Here in the Atlanta area, we have a Lois Lane and a Della Street.* I wouldn’t move just to be on either on of them, but I think both are pretty neat names!
*(For you youngsters, Della Street was Perry Mason’s “private confidential secretary.”)
Oh, I’ll see your Palmdale Ave., Troy, and raise you an E. Sunset Ridge Rd., from which you turn right onto S. Wild Iris Run, make another right onto E. Thistle Ridge Road, then turn left onto E. Mountain Sage Dr.
Highlands Ranch: the soulless-est suburb I’ve ever seen. I know it’s home to some fine folks–but, really, do the masters who plan these master-planned communities not realize that these streets may be here for a while, and names like that will always be confusing to people who try to visit the folks who live there? (Ooh–because they don’t have enough character in the street names, they put needless curves on the streets.)
When I was at my passport-making job, I ran across a street called “Choo Choo Lane,” somewhere in Florida. That’s more than a bit twee. I kind of don’t like those cutesy names since they are so obviously fake and you know it’s more than likely some new development with no history that is filled with soulless suburbanites who seem pleasant during the day but morph into bloodsucking monsters at night. Or, um, not. Next down the list are really generic names like Pine and Wood. I’ve lived on both a Pine and a Wood St., and both times I really thought my address lacked character. Like the name is an afterthought:
“Uh, boss, what should we name this street?”
“Dunno. Hey, look, there’s a pine tree over there, call it that.”
“And that other one.”
“Well, there’s wood on that pine tree.”
But no, I don’t think any street name, whether cutesy, generic, or borderline offensive, would detract from a place so much as to make me not want to live there, except for maybe that Hitler St., but even then I’d probably move there anyway and petition to get the name changed. I’m surprised a street would still be called that now.
(I kind of like the name Hydraulic Street. It would make me feel like a character in a steampunk novel.)
I just remembered one that I liked. Back in college I had a professor who lived in a housing development near the University. Her house was on King John Road in Sherwood Forest. Her first name was Marian and she had never married.
She did it on purpose I’m sure.
You probably don’t want to live in Swastika, Ontario, then.
I used to live near Belcher Ln. Here’s the evidence. http://maps.google.com/maps?near=Belcher%20Ln,%20Las%20Vegas,%20NV%2089110
I wouldn’t have bought into that address for even a bunch of discount on the house.
Not far away was Curdsen Way. http://maps.google.com/maps?near=CurdsenWay, Las Vegas, NV 89110. You’ve gotta zoom in to see the street names.
If that sounds OK to you, think of Little Miss Muffett. Curdsen Way connects to Better Way & Supreme Court.
Southern California rule of street names:
The more Spanish words in the name of the street, the less likely you will run into anyone who lives there who can speak Spanish. Numbered streets or names like “Main” or “Elm” or “Park” are far more likely to have people who speak Spanish living on them.
I quite like our name - Old Yale Road. There are bits and pieces of it all the way through the Valley. I believe it’s the original 1858 Gold Rush trail. Now it’s just an ordinary paved, suburban street, at least my stretch of it.
Las Vegas has some of the worst street names I have ever seen. Most of them I am pretty sure I couldn’t live on. Here are some examples:
Railroad River Avenue
Ivy Thorn Avenue
Coral Ribbon Avenue
Desert Dandelion Court
Thistle Poppy Avenue
Pounding Surf Avenue (by the way we are at least 400 miles from the ocean)
Amethyst Creek Court
Coral River Drive
Whisper Lake Avenue
Curiosity Avenue
Sanction Avenue
Real Quiet Drive
Vivid Violet Avenue
Burning Hide Avenue
Happy Stream Avenue
Jumping Moon Court
Rusty Rifle Avenue
Blushed Meadows Road
Crimson Tide Avenue
the intersection of Birdie Lane and Golf View Drive
Berry Patch Way
Green Apple Way
Strawberry Cream Court
Catfish Cove Avenue
Elegant Coral Avenue
Thistle Landing Street
Coral Cottage Drive
Rusty Anchor Way
Heavenly Harvest Place
Sheer Paradise Lane
Belt Buckley Drive
Sharp Spur Drive
Pistol Perry Parkway
Wild Wiily Way
Hannibal Way
Reflex Drive
Osprey Point
New World Avenue
Painted Opus Place
Real Park Place
Civic Holiday Avenue
Shipwrecked Way
Redbull Slice Street (connects the two previous streets in the same neighborhood)
Delorean Drive (Yep, like the car)
Lucas Avenue
Skywalker Avenue
Tarkin Avenue
Vader Avenue
Kinobe Avenue
Miss Peach Avenue
I could go on and on and on… :eek:
That should be Wild Willy Way
Sounds so Lake Wobegone-ish. As in, Ralph’s Pretty Good Grocery.
When I lived in Montgomery County, MD, the street with the worst crime rate was Lost Knife Circle (Only something like Dead Hooker Way would’ve been worse). Over in Prince George’s county, Indian Head Highway has an appalling legend behind its name, involving a decapitated indian…
I don’t live on the road, but in Warren County, NJ, you have “Shades of Death” Road. Here’s a link: http://weirdnj.com/stories/_roads05.asp
VCNJ~
For a while I lived on York street in Lancaster. I was too young at the time to realize why my Mom thought it was so funny. Well not too young, but I didn’t get it yet. You know what I mean.
Also in this aerospace-industry driven area, there is commercial land on the corner of Challenger (actually 10th East) and Columbia (Ave. M), both renamed not long after their respective tragedies. I know whoever thought of that meant well, but I find it ghoulish.
I lived for a while on Sheldon Ave. It always made me think of this guy.
I lived with my Mom in Colorado, on Thrush Drive. Yeah it was supposed to be a bird, but I could only think of yeast infections.
Now I live off of F-8, even though I don’t believe in it. Har-har.
Err, actually it’s mostly desert. No idea what it’s zoned for, but probably industrial since it’s by Plant 42. I don’t make it over there much, obviously.
I remember reading an article about the Republicans making sure their headquarters didn’t have a Gay Street address in Columbus, Ohio.
I’m 32, and I don’t get it either. Can you explain, please? 
It didn’t stop me from buying my present house, but “Cronk Avenue” just sounds weird. It was named after one of the first weathermen/broadcasters in the country and this was his hometown.
Weird street names in SE Michigan…Green Cars. Romeo Plank. Dye Krest, which makes me think Dyke Rest, which is cute.
I don’t know how many people see the irony in pastoral sounding street names in new subdivisions. Hidden Oaks, Green Meadow, Cherrywood, Summerfield, Forest Glen. All things that were chopped down and leveled to make way for acres of bland houses with tiny manicured lawns.
I would rather have a root canal every day of my life than have to live in a subdivision like that.
Bites When Provoked, it refers to the War of the Roses, an on-again off-again civil war in England between the House of Lancaster and the House of York.
We do have some rather funny street and road names around these parts. Here are some others in my area:
Duff Lane
Purple Sage Road (cue Jimi Hendrix music)
Deer Flat Road
There’s also an “Easy Street” in the town of Caldwell. That must be a pain for people who live there:
“Where do you live?”
“I’m living on Easy Street.”
“No come on, seriously, where do you live?”