Make Music Not Friends ([info]fugitivemotel) wrote in [info]newyorkers,
@ 2008-02-22 14:18:00
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Worst. Streetname. Ever.
Hey guys, I'm from London, and I posted a couple of months ago, before my second ever visit to New York, just before Christmas.

Anyway, I had an amazing time, but I just thought I'd share one of my photos with you all. I took this near the Brooklyn Bridge:



Seriously New York, WTF?

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[info]cbackson
2008-02-22 02:22 pm UTC (link)
New Yorkers like to name streets in honor of people. My block is technically "Patrol Officer Something O'Something Street."

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]ceetar
2008-02-22 02:53 pm UTC (link)
Of course, if you addressed a letter with that, it probably wouldn't get there.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
really? - [info]leviticus, 2008-02-22 03:59 pm UTC
Re: really? - [info]ceetar, 2008-02-22 04:02 pm UTC

[info]alkeline
2008-02-23 10:38 am UTC (link)
and yet, given about two hundred years or so, and people forget the person after which the street was named.
(lafayette anyone?)

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
(no subject) - [info]cbackson, 2008-02-23 02:57 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]alkeline, 2008-02-24 03:42 am UTC

[info]thatgirljade
2008-02-22 03:04 pm UTC (link)
giggle

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[info]mylaptopisevil
2008-02-22 03:13 pm UTC (link)
lots of streets have alternate names in memory/honor/blah of X. they're never used, though. you won't see someone going "HEY GUYS LETS HANG OUT ON 9/11 VICTIMS AVENUE"

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]failstoexist
2008-02-22 09:06 pm UTC (link)
oh my god. where is that? because I have to make some plans.

but first, to chill on people with AIDS plaza!

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]dawn_again
2008-02-22 09:31 pm UTC (link)
I think they figured it was safe to hand out dorky honorary street names when they noticed people still refuse to call 6th "Avenue of the Americas" after fifty years.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
(no subject) - [info]mylaptopisevil, 2008-02-22 10:08 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]paigeriffic, 2008-02-23 08:35 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]mylaptopisevil, 2008-02-23 08:55 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]paigeriffic, 2008-02-23 02:37 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]mylaptopisevil, 2008-02-23 04:17 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]alkeline, 2008-02-23 10:40 am UTC

[info]rob_t_firefly
2008-02-22 03:13 pm UTC (link)
I always make it a point to not have sex with anyone while walking down that street.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]ranai
2008-02-22 06:24 pm UTC (link)
Well, it'd be easier if you'd at least stop walking first.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
(no subject) - [info]alkeline, 2008-02-23 10:40 am UTC

[info]nemesisbecoming
2008-02-22 03:18 pm UTC (link)
ahahahahaha

It's a Plaza... with AIDS.

(Reply to this)


[info]honestys_easy
2008-02-22 03:36 pm UTC (link)
"AIDS! Everybody has AIDS! AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS!"

Sometimes I feel that New York tries to compensate for having mostly numbered streets in their grid patterns by adding on superfluous memorial names to streets and such. No one really uses them, however. The only one I can think of is when ostentatious businesses list their address as "Avenue of the Americas" instead of 6th Avenue.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]rob_t_firefly
2008-02-22 03:47 pm UTC (link)
At least 6th Ave has been called "Avenue of the Americas" by tourists and businesses since 1945, and that was an attempt by Mayor LaGuardia to totally change the name over, and in fact it's still "Avenue of the Americas" on all the official paperwork. It was only our legendary NY obstinacy that convinced the powers that be that we were going to keep calling the damn thing 6th Avenue no matter what, and we ended up with the concession of double street-signs.

Nowadays the secondary street names are an obvious half-assed attempt to make a statement while at the same time acknowledging that it's meaningless and unofficial, and it seems they've only been going really overboard in the last decade or so.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
(no subject) - [info]aypianoman, 2008-02-22 05:17 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]dawn_again, 2008-02-22 09:32 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]bronxelf_ag001, 2008-02-23 03:10 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]jennofavalon, 2008-02-22 04:47 pm UTC

[info]asuguy85
2008-02-22 03:53 pm UTC (link)
It could be worse. For example:

U HAVE AIDS LOLZ!!1! Plaza

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]foreverdiva
2008-02-22 05:29 pm UTC (link)
I just literally lol'ed

(Reply to this) (Parent)
(no subject) - [info]tinymich, 2008-02-22 06:02 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]tinymich, 2008-02-22 06:03 pm UTC

[info]teardropsondays
2008-02-22 04:04 pm UTC (link)
get out! thats honestly there??
i have to check that place out.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]aypianoman
2008-02-22 05:19 pm UTC (link)
If I recall correctly having worked down there for a year and always being amused, it's on the west side of City Hall Park, just south of the R/W entrance...

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
(no subject) - [info]bluemoon12, 2008-02-22 05:42 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]aypianoman, 2008-02-22 05:44 pm UTC

[info]martiniwhiskers
2008-02-22 04:11 pm UTC (link)
Awesome. Just awesome.

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[info]paper_crystals
2008-02-22 04:18 pm UTC (link)
Where is it exactly? I want to visit so I can say I have been there.

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[info]rob_t_firefly
2008-02-22 04:34 pm UTC (link)
It's on Park Row, between Beekman and Spruce streets.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]clobby
2008-02-22 04:23 pm UTC (link)
plaza's closed due to aids.

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[info]_corruption_
2008-02-22 06:26 pm UTC (link)
Hahaha, I bet people are given customary afros and 3-piece suits if they live there.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]clobby
2008-02-22 04:27 pm UTC (link)
http://everyoneaids.ytmnd.com/

(Reply to this)


[info]unbound_spirit
2008-02-22 05:05 pm UTC (link)
Wow, I'm glad I don't live on THAT street!

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]alkeline
2008-02-23 10:41 am UTC (link)
it would have been just as awkward as when i lived on a street called "memory lane". the awkward part comes in at the fact that the street was a dead end.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]cbackson
2008-02-22 05:11 pm UTC (link)
Also, remember that this is the city that brought you Crack is Wack City Playground.
http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/historical_signs/hs_historical_sign.php?id=7949

We will not be constraining by the place-naming norms of other cities! *shakes fist*

(Reply to this) (Thread)
Here's my photo of that.
[info]cyntata2672
2008-02-22 05:15 pm UTC (link)



(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: Here's my photo of that. - [info]iluvnooyawk, 2008-02-22 06:29 pm UTC
Re: Here's my photo of that. - [info]clobby, 2008-02-22 06:40 pm UTC
Re: Here's my photo of that. - [info]kathy_x0, 2008-02-22 08:01 pm UTC
Re: Here's my photo of that. - [info]zegenta, 2008-02-23 12:44 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]ffantastik, 2008-02-22 09:05 pm UTC

[info]outofthedust
2008-02-22 05:37 pm UTC (link)
and i thought Gay Street was funny

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[info]blergeatkitty
2008-02-22 08:14 pm UTC (link)
My favorite is, and will always be, Avenue of the Strongest. I know it's named after the city's garbage collectors (in one of the most excellent puns the City of New York has ever perpetrated), but I always picture it as the setting for a movie in which Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren team up to save some orphans by entering a fighting tournament or some such thing.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]bluemoon12
2008-02-23 03:21 am UTC (link)
Wow, maybe I'm just oblivious but I didn't realize the strongest meant the garbage collectors. Hehe. That gives it character.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

(Reply from suspended user)

[info]alkeline
2008-02-23 10:42 am UTC (link)
You prefer to mock cancer patients?

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]steelbrassnwood
2008-02-22 11:51 pm UTC (link)
The city does overdo it with renaming streets, but what is funny about memorializing an epidemic that has killed and is still killing thousands of people? Worst street name ever? You live in a town that used to have a street called Grope Cunt Lane.

(Reply to this)


[info]paigeriffic
2008-02-23 08:34 am UTC (link)
the intersection of Dyckman and Cummings gets a giggle out of the sophomoric spirit in me

but seriously People With A.I.D.S plaza... I feel that if I had Aids this would do nothing for me or my spirits... i find it a thoughtless/uncreative name that lacks inspiration or hope. What is it supposed to do anyway?

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]mylaptopisevil
2008-02-23 06:01 pm UTC (link)
i find it a thoughtless/uncreative name that lacks inspiration or hope.

it's not like that's the only thing NYC has done in the interests of people with AIDS/HIV. it's a memorial.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
(no subject) - [info]paigeriffic, 2008-02-23 11:12 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]mylaptopisevil, 2008-02-23 11:20 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]paigeriffic, 2008-02-24 12:08 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]techtress, 2008-02-23 07:08 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]paigeriffic, 2008-02-23 11:13 pm UTC

[info]lauren_joy
2008-02-24 02:25 am UTC (link)
I remember when I first saw that by city hall around 6 years ago. I stopped with my boyfriend at the time, and just giggled. It is defiantly odd.

(Reply to this)


[info]quba
2008-02-26 03:59 pm UTC (link)
Hey, when life gives you AIDS: Make Lemonaids.

(Reply to this)

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