«
»

I Hate Queens

What misanthropist thought it would be a good idea to put 44th Road, 44th Drive, and 44th Avenue in the same borough? And not only that, but put them one block away from each other running parallel? It’s amazing anyone ever gets their mail in this borough.

«
»

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 11th, 2007 at 9:47 PM and is filed under New York. You can follow any responses to this entry through the Atom feed. You can make a comment, Digg this story, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “I Hate Queens”

  1. John Cowan Says:
    February 12th, 2007 at 11:23 AM

    See http://www.ellisparkerbutler.info/epb/ill/new_york_times_1926_12_03_clipping.gif . The little verse (below) is the point, but the New York Times headlines are interesting too.

    I can’t find a definite reference on this, but I think the idea is that streets and avenues are the main grid used to assign house numbers, and that the others are stuffed in to shrink the lot sizes when that’s what the zoning calls for. If you scroll around, you will find that if Nth Road exists it is always south of Nth Avenue; and Nth Drive, which only exists if Nth Road exists, will always be south of Nth Road.

    In Queens to find locations best —
    Avenues, roads and drives run west;
    But ways to north and south, ’tis plain
    Are street or place or even lane;
    While even numbers you will meet
    Upon the west and south of street.

Leave a Reply