'No, Just No:' New Branding Name for South Ferndale Is an Easy Target for Ridicule

A suburb's stretch to brand one of its retail districts with an attention-getting nickname is drawing attention all right -- though not necessarily the positive kind.

Ferndale's well-intended idea was to help merchants during a five-month Livernois Avenue repaving project that has disrupted traffic, parking and patronage since June. So the city ran with an idea from two storeowners and now designates the avenue's commercial strip between West Marshall and 8 Mile as SoFe -- for South Ferndale.

"We want the SoFe District to be the new hot thing!"

 

Last Saturday was the second "SoFe Livernois Stroll" since August -- a seven-hour occasion for sales, cider and doughnuts, a taproom's Oktoberfest and other promotions.

"The event received its name from Green Daffodil wanting a clever term for 'So-uth Fe-rndale,'" the city says. That "vegan bath and body products" boutique is owned by Anne Simonetti and Siouxsan Miller.

Another supporter is fashion designer Dana Keaton, who runs a shop an atelier at 700 Livernois. "We wanted to give this area its own identity because of the rebirth of the Avenue of Fashion in Detroit," she says in a promotional article. "It's funky, eclectic and diverse. We want the SoFe District to be the new hot thing!"

No good idea goes unpunished, as the saying goes, and the wisecrackers at Reddit's Detroit forum rise -- or stoop -- to the challenge in a Monday thread titled "No. Just no." 

It draws more than 210 "upvotes" in just under a day, plus about 50 comments -- including these: 

• That sounds so stupid.
• It won't catch on, don't worry.
• Don't SoFe my SoRO.
• So fey.
• I've never heard of SoFe -- on Livernois, of all streets -- and I lived in Ferndale previously and have worked there for years.
• That's SoFe-king Stupid.
• Jesus, it's like the district rebranding episode from "How I Met Your Mother." Take an area, give it a blended word name like DoWiSeTrePla, and all of a sudden Downwind of the Sewage Treatment Plant is the new hot spot.
• The Livernois Corridor would be simple and sweet.

Yes, now these Ferndale entrepreneurs must cope with online ridicule as well as disruptive construction.