Re: CHAT: Directions

On Mon, 13 Dec 1999 01:31:21 +0100 taliesin the storyteller
<taliesin@...> writes:
> I guess Gainesville is laid out in a grid-pattern, then. Is this
> block-system used in any non-grid-cities? Non-grid-cities are better
> in
> cold climates as the grid-pattern gives the wind a boost, makes the
> city
> colder and windier than it could (ought to) be. What works by the
> Mediterranean Sea doesn't cut it twenty below freezing :) Thanks to
> certain
> Rome-loving city-planners, several cities in Norway and Sweden have
> been
> "ruined" this way by being gridded.
> tal.
.

DIfferent parts of New York City are gridded in different ways.  For
instance, there's the main Manhattan grid, which does exactly what you
describe.  In Brooklyn, where i live, there are two main grids, called by
me the West Brooklyn and East Brooklyn grids. (although both of them are
primarily South Brooklyn).
West Brooklyn:  Boro Park, Bensonhurst, Sunset Park, Bay Ridge...
East Brooklyn:  Flatbush, Midwood, Sheepshead Bay...
There are also smaller grids inlaid on these, such as the Manhattan Beach
grid coming off of East Brooklyn, or the Bay Ridge overlay grid in West
Brooklyn.
The East Brooklyn grid is aligned north-south/east-west, while the West
Brooklyn grid is aligned northeast-southwest/northwest-southeast, and the
grid interface zone is the north-south street pair of Dahill Road and
McDonald Avenue.  Sometimes streets from one grid will pass into the
other for a while, such as Bay Parkway (22nd Ave) from the West, or
Avenue I from the East.
The West Brooklyn grid is NE-SW major numbered Avenues, NW-SE minor
numbered Streets.
The East Brooklyn grid is E-W major lettered Avenues, N-S minor numbered
(primarily "East") Streets.

For instance, in West Brooklyn you could find the address:
intersection of 18th Avenue and 65th Street.  (most of the grid has
relatively low Ave.s and high St.s since there are more of them)
And in East Brooklyn you could find:
intersection of Avenue X and East 14th Street.

Then there are places like northern Manhattan  and the Bronx, where the
Manhattan grid becomes jumbled, and places like much of Queens, where you
can have a succession of "167th Street, 167th Avenue, 167th Road, 168th
Street...".  It's probably not exactly like that, but that's how it seems
to people from more logically-laid-out boroughs.  :-)

East Brooklynites have a reputation for thinking that the West Brooklyn
grid is falling over the edge of the earth, and won't drive you home to
Boro Park, Bensonhurst, etc.  West Brooklynites, on the other hand, have
been known to drive people home all the way to the south-eastern edge of
the Eastern grid.  (and yes you are sensing some hostility there :-) .)


-Stephen (Steg)
 "Eze-guvdhab wa'hrikh-a tze, / "zhoutzii wa'esh," i eze-mwe."

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