3852
This is a brief bit of Address Nerdery that momentarily obsesses on the way street names change and get extended over time. Dig, if you will, this picture:
This is a corner you come to if you come out of inner NW Portland going east over the Steel Bridge, or if you come west from Grand/MLK and NE Lloyd Blvd. It wasn't a part of Interstate Avenue until only about a decade ago; the only thing I can't determine for sure is what it was called before this. It was either an extension of NE Victoria Avenue, or NE Occident Avenue.
The area around what we now call the Moda Center must be one of the most re-thought urban areas anywhere in Oregon. Before the coming of the Memorial Coliseum, it was Albina's business district, a place also called "Jumptown", the heart of a vibrant jazz scene, and Oregon's black downtown. Then it was decided that Oregon needed a major sports venue; out went the black people, in came the Memorial Coliseum. Then it was decided (by Paul Allen, I think) we needed a bigger and better arena, then came the Rose Garden Arena, though we succumbed to the need to sell naming rights and it became the Moda Center.
In the process of all that evolution, many streets were renamed, rerouted, and some obliterated and forgotten. In the case of Interstate Avenue, which had other names before it became the main route (pre-Interstate 5) to the Interstate Bridge, hence its modern rubric, before the current revision it turned onto the Steel Bridge just before it crossed the line established by North Williams Avenue, and was fully North Interstate Avenue; after the area was re-thought, Interstate Avenue was extended to the intersection with NE Oregon Street, which is only one block east of where Williams Avenue would be if it extended that far.
So the very southern end of the road is properly NE Interstate Avenue, which, to a long-time Address Nerd, sounds a dissonant note, but it is indeed valid. Strange sounding, but valid.
No comments:
Post a Comment