From both sides of the street

That's a common concern most frequently heard from those with a ''N'' suffix. (I live on an ''N'' block now and I've lived on a ''NE'' block also.)

After being in the neighborhood for 7 years, my own feeling is that ''N'' or ''NE'' is simply a technical distinction whether I live east or west of 1st Street. Within the neighborhood association, I've never seen it matter nor been a point of discussion.

Like you, I also liked the inclusiveness and seeming historic objectivity of ''North Shore.'' But I converted to the new name when it seemed that the original historical designation for North Shore didn't correspond with our current boundaries, when it became clear that ''Old Northeast'' was already our identity to the rest of the world, and when I realized that all our existing neighborhood markers say ''Old Northeast'' already. The fact that our association's name was North Shore then seemed more like an anomoly.


P.S. I like your signature as ''greater'' old northeast. There's a new perspective!

''Near the Old Northeast''

Thank you.
So we can assume that there is no Phase Two that changes the boundaries of our neighborhood to more accurately reflect the new name?

Just asking because a house on my street recently put up for sale is being marketed by a local realtor as ''Near Old Northeast'' and we live between 1st and 4th!

Just interesting timing I guess!

By No Phase two?

''near'' sounds like ''in''?

That's surprising that a realtor would advertise ''near'' and not ''in'' Old Northeast -- I'd think that being ''in'' Old Northeast would bring more attention and convey more value.

Perhaps the realtor is new to this area -- it's not uncommon that people are not familiar with the specific boundaries of the neighborhood (i.e. 5th Ave to 30th Ave, 4th St east to the water).

Hmmm, Phase Two plans ... hadn't thought about that. If one reads the newspaper, I can see how it might seem inevitable that our neighborhood could be ''re-districted'' in a patchwork fashion like some of the the new congressional and state political districts. In our case, perhaps we'd want to have separate districts for Bungalows, for Med. Revivals, for Modern, houses that can irrigate on Sundays, houses that can irrigate on Tuesdays, brick streets, asphalt streets, etc.! (Just kidding, of course.)

But along the lines of such creativity, there's a mapmaker who created maps of his neighborhood maps without showing streets -- his maps depict things other than streets -- things like trees, utility infrastructure, where the Halloween pumpkins are each year, etc.

He says it helps people think about their neighborhood in new ''out of the box'' ways.


See Denis Wood (and links to his maps) on this page:

http://www.thislife.org/pages/archive98.html#110





By Joe