Post: Banning 'cumbersome' names discriminates

[spmarshall]

Worse than anything Calgary can come up with, even with its confusing enough SW, NE, etc.

 

[EnviroTO]

Yep. This Way and That Way, as well as Any Way, Center Way, Circle Way, etc. There was a nice restaurant near the corner of This and That.

 

[samsonyuen]

How strange is Avenue Road? How about a Street Ave or a Road Lane?

 

[prometheus the supremo]

:rollin


can't wait till they start with erjjtnghrejth road or rkjdfgbekjlbnleeskrfewo5r drive.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

"There was a nice restaurant near the corner of This and That"

The plaza near me used to have a Nice Cafe, right next to Which Restaurant.

 

[Oliver Tweed]

No. They learn them. If that was the concern, then we'd have all numbered streets. No names.

The streets already have names. It's too late to start numbering them. Plus addresses all have numbers already so I doubt it would help. Is it 220 156th street or 221 56th street?

In principle, yes, of course it would be perfect if they just learned them. Playing Utopia is fun, but we don't live there, unfortunately.

The fact is, native English speakers, especially from the predominant culture, have trouble pronouncing certain names. Saying they should learn them doesn't help the situation.

Only one thing is important here: ensuring that emergency workers can get to anywhere in the city as fast and as easily as possible.

If that means trying to regulate street names to make them easy to pronounce, I'm all for it. I'd rather sacrifice ethnic diversity in street names than have someone I love die because the ambulance couldn't find them on A'kunamataata Lane.

 

[Bogtrotter]

I wonder how much of a problem this really is. Surely they follow up with additional information such as spelling and closest major intersections etc. There must also be some issues with repetative names for streets- how do they get around that?

 

[Oliver Tweed]

I'm sure those examples are problematic, too. It's too late for streets that already exist, though. Probably not realistic to expect widespread street name changes to address this problem. Making a policy for future names is more easily done.

 

[p5archit]

Too many street names in newer neighborhoods try to highlight an idealized world of trees, streams, natural features, etc., in areas where there are none. It's an almost pitiful attempt to highlight what has been lost in the process of developing the land.

I couldn't agree with you more...Its amazing that their (developers) approach is to uproot whatever nature is there, leave a few trees of course and level what used to be rolling fields. Once complete they throw up the usual sales centres and model homes and then name it "Foxtail Run" or "Maple Forest Lane" with luxury ravine lots...


p5

 

[building babel]

Let's get real with our street naming - and leave a colourful legacy to future generations:

Crack Court
Tranny Alley
Reload Way
Shootout Lane
Curbcrawler Gardens
Getaway Parkway

 

[scarberiankhatru]

McMansion Mews
Three Car Crescent
Tract Home Trail
White Flight Way
Gasguzzler Gardens

...ok, I'm out of names. What do we name the other 97,000 streets?

 

[building babel]

Faux Court
Pretentiousness Heights
Upmarket Mews
Pippypoo Plains
Doodad Driveway
Investment Property Way

Leading to:

Upshit Creek
Rocky Road
Broken Dreams Boulevard

 

[M Trethewey]

Trethewey is not so difficult to pronounce!

I wonder what they would say about "Trethewey Drive". It took me about five years and practice to get that right, I still remember having to mouth it out the first time I saw it.

So, as far as I'm concerned, bring on the "Ananthapavans" and "Dikrasoychokkas". Perhaps if they offend some, we could combine them with the insipidity of Observer's examples, into "Silver Dakrochowbatty Way", or "Pattorbikary View Drive".

If you can say chop suey, Drambuie, ratatouille, Joe Louis, you can just as easily say Trethewey.

 

[SP!RE]

Trethewey took me about two seconds to figure out pronunciation, as well as for most people I know.

As for this policy... I'd rather not die because an ambulance coming to get me can't find Sdfsdhjdsjfshsjsk Street fast enough. I don't see the discrimination in that.

 

[jn_12]

Just be glad you don't live in Brussels, where streets have two names sometimes (one in French, one in Dutch)