IMO it reads easier.

Comment by Joshua

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:13:03 EDT

I don't know. The word looks hard to pronounce, and that alone will leave people thinking Orangington is a dangerous place, at least if this one study is to be believed. However I will agrea saying the Rosslyn-Ballston Corridor takes to long and the area needs a better name. Maybe Mid Arlington or Arlington Central?

Comment by BeyondDC

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:10:07 EDT

Well, y'know, all new names sound weird at first. It was this or "Wilsonia" ;)

Comment by Cavan

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:09:43 EDT

How about Orangeton? No need for the "ing." Great thinking, though. The R-B corridor is grown up and has its own sense of place as a whole, in addition to it having the separate neighborhoods. It deserves a good name.

Comment by Dave Murphy

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:07:00 EDT

What, you don't think it will get confused with the Cheverly-New Carrollton corridor? (Of course, I am joking).

Frankly I think it's a bit of an awkward moniker, but hey, that might make it all the more fitting.