Harlem ‘SoHa’? That’s SoDumb

SoWHAT?

South Harlem residents and city politicians pushed back Wednesday against a renewed effort to rebrand the neighborhood SoHa.

“Today the community steps forward and says no to SoHa — yes to Harlem,” city Controller Scott Stringer said at the rally on W. 115th St. and Frederick Douglass Blvd.

For nearly 20 years, real estate brokers and developers in south Harlem have been trying to make stick the nickname intended to evoke the trendy Manhattan neighborhood of SoHo.

Several StreetEasy real estate listings now feature the nickname, and real estate company Keller Williams has a SoHa office on W. 115th St.

While the Realtor did not return a request for comment, longtime neighborhood fixtures were eager to offer their thoughts on the rebranding effort.

“Folks wanna change the name so they can move a lot of us who look like us out,” said the Rev. James Booker of St. John AME Church on W. 131st St.

“Rebranding central and east Harlem to increase the profits of numbers of the Real Estate Board of New York would greatly diminish the cultural and economic strength of the city.”

Danni Tyson, a real estate broker and member of Manhattan Community Board 10, agreed.

“You can sell without using the term SoHa,” Tyson said. “This is Harlem, a wonderful brand, a brand that’s known all over this world.”

John Lynch, vice chairman of the Housing Development Fund Corp., blasted the idea as “false and fraudulent advertising.”

“It’s an attempt to lure customers by pretending the area below 125th St. is something other and better than plain old Harlem,” he added.