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Aug 16, 2020Liked by Book Club by Numlock

Where to begin...

-In hindsight, I’m amazed I haven’t pick up on the European influence of DC’s street layout until now

-Korea’s idea of facilitating effective globalization by leaning into its own heritage and projecting it, rather than sacrificing it, is a bit of head cannon 🤯

-And OF COURSE the Germans have a word for combining “the past” and “coming to terms/reconciling” (and OF COURSE the next chapter deals with the history of naming stuff after the Confederacy)

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Aug 15, 2020Liked by Book Club by Numlock

What stuck out to me was the characterization of street names as “weathervanes in the political wind,” especially in regards to current U.S. discussion of renaming streets. A widely known name can feel like it’s entrenched and has been around forever, even when only a decade or two old.

Somewhat related, I learned from a former city official of Orinda, CA, that the town does not have a single Street. Orinda has Roads, Lanes, Courts, Avenues, but not a single Street. How it started, I don’t know, but they plan on keeping it that way!

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Aug 16, 2020Liked by Book Club by Numlock

"“The use of the address, the practice of attaching identity to residence is,” he concludes, “a condition of modernity.” (101)

This sentence, in Chapter 5, really stuck with me. How being able to be located in a physical place is ascribed to your identity as one of the requirements for enlightenment and modernity. Yet, in previous chapters, we discussed how many people still live without a physical address in the US and the world.

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Aug 16, 2020Liked by Book Club by Numlock

It was really interesting to read about the grid system in PA and Penn's vision and history. I currently live in Chicago and it's been my understanding that Chicago only built a grid system for our streets after the Chicago in 1871.

I'm really looking forward to reading the chapter about the naming of streets, "MLK Jr." I think Mask really weaves together the complicated and political ways street addresses converge in a compelling and understandable way.

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Aug 16, 2020Liked by Book Club by Numlock

House Numbers! Anton Tantner is a rock star!! By far my favorite Chapter of this bunch. Also found the Chapter on the streets in Tokyo having no names and the mammoth naming project in Korea, (especially the fourteen thousand streets alone in Seoul that need to be named) fascinating. As for Bobby Sands, after reading about him in this book hell yeah I would get a hamburger at the Bobby Sands Burger Bar in Tehran.

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I really clicked with the part about numbering houses, I thought that was a really cool historical story. I also thought the parts about Philly were cool, I didn't know a lot about Penn's history as a personan non grata and how the Quaker beliefs informed the naming of the streets there.

I will say I think Queens, where I live, has a hella cool numbering system, namely that it looks ridiculous but you can almost instantly place yourself geographically seeing an address. Like

31-58 28th St

That's on 28th street (Which runs North/South) near 31st Ave (which runs East/West) and it's the 58th lot on the block, so even if you've never been there you can navigate there much more easy than in Manhattan, where like 600 Eighth Ave can be literally anywhere.

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During this reading tranche, Chapter 6 was my favorite. I really appreciate the author's approachable writing style while linking history to the topic at hand.

The fact that grids and numbered streets are utilized heavily in America and the quote The grid is “a design for independent men.” (122) really highlights how the value system is built into the infrastructure of cities. The example of William Penn's development of Philadephia really illustrated this point.

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In honor of this book, My Top 5 Street Songs. 1. Where The Streets Have No Name < U2 2. Dancing In The Streets < Martha & The Vandellas 3. Street Fighting Man < Rolling Stones 4. Streets of Philadelphia < Bruce Springsteen 5. In The Street < Big Star Honorable Mentions: Baker Street < Gerry Rafferty, Dark Streets of London < The Pogues

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In Chapter 7 pertaining to the Japanese influence in Korean. It made me think about the multi-generational novel - Pachinko by Min Jin Lee - an excellent historical fiction on the deeply intense and obsessive relationship between Japan and Korea. It gives a lot of context to why Koreans now embrace nationalism so wholeheartedly.

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I’m just finding everything in this book so interesting! The fact that a street in Tehran is named for Bobby Sands because some guys put up some signs with really good glue is fantastic. And I love that artist’s J Street project. (We have a street named Salient Point and I keep meaning to get a photo but haven’t yet. Not on the same level, but ...)

We also don’t have a First street, but our Second Street follows Front Street, so we only just got a Main Street when they built a new shopping area and one of its streets is Main. It seemed hard to believe it took that long to end up with a Main Street when the city is a couple hundred years old! (The shopping center also has an Innovation Drive, I think, and maybe Destiny Way, which strike me as slightly ridiculous, but maybe the author can help me put those in perspective before we’re done.)

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"Modern street names do more than describe; they commemorate." (148 - Chapter 8).

"Street names are, in a way, the perfect propaganda tool. Saying them requires no thought or consideration, and, better yet, you are forced to use them every time you give directions, write your letters, or apply for virtually anything at all. The state can literally put words in your mouth." (163 - Chapter 9)

These two chapters put into context what a lasting impact that names in public forums have on society for many generations.

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