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Most inappropriately named street in metro GR


GrSportsGuy

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...along with a fountain.

This is labeled Ryerson Park, and clearly it's what's now called Veterans Memorial Park.

ryersonpark.jpg

And this one is called Fulton Street Park. (Betcha can't guess why I liked this one.)

fultonstpk.jpg

Somewhere is an image showing the Fountain St fountain...but we're getting close.

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Most embarrassing street name to tell people you live on:

Hurd! A perfect amalgam of "hurl" and "turd." Why couldn't it be named Rosewater or Cherry Blossom or something like that?

Oh, well. The first house we looked at was on "Ethel" and all I could think of was Ethel Mertz.

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Here's some streets that come to my mind.

De Hoop Ave. is a weird name.

Scribner Ave is stuck in my head for all time thanks to Vos Glass's radio ads which always end with "Vos Glass...on Scribner". At least I know where to go when I need a sheet of glass.

Eastern Ave. {Edit} Yeap. Its east of Division. Messing up street locations is what happens when not getting a good night's sleep in three days. (/Edit)

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Here's some streets that come to my mind.

De Hoop Ave. is a weird name.

Scribner Ave is stuck in my head for all time thanks to Vos Glass's radio ads which always end with "Vos Glass...on Scribner". At least I know where to go when I need a sheet of glass.

Eastern Ave. alway baffled me since its to the west of Division Ave. It should have been named Western Ave.

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No specific road names to add here - but has anyone else noticed how Wyoming's street signs have incredibly larger text than everyone else in the metro area? Does Wyoming think we're blind? Or do the others errantly assume we have excellent eyesight? Or... in the vernacular of email: is Wyoming SHOUTING?

Oh... thought of a couple names: East Paris. Arguably east, but Paris??? Manhattan and all its variants also seem inconsistent with their namesake in NYC...

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OK... this has thread has hooked me, so I broke open the phone book and started searching for weird street names. Here's a few:

Feakin Ave (add an R to this name and it could be really funny: "Yeh, that's right, I live on that Freakin Street over there, wanna do something about it?")

Jiffy Ave (off Chicago Dr out by the railroad yards)(don't know why, but this name just seems funny to me - maybe everything happens quickly there?)

Shagrai La (ins't it supposed to be Shangrai La? Maybe that street is something less than true Shangrai La?)

Short St (alas! it is indeed short!!!)

Veto St (sort of makes ya wonder how this name came to be - did someone "veto" all the other choices as they were deciding?)

Brooks Lane (where I live) is a bit odd because we have nothing even remotely resembling a creek or brook. Alas, it is a family name of the original owner of the land.

I saw many others on the list that made me giggle or made me curious - but I'll let someone else explore the merit of those being added to this list. Yo Veloise! I can't believe you haven't had a few delightful tidbits for this thread!

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No specific road names to add here - but has anyone else noticed how Wyoming's street signs have incredibly larger text than everyone else in the metro area? Does Wyoming think we're blind? Or do the others errantly assume we have excellent eyesight? Or... in the vernacular of email: is Wyoming SHOUTING?

Oh... thought of a couple names: East Paris. Arguably east, but Paris??? Manhattan and all its variants also seem inconsistent with their namesake in NYC...

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No specific road names to add here - but has anyone else noticed how Wyoming's street signs have incredibly larger text than everyone else in the metro area? Does Wyoming think we're blind? Or do the others errantly assume we have excellent eyesight? Or... in the vernacular of email: is Wyoming SHOUTING?

Oh... thought of a couple names: East Paris. Arguably east, but Paris??? Manhattan and all its variants also seem inconsistent with their namesake in NYC...

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OK... this has thread has hooked me, so I broke open the phone book and started searching for weird street names. Here's a few:

Feakin Ave (add an R to this name and it could be really funny: "Yeh, that's right, I live on that Freakin Street over there, wanna do something about it?")

Jiffy Ave (off Chicago Dr out by the railroad yards)(don't know why, but this name just seems funny to me - maybe everything happens quickly there?)

Shagrai La (ins't it supposed to be Shangrai La? Maybe that street is something less than true Shangrai La?)

Short St (alas! it is indeed short!!!)

Veto St (sort of makes ya wonder how this name came to be - did someone "veto" all the other choices as they were deciding?)

Brooks Lane (where I live) is a bit odd because we have nothing even remotely resembling a creek or brook. Alas, it is a family name of the original owner of the land.

I saw many others on the list that made me giggle or made me curious - but I'll let someone else explore the merit of those being added to this list. Yo Veloise! I can't believe you haven't had a few delightful tidbits for this thread!

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I get why it's called this, but I've never like the name "East Beltline Avenue." I think some people used to refer to 28th Street at "South Beltline", not sure if that was official or not? It seems they could have come up with somthing better for the E Beltline. Was it always called that? Another one I don't like is Wealthy. I think it's named after the daughter of a former mayor? What about Diamond and Emerald. Real original.

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I get why it's called this, but I've never like the name "East Beltline Avenue." I think some people used to refer to 28th Street at "South Beltline", not sure if that was official or not? It seems they could have come up with somthing better for the E Beltline. Was it always called that? Another one I don't like is Wealthy. I think it's named after the daughter of a former mayor? What about Diamond and Emerald. Real original.
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There were 4 "beltlines" East where the name "stuck", south = 28th Street, west = Wilson and north = 3 Mile Road. All were / are state trunklines except 3 Mile Road. Right of way was bought on 3 Mile east of the river but the road was never built / turned into a state trunkline. I suspect the river was the reason it didn't go forward but I think the depression was another (I'll have to check the ROW dates at work.)
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Is anyone else annoyed by street signs that don't have the suffix on the end? For example, "Monroe" instead of "Monroe Ave"? The City of GR was adding them to their signs for awhile, but appears to have stopped. Wyoming and Kent County almost never add it, unless it's one where people add it in conversation (e.g. Lake Drive). That has always been a pet peeve of mine.
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I think Market could definately use a name change. Boy did that confuse me the first time I was ever downtown. "What, I thought I was on Monroe.. how did I get onto Market... where am I?"

Another name, north of East Grand Rapids: Chevy Chase. Don't remember if it was a St., Rd., Ave., or what.

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Division (which travels to Kalamazoo) changes to 12th Street, Division, 10th Street, Main Street, 10th Street in Allegan county. But you know what everyone calls it in Wayland? Division. (Or Main Street. Nobody calls it 10th or 12th, though.)

There's also:

Gezon Parkway -> 54th Street -> ??? Woods (takes a minute or less to walk along. It's the bendy part just east of Division.) -> 52nd Street.

I can understand the 54 and 52 difference, as the road switches between the 54th and 52nd Furlong, but heck.. why not just rename the whole stretch to Gezon Parkway? (Not to be confused with Gezon, a street in Grandville, I think.)

Patterson also switches to Cherry Valley Road in Caledonia, then later switches back to Patterson somewhere. (I think it's also known as Chief Noonday Road at one point? Not sure on this, though.)

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