(across the) "block" ~= street, and the OED?

Sat Apr 30 13:10:04 UTC 2011

Here's a link to the old algorithm:

http://www.ny.com/locator/algorithm.html

I forgot that 6th Ave also violates the 'rule', going negative.
Frankly, I haven't thought about this in over 20 years, and I
apologize for oversimplifying, although I still use my simple version
to get around the city. It works. I ignore the uptown avenues,
because, as a Brooklyn boy I had no need for straying up there -- for
me Manhattan ended at 97th St., except for Columbia U., which was an
exotic pioneer outpost when I took classes there during HS.

As you can see, the rule applies for Alphabet City (Aves A - D) and
1st and 2nd. For 3rd Ave and west, the adjustment ranges from +8 to
+15, which I used to approximate in my head as +10. Madison, Park and
Lex all had their own rules, because they had their own starting
points (23rd, 34th, 20th) which approximate the adjustment.

The avenues that are just extensions of numbered avenues (Amsterdam,
Columbus, West End) "start" at 59th St., which again approximates
their adjustment.

DanG

On Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 9:22 PM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: (across the) "block" ~= street, and the OED?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> My recollection is much like Larry's.
>
> ISTR a lengthy disquisition plus formulae in the _World Almanac and Book of
> Facts 1953_. Or was it the _Information Please Almanac 1957_?
>
> But maybe I was just too young to grasp the simplicity. Cab drivers also
> carry the secret in printed detail.
>
> JL
>
> On Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 9:10 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:
>
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>> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>> Subject:      Re: (across the) "block" ~= street, and the OED?
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> At 4:16 PM -0400 4/29/11, Dan Goncharoff wrote:
>> >The general rule for Manhattan avenues is 400 numbers per 20 blocks = 1
>> mile.
>> >
>> >Fifth Avenue never followed a good single rule, however.
>> >
>> >Because the avenues did not all start counting at the same place,
>> >there is no effective "zero" street, although Houston St. is the
>> >closest to serving that role.
>> >
>> >If you take a house number, divide by 20, and add +3 (from the East
>> >River thru 2nd Ave.) or +10 (3rd Ave thru 9th Ave.) or +15 (Fifth
>> >Ave.), you'll have a good estimate of the cross street.
>> >
>> >DanG
>>
>> I remember it being much more complicated; there was a legend in the
>> beginning of the Manhattan phone book that provided a constant for
>> each avenue, and it was definitely not as simple as "3rd Ave thru 9th
>> Ave", but a different one for 784 Lexington, 1197 8th Ave., 1450
>> Broadway (my father's office building--guess which cross street?),
>> etc. etc. I remember the first time I visited a different city where
>> there was a simple algorithm for determining cross streets and it
>> seemed like cheating.
>>
>> LH
>>
>>
>>
>> >
>> >On Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 3:17 PM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> >>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>> >>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> >>  Poster:       victor steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
>> >>  Subject:      Re: (across the) "block" ~= street, and the OED?
>> >>
>>
>> >>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >>
>> >>  This expression would have been more likely in a city like Chicago,
>> where
>> >>  there is an exact correspondence between cross-streets and house
>> numbers.
>> >>  It's also 800 numbers per mile IIRC, although the numbers on any block
>> >>  rarely run up to a full hundred. There are also "half-blocks" because
>> some
>> >>  small streets appear at x50 blocks (usually streets that don't run more
>> than
>> >>  a couple of blocks themselves--at least, not continuously). In any
>> case, a
>> >>  reference to "x-hundred block" is both somewhat ambiguous (although
>> context
>> >>  usually tells you whether it's NS or EW) and over-specifying, as it may
>> >>  include more than one /actual/ block.
>> >>
>> >>  I've been told that parts of NYC also match some specified house
>> numbers to
>> >>  specific distances (e.g., 600 per mile, or something like that). I
>> don't
>> >>  know enough about NYC to be sure (or to care).
>> >>
>> >>  However, I have heard the  "x-hundred block" expression outside of
>> Chicago
>> >>  although in other locales it's usually more specific, i.e., "x-hundred
>> block
>> >>  of y-street". Obviously, if you are trying to give directions for a
>> specific
>> >>  address, such expressions would be unnecessary, but they may work in
>> context
>> >>  where the address is not specified, e.g., when a reference is to a
>> specific
>> >>  store within a known block but whose specific address is unknown. This
>> >>  expression has been common in Cambridge, MA, although I can't possibly
>> tell
>> >>  whether it was Harvard or MIT students/faculty or visitors or local
>> >>  residents who've used it (I've been a student and employee at both over
>> the
>> >>  past 2 and a half decades). When someone refers to "the 800 block on
>> Mass
>> >>  Ave", it's pretty clear.
>> >>
>> >>  VS-)
>> >>
>> >>  On Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 2:15 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> >>
>> >>>
>> >>>  "The 300 block" phrasing is something I have never heard in NYC.
>> >>>  Wouldn't work on the avenues in Manhattan, and the streets are better
>> >>>  defined by the avenues: streets are defined as east or west of Fifth
>> >>>  Avenue, 100 numbers to the avenue; Park Avenue replaces Fourth Avenue
>> >>>  except for a few blocks south of 14th St.
>> >>>
>> >>>  There was a recent to-do in the press when it was noticed that the
>> >>>  street names on bus stop signs on the west side of Fifth Avenue,
>> >>>  adjacent to the eastern edge of Central Park, were labelled west, as
>> >>>  in W 72nd St., even though W 72nd St. actually exists only on the west
>> >>>  side of the park, the equivalent of three avenues away.
>> >>>
>> >>>  DanG
>> >>
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