I live in Minneapolis, a cute little town. It’s pretty straightforward getting around. Things get a little wonky across the river and in SE downtown but more often than not you can count on Alphabetically named avenues running north/south and streets in numerical order going east/west. 2367 Lyndale Ave S is on the East side of Lyndale Ave between 23rd and 24th streets.
I started working in St Paul. A few years ago then governor Jesse Ventura quipped on Letterman, “Those streets in St. Paul must have been designed by drunken Irishmen.”
This was insanely funny at the time. Like most people, I don’t get to St Paul all that often. Today I learned that those drunken Irishmen had a plan. Even a formula:
Where:
N is the house number
H is the highest established corner number
L is the lowest established corner number
D is the distance (in feet) from the door of the house to L
B is the length of the block (in feet)
From The Street Where You Live: A Guide to the Place Names of St. Paul
Clear as mud? What this really means is that if you want to go to 973 you shouldn’t pull over and park at the open spot in front of 901 – you may have a longer walk than you think.
Minneapolis and St Paul both have character – sometimes this makes it a pain to find places, but the alternative is pretty stark. It would be easy to get around if the river, the bluffs, the parks, the streams where gone. But then there wouldn’t really be anywhere to go.
St Paul is cool. A long time ago a friend of mine was lured there…. it took a while for me to appreciate it.