Talk:SoDo, Seattle

Meaning
I'm not sure about SoDo meaning "South of the Dome" or "South of Downtown". The SoDo district extends north of where the Kingdome once stood, making the Kingdome in the SoDo district. How can the Kingdome be "South of the Dome"? It seems to me that "South of Downtown" make more sense. I've actually seen both names used as the "real" name, and I can't quite figure out what's truth and what's conjecture. -- Jwinters | Talk 17:16, 21 Mar 2005 (UTC)
 * It originally meant "south of the dome" (and it was originally a totally unofficial designation). The "dome", of course, is long gone, and by the time the name was getting official use there were already plans to tear it down, so they officially re-etymologized it to be "south of downtown". Re-etymologizing seems to be a bit of a practice in these parts: King County, Washington was originally named after U.S. vice president William Rufus King but is now officially named after the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. -- Jmabel | Talk 19:56, Mar 21, 2005 (UTC)
 * Official designations don't really mean much. Whatever the current situation, SoDo was named for its location south of the Dome and King County was named after William Rufus King. --Lukobe 20:36, Mar 21, 2005 (UTC)
 * I've always heard "south of the dome", and the area north of the Dome would have been Pioneer Square. Jkonrath 23:55, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

Boundaries
The page says the East boundary is the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel. But the transit tunnel ends at Dearborn Street (two blocks south of the district's northern boundary), and SoDo continues southward for over a mile and a half. What would be the appropriate eastern boundary for the rest of the neighborhood? E3 Busway (5th Ave)? 6th Ave? Airport Way? Edge of Beacon Hill? Peel (talk) 21:13, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

CamelCase
I think CamelCase is losing out. Strangely, even this infobox uses "Sodo".  Randall Bart    Talk   18:07, 10 August 2010 (UTC)

SODO, SoDo or Sodo?
The official King County Editorial Style Manual says it's SODO: "SODO, SODO area, SODO district. SODO capitalized without periods. Use in references to the area south of downtown Seattle: SODO Busway. When necessary, make sure the location of the area is clear to your readers." I'm interested to hear the thoughts from other editors. Is this an official enough source to change the name? --RickyCourtney (talk) 02:25, 27 October 2016 (UTC)

article name - SoDo vs SODO
This article dating to 2004 was recently moved from [[SoDo, Seattle] to SODO, Seattle with the King County internal style guide (Seattle's county) used as reasoning per this edit summary. This move has been reverted. While KC.gov can contribute to our understanding of WP:COMMONNAME, it does not alone define it.

As an aside, the Category remained Category:SoDo,_Seattle in Camel case and should match.

The general and non-definitively context is "SoDo" originally related to "South of the kingDome" which was closed and demolished in 2000, then later morphed as "South of Downtown" per this article. Opinions on origin may vary.

re WP:COMMONNAME as relates to this article name, "SoDo" is more generally suppored, but "SODO" is viable as well in a basic search:

NBC TV affiliate: https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Awww.king5.com+sodo
 * 9-6 SoDo by my count.

CBS TV affiliate: https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Awww.kiro7.com+sodo
 * 10-9-1 SoDo by my count (1 of Sodo).

ABC TV affiliate: https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Awww.komonews.com+sodo
 * 14-1 SoDo by my count.

Seattle Times newspaper: https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Awww.seattletimes.com+sodo
 * Appears to use "Sodo" exclusively.

Additionally, the "SODO" alternate has been added to the lede, like:
 * SoDo, alternatively SODO, is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, that makes up part of the city's Industrial District.

Thoughts on article name or SODO callout language? UW Dawgs (talk) 02:29, 27 October 2016 (UTC)


 * I see little support for the all-caps version, esp. in light of MOS:ALLCAPS, so I took that alternative out. You reverted, saying there's extensive talk about this.  I'm not seeing much, so I guess it's time to discuss. Dicklyon (talk) 22:51, 31 January 2019 (UTC)
 * This Talk section was narrowly about which form is more prevalent re the article title (WP:TITLE and COMMONNAME), as someone had moved the article without discussion while referencing a KC style guide as rationale in the edit summary. The google search links above show significant usage of both SODO and SoDo. So the article lede reflects that both are used per above. UW Dawgs (talk) 23:07, 31 January 2019 (UTC)
 * But why did you add the all-caps alternative? I didn't see anyone clamoring for that.  It seems only the city or county uses it, and then not consistently.  Probably Sodo is used more; we don't need to mention that, either. Dicklyon (talk) 23:50, 31 January 2019 (UTC)
 * As shown immediately above, both forms are used by king5.com, kiro7.com, and komonews.com. On what basis are you opposing inclusion of both when usage is readily shown in both RS local media and city government? UW Dawgs (talk) 00:08, 1 February 2019 (UTC)
 * On the basis of MOS:ALLCAPS. We don't generally need to mention other ways to style a name. Dicklyon (talk) 00:15, 1 February 2019 (UTC)
 * Agreed if I were writing in my voice, but that is not the case here. Both formats are in use by RS, which I don't believe you dispute. You're welcome to quote a specific MOS line as might be helpful to clarify your point. UW Dawgs (talk) 00:22, 1 February 2019 (UTC)
 * MOS:ALLCAPS starts with "Avoid writing with all caps ... when they have only a stylistic function." What's wrong with just sticking with the most common styling compatible with WP guidelines, like we do with trademarks and other things? Dicklyon (talk) 00:28, 1 February 2019 (UTC)
 * I will presume we are in agreement that both forms are in use. Avoid writing with all caps ... when they have only a stylistic function. If we were writing one about term, your MOS callout could be appropriate -the casing might be purely stylistic. But we are not. RS have two viewpoints of the name and therefore there is a functional, not stylistic, necessity for using casing to reflect and differentiate their two viewpoints. UW Dawgs (talk) 01:19, 1 February 2019 (UTC)
 * The only two viewpints I've heard of are South of the Dome and South of Downtown. What viewpoints do you see? Dicklyon (talk) 01:26, 1 February 2019 (UTC)
 * Did you see the very first post in this section, which contains the content, links, and data intended to quantify relative "SoDo" vs "SODO" usage, and seems to directly answer this question? UW Dawgs (talk) 02:29, 1 February 2019 (UTC)
 * Yes, I saw the numbers on the different stylings. What does that have to do with viewpoints? Dicklyon (talk) 02:57, 1 February 2019 (UTC)

Coinage in the Seattle Weekly
The book 'Tideflats to Tomorrow', now cited in the article, contains an anecdote about the neighborhood being named "SoDo" by one Peter Miller of the Seattle Weekly following a trip to the newly coined SoHo, Manhattan. This claim was included by The Seattle Times in a review of the book.

It took Peter Miller [...] then an eager journalist for the Seattle Weekly [...] to provide the area an ID. It took a 1979 trip to New York City [...] for Miller to come up with his needed inspiration. [...] propose a similar moniker — SoDo [...] He had shared all of this brainstorming with Seattle Weekly publisher David Brewster. Miller told Brewster he would write annual stories about his new creation and all its trappings, but recieved a similarly disinterested response from his boss and let it go. [...] Miller, now an uptown architectural-book peddler and casual Seattle Weekly contributor. [...] "I said SoDo, and Brewster chuckled. I didn't think it would ever come up again."

It's unclear if Miller ever used "SoDo" in a column, or if this was a private conversation with his editor that never made the paper.

Regardless, the book then goes on to describe published usage of "SoDo" in a late 1980s or early 1990s Seattle Weekly article.

Ten years would pass before a form of spontaneous combustion took place at the Seattle Weekly offices, with SoDo arbitrarily pulled out of a bottom drawer. A senior editor, Rose Pike, and a project writer, Eric Scigliano [...] wolud collaborate on a feature story about this forgotten neighborhood [...] They needed a hook, something to draw readers to their work. [...] They tried out SoRo or SoBro [...] SoSpo [...] To encompass everything, the settled on something the alternative newspaper had considered before: SoDo.

This is prior to the usage on the rebranded Sears building in 1991.

Would like to find either the 1979/1980s Miller article(s) or that 1980s/1990 Pike/Scigliano article to add as a source in this article.

PK-WIKI (talk) 01:13, 5 June 2024 (UTC)