Thursday, August 31, 2006
It’s something Baton Rougeans have learned to live with, something we just accept as one of our city’s idiosyncrasies: The streets have two names. Or three. Or four.
You’re driving up Sherwood Forest Boulevard and—without warning—it becomes Siegen Lane. A few miles later, it becomes Burbank Drive.
Or you’re cruising down Acadian Thruway and, suddenly, it becomes Stanford Avenue. College Drive has a real identity crisis. It’s College, then it’s Lee Drive, then it’s Brightside Drive. And Bluebonnet Boulevard becomes Coursey Boulevard. The list goes on.
Convinced it was all a cruel April Fool’s joke gone horribly wrong, we contacted the city-parish planning commission for the official explanation. To our surprise, there is actually a method to the madness. Sort of.
According to Ryan Holcomb, who patiently looked into the matter and then took the time to explain it to us, there are two reasons why street names abruptly change on continuous major thoroughfares. The first: to keep the parish address numbering system consistent. This involves how streets intersect, address numbering and consistency.
While it may serve the government’s purposes, it’s baffling to motorists.
The second reason for the name changes occurred gradually over time. As the city grew, its well-established roads were extended and eventually met up with other well-established roads, forming continuous thoroughfares.
“It was deemed in the best interest of the public to retain two separate, already established names as opposed to renaming an established major street as an extension of another established major street,” Holcomb says.
So, when Corporate Boulevard extended to Old Hammond Highway, they both kept their names. And when Sherwood Forest stretched to Siegen, the same—thus proving the old axiom: The more things change, the more they stay the same.
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