This is the illusionist in which I Helen Zoltzman give language the old Spitten Hunky

treatment. This episode is a companion piece to the latest 99% invisible, the Soho effect,

which investigates the proliferation of place names like the New York neighbourhoods of

Tribeca, Triangle below Canal Street, Noleeta, North of Little Italy and Soho south of

Houston Street. The names are formed a bit like acronyms, a bit like Port Mantos. I'd

go for Accromanto, but our 99% comrades have decided to call them Accronames. Here's

Avery Trophelman telling you whom to blame for the trend.

The American abbreviation of Soho and the birth of the acronym can be traced back to 1962.

It started with a fellow by the name of Chester Rapkin.

He was an urban planner and eventually a member of the New York City Planning Commission

from the late 60s to the late 1970s. He was asked to investigate the conditions in what

he called or what the City Planning Commission called the South-Houston industrial area.

A lot of people think that this paper, known as the Rapkin Report, invented the term Soho.

Now I have recently read that report and I do not believe that Rapkin used the term

Soho in that report.

It's also been said that Rapkin coined the term Soho in conversation. However it happened

around this time.

People seized upon the term Soho as an abbreviation.

Which was certainly better than the South-Houston industrial area. But not nearly as bad

as its previous name, Hell's Hundred Acres.

You can hear the whole of the Soho effect at 99pi.org. The acronym trend is out of control.

There are several Soho's around the world. There's one in Tampa, Florida, short for South

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