August 03, 2004
Tangletown

KING5 News interrupts its regularly scheduled programming to bring us an urgent report:

Research finally confirms what Seattleites have long suspected – their city’s streets are some of the most confusing in the country.

Seattle ranks number eight in the nation in terms of toughest to navigate, behind Boston, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco.

Boston and Washington are indeed difficult to navigate, but San Francisco is a piece of cake next to Seattle.
A neighborhood near Green Lake is now known as Tangletown, where you're likely to find yourself at the corner of 51st and 52nd and Keystone.
Heh. That's right near my house. And not only is there a corner of 51st and 52nd and Keystone, there is also a corner of 55th and 56th and Keystone! The other silly thing about this neighborhood is that there are five adjacent parallel streets, named Canfield, Kenwood, Keystone, Kirkwood and Kensington. I've been here more than a year and I still can't remember which one is Kirkwood and which one is Kenwood. And based on the amount of other people's mail that shows up in our mailbox, neither can our mailmen.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at August 03, 2004 11:20 PM
Comments

eh, that's nothing. I live around the corner from 45th ave NE and NE 45th st. (the corner of 45th and 45th) Try talking people out of that neighborhood when they call you lost.

That being said, I grew in a small town compared to Seattle and I don't have any trouble getting around. It gets a little harder in the SoDo area but I've never hard any problems getting around Fremont or Greenlake or Ravenna or Queen Anne or any of the other neighborhoods.

Posted by: Scott on August 4, 2004 07:06 AM

My mail-person can't tell the difference between 11th street and 13th street.

Posted by: Andy Freeman on August 4, 2004 07:03 PM

Jeez! The city planners must have been strung out on caffeine, but then that's one thing Seattle's famous for, lots of coffee.

Posted by: Interested-Participant on August 5, 2004 10:57 PM

Coming to NY any time soon? Meet you at the corner of W 4th and W 12th!

Posted by: Zev Sero on August 8, 2004 04:15 PM

I can't seem to get past the registration gatekeeper at your link, but from what you've said, it doesn't sound any worse than Phoenix metro. You can travel south on S. Gilbert Road to get to N. Gilbert Road. East Elliot is between West Elliot and West Elliot. Of course, each suburb has a different N-S and E-W center, so street numbers go up, then down, then up again on the same street.

Oh, and I should probably note that the examples I've used are arterials; we're not talking about the details of twisty-turny housing-development roads here.

Posted by: Doug Sundseth on August 11, 2004 01:21 PM
New comments may be posted only from the 'Comments' links at the bottom of each entry on the blog home page