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What’s in the name of the road? In a lot of cases, I find they are just weird names meant to confuseme and force me to do highly entertaining mispronunciations, like for roads such as Kalamath andElati. See, I am from the Midwest, so I say things in an uneducated and sharp-sounding way, whichcauses people to snicker at me. (like saying “Ch” in Challah bread. I’ll never live that one down and will probably continue toforget that the C issilent.)

Fortunately, some roadnames are more familiarand I can semi-pro-nounce them. Some I seeall over the place. Of course there are thetypical all-over roadnames like Main Streetor Broadway, but whatabout Cornell? As Itravel around, this is aroad name that I seemore and more. Now there are certainly many

people with the lastname Cornell, but thisroad name is usually paired with other Ivy League schools or prestigious universities, so I am assuming it refers to CornellUniversity. (With exception of Cornell College for streets in Iowa)

Aside from naming streets after schools that are nowhere nearby, (come on Denver, let’s have a streetnamed “The University of Colorado-Denver Road” or “Metro State College Avenue”) the really weirdthing is that the Cornell name is usually for some street in a 1950s or 1960s suburban development.(although, yes, yes, I have seen it in older and new neighborhoods, but those are exceptions) I guess I just never thought about trends in road names.

Go to any town with some sort of suburban development around this timeframe and you are bound tofind a Cornelian-based street name. In my neck of the woods, Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins,Longmont, Denver, Aurora, Lakewood, all have the Cornell moniker added to the list of street names. You will also notice that university prestige is modeled in the size and significance of the street. Of course, Cornell is never a major thoroughfare, those are reserved for the likes of Yale, Harvard andPrinceton, but it’s usually there as at least a cul-de-sac or side street. It makes me feel somewhat goodsince I attended Cornell, but still reminds me of my academic shortfalls.

H. CHRISTINE RICHARDS

Co r n e ll S t r e e t , Av e n u e , R o a d , e t c .

from roadside zombies TM which is a humorous look at the fascinations of everyday life

1 © 2010 by H. Christine Richards. All rights reserved

8/9/2019 Cornell Street, Avenue, Road, etc.

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from roadside zombies TM

2 © 2010 by H. Christine Richards. All rights reserved

It probably ties into that developer-need for a theme. And developers back then probably hadn’tgotten too sophisticatedly goofy with their themes. (I never understood why there had to be a themeanyway, but I won’t digress into that discussion anymore than I already did here: http://tinyurl.com/2fsehfp) People probably enjoyed being associated with some cool university, but I wonder if thesesorts of names have ever prevented someone from purchasing an otherwise fine house on that street?For example, there are some people out there who are bound to hate Cornell, and would never, ever

purchase a house located on that street with that name. I certainly wouldn’t buy a house if it were on“Kansas State University Drive,” but I know I won’t have to worry about that anytime soon. (sorry,got to get a jab at K-State in there occasionally)

Maybe that’s why street names in developments have gotten more generic, like Flanders or MitchellStreet. Although I did see a new development that used different countries for street names, and they tried to develop an alphabetical set of the street names, so there is an Iran Street. Okay, we aren’t at war with them yet, but come on, couldn’t you have chosen a little less politically charged area, likeIraq, no, uh, oh! Iceland. I mean who has ever had anything against Iceland? The recent volcanoes weren’t Iceland’s fault, at least as far as we know.

Roadside zom bies tip #163: Cornell road know-how

Okay, enough sidetracking. So keep an eye out for your favorite prestigious university as you tour your favorite 1950s/1960s neighborhood. Or see if you can get a street named after your favoriteuniversity or develop a subdivision with only state school names, just so I can be entertained.

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