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Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Those Quirky Boiseites! Item #1: Street names

I know that themed street names are nothing new. Most cities I've lived in have one or two neighborhoods with streets named after trees, colleges, or U.S. Presidents. But the suburbs of Boise seem to be taking this motif-based naming thing to a whole new level. Witness the following examples, just a small sampling from the neighborhoods I'm familiar with so far:


Birds

Here's my new hood.  I wonder why they chose these birds in particular. Kildeer? Curlew? I'm just happy I don't live on Grouse. And that I get to turn on Sagehen every day (chirp chirp!)


Arthur

Who decided that Lancelot Ave. should be longer than King Arthur Dr.?  Maybe Guinevere had something to do with that.  She would know.  She intersects both of them.


Sugar

Welcome to Candyland. Or maybe it's where Homer's sarcastic Magical Man lives.  I have been to the neighborhood, however, and let me tell you, it's not all that sweet.  Note the proximity to the railroad tracks. 


RomeoJuliet

Does anyone REALLY want to live in Romeo and Juliet's neighborhood? Seems like the traffic from the funeral processions alone would be too much of a hassle.


Guns

Grab the shotgun, Myrtle!  We're going to live on Chuckwagon Ave.!


Hickory

Too bad there's not a dock around here.

And yet, for all the creativity exhibited in the above examples, the names of some of the major streets are mind-numbingly dull.  According to Google maps, Five Mile Road and Ten Mile Road are actually 6 miles apart.  And in my neighborhood, I'm still not sure which cross street is where, because they all sound so similar:

Mids2

In case it's too small to read, the highlighted roads are Midway Rd., Middleton Rd., and Midland Blvd.  No doubt about it, this is Middle America.

But hey, at least they try to spice it up a bit.

Spicy

7 comments:

  1. I like how Peppermint turns into Muskrat. Ewww.

    Found any alphabetical progressions yet? Those seem to be all the rage in Denver. In my neighborhood we don't just have colleges, we have ALPHABETICAL colleges. Amherst, Bates, Cornell, Dartmouth... Yup, we're nuthin' if not edumacated.

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  2. Laughing madly at this. Too bad you don't live on SageHen. (And they misspelled Galahad, I think.) But what's Wampum Drive doing in there with all the American Rifle Association streets? Wait, wait, don't tell me. . .

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  3. Hilarious! There's a bunch of streets in my neighborhood called "smoke signal" and "harvest dance", etc. I also like the developments named after the developer's family: "Elizabeth Way", "Sarah Street", "McKinley Ave."
    Here are a couple of my favorite individual street names from around San Diego County:
    El Rocko Road
    Costalota Road
    Dead Stick Road
    Hunk Dory Lane (Orange County)
    Happy Hills Drive
    Little Orphan Alley

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  4. Amy, those are priceless!!
    Jen, I haven't noticed any alphabetical organization yet. I expected to, but they seem grouped in bunches instead of along straight lines.

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  5. Homer: "Oh! I'm making people happy!" Haha. Also, Wampun Drive? Really?

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