GoCaGa (Gowanus-Carroll Gardens)

“GoCaGa” is a seldom-used nickname for the Gowanus-Carroll Gardens section of Brooklyn. “GoCaGa” was cited in print in August 2008 amd was popularized in a November 9, 2009 New York (NY) Daily News article on neighborhood nicknames.
 
Several people have commented that “GoCaGa” sounds like baby talk, or Spanish for going to the bathroom (“go caca”).
 
   
Wikipedia: Gowanus Canal
The Gowanus Canal, also known as the Gowanus Creek Canal, is a canal in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, geographically on the westernmost portion of Long Island. Connected to Gowanus Bay in Upper New York Bay, the canal borders the neighborhoods of Red Hook and South Brooklyn to the west and Park Slope to the east; likewise, Gowanus Bay borders the neighborhoods of Red Hook to the north and Sunset Park to its south. There are five east-west bridge crossings over the canal, located at Union Street, Carroll Street, Third Street, Ninth Street, and Hamilton Avenue. The Gowanus Expressway (Interstate 278) and the IND Culver Line of the New York City Subway, the only above-ground section of the original Independent Subway System, pass overhead.
 
Once a busy cargo transportation hub, the canal’s fate has mirrored the decline of domestic shipping via water. A legacy of serious environmental problems has troubled the area from the time the canal was first built out of the local tidal wetlands and fresh water streams. In recent years, there has been a call once again for environmental cleanup. In addition, development pressures have brought speculation that the wetlands of the Gowanus should serve waterfront economic development needs which may not be compatible with environmental restoration.
   
Wikipedia: Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
Carroll Gardens is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, USA. The area is named for Charles Carroll, a revolutionary war veteran who was also the only Roman Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence. Carroll Park, a block-long area of playgrounds, walkways and sitting areas between Court and Smith Streets, with Carroll Street as its southern boundary, was constructed in the late 19th century and is also named for Carroll. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 6.
 
A long-standing Italian-American neighborhood of family-run stores, Carroll Gardens is now sprinkled with cafes, boutiques and antique shops. It shares its northern boundary with Cobble Hill at Degraw Street and Boerum Hill at Warren Street, while extending south to Hamilton Avenue and Red Hook. Prior to the gentrification movement in the mid-1960s, this part of South Brooklyn was considered by residents to be part of Red Hook. In the late 1940s, however, the southern tip of Red Hook was cut off from the rest of the neighborhood by the building of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and Gowanus Expressway, and the area now known as Carroll Gardens took on a separate and distinct character of its own. Today, Carroll Gardens is more middle class, while Red Hook, which had retained its working-class, waterfront ambiance, has only recently begun to feel the effects of gentrification.
 
Before Italian-Americans settled in the area, Carroll Gardens was settled by Irish Americans in the early 19th century and, in the mid-19th century, by Norwegian-Americans, who founded the Norwegian Seamans’ Church, an imposing brownstone structure that was once visited by the King of Norway during an official visit to the United States, and which still stands (although it is now a condominium) on the corner of First Place and Clinton Street. In 1846, Richard Butts created the front “gardens” to the famous brownstone houses in the oldest section of the neighborhood. The brownstones are set back from the street by 30-40 feet, to create atypical (for Brooklyn) large front gardens. The Carroll Gardens Historic District, which includes some of the finest examples of these brownstones with large front gardens, is bounded roughly by 3rd Place to the south, President Street to the north, Hoyt Street to the east and Smith Street to the west.
   
Constructed Perfection
Nabe
August 8th, 2008 | Society / Urban
From: Ian
(...)
So does “nabe” sound cute? Does “nabe” save time? Honestly, I think its utterance makes the speaker sound like a douche-bag. If you pair “nabe” with the growing affinity for people to rename neighborhoods ridiculous sounding things such as GoCaGa and DoBro (Gowanus-Carrol Gardens, Downtown Brooklyn, respectively), you get a conversation that sounds something like this:...
   
New York (NY) Daily News
Not ready for BoCoCa, GoCaGa or BoHo? Boo-hoo! Brokers behind push to rebrand city’s neighborhoods
BY Kevin Deutsch
DAILY NEWS WRITER
Monday, November 9th 2009, 4:00 AM
(...)
BoCoCa, an amalgamation of three old-school Brooklyn neighborhoods - Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill and Boerum Hill - never caught fire.

GoCaGa for Gowanus and Carroll Gardens invited ridicule.
 
Curbed
Meet Me in GoCaGa
Monday, November 9, 2009, by Joey
The Daily News’ Kevin Deutsch wades into that ancient NYC real estate tradition of renaming neighborhoods (even old New York was once New Amsterdam!), and he isn’t sold on a few new nicknames making the rounds, like Bowery-below-Houston BoHo and iTri. He also mentions some that are new to us, like SunSlope (is that a ski resort?) and GoCaGa, which is the sound a baby makes after spitting up apple sauce. [NYDN]
   
Gothamist
GoCaGa, BoHo, iTri, And Other New Neighborhood Names
For a moment there, it seemed like the economic downturn was going to bring a much-needed reality check to the world of real estate. But no. The Daily News reports today on the efforts of real estate brokers to re-brand supposedly undesirable neighborhoods by giving them more marketable monikers — like “GoCaGa” for the area between Gowanus and Carroll Gardens, “BoHo” for the Bowery south of Houston, “SunSlope” for the streets between Sunset Park and Park Slope, and “iTri” for the Iron Triangle in Willets Point.
(...)
By Ben Muessig in News on November 9, 2009 4:02 PM
(...)
COMMENTS
[14] | Radtard
GoCaGa is the spanglish equivalent for go take a shit.
I shit you not.
November 9, 2009 4:31 PM
 
[15] JRod5417 replied to comment from Radtard
You’re right!!! Glad I’m not the only one who thought that.
November 9, 2009 4:47 PM