Sunday, February 01, 2009

Towns in Upstate New York seem to have only 10 street names

I am extra-boring, and not feeling so bloggy, lately. I'm chalking this up to the fact that it is REALLY cold out and we are pretty much in hibernation-mode. No crazy festivals to attend and write about.

That said, we just came back from a little drive to a nearby town today, and every time we venture out of our own little Binghamton-bubble, I'm struck by the fact that each city (actually, we are usually technically talking about a "village") seems to have the same 10 street names prominently represented in their "downtown"/historic areas. They would be:

1. Court Street (guess where this one is located?)
2. State Street (usually near the city hall/courthouse area, too)
3. Front Street (always runs along the river, and every village here seems to have a river - or a canal- somewhere running through it)
4. Water Street (also near the river, usually near the site of an old Erie Canal-era canal, but there are inexplicably not many "Canal Street"s)
5. Clinton Street - DeWitt Clinton was a Senator and Governor of New York and is credited with building the Erie Canal in the early 19th century- a public work project that to this day is unrivaled in its significance to the growth of the country (Oh my god I sound like a 5th grader from NY, reading my book report, with that sentence!)
6. DeWitt Street - Gov. Clinton's first name was DeWitt, which is apparently where this street name comes from. It is an unusual name, so I do (because I'm obsessed with names) note that DeWitt is his mother's maiden name, a popular naming convention right now!
7. Liberty - guess they are just patriotic around here?
8. Broome - apparently after John Broome, a NY merchant and statesman. Boring, but we live in Broome County and there is a Broome Street in Manhattan, too, so he must have been important at some point, right?
9. ??? Huh, not sure of what the last 2 would be. If anyone has any ideas, please post them in a "comment" below- I know I'm forgetting some important common ones!
10. ???

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