February 4, 2005
Takin' it to the street names
While these Columbia residents don't seem to like it, I bet there are a few people out there who would pay a little extra to live on Satan Wood Drive. Certainly beats the dumbass generic street names down here. Even New York, with its numbered grid, manages to eek out some interesting names, like Ganesvoort Street, Maiden Lane and Great Jones Street, which isn't that great except as the title of a Don DeLillo novel.
Anyway, perhaps the only thing that Columbia has going for it is the fact that its street names are long, convoluted and strange as a result of the Rouse Co.'s use of obscure literary references in naming streets when they first built the place on Howard County farmland.
However, since the town's construction in the 1960s, there has been a lot of new literature that hasn't made it on to street signs. If the town expands (oh, it will) the planners should make an effort to update their street-naming canon. I can think of a few people that may want to live on Electric Kool-Aid Acid Blvd. and some more who wouldn't mind settling down in a 3BR ranch on Quidditch Lane. Too high brow? Why not rent an apartment on Avenue for Idiots?
Who says the culture is in decline?
Posted by rj3 at February 4, 2005 10:10 AM
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DC manages to come up with some pretty awesome names thanks to the practice of placing streets in alphabetical order and of the same number of syllables.
My personal favorite is the only 3 syllable word beginning with Q they could come up with: QUAKENBOS. According to Google it's not a word at all but a Dutch surname.
Posted by: Denise at February 4, 2005 11:23 AM
I want to live on Treacle Mine Road. Or, perhaps more appropriately, on Roke Hill.
Posted by: Michael at February 4, 2005 11:26 AM
Denise: I don't really think the three-syllable names are that great (mostly)? Rittenhouse, Northhamptom, Albermarle, Chesapeake, Davenport - so generic.
Posted by: rj at February 4, 2005 11:39 AM
As a former resident of the Columbubble, I feel sorry for the pizza delivery guys. My street names of Woodblock Row and Spring Plow Lane seem tame, compared to those of some of my friends. The worst was a street near my high school called "The Bowl".
If I was more cultured, I'd be able to tell you which poems those names derive from. I know that the area around my high school came from Hemingway, and the village of Dickson has street names from Emily Dickinson.
The planners of Columbia didn't want any street names the same as any in Baltimore or DC.
Also, don't expect too much more expansion. The last village (River Hill) of the planned community was built in the 90's. There will be a
little more devolpment on some outparcels (land within Columbia, but part of only a few spots where the farmers did not sell to Rouse Corp). These guys are selling now and making a lot more than they would have in the 60's. These outparcels are technically not really Columbia (apart from geographic location and mailing address), so they
don't have to comply with the all powerfull Columbia Association who can stop "official Columbians" from painting their houses and putting
roof antennas up. The outparcels don't have to have cheesy street names, and they don't pay CA taxes, but if you want to join CA pools/sports clubs you have to pay a higher fee than CA residents.
Besides the outparcels, the growth around Columbia will mostly fall
into Ellicott City zip codes and thus none of the CA malarkey or mandatory goofy street names.
Posted by: Av at February 7, 2005 12:27 PM