Obnoxiously saccharine or pretentious suburb street names
Fri, 2004-04-23 13:10
#1
Obnoxiously saccharine or pretentious suburb street names
Fri, 2004-04-23 13:10
#2
Mistysugar Trail, Thornhill.
Bridal Path (in lots of cities)
Country Club Drive, Kingston (yeah, it's called that, and the neighbourhood is just as you'd imagine)
Fri, 2004-04-23 13:17
#3
Actually, you can add "..or just plain banal" to the thread title, Michelle. I live in a appallingly ordinary suburb full of cookie-cutter tract houses where all the street names are varieties of wine. It's known by the city PR flacks as the "Vinyard", despite the fact that the closest thing to a grape found here is the Graperoo gum sold at the corner store.
[ 23 April 2004: Message edited by: Hinterland ]
Fri, 2004-04-23 13:53
#4
Yeah, there's an area like that in Kingston too, except it's known as "The Fruit Bowl" because a bunch of streets in the area have fruit names. Cherry Street, Plum Street, etc.
Fri, 2004-04-23 14:21
#5
On a side note, I found out why that section of San Francisco was called the tenderloin. It was hilarius
Fri, 2004-04-23 14:29
#6
Michelle, Bridal Path or Bridle Path? [img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img]
Why the "tenderloin", was it an area of brothels, or of slaughterhouses? Seems "Cфte-de-Liesse" here is a reference to a long-forgotten House of Ill Repute.
I can't stand estate-agent talk such as "townhomes". Expressions like "buying a home" (rather than house) are bad enough. [img]rolleyes.gif" border="0[/img]
Fri, 2004-04-23 14:32
#7
This is true, lagatta. Townhomes, indeed!
Yes, Bridle Path, of course! That's what I meant. It's funny, I've always thought of it as "Bridal" because ever since I heard that street name in Kingston as a teenager, I always thought it was meant to evoke images of a newly-married couple's first new house in the suburbs. [img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img] So now it's a mental block for me - I know the right word, but I instinctively write the other one.
Fri, 2004-04-23 14:36
#8
tenderloin: it's a gritty area, so policemen were paid more to work its streets, therefore affording the cops better cuts of meat.
Fri, 2004-04-23 14:37
#9
It was called the tenderloin because the the police were able to get so much corruption bribes and money from there, that they were able to dine on steak in the fancy restaurants (circa 1906, the earthquake and fire).
Fri, 2004-04-23 14:58
#10
So, San Fran cops...gritty or dirty? [img]smile.gif" border="0[/img]
Fri, 2004-04-23 15:04
#11
The development of homes in the old Greenwood racetrack area of Toronto has the most pukalicious Pottery Barn chic names. It looks like they are trying to pay homage to the old racetrack. There is a street called "Winner's Circle" and "Winddancer Blvd" or some such trip.
Ew.
Fri, 2004-04-23 15:08
#12
Well according to the book Im reading now Disaster-The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906 by Dan Kurzman.; the adminsitration, Mayor and police were all corrupt beyond belief (maybe even more than new orleans) with the exception of the Fire Department. The mayor and his backer were supposed to testify at a inquiry into their corruption the day of the earthquake (both later were given lengthy jail terms for corruption later).
Fri, 2004-04-23 16:55
#13
Actually, Michelle, this thread should be in "out and about".
Fri, 2004-04-23 17:02
#14
YES! It should! I spent about 2 minutes trying to decide where on earth this thread would fit!
Fri, 2004-04-23 17:13
#15
Although I'm a baseball fan, I did an eyeroll at "Blue Jays Way" when the old street was renamed. Blue Jays Way has that Liberal Party offensively inoffensive smarmy feel to it, sort of like the revised lines of O Canada and the renamed Canada Day, which the Libs snuck through the Commons when no one else was looking.
Li'l old streets in cramped old parts of town should have names with flavour and punch. Does anyone remember what the old name was? I'm sure it was better.
Something like "Jays Lane" would be ok. No way that street is a "Way."
Fri, 2004-04-23 20:08
#16
Isn't "Blue Jay Way" the name of one of those Beatles songs that inspired Charles Manson?
Saskatchewan towns are full of nonsense names such as "Biarwood" (a subdivision built on grassland) and "River Heights" (a street running beside a dry creek bed), and streets whose names end in "-brooke". I could go on...
Nanaimo B.C. on the other hand, has fun names like "Jingle Pot Road", "Buttertubs Drive" and "Dingle Bingle Hill."
Fri, 2004-04-23 20:24
#17
I know it's drifting to suggest a cool name, but I [i]love[/i] the simple old school honesty of "Government Road."
It's popular in Northern Ontario: Kapuskasing-Moonbeam, Kirkland Lake-Virginiatown, Timmins, Coniston in Greater Sudbury, Thessalon, Keewatin… Welland Canal Road in Niagara apparently was named, until recently, Government Road. There's a little Government Road in Etobicoke, too. And others.
Fri, 2004-04-23 20:37
#18
quote:
I know it's drifting to suggest a cool name, but I love the simple old school honesty of "Government Road."
How many "Government Roads" are there? I had known of only one. One of my first homes was on Government Road in Weyburn, Sask. W.O. Mitchell mentioned it in [i]Who has Seen the Wind[/i].
[ 23 April 2004: Message edited by: al-Qa'bong ]
Fri, 2004-04-23 20:48
#19
Agent 204
In Winnipeg there's a neighbourhood with streets named after various planets (Saturn Bay, Mars Drive, etc).
Fri, 2004-04-23 20:57
#20
In the neighbourhood where my in-laws live in Quebec City, all the street names have the same theme: Rue de la joie, du bonheur, de l'avenir, de l'espйrance, etc.
Somewhat cheesy, but it has a certain charm.
Fri, 2004-04-23 21:46
#21
In Vancouver, we have a series of streets named after the provinces - starting with Columbia and ending with, I think, Brunswick. [img]smile.gif" border="0[/img]
Fri, 2004-04-23 22:28
#22
One of my best friends in high school lived in this neighbourhood/development in Riverside, CA that all had these crazy "suburban" names like Rosebay, Sweetwater, Whiterock, and Sugargum. It was as if they had a computer randomly selecting and pairing together chintzy words.
Sat, 2004-04-24 08:58
#23
Perhaps I'm off topic here, but I find the slogans they come up with to sell the 'townhomes' pretty awful sometimes as well. For instance, one of the countless new subdivisions in Markham (technology capital of the world) whose cheesy name escapes me, touted itself as a place where "the deer and the children play". Yeah. Maybe before you bulldozed all the vegetation. Or are you referring to lawn ornaments?
Sat, 2004-04-24 10:49
#24
I grew up in Thunder Bay ON, where their "Government Road" was on the outskirts of town, where we city-folk would call "the boonies". (Maybe it has developed a bit more since I've left, which reminds me that there was also a "development" road)
As a young person, I always thought that the fact that Government Road was a dirt road with rural abodes was an indicator of what the government gave to its citizens. Not a heckofalot, compared to those who lived in the city, and had sidewalks and fire hydrants.
P.S. I lived on Bentwood Drive, never quite figured out that one. Is it a tree? [img]confused.gif" border="0[/img]
Sat, 2004-04-24 11:32
#25
I think London, Ontario probably has the most pretentious new street names. Perhaps the most grating to me is "Fiddler's Green". Ain't no Fiddler. Ain't no green.
I like real names. Oak street should have oaks on it, for example.
On that note, Kudo's to St. Thomas Ontario, which has included "Vestigal Tail Capital of Canada" on it's population signs on the outskirts.
[ 24 April 2004: Message edited by: Tommy_Paine ]
Sat, 2004-04-24 11:40
#26
London just copied a bunch of street names from London, England...it sort of makes sense because it's named after it. But the streets themselves don't have the same cachet...Pall Mall?...Picadilly?
...my favourite in London (Ont.) is "Abbey Rise". How perfectly delightful!
Sat, 2004-04-24 12:02
#27
Victoria Hospital, Victoria Park, Victoria Street. Wellington (and Welesly-- he gets two roads named after him) Colbourne, Watterloo, and Trafalgar. And a host of others named after English people and events from the first half of the 19th Century.
One thing I do like are streets named after places where Londoner's laid down thier lives in two world wars. Ortona street, St. Julien street (and park) Appledorn street to name just a few.
[ 24 April 2004: Message edited by: Tommy_Paine ]
Sat, 2004-04-24 13:15
#28
Agent 204
Speaking of British street names, I recall a story on As It Happens back when Thatcher was still their PM. A municipality (with a Labour-dominated council) had vetoed a development that some of Thatcher's cronies wanted, and Thatcher's government simply overruled the council and pushed the development ahead. The municipality could do nothing to actually stop it, but they decided to take advantage of their unquestioned right to name the streets whatever they chose. They asked their citizens (who also overwhelmingly opposed the development) to submit ideas for the most offensive and disgusting street names imaginable, in the hope that this would discourage people from living there. Two names that stick out from the broadcast were "Gonorrhea Gardens" and "Hitler Avenue". The councillor that the CBC interviewed said that the developers were genuinely worried about their ability to sell houses in the area, though I never heard a follow-up story.
Sat, 2004-04-24 13:26
#29
N.Beltov
I used to live on "Chisholm Trail" in a village in rural Vancouver Island. That's pretty goofy. It was so steep I had to get off my bike and walk it. Somehow, I don't think they moved any cattle along that street. A sibling of Canadian writer Farley Mowat used to live on the same street.
[ 24 April 2004: Message edited by: N.Beltov ]
Sat, 2004-04-24 13:54
#30
More in the loathesome than pretentious or saccharine category, but there is a street corner in the Montrйal suburb of Riviиre-des-Prairies (the northeast part of the island) that is the intersection of boulevards Maurice-Duplessis and Alexis-Carrel. Now I can see an argument for figures of local historical importance having streets named after them even if many of their views or actions would now be seen as reactionary (Duplessis, Lionel Groulx...) but Lyonnais scientist Alexis Carrel had no relationship to Quebec history. Indeed in his native Lyon:
"Alexis Carrel has been a controversial figure for some years. Demands have been made in several towns for the re-christening of streets named after Carrel in the 1960s. The University of Lyon-I has just rechristened the Alexis Carrel Faculty of Medecine. These decisions have been prompted by the active support given to eugenics by the 1912 Nobel prize winner for medicine, by the racist, sexist and undemocratic theories which he expressed, notably in his book L'Homme, cet inconnu, and by his participation in the Vichy regime." (From a web site on this issue).
Sat, 2004-04-24 21:03
#31
quote:
Originally posted by Tommy_Paine:
[b]I think London, Ontario probably has the most pretentious new street names.[/b]
I love that there's a street named "Cheapside". It's actually a pretty nice street with pretty nice houses. Is that one of the street names copied from London, England? (I know nothing about the real London)
Sat, 2004-04-24 22:22
#32
If a private member's bill to hadn't made it through the Ontario legislature in 1986, there might still be a forgotten geographic township in Sudbury District - roughly in the area of Killarney - called Stalin Township. (Yes, after that Stalin. It's now the Geographic Township of Hansen, for Rick.)
Sat, 2004-04-24 22:57
#33
Sometimes silly names are simply a result of too many things to name, and not enough imagination. The townships of Tiny, Tay and Flos (those names are always said in that order) in the northern part of Simcoe County (Ontario) are named after the lapdogs of Lady Sarah Maitland, wife of an early Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada.
Sat, 2004-04-24 23:15
#34
And I can't believe we've come this far without a nod to Swastika, Ontario:
[url=http://sps.connectcanada.com/]Swastika Public School. Click on About Swastika to learn how Leon Trotsky lived there for a couple weeks in 1915![/url]
[url=http://www.manwoman.net/swastika/fots3.html]The Friends of the Swastika, including ManWoman, artist, pro-swastika advocate and author of "Gentle Swastika," met in Swastika in 1985.[/url]
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika,_Ontario]Wikipedia: Swastika, Ontario[/url]
Sat, 2004-04-24 23:58
#35
Pronounced [i]swa-TI-ka[/i], I hasten to add.
Sun, 2004-04-25 02:00
#36
Avenue of Champions
(In Edmonton, 118th ave, the section east of NAIT)
Sun, 2004-04-25 12:13
#37
Well, since we've veered off to historic place names, mustn't forget[url=http://www.twprideaulakes.on.ca/heritage/bastard-ward.html]Bastard Township[/url]. Pretty place actually, in the Rideau Lakes district.
Sun, 2004-04-25 12:30
#38
I used to have a link to a site that explained the origins of many London street names, but I can't find it anymore.
I live just a block south of Cheapside street, but in the eastern part of it, where the grand old houses one finds west of Richmond and near St. Joseph's Hospital fade out to more humble abodes.
One of my favorite names here is a small street that runs off of Bridges street, near where it stops at Egerton. It's called "Swinyard", and it's easy to imagine that it may have been the place where swine were loaded onto box cars, as it's right in the heart of the CN stock yards.
However, the truth is that the name came from one of the original owners of a rail road-- Grand Trunk if my memory serves.
There's a development in a small Hamlet that was swallowed up by annexation years ago. The place is called Hyde Park, and the develpment is called "Hyde Park Woods."
Of course, to make room for the development they clear cut the woods away.........
Sat, 2004-05-29 19:46
#39
Well, in Sault Ste Marie, there's a whole section of the city that has street names starting with the letter "P".. I remember hearing people calling it the "P" Patch..
Tue, 2005-04-05 20:15
#40
Somewhere on my blog (I'm too lazy to look through the archive for it) is a post on this topic with links to Mapquest maps so you can see I'm not making any of this up...
But while I was doing canvassing before the election last fall, I kept a running mental tally of the worst subdivision street name themes in Columbus. They included:
The grouping named after American wines (Gallo, Mondavi, Sutter Home)
The Irish stereotype subdivision (Pub Street, Blarney Stone, Lucky Charm)
The Western theme (Corral, Chuck Wagon, etc)
The military theme (Soldier, Lieutenant, etc)
The running shoe subdivision (Reebok, Nike, Puma, etc) -- I've been making fun of this for months and only recently found out that someone I work with actually lives on Saucony Dr!
The lyrics from the national anthem condo complex (Dawn's Early Light, Twilight's Last Gleaming, etc)
[img]eek.gif" border="0[/img]
Tue, 2005-04-05 20:28
#41
In San Francisco, there is a Uranus Street. It's in the Castro district.
Tue, 2005-04-05 20:47
#42
In the Rockingham district of Halifax, there is an older (mid-60s) subdivision, where all the streets are named after birds -- Flamingo, Blue Jay, Cardinal, etc., etc. In the local vernacular, it's known as Birdland.
Tue, 2005-04-05 20:57
#43
Not saccharine nor pretentious, but of interest: the streets in the old city part of Windsor, ON that run pertendicular to the river still bear the names of the original French landholders, eg. Ouellette, Goyeau, Lauzon, Pillette, Drouillard, Marontette, Pierre etc. etc.
It is the oldest permanent French settlement west of Quebec City.
Tue, 2005-04-05 21:04
#44
Scott Piatkowski
quote:
Originally posted by James:
[b]Not saccharine nor pretentious, but of interest: the streets in the old city part of Windsor, ON that run pertendicular to the river still bear the names of the original French landholders, eg. Ouellette, Goyeau, Lauzon, Pillette, Drouillard, Marontette, Pierre etc. etc.It is the oldest permanent French settlement west of Quebec City.[/b]
You failed to note Windsorites' [i]interesting habit[/i] of bastardizing the pronunciations of said names )(e.g. Ouellette = OH-let).
Tue, 2005-04-05 21:35
#45
Montreal developments tend heavily to pretentious rather than saccharine. For instance, on Ile des Soeurs, one of the condo towers currently under construction is known simply as "Sax." Cyclists with an appreciation for irony can enjoy the juxtaposition of the worksite with a billboard reading "Les Verdunois, respecteux de l'environnement" (Ile des Soeurs is part of the Verdun borough.) In the hopes of giving the island's development the proper cachet, the powers-that-be went so far as to name one of the island's parks "Parc West Vancouver."
Tue, 2005-04-05 21:53
#46
quote:
Originally posted by Scott Piatkowski:
[b]You failed to note Windsorites' [i]interesting habit[/i] of bastardizing the pronunciations of said names )(e.g. Ouellette = OH-let).[/b]
HA, one of the more interesting bastardizations is Langlois. To most Windsorites, it is LANG-loys, a pronunciation that always puzzled me as a youngster, as the area in the southern part of the county where I grew up had a large familiy of Langlois', including my great-grandmother (who I never met), and the local pronunciation was LONG-way. [img]confused.gif" border="0[/img] Just a question of which is the more bastardly. Each is a LONG-way from proper.
Another famous Windsorism is PEERie St. for Pierre???
Tue, 2005-04-05 23:13
#47
quote:
On that note, Kudo's to St. Thomas Ontario, which has included "Vestigal Tail Capital of Canada" on it's population signs on the outskirts.
That's where I was born. Did I dodge a bullet?
Tue, 2005-04-05 23:33
#48
quote:
Originally posted by Tommy_Paine:
[b]One thing I do like are streets named after places where Londoner's laid down thier lives in two world wars. Ortona street, St. Julien street (and park) Appledorn street to name just a few.[ 24 April 2004: Message edited by: Tommy_Paine ][/b]
A little off of topic: In Winnipeg we have a street that was orinally called Pine Street, but during the first world war, 3 guys from the street won the Victoria's Cross, (victoiracross.net tells me this is the only time this has ever happened.) they changed the name of the street to Valour Road. The NFB did a "vignette" on it in the late 80s I think.
Tue, 2005-04-05 23:42
#49
Like Sebastapol Roads, of which there are many, which is named after a famous battle in the Crimean War (i think).
The street namers weren't very imaginative where i grew up. My steet was called King's Road, and it was next to Queen's Road, and next to Prince Edward Avenue.
Wed, 2005-04-06 00:40
#50
Timebandit
Dolphin Bay. In Regina, Saskatchewan. I ask you. [img]rolleyes.gif" border="0[/img]
And then there's Daffodil Drive. They're both in Whitmore Park. All the streets (winding lanes with no sidewalks and lots of potholes because some idiot managed to build a suburb on top of a slough and market it as a chi-chi suburb in the '60s) that intersect in an certain area begin with the same letters. So Daffodil and Dolphin and Durham are all in the same section. Gag.
Wed, 2005-04-06 00:53
#51
Some friends just bought a house in Brampton on Shining Willows Drive. The adjacent streets have similarly pukey tree names, thanks to the fact that the new subdivision borders on a conservation area.
When I visited McAllen, Texas some years ago, the friends I stayed with lived on Eagle Avenue, conveniently located between Dove Street and Falcon Drive. There was a bird section of town, a flower section, a zodiac section...