"in/going to/from California" vs. "on/over by/near California"

[Steely Dan]

I'm sure Chicago is not alone in this, but one of our major north/south streets, that cuts across the entire city for like 25 miles, is named "California Avenue".

But almost no one ever actually says the "avenue" part. It's ALWAYS just a simple straight-up "California", and the only way you know whether a person is referring to the local city street, or the large US state out on the West Coast, is by the prepositions that precede it.

If something is referenced as being "on" or "over by" or "near" California, then you know that they're talking about the street in Chicago.

However, if something is referenced as being "in" or "going to" or "from" California, then you know they're talking about the state out west.

Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago is very similar in this regard. Michigan Avenue not so much because it is very often referred to by its full official name "Michigan Avenue".



So what are some major streets in your city that are named after other prominent geographies elsewhere that work similarly?

Caveat: please only post major streets named after prominent places elsewhere. Don't be annoying and post a list of all 473 side streets in your city that share a place name with some other place on the globe. Also, every city has a major street named "Washington", but that's after the man himself, not the federal district in the mid Atlantic nor the US state of the same name.

[jmecklenborg]

A neighborhood in Cincinnati is named California:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California,_Cincinnati

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

I'm sure Chicago is not alone in this, but one of our major north/south streets, that cuts across the entire city for like 25 miles, is named "California Avenue".

But almost no one ever actually says the "avenue" part. It's ALWAYS just a simple straight-up "California", and the only way you know whether a person is referring to the local city street, or the large US state out on the West Coast, is by the prepositions that precede it.

If something is referenced to being "on" or "over by" or "near" California, then you know that they're talking about the street in Chicago.

However, if something is referenced by being "in" or "going to" or "from" California, then you know they're talking about the state out west.

Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago is very similar in this regard. Michigan Avenue not so much because it is very often referred to by its full official name "Michigan Avenue".



So what are some major streets in your city that are named after other prominent geographies elsewhere that work similarly?

Caveat: please only post major streets named after prominent places elsewhere. Don't be annoying and post a list of all 473 side streets in your city that share a place name with some other place on the globe. Also, every city has a major street named "Washington", but that's after the man himself, not the federal district in the mid Atlantic nor the US state of the same name.

Same is sort-of true of the Austin neighborhood in Chicago, but I’d shift the word “in” to the neighborhood in most contexts.

In Austin the city, we rely on a pronunciation difference to indicate Guadalupe Street versus the Guadalupe River. The river is pronounced as it is in Spanish whereas the road is pronounced as if it is the French cognate Guadaloup. Why? Because that was the original spelling of the street name in Austin, given to it by the French Texan who platted the original grid, Edwin Waller. Locals can easily tell the implants via the fact that they mispronounce all of our street and placenames. Manchaca, Burnet, Guadalupe, Koenig, Manor, Mueller, Elgin, Buda, Del Valle, Govalle, San Jacinto, Dessau, Pedernales, Nueces, among many others are not pronounced the way that most Americans nor international English speakers would assume.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

A neighborhood in Cincinnati is named California:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California,_Cincinnati

Cool.

Does it work similarly with prepositions being the differentiators?

In Chicago we have a neighborhood named "Austin", but I'm pretty sure its name has absolutely nothing to do with the capital city of Texas.

[ocman]

Near Portrero, there’s a whole area of San Francisco where every north-south street is named after a state. Here’s the area.
We have Rhode Island, Illinois, Kansas, Vermont, Carolina, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Missouri, Texas, Utah, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Minnesota, Tennessee. Michigan. Florida, Alabama

[sopas ej]

It's like in Los Angeles.

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Cool.

Does it work similarly with prepositions being the differentiators?

In Chicago we have a neighborhood named "Austin", but I'm pretty sure its name has absolutely nothing to do with the capital city of Texas.

The neighborhood in Chicago is named after its developer, Henry Austin, Jr. (with the help of his father Henry Austin, Sr.), and is derived from the marketing materials for the tract housing, "Austinville."

No relation to Moses Austin or any of his descendants (Stephen F. Austin) that I can find, but they may be related more distantly through Charlestown, Massachusetts colonist and Bevis arrival Richard Austin of Titchfield, Hampshire, England.

[wwmiv]

Cities and States are common naming techniques for roads throughout the United States.

D.C., Denver, L.A., and San Francisco utilize this to the most effect. Edit: and obviously Chicago.

[badrunner]

Santa Monica has a series of east-west streets named after states, the most famous of which is the lovely Montana ave. And yeah people usually drop the "avenue" part so you can only tell in context what they're referring to, not that Montana (the state) comes up a lot in conversation.

Southern California also has a lot of major roads named after local cities and suburbs. It seems every city has one - Santa Monica blvd, Glendale ave, Van Nuys blvd, Ventura blvd etc. You can tell what people are referring to based on language and context, "in" Reseda vs "on" Reseda etc.

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by wwmiv

In Austin the city, we rely on a pronunciation difference to indicate Guadalupe Street versus the Guadalupe River. The river is pronounced as it is in Spanish whereas the road is pronounced as if it is the French cognate Guadaloup. Why? Because that was the original spelling of the street name in Austin, given to it by the French Texan who platted the original grid, Edwin Waller.

That sounded a bit off to me so I did some googling and found this version of the story on KUT’s website. Turns out Edwin Waller (whose family was English and had lived in Virginia since colonial times) brought a surveyor named L.J. Pilié with him (among many others) to lay out the streets of Austin. Pilié, who was described as “Creole” and was probably from New Orleans, drew the first map and misspelled a number of the streets named for rivers.

https://www.kut.org/austin/2018-03-0...f-misspellings

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by bilbao58

That sounded a bit off to me so I did some googling and found this version of the story on KUT’s website. Turns out Edwin Waller (whose family was English and had lived in Virginia since colonial times) brought a surveyor named L.J. Pilié with him (among many others) to lay out the streets of Austin. Pilié, who was described as “Creole” and was probably from New Orleans, drew the first map and misspelled a number of the streets named for rivers.

https://www.kut.org/austin/2018-03-0...f-misspellings

Ah. I suppose the origin story I had always believed was incorrect, but not too far off the underlying point: we pronounce it the French way.

[bilbao58]

If I lose points for refusing to pronounce Pedernales the LBJ way, do I get extra credit for still saying Town Lake?

[SIGSEGV]

Someone told me there's a girl out there
With love in her eyes and flower in her hair

[dave8721]

In Miami we generally don't name streets at all. Just numbers (similar to NYC).

Coral Gables names streets after towns/cities/landmarks in Spain but obviously no one would get them confused.

[SIGSEGV]

My 2-year-old daughter certainly gets confused by California vs. California on the CTA map. Also by Chicago Ave...

[homebucket]

SF has a bunch of streets named after other states as ocman noted, as well as an area (Excelsior and Crocker-Amazon) with a bunch of streets named after other cities (Geneva, Naples, Madrid, Lisbon, Prague, Munich, London, Paris, Athens, Chicago, Baltimore, Monterey, San Jose, etc).

But IMO its most major/famous/significant (and probably longest at 5.36 miles) arterial that is named after a state is actually its own, California Street.

And similar to Steely Dan's example, if you say you're "on" California or tell someone to "go up" or "go down" or "go past" California, then you know that they're talking about the street. If someone says "in" or "from" California, then you know they're talking about the state. For example, I could tell someone I was born on California, or I was born in California (fun fact both are true!) and they would be able to tell what I'm saying.


PC: homebucket

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

Someone told me there's a girl out there
With love in her eyes and flower in her hair

The B-side:

Ate up a pie had a really huge fart
Over der by California with a sausage lodged in my heart

[xzmattzx]

I can't think of any street in Wilmington or northern Delaware where the suffix is dropped and people still know they are talking about the street instead of the place (or person or anything else). The closest we have to that is Delaware Avenue in Wilmington, which some people say as "Delaware Av". But it doesn't even really work that way for Pennsylvania Avenue, which kind of parallels Delaware Avenue.

In Delaware, it seems easiest to call most streets, roads, highways, and expressways by some name with three or four syllables. Two syllables seems kind of unusual around herel; the suffix or prefix is deliberately added to get to three syllables, if it would otherwise be two syllables if you only used the identifier. Most significant streets and roads either have 3 or 4 syllables when talking about them: Union Street (in Wilmington), Delaware Av (Delaware Avenue in Wilmington), Limestone Road (suburbs), Kirkwood Highway (suburbs), Concord Pike (suburbs), Naamans Road (suburbs), Route Thirteen (US 13), One Thirteen (US 113), Two Oh Two (US 202, also called Concord Pike north of Wilmington), I Ninety Five (I-95), Two Ninety Five (I-295), Four Ninety Five (I-495), One Forty One (DE 141), and so on.

EDIT: I can think of one street where the suffix isn't used all the time. New Linden Hill Road in the Pike Creek area outside Wilmington is sometimes called "New Linden Hill". But there is no place called New Linden Hill like the original post, nor is there a Linden Hill.

On the other hand, if you are a true Delawarean, you know what street someone is talking about when they say they are going to "the Avenue".

Rehoboth Avenue in Rehoboth Beach

[Shawn]

Boston, being the parochial construction that it is, has a whole series of alphabetical place-name streets making up the north-south axis of Back Bay's grid. Essentially all of these streets are named for other towns in Massachusetts, (Arlington, Berkeley, Dartmouth, Exeter, Gloucester, etc.) some of which are right next to Boston (like Arlington). While most of the time no one will confuse Gloucester the street with Gloucester the town of The Perfect Storm fame, it can get confusing when talking about going to the Dunkin on Arlington vs in Arlington.

If you're in Charlestown and ask "Wanna go to the Arlington Dunkin?", a reply of "which one?" won't clear anything up (there is more than one Dunkin both on Arlington and in Arlington).

(to be clear, no one in their right mind would go all the way to either Arlingtons for a Dunkin unless they're already on Arlington or in Arlington)

[SIGSEGV]

There are like 5 cambridge streets next to each other in Boston/Cambridge/Somerville, and 15 different Broadways.