OKAY! OKAY! I surrender! Last time I write a post at 1:30 A.M.!!Ah, I should have realized that north Minneapolis numbers would be reversed of south Minneapolis, since it has the avenues and streets reversed as well.
Sen. Higgins is, of course absolutely right and even Mrs. Bernstein's
idiot son (that's me)should have remembered that because his maternal
grandparents lived for many years at 4038 Humboldt Ave. North and their
house was on the east side.
The question then: does anyone know why do we have this system? It's
not like north and south Minneapolis were two separate cities like Buda
and Pest!
Jim Bernstein
Fulton
The system is really this: the city started downtown along the river. In their infinite lack of wisdom, the city fathers layed out the streets and avenues sensibly roughly parallel and perpendicular to the river. So far, so good. But then they "turned" or "twisted" the streets when they got outside of downtown to instead follow the cardinal compass points. Problem was, the Street-named streets which run roughly southeast-northwest downtown made a rougly 45 degree bend to the north, and ran north-south on the north side of downtown, but made a 45 degree bend to the east on the south and east sides of downtown, and ended up running east-west. Invert all of that for the Avenue-named streets.
Or get a big map of Minneapolis, and simply follow the street names out of downtown.
The even numbered houses are on the same side of the street no matter where you are, if you imagine driving on that very same street through downtown. 2nd Street is a good example, although you can't drive the length of it completely. North of Plymouth Avenue, it runs north-south. From Plymouth Ave to Cedar Ave, it runs parallel to the river, northwest-southeast. East of Cedar, it runs east-west. The even numbered homes or buildings are all on one side.
The dividing line of confusion on the north side appears to be the Basset Creek valley, on the east side, the Mississippi River, and on the south side, an arbitrary line between 14th and 8th that goes through Elliot Park.
Why they made the bend in the streets once the city grew outside of the current downtown area, I don't know. Someone apparently thought true north-south and east-west roadways were more important than a sensible city-wide scheme, and got their way with it.
Ah well, at least it isn't St. Paul where there's no rhyme or reason. :-)
Chris Johnson Fulton
REMINDERS:
1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait.
For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________
Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
