One of the reasons that I have become a little...obsessed... with the story regarding the Kansas City voter referendum that changed the name of the Dr. Martin Luther King Blvd. back to its historic name of Paseo Blvd. (or The Paseo) is that...I have had lifelong loves of cartography, of big city topography, and big city walking.
For example, when I first lived in New York City, I would spend my spare time studying maps of the subway system. Within two weeks of living in NYC, I remember a couple of people asking me how to get from Point A to Point B on the subway and...I was able to give them correct directions.
If I’ve been just about anywhere in a city, I might get lost on the way there the first time but I will pretty much always remember how to get back to that very spot.
So...reading about the attachment of some Kansas City residents to The Paseo, I wondered: What specific city streets do I feel a bit of...an emotional attachment to...and why.
I came up with 3 streets and I will share those street names and cities with you but first…
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Jefferson Avenue (Detroit, Michigan): Woodward Avenue in Detroit is the dividing line between the East Side and the West Side of Detroit...so...I have some sentiment there. I have never lived on the west side so I have very rarely seen the expanse of Grand River Avenue; I am a East Sider, so I am quite fond of the major east side streets, Van Dyke and Gratiot Avenue.
But Jefferson Avenue is special.
My Mom and Stepdad lived a block south of Jefferson when I was a really little kid, so I have very early memories of the street. My stepfather worked for the city in the building now named after Detroit’s long-time mayor, Coleman Young. Mom also worked for the city, also on Jefferson Avenue nearly into the suburbs.Granny used to take me to the Big Boys right on Jefferson and Grand Blvd. about once a week and…
One time I was over my grandfather’s house and I decided to ride my bike down Van Dyke all the way to Jefferson. I rode it across Jefferson and then thought that I was going to hurry up and ride my bike back across Jefferson and beat the incoming rush hour traffic and...I fell. I wasn’t really hurt and I got back up quickly but I did wind up in the middle of the turn lanes for a hot minute...and that was the first time, I think, that I ever thought that I was going to die...oh, I made it...and made it back home...and told no one that story for decades, lol.
Lake Shore Drive (Chicago, Illinois): I’ve seen and been on the beaches at both the Atlantic (NYC, Boston) and Pacific (Southern California, Oregon)… but there is nothing quite like riding (car or bike) or jogging or walking up Lake Shore Drive, seeing the greatest skyline in the world and looking at the sheer expanse of water (and ice sheets) on Lake Michigan and…
During the February 2011 blizzard, I wasn’t in Chicago, I was in Boston (long story for another day). I was looking at the news and saw that now famous picture of alll of cars piled up in the snow on Lake Shore Drive and I thought 1) Why in the f*ck would anyone drive down Lake Shore Drive during rush hour and an incoming snowstorm (I’ve since heard some answers to that question!) and 2) I want to go home.
Sheridan Road (Chicago, Illinois and points North of Chicago): I’ve lived in Chicago since January 1990. Since 1994, I have almost always lived no more than 3 or 4 blocks away from Sheridan Road; often I have lived less than a block away from Sheridan Road. There is a stretch of Sheridan Road, north of my alma mater’s campus (Loyola University) to Howard Street (the Chicago-Evanston border, roughly) that is so effing gorgeous while it is snowing; it’s worth going outside just to look at it and/or take pictures.
And of course, Sheridan Road (or the parts of Sheridan that I’ve lived near) is never too far from the greatest rapid transit train line in the world, The Red Line (the A train in NYC comes close but...nope.)
Ultimately, I think the formula here is kinda simple.
Jefferson Avenue in Detroit is the street I most associate with my young childhood.
Gratiot Avenue in Detroit is the street I most associate with my teen years.
Sheridan Road in Chicago is the street I most associate with my adulthood.
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From RhodeIslandAspie.
Comment is from the discussion section of the diary Progressives are doing their part to increase income disparity. The comment is from centsmaker.
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