Dear Americans
Please have a look at Lucerne
You’re welcome
Submitted 4 hours ago by The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world to mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/ea53aaec-52e0-47d5-8558-583fc4f8c48e.jpeg
Dear Americans
Please have a look at Lucerne
You’re welcome
Indianapolis built the central mile square of streets aligned with magnetic north, but then the rest of downtown aligned with true north. It’s almost aligned, which causes problems at that border.
I’ve lived here for years and never realized that’s why everything in the center looked slightly off center. Thanks!
At least with places like Denver and other western cities it’s pretty straightforward how it happened - everything built along the river. Access to the river was key.
Being a boom/bust city means that a much later boom they adjusted.
Then even older cities (think Boston) grew before any opportunity at planning could happen.
Denver was two cities - Aurora and Denver. One was built to align with the river, the other with compass points and then they grew big enough to smush into each other and neither was willing to concede to the other.
Also Denver’s namesake, a Kansas politician, never even visited. It was a failed attempt to lure him here.
Ugh that grid pattern. Imagine living somewhere so uninspired.
Have you considered maybe it’s easier to navigate and plan a grid pattern? I wouldn’t mind uninspired street names like 1st, 2nd, 3rd St, crossways with N, O, P, Q Ave so you at least know which direction is which. Give me that chess board layout so I don’t need to pull up a map to navigate your city please. Car C1 takes Bar G5
and then 14th SE doesnt connect with 14th NE
thanks portland
Yes! I can get up so much speed on those straight roads! Blow through a few stop signs and I can easily drive all the way through a house!
Easy navigation isn’t relevant in a neighborhood of nothing but houses and play space, roads with curves are incredibly important to slow the flow of traffic
Sure but you’ll never encounter the magic of a crooked alley snaking its way through a maze of medieval building.
Have you considered maybe it’s easier to navigate and plan a grid pattern?
With every corner looking the same? What a joke.
Over here in 2026 we have satnav in our cars and on our bikes.
Same car dependency grid but from different socioeconomic posh level.
(Actually the density is lower, so as a suburb it’s worse & traveling distances/city area larger.)
Lived on a grid the last 15 years and it objectively rules. The “objectively” part is the appreciating property values of the home I just sold, which outpaced those of cul-de-sac homes is my area over that same timeframe. Grid gang 4 lyfe
Are those the two options, grid or cul-de-sac
Where is this?
Jacksonville Beach, FL
In my experience, many cities old enough in the US. Almost every biggish city where I live has the center of town laying differently than the newer, surrounding areas. There was a time when they oriented things different than how they plan it out now so now the older downtown areas look cock-eyed on a map/satellite image.
Reverse image search has mixed results… A few say Florida, but the top one says Wyoming. I’d guess the one that says Jacksonville, Florida is most likely.
See my edit, it’s Jacksonville Beach FL
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.
This was the intern using grid north instead of magnetic north, maybe?
One neighborhood in my town has streets at just the perfect angle for the winter sun to line up in the afternoon.
Maybe everything depends on whatever rule of thumb some 18th century surveyor heard was in style.
Unrelated but, Theres a section of Prince George Canada that all of a sudden does a big U. The story i was told is that back in the day there were two competing railway companies, and one of them bought enough influence that when the city was making roads to the other company, they instead made the roads bend back. Image
Damn, capitalism is fucked up
Would make sense to avoid people driving through the area. Grid patterns in general are kinda bad when it comes to traffic
Mandatory car dependency hurts, yes, everybody.
Looks like it went askew between 1943 and 1949
🎶 where the streets have no name…🎶
fartographer@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
Is this the most efficient way to store 17 houses?
ivanafterall@lemmy.world 39 minutes ago
So much more room for delicious maple syrup.