*For
those of you who grew up in a somewhat rural area, we offer the following lesson in Urban
Navigation Logic (UNL). Usually in an urban or suburban area, city streets are named
in a specific scheme such as the names of trees, presidents, states, numbers, letters,
fruit, the periodic table of elements or favorite flavors of ice cream. As opposed
to the rural naming standard like, "Brewery Road "Okeefenokee
Freeway" or" the road three miles past the red barn with three hex signs on
it." Usually there are numbered streets and in most cities with a major water
port, the closest street running perpendicular to the port relates to the body of
water: Harbor Dr., River St., Bay Ave., Ocean Dr., Delaware Ave., Hudson River Dr.
or even Benjo Ditch Lane After the body of water street will usually be a
"Front St." After Front street there will usually be first, second and so
on so that the higher the number, the further you are from the port. All streets
running perpendicular to the numbered streets will be named in a standard usually going
north to south starting with "A" street however there will often be exceptions
to this rule due to the era of the urban expansion of a city or the specific influence of
one of it's founding fathers or favorite sons. There will almost always be a Market
St., State St. Commerce St. or Main St. somewhere in the downtown area which will usually
interrupt the naming standard and depending on the importance of a historical or local,
significant event you may find streets that also interrupt the naming standard such as
Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, Danny Thomas St., Frank Rizzo Lane or even Flatulence Way.
When using the category naming standard such as the tree name or gem name standard,
they will often run in alphabetical order, for example: Ash St, Birch St., Cherry St,
Dogwood St. One exception to this rule is in the presidential naming standard which
will usually run chronologically according to what order said president held office.
This explains why there are so many "Adams" and "Roosevelt" streets
around the country. Persons who name streets are often unimaginative and run into a
problem with certain letters and rather than peruse their botanical tomes for a solution
will simply cheat and throw in a weed or vine or of course, change the naming scheme
altogether. For some reason, no one wants to name a street "Japanese Red
Split-leaf Maple" no matter how beautiful the tree is. Luckily for you, San
Diego follows the most popular naming standard almost to a "T" and you can find
5th and "Market" streets quite easily if you apply this to your urban navigation
logic.
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