Twitter Declares New York City Is Officially "Gotham"

Apparently "66% of Twitter users won't give an actual city as their location," so instead they use city nicknames, and according to majority rules, New York City is officially known as "Gotham" in the Twitterverse. There has always been some debate over whether Batman's Gotham City is actually New York City, with Chicago often trying to claim it for their own. Back in 2008 there was talk of New York City officially adopting Gotham City as its nickname, with Hiram Monserrate saying, “I see that as a marketing tool, ‘Come visit the real Gotham City."

Batman writer Bill Finger once talked about changing Batman's locale from Manhattan to a fictional city, pretty much confirming Gotham's roots in NYC, saying: "Originally I was going to call Gotham City 'Civic City'. Then I tried 'Capital City', then 'Coast City'. Then I flipped through the phone book and spotted the name 'Gotham Jewelers' and said, 'That's it', Gotham City. We didn't call it New York because we didn't want anybody in any city to identify with it." [via Laughing Squid]

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By Jen Carlson in Arts & Entertainment on June 16, 2011 5:56 PM

Comments [rss]

openheads

Not only is Gotham City supposed to be based in New Jersey; It's supposed to be based in South Jersey (oh the provincial, small minded, petty, petulant horror).

MattyGC

No one in Chicago calls it Gotham. o_O

PicoPhreako69

o_0
Since when did SDO become "Whale's Vagina"????????????

*head asplodes*

Michael Sclafani

I know. That is the real issue here.

marco_esquandolas

In the DC universe, New York and other real cities exist along with Metropolis, Gotham City, Central City (The Flash), and Coast City (Green Lantern), among others. Metropolis and Gotham City are on opposite sides of Delaware Bay, with Gotham located on the New Jersey side.

Automocar

So Metropolis is in Delaware? This sounds fishy.

BreatheRhetoric

what?

Shawn Lynch

Plus Washington Irving called NYC Gotham over 200 years ago. So.....there's that. http://www.nytimes.com/1989/09...

physicsandknives

Nice. I usually don't care about things like this but I always felt a twinge of annoyance whenever people from Chicago call their city, Gotham.

stoop_pooper

Wayne manor is on the Palisades NJ

Mordicai

Metropolis above 14th, Gotham below 14th, isn't that what we decided?

Joel Ceballos

If I remember it was Metropolis UWS and Gotham CIty UES

Mordicai

I think I'm thinking of this Denny O'Neil quote:

"Batman's Gotham City is Manhattan below Fourteenth Street at eleven minutes past midnight on the coldest night in November."