Our house is on a slanty road and I’ve never lived on one before, my mind rejects it. The CORNERS of the house point in cardinal directions. It’s because we are near a river, some of the streets in my neighborhood follow its course, which right here runs southwest.
I just have to stop and think every time. Because I have only stayed on N-S or E-W roads my mind thinks our walls ought to be along those lines. I have to point at the corner and say NORTH out loud more often than you’d think.
May I ask a question about German addresses? Here, they go up and up as you move out from the center of town - we have a zero/zero, so to speak, at one corner, and if you live at 100 N, you are one block north of center. So if you are 100 blocks north of center you live at 10000. I lived at 1500 E on 15th St I’d be 15 blocks away in two directions from that central point.
Our German addresses are always like 6, never a big number. How?
Had to Google, the highest number in Germany is apparently 1501 in a street in Cologn. But yes, you are right, streets are usually not long enough to reach such high numbers.
The town where I work doesn’t have blocks, it’s just a fucking mess. Which is annoying on account of I deliver mail and knowing where I am is important.
Ahh yes the good old days, when there was no urban planning, and empty land to develop on was always there from whatever section of town just burned down.
Only kinda /s. Obviously fires are bad, but development can be so politicised and dumb now.
I am not good with left and right, mostly orient myself in the world using north, south, east, west and it is oddly disorienting to be on the diagonal road, my mind keeps wanting to think of it as a north-south road. Until I can FEEL it I keep saying it. The corners of the house are the compass points. My work office right now also is set diagonally like that!
Our house is on a slanty road and I’ve never lived on one before, my mind rejects it. The CORNERS of the house point in cardinal directions. It’s because we are near a river, some of the streets in my neighborhood follow its course, which right here runs southwest.
I just have to stop and think every time. Because I have only stayed on N-S or E-W roads my mind thinks our walls ought to be along those lines. I have to point at the corner and say NORTH out loud more often than you’d think.
You would not thrive in one of our small towns.
Eh, it’s not the fact that it’s not on a grid layout. It’s the fact that it is mostly on a grid layout.
Hünsborn looks lovely and organically developed in a hilly region.
That area in Florida is flat as fuck and was probably some codger who wouldn’t sell until well after everything else was built up.
May I ask a question about German addresses? Here, they go up and up as you move out from the center of town - we have a zero/zero, so to speak, at one corner, and if you live at 100 N, you are one block north of center. So if you are 100 blocks north of center you live at 10000. I lived at 1500 E on 15th St I’d be 15 blocks away in two directions from that central point.
Our German addresses are always like 6, never a big number. How?
I have marked all homes that belong to one street in one color. The address is Town, Road, House number. So, Hünsborn, Steimelstraße 32, for example.
But are none of the streets long enough to end up with a 1867, or whatever?
Had to Google, the highest number in Germany is apparently 1501 in a street in Cologn. But yes, you are right, streets are usually not long enough to reach such high numbers.
Most American cities use a distance or block system.
Most European cities use the odd/even system. Each plot increase by two on either side, so one side of the road has 1,3,5… and the other has 2,4,6…
If a plot is later subdivided or more houses are built on a plot, its new addresses will get post-fixed letters a,b,c,d…
Canada works this way too, interestingly enough.
The town where I work doesn’t have blocks, it’s just a fucking mess. Which is annoying on account of I deliver mail and knowing where I am is important.
Ahh yes the good old days, when there was no urban planning, and empty land to develop on was always there from whatever section of town just burned down.
Only kinda /s. Obviously fires are bad, but development can be so politicised and dumb now.
Serious question: Why do you need to remind yourself where north is in your house? Is this important somehow?
Just a curious European here who thinks about cardinal directions about once a year…
I am not good with left and right, mostly orient myself in the world using north, south, east, west and it is oddly disorienting to be on the diagonal road, my mind keeps wanting to think of it as a north-south road. Until I can FEEL it I keep saying it. The corners of the house are the compass points. My work office right now also is set diagonally like that!
Thanks for the explanation!