It's been over a week since SFist (and Curbed) brought the Quad to your attention. The Quad, god save us all, was the brainchild of Paragon realtor Jennifer Rosdail, and it's not a real thing. Basically, Rosdail presented the area from 17th & Market to Market & Valencia to 25th & Shotwell to 25th & Church and back as a new twentysomething urban (un)gated community neighborhood (effectively gay-washing parts of the Castro, which is a very real problem happening right now, but that's another topic for another article altogether). And the people who live there were to be known as the "Quadsters." Bleech.

SFist received a concerned letter from a licensed Realtor in San Francisco (who asked to remain anonymous) who responded to fake neighborhood the Quad, saying:

"This is the worst idea I have heard in SF in a long , long time, and I've heard a lot of made up emerging neighborhood names. Most new names make sense because they identify a distinct and unique part of a bigger neighborhood. Case in point: Lower Pacific Heights has a different feel and therefore has its own identity even though it is encompassed within Pacific Heights. It doesn't make any value sense (for buyers or sellers IMHO) to mash-up several neighborhoods into "The Quad." Mostly the term The Quad reminds college-educated people of their college days. So, who on earth wants to fork out over a million dollars for a condo in a neighborhood that, when announced as where you live, could be interpreted as part of a college campus? Not any of the smart, successful people I know and represent.

"The problem with this marketing is that the area the Realtor is referring to already has perfectly identifiable neighborhood names (Mission Dolores, Dolores Heights, Mission, Noe Valley) — there is no need to mess with them. The fact that the 'ideal' location in the central/southern part of the city happens to cross over a couple of neighborhood lines shouldn't trigger the need for a new name . The Realtor should do her job and introduce her buyer clients to all of the aspects of all of these neighborhoods - identifying the most desirable blocks like all Realtors do, and sell properties based on that; she shouldn't be redefining neighborhoods to dumb down SF real estate or make it easier for new SF young techies to understand. New York doesn't do this.... why should we?"

Indeed.


Previously: Realtor Creates 'The Quad': San Francisco's Most Appalling/Intriguing New Neighborhood