Talk:Mitchell Street

South?

Shouldn't this article just be called "Mitchell Street"? -- Mark 13:42, 14 July 2006 (EDT)

There's no North Mitchell Street, so it's always South Mitchell. I don't care either way, but it is weird that the city tacked the South on there for no reason. --Jkonrath 14:43, 14 July 2006 (EDT)

All streets in Bloomington have a North|South|East|West component as determined by the grid of 3rd Street and College|Walnut. It's for the Post Office and helps them get things routed a little more efficiently. If Mitchell is south of 3rd, then it is indeed South Mitchell, even if the street signs don't reflect that. Chris 16:11, 14 July 2006 (EDT)

I moved it, -south. It is consistently called South Mitchell on street signs and soforth, but that makes sense with what you said about the grid. --Jkonrath 16:46, 14 July 2006 (EDT)

Now the article is missing the South, isn't that contrary to the discussion above? As the full name is South Mitchell Street, not just Mitchell Street. Of course, if we added the direction to all of the street articles, that could get to be a bit of a pain. Either way. Chris 21:50, 14 July 2006 (EDT)

What do the signs say? South Mitchell St., S. Mitchell St., Mitchell St. S.? If they say the first one with South spelled out then I could believe that South may be part of the name. I doubt it though since Mitchell either refers to a name or to the name of the town Mitchell in Lawrence County. What I'm worried about here is that people may start thinking that there should be a North College Avenue and South College Avenue article when I don't think there should be. -- Mark 23:08, 14 July 2006 (EDT)

There's part of the problem. Often times people don't refer to the street s as North Somestreet or East Somestreet and even the signs often do not have North or South. However, according to the post office, the North or South is indeed part of the legal street name. You'll also notice that on http://maps.google.com. it is referred to as South Mitchell Street. South is part of the legal name for the street, weather or not we refer to the full name in the wiki may be up to the article writer. Also, most of the Category:Addresses list North or South or East or West for the street. Just more food for thought. Chris 09:32, 15 July 2006 (EDT)

This is a general taxonomy problem, and it could go either way. Either we name streets without the prefixes, and explain somewhere that the grid system adds the prefix to the legal name of the street, or we maintain three or four articles per street: a disambig, an overall article, a north article, a south article, etc. In some cases, it makes sense to have a new article for the other street (i.e. North Jordan), but it is convienient that in Bloomington, pretty much every street follows the rules of the grid. (Like here in NYC, I live on East Broadway, which is a completely different and disconnected street than Broadway. There are probably more exceptions to the rules of the street grid here than there are streets that folow the rules.)

Also as far as naming, I would guess the street was named after James Lewis Mitchell, like Mitchell Hall, but I have no evidence to prove that. I'd really like the find some kind of reference that details the history of Bloomington's streets, but I have this feeling we'll end up having to make one ourselves before we find one. -Jkonrath 10:50, 15 July 2006 (EDT)

Ok, one thing to remember is that there is a difference between the east and the midwest. The Land Ordinance of 1785 (2) and also I think some act in 1844 laid out how roads are setup in all the states Ohio and west of there. In the east like in New York City you have roads and numbering schemes that are quite different. In the midwest they started using a numbering scheme where every mile marks off 1000 address numbers. So an address of 4000 N. Whatever St. is 4 miles north of the center line of the county. In New York City, 4000 N. Broadway may actually be something like 30 miles north of center because they number the building as they are built. One time I went to NYC and was at about 300 on some street and the address that I needed to go to was at 615. I thought "Oh yeah, it should only be about a block away, I can walk". About an hour later I finally got to 615.

Anyways, enough story, I drove by Mitchell street this afternoon and indeed it says S. Mitchell St. with the S being smaller than the following letters, much like S. Swain that follows it, etc. So in this case S. is not in the name. I think instead of having seperate articles for the north/south/east/west counterparts, we can have a section in each street article devoted to what street or place marks the boundary between the directions. -- Mark 15:50, 15 July 2006 (EDT)

The boundary is 3rd for north and south; College|Walnut for the east west. One other thing to point out; the direction in the name gives the reader two clues about the street just from the name. For example, North Staats Drive, tells me that the street is both north of 3rd and is itself a north/south road. East Morningside Drive tells me that Morningside is to the east of College|Walnut and is an east/west road. I think it is important to make note of the north|south|east|west of the street name and not dismiss it out of hand. I'm willing to bet (if I were a betting man) that the prepended letters on the street signs were put there when Bloomington adopted the directional names and that they opted to just add letters rather than make whole new signs right then to save money. As for the "s" mentioned above not matching, probably due to the different font that may be used in signs of different ages. I'm also willing to bet that as stret signs are replaced when they age, weather or are vandalized; the new signs will have proper north|south|east|west on them (or at least a n|s|e|w in a matching font). Chris 08:28, 16 July 2006 (EDT)

All of the existing street signs in Bloomington are post-NSEW grid adoption. Every county has their own road maintenance department, and every howevermany years, all of the signs will change color scheme and design. I don't know what iterations Monroe County has seen, but I'd bet that 50 years ago, they were white metal signs with black letters, 30 years ago they were green or blue nonreflective signs with white letters and no margins, then reflective green with wider margins, etc. I think the actual campus has to do signage on their internal roads, which is why you see the dark crimson signs with white letters. Usually when they change, they will spend a summer changing all of the signs in the county en masse. If you look at signs in other Indiana counties, they'll have different eras of signs depending on their cash situation. Indianapolis has very modern signs; drive to Owen county, not so much. It would be a good way to date photos if we could figure out what sign styles belong in which eras. Jkonrath 13:11, 16 July 2006 (EDT)