A leftist case for "NOBE":

The socio-economic boundaries of the neighborhood overlap Emeryville, Berkeley and Oakland. It is, in fact, a neighborhood made up of corners of three different cities. 

If not for signs telling us that we're entering Emeryville, Berkeley or Oakland, nobody walking through that area would know that they had crossed a municipal boundary. 

The BART tracks and the freeway overpasses deliniate the neighborhood boundaries, not arbitrary city borders made up by long dead white men.

So then, is the problem the name? Or is the problem that people are using the name to sell houses? 

The name is truer and more accurate a descriptor than the old names. 

And the really funny thing is: look around the neighborhood: you might see rows of identical houses next to eachother. Why? DEVELOPERS!!! (Gasp!)

A developer named Charles Alexander Klinker was the person who originally created the neighborhood. He build dozens of similar houses. The houses that today's dreaded developers are fliping were built by a developer in the first place.

Aside from using Max Cadji and Phat Beets' identity in marketing materials without permission, nobody has done anything wrong here, whatsoever. It's all part of the cycle of urban transformation. If you don't want to live in a place that changes, move to the Moon.

Max Allstadt wrote:

"If not for signs telling us that we're entering Emeryville, Berkeley or Oakland, nobody walking through that area would know that they had crossed a municipal boundary."

Not entirely true. Roads are very obviously better maintained on the Emeryville side, and trees on the Berkeley side, both relative to Oakland. But I guess one walking through the area wouldn't assume such abrupt changes were due to municipal boundaries.

Pretty much agree with the rest of the comment. I tell people I live in North Oakland near the Berkeley and Emeryville borders. NOBE communicates the same thing, and if it sticks, will eventually not grate.

But due to covering a large, mutli-jurisdiction area, I doubt it will ever replace existing names (Golden Gate, Longfellow, etc). It may however assist in putting the area on the map, so to speak. Moreso on the cultural map than as a real estate market. Roughly the area covered is invisible in things like event listings and guides, surrounded by well known but beyond walking distance neighborhoods (Emeryville west of the railroad, West Berkeley, West Oakland, Temescal).

Both the realtor and anti-realtor videos are hackneyed, but serve the purposes of their creators. Ships passing in the night. But I wish them all success in selling real estate and fighting ineffective policing, respectively.