Following last week's attempts by overwrought PR folks to rename the portion of The Bowery above Houston Street Bowery District, NYC history blog Inside The Apple pens a great piece on the history of the Bowery moniker through the years. Excerpt: "By 1916, the street’s reputation had gotten so bad that civic groups battled to come up with a new name for the thoroughfare. One suggestion was Cooper Avenue in honor of Cooper Union founder Peter Cooper. A rival proposition recommended Central Broadway. It's hard to imagine the chaos this name change might have brought about in a city that already featured Broadway, West Broadway, and East Broadway." [Inside The Apple, previous]
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