By Carla Zanoni
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER MANHATTAN — A broker’s decision to rename a stretch of Manhattan that sits at the intersection of Washington Heights and Inwood has left some residents scratching their heads.
Stein-Perry Real Estate agent Matthew Bizarro had listed a property located at 37 Nagle Avenue as part of "the new ‘Cloister Park’ neighborhood," the Manhattan Times reported Wednesday. That area has seen a 500-600 percent increase in real estate asking prices over the past five years, the real estate agent told the paper.
But the area already goes by three different names. Some residents identify the blocks above the intersection of Bennett and Broadway avenues, west of Bogardus Place and south of Dyckman Street, as Inwood, some call it Washington Heights and others refer to it as Fort George.
Twitter folks and bloggers posted messages about the confusion, speculating that the name is bogus and not only a marketing tool, but an "elitist" one at that.
Longtime neighborhood resident Leo Polanco, 43, said he not only didn’t recognizer the name, but found it offensive.
"I’ve never heard of that," he said. "It sounds like someone just made it up to make money."
Bizarro admitted he made up the name, but in an attempt to clear up confusion about the area.
"I am trying to identify that to help with clarity in the long run, it’s something that’s started and just taking off," he said, adding that people familiar with the new neighborhood name would likely be those searching for a new home, "not people who have lived there for 20 years."
