Alphabet City (East Village, Manhattan)
"Alphabet City" is the nickname of a neighborhood in the East Village of Manhattan, where Avenues A, B, C, and D can be found. The "Alphabet City," "Alphabetland" and "Alphabetville" nicknames have been cited in print since at least the early 1980s.
"Ave. A. is still the DMZ. While the one side has the East Village since the days of hippie heaven, the other side has become known, by Spanish-speaking locals, as Loisaida, and, by handrubbing realtors, as Alphabet City" was printed in the Daily News (New York, NY) on December 4, 1980. "Alphabet City" was the title of a 1983 novel by David Price and a 1984 movie. There's no mention of "Alphabet City" in the books City in Slang (1993) or Naming New York: Manhattan Places & How They Got Their Names (2001).
"Elizabeth had first started driving down to the streets off Avenues A, B, C and D, the streets known as "Alphabetland," in late September" was printed in the Daily News (New York, NY) on March 1, 1981. "They rehearse in a deserted section of town they call Alphabetville because the streets are named after letters instead of the usual numbers. It is occupied by Puerto Rican squatters who have set up housekeeping in the abandoned buildings" was printed in The CItizen (Ottawa, Ontario) on April 6, 1981.
"A, B, C, and D" for "Assault, Battery, Crime and Death" was used in the 1980s, but doesn't apply to the gentrified neighborhoods of today. In 2018, the Chelsea properties owned by Alphabet Inc./Google was also dubbed "Alphabet City."
Wikipedia: Alphabet City, Manhattan
Alphabet City is a neighborhood located within the East Village in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Its name comes from Avenues A, B, C, and D, the only avenues in Manhattan to have single-letter names. It is bordered by Houston Street to the south and by 14th Street to the north, along the traditional northern border of the East Village and south of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village. Some famous landmarks include Tompkins Square Park and the Nuyorican Poets Cafe.
Angelfire.com (November 13, 2002)
ALPHABET CITY
(...)
Amelia liked to hang out in Alphabet City, a low-rent area sandwiched between the East Village, the East River, and the Lower East Side. One night, she took me to a tiny, cramped bar on Avenue B: hard faces and wild eyes inside, dark streets and crumbling buildings outside. The place had a sense of danger, which I liked. Over many shots of whiskey, Amelia told me Alphabet City was notorious and the avenue names "A, B, C, and D" stood for "Assault, Battery, Crime and Death." I liked that as well. But she said it too was changing, and soon all of Manhattan would be too gentrified and expensive for any one normal to live in.
Newspapers.com
4 December 1980, Daily News (New York, NY), "Gentrification comes to the lower East Side" by Jan Hodenfield, pg. W3, col. 1:
Ave. A. is still the DMZ. While the one side has the East Village since the days of hippie heaven, the other side has become known, by Spanish-speaking locals, as Loisaida, and, by handrubbing realtors, as Alphabet City.
Newspapers.com
1 March 1981, Daily News (New York, NY), "How dumb can a smart girl be?" by Rosemary Breslin, Sunday News Magazine, pg. 26, col. 2:
Elizabeth had first started driving down to the streets off Avenues A, B., C and D, the streets known as "Alphabetland," in late September.
Newspapers.com
6 April 1981, The CItizen (Ottawa, Ontario), "All-girl band turns raunchy and ragged" by Evelyn Erskine, pg. 60, col. 5:
The B-girls' move to The Big Apple has meant they actually live like the street urchins they portray onstage. They rehearse in a deserted section of town they call Alphabetville because the streets are named after letters instead of the usual numbers. It is occupied by Puerto Rican squatters who have set up housekeeping in the abandoned buildings.
OCLC WorldCat record
Alphabet city : a novel
Author: David Price
Publisher: London : Olive, 1983
Edition/Format: Print book : Fiction : English
Newspapers.com
5 July 1983, Fresno (CA) Bee, "Tenements razed in war on dugs" by Marcia Chambers (New York Times), pg. D10, cols. 1-2:
On the Lower East Side, most of the buildings torn down since last summer are in what is called Alphabetville, a blighted area between avenues A and D, running from Second to 13th streets.
Newspapers.com
31 July 1983, Daily News (New York, NY), "Dope has E. Side on the ropes" by Murray Weiss, Patricia Clark and Stuart Marques, pg. 7, col. 1:
These are the voices from "Alphabetland," the heart of the lower East Side -- an area bounded by Delancey and 14th Sts. and Avenues A and D, and plagued by a problem.
Wikipedia: Alphabet City (film)
Alphabet City is a 1984 American crime drama film directed by Amos Poe. The story follows a young gangster of Italian descent named Johnny, who has been given control over his own neighborhood by the Mob. Then unknown actors Vincent Spano (as Johnny), Jami Gertz, and Michael Winslow give compelling performances in this low-budget crime/drama/thriller. Acclaimed film and stage actress Zohra Lampert plays Johnny's mother. The film is set in Alphabet City, a part of the East Village in New York City.
OCLC WorldCat record
Alphabet city.
Author: Language (Musical group)
Publisher: Hollywood, Calif. : A & M, ℗1984.
Edition/Format: Music LP : English
27 April 1984, New York (NY) Times, pg. A27:
The neighborhood, known as Alphabet City because of its lettered avenues that run easterly from First Avenue to the river, has for years been occupied by a stubbornly persistent plague of drug dealers in narcotics whose flagrantly open drug dealing has destroyed the community life of the neighborhood.
5 May 1984, New York (NY) Times, pg. 17:
"Alphabet City," which opened yesterday at the Manhattan I and other theatres in and around the city, is one of those exercises in romantic film making that owe more to the history of cinema than to the reality of the milieu that is their subject.
Here is a film that draws its title from the Lower East Side Avenues - A, B and C - that are is setting, and takes as its subject the criminal activities of a young man named Johnny (Vincent Spano), who has been granted this fief by organized crime.
"Ave. A. is still the DMZ. While the one side has the East Village since the days of hippie heaven, the other side has become known, by Spanish-speaking locals, as Loisaida, and, by handrubbing realtors, as Alphabet City" was printed in the Daily News (New York, NY) on December 4, 1980. "Alphabet City" was the title of a 1983 novel by David Price and a 1984 movie. There's no mention of "Alphabet City" in the books City in Slang (1993) or Naming New York: Manhattan Places & How They Got Their Names (2001).
"Elizabeth had first started driving down to the streets off Avenues A, B, C and D, the streets known as "Alphabetland," in late September" was printed in the Daily News (New York, NY) on March 1, 1981. "They rehearse in a deserted section of town they call Alphabetville because the streets are named after letters instead of the usual numbers. It is occupied by Puerto Rican squatters who have set up housekeeping in the abandoned buildings" was printed in The CItizen (Ottawa, Ontario) on April 6, 1981.
"A, B, C, and D" for "Assault, Battery, Crime and Death" was used in the 1980s, but doesn't apply to the gentrified neighborhoods of today. In 2018, the Chelsea properties owned by Alphabet Inc./Google was also dubbed "Alphabet City."
Wikipedia: Alphabet City, Manhattan
Alphabet City is a neighborhood located within the East Village in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Its name comes from Avenues A, B, C, and D, the only avenues in Manhattan to have single-letter names. It is bordered by Houston Street to the south and by 14th Street to the north, along the traditional northern border of the East Village and south of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village. Some famous landmarks include Tompkins Square Park and the Nuyorican Poets Cafe.
Angelfire.com (November 13, 2002)
ALPHABET CITY
(...)
Amelia liked to hang out in Alphabet City, a low-rent area sandwiched between the East Village, the East River, and the Lower East Side. One night, she took me to a tiny, cramped bar on Avenue B: hard faces and wild eyes inside, dark streets and crumbling buildings outside. The place had a sense of danger, which I liked. Over many shots of whiskey, Amelia told me Alphabet City was notorious and the avenue names "A, B, C, and D" stood for "Assault, Battery, Crime and Death." I liked that as well. But she said it too was changing, and soon all of Manhattan would be too gentrified and expensive for any one normal to live in.
Newspapers.com
4 December 1980, Daily News (New York, NY), "Gentrification comes to the lower East Side" by Jan Hodenfield, pg. W3, col. 1:
Ave. A. is still the DMZ. While the one side has the East Village since the days of hippie heaven, the other side has become known, by Spanish-speaking locals, as Loisaida, and, by handrubbing realtors, as Alphabet City.
Newspapers.com
1 March 1981, Daily News (New York, NY), "How dumb can a smart girl be?" by Rosemary Breslin, Sunday News Magazine, pg. 26, col. 2:
Elizabeth had first started driving down to the streets off Avenues A, B., C and D, the streets known as "Alphabetland," in late September.
Newspapers.com
6 April 1981, The CItizen (Ottawa, Ontario), "All-girl band turns raunchy and ragged" by Evelyn Erskine, pg. 60, col. 5:
The B-girls' move to The Big Apple has meant they actually live like the street urchins they portray onstage. They rehearse in a deserted section of town they call Alphabetville because the streets are named after letters instead of the usual numbers. It is occupied by Puerto Rican squatters who have set up housekeeping in the abandoned buildings.
OCLC WorldCat record
Alphabet city : a novel
Author: David Price
Publisher: London : Olive, 1983
Edition/Format: Print book : Fiction : English
Newspapers.com
5 July 1983, Fresno (CA) Bee, "Tenements razed in war on dugs" by Marcia Chambers (New York Times), pg. D10, cols. 1-2:
On the Lower East Side, most of the buildings torn down since last summer are in what is called Alphabetville, a blighted area between avenues A and D, running from Second to 13th streets.
Newspapers.com
31 July 1983, Daily News (New York, NY), "Dope has E. Side on the ropes" by Murray Weiss, Patricia Clark and Stuart Marques, pg. 7, col. 1:
These are the voices from "Alphabetland," the heart of the lower East Side -- an area bounded by Delancey and 14th Sts. and Avenues A and D, and plagued by a problem.
Wikipedia: Alphabet City (film)
Alphabet City is a 1984 American crime drama film directed by Amos Poe. The story follows a young gangster of Italian descent named Johnny, who has been given control over his own neighborhood by the Mob. Then unknown actors Vincent Spano (as Johnny), Jami Gertz, and Michael Winslow give compelling performances in this low-budget crime/drama/thriller. Acclaimed film and stage actress Zohra Lampert plays Johnny's mother. The film is set in Alphabet City, a part of the East Village in New York City.
OCLC WorldCat record
Alphabet city.
Author: Language (Musical group)
Publisher: Hollywood, Calif. : A & M, ℗1984.
Edition/Format: Music LP : English
27 April 1984, New York (NY) Times, pg. A27:
The neighborhood, known as Alphabet City because of its lettered avenues that run easterly from First Avenue to the river, has for years been occupied by a stubbornly persistent plague of drug dealers in narcotics whose flagrantly open drug dealing has destroyed the community life of the neighborhood.
5 May 1984, New York (NY) Times, pg. 17:
"Alphabet City," which opened yesterday at the Manhattan I and other theatres in and around the city, is one of those exercises in romantic film making that owe more to the history of cinema than to the reality of the milieu that is their subject.
Here is a film that draws its title from the Lower East Side Avenues - A, B and C - that are is setting, and takes as its subject the criminal activities of a young man named Johnny (Vincent Spano), who has been granted this fief by organized crime.