Group Hopes to Rename Street After Douglas Adams

interstellar_donkey writes "Despite the recent brouhaha over the renaming of 4th Ave after César Chávez, a Portland group is pushing to rename a local street after the late writer Douglas Adams. The street? Why, 42nd Ave, of course. According to their website, the renaming will reflect Portlanders' commitment to the arts, respect for the environment, desire to provide technological access to all, their passion to further education to all people, and most importantly remind Portlanders DON'T PANIC. This appears to be a serious movement, with preliminary paperwork already in the works."

Holy Crap!

[by Anonymous Coward]

Is this the first story to feature a period at the end of the title?

Re:Holy Crap!

[noidentity (188756)]

Is this the first story to feature a period at the end of the title?

Good thing it's not at the beginning, otherwise it wouldn't have shown up.

Re:Holy Crap!

[Gordonjcp (186804)]

Only until the dupe shows up.

Rename the streat to "DON'T PANIC" instead

[Per Abrahamsen (1397)]

It would be so much more in the spirit of Douglas Adams.

Re:Rename the streat to "DON'T PANIC" instead

[Auraiken (862386)]

Or rename ALL the streets to "DON'T PANIC". I think that might be more like him. xD

Re:Rename the streat to "DON'T PANIC" instead

[Penguinisto (415985)]

You haven't seen Portland's traffic - it's more appropriate than you think ;)

/P

A better suggestion

[fliptw (560225)]

Call the intersection at 6th and 9th 42.

Why do hippies move to Portland?

[Futurepower(R) (558542)]

For those who have never been in Portland, Oregon, we should explain that people are a little different [keepportlandweird.org] here.

Question: Why do hippies move to Portland? Answer: Because there are no jobs.

The world's smallest park [roadsideamerica.com] is here, and the world's largest bookstore [powells.com].

The spirit of Douglas Adams lives on in the body of Linus Torvalds [wikipedia.org], who lives in Portland, creating artistic chaos for commercial operating systems. Douglas Adams loved technical gizmos [wikipedia.org]. "Douglas was a keen technologist, writing about such inventions as e-mail and Usenet before they became widely popular, or even widely known." Linus Torvalds makes technical gizmos happen.

If only...

[lobiusmoop (305328)]

it was at the corner of 6th and 9th...

Re:

[PinkyDead (862370)]

You will of course need a "TomTom" the size of a planet to find it.

In my city...

[SetupWeasel (54062)]

All streets will be named Douglas Adams. Only the hoopiest of froods will manage to find their way.

Re:

[w3c.org (1039484)]

Oh, that would be ok. Just follow someone who knows where he's going.

Re:In my city...

[by Anonymous Coward]

Kind of like German cities where half of the streets are named "Einbahnstraße" and there are directions to it everwhere!

In next weeks news...

[Tastecicles (1153671)]

...another group has started preliminary paperwork to have 23rd renamed "Illuminatus", and a Prostitute Action Group are to rename 68th "We'll Owe You One".

Doh! Flanders!

[CranberryKing (776846)]

Actually Matt Groening is from Portland,OR and many of the Simpsons character are named after streets in Portland.

Re:Doh! Flanders!

[clickety6 (141178)]

As a former resident of Portland, I can confirm this is true.

I was born at 2727 Comic Book Guy Avenue but we moved to 1634 Nahasapeemapetilon Street when I was about 5.

Some characters are even named after the local nicknames for streets.

The area where the down and outs hang out were obviously called Itchy Way and Scratchy Street.

And the nickname for the road with the local gynecological clinic gave us the name for Springfield's mayor.

They need something else

[VincenzoRomano (881055)]

There should be also a marble and bronze monument to either DNA or to the Answer [wikipedia.org].
We'd need to do this in every civilised city of the Universe.

Re:They need something else

[FredDC (1048502)]

We'd need to do this in every civilised city of the Universe.

Let us know when you find one, ok?

Re:

[petes_PoV (912422)]

We'd need to do this in every civilised city of the Universe

We already have earthman. It's just that none of them are on your planet

Good for business

[denzacar (181829)]

I can see business booming in that street if renamed.

Restaurants, holistic detective agencies, sandwich stands, towel and fish shops...

Re:

[Fizzl (209397)]

towel and fish shops...

I've heard about fish'n'chips, but this is something completely different!

So...

[morgdx (688154)]

So that's where I left my towel.

Spelling differences

[youthoftoday (975074)]

No doubt being in America they're going to try and call it Doglas Adams or some other such vowel-mangling.

Re:Spelling differences

[Tim Browse (9263)]

No, Americans would call it Doug Adams. After all, that's what they always seemed to call the man, no matter how much he hated it.

I get dibs...

[rodney dill (631059)]

... on the towel store on that street.

Of course,

[SinVulture (825310)]

One of the many changes involved in the paperwork is actually that a residential area will be bulldozed to make way for a highway overpass to the new Douglas Adams Avenue.

My judgement

[PietjeJantje (917584)]

Using Dirk Gently's I Ching Calculator [thateden.co.uk] (please do follow the instructions), I came to the following conclusion regarding renaming the street:

THE JUDGEMENT OF KING WEN:

28. EXTREME OVERLOAD
The Environment Is Demand Temporarily Load With Many Events, Ideas And Situations, Which Your Consideration. You/They May Fight In Your Attempt, To Solve Problems. If Problems Is Not Bothered From Misunderstanding And Lack At Assessment By Other At Your Attempts, To Solve. If Your Poise Maintain Will Help You, To Follow. Do Not Use Powerful Methods. His Flexible And Prepare You For Fast Passages.

THE COMMENTARY OF THE DUKE OF CHOU:
Line 2: With The Right Companions, You Can Reach Almost Everything

Gladstone Street shirley a better choice?

[threaded (89367)]

Why not rename Gladstone Street, it already has The Pub at the End of the Universe. http://portland.citysearch.com/profile/11495658/portland_or/pub_at_the_end_of_the_universe.html [citysearch.com]

In the spirit of "keep Portland Weird"

[LM741N (258038)]

I would rename a street after Aleister Crowley

Re:Respect for the environment?

[kaos07 (1113443)]

Adams was pretty famous for his environmental activism, in particular campaigning on behalf of endangered species. There's more info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Adams#Environmental_activism [wikipedia.org]

The point they're trying to make is that by renaming the street in his honour, they are both showing respect to the man and what he stood for.

Re:Respect for the environment?

[rucs_hack (784150)]

For those who are interested, Douglas gave a lecture just a few weeks before his tragic demise. You can watch it here:

http://webcast.ucsd.edu:8080/ramgen/UCSD_TV/5779UniCalSanBar.rm [ucsd.edu]

I've been a fan of douglas adams ever since I caught the very first broadcast of episode one of Hitch-hikers on the radio by pure, joyous chance.

I was somewhat surprised in later years to realise that it was actually his factual work 'Last Chance to See' that was my favorite of all his works (thought the Dirk Gebtly books are a close second). I never much liked the h2G2 books, I prefer the radio play.

Re:Respect for the environment?

[Tim Browse (9263)]

I was somewhat surprised in later years to realise that it was actually his factual work 'Last Chance to See' that was my favorite of all his works

It was his favourite, too.

Re:

[sopuli (459663)]

They could hardly put in the proposal that they would like to rename the street because DNA was such a hoopy frood. So instead they probably figured that since he wrote "Last chance to see" they'd put in the bit about the environment.

good bye, and thanks for the fish

[someone1234 (830754)]

Look this up, grasshopper.

Bad link

[EvanED (569694)]

I would strongly recommend not clicking that.

Re:

[404 Clue Not Found (763556)]

Actually, that was pretty entertaining :P

NOT WORK SAFE

[Almahtar (991773)]

The link above got blocked by my stuff, but very little research reveals it's something you don't want to click on anywhere, especially not work.

Re:

[FredDC (1048502)]

It's abusing google's "I feel lucky" functionality to send you to some inappropriate site like goatse. I've no idea which one this is, and don't care to find out either...

Re:

[MadKeithV (102058)]

It's a link to a google search for a specific term (contactlog) where the first hit is automatically opened, and links to a very unsafe site.

Re:I Am Against This...

[Silver Sloth (770927)]

Boring, boring, boring.....

The metropolis of London has no numbered streets, no grid system and numerous name conflicts - the number of 'High Streets' is - if I remember correctly - in excess of 50 and we Brits manage fine. And how can you live in a town which hasn't, at some point in its history, featured a 'Gropecunt Lane'.

Re:

[Xiaran (836924)]

If any street in London is to be renamed it must be in Islington. As a resident of the area DNA used to live Id suggest one of the side streets off upper street... maybe near Hotbalck Desiatos(for those that dont know thats a real estate agent... the real estate agent came first). How does one get the ball rolling on renaming a street in London? Id be up for a petition or whatever. Actually Ive come over quite serious all of a sudden. If anywhere has a street named after Douglas then it should be in Islingt

Re:

[JoshJ (1009085)]

There are several streets in Atlanta with "Peachtree" as part of their name (not all of which are listed here), including Peachtree Creek Road, Peachtree Lane, Peachtree Avenue, Peachtree Circle, Peachtree Drive, Peachtree Plaza, Peachtree Way, Peachtree Memorial Drive, New Peachtree Road, Peachtree Walk, and Peachtree Valley Road. West Peachtree Street is not the western branch of Peachtree Street, but a major parallel north-south street located one block west of Peachtree Street running through Midtown. O

Re:

[ettlz (639203)]

And how can you live in a town which hasn't, at some point in its history, featured a 'Gropecunt Lane'.

Is that near Shepherd's Bush?

Re:

[FredDC (1048502)]

I live in Europe, and we have had names for our streets since... Well, since the streets were placed there. And I can tell you that we're not hopelessly getting lost all the time. The human brain is quite capable of linking names to places...

Naming a street after someone is a great tribute to that person, and in my book Douglas Adams deserves to have more than 1 street named after him. 42 of them in fact!

Re:

[zakezuke (229119)]

I live in Europe, and we have had names for our streets since... Well, since the streets were placed there. And I can tell you that we're not hopelessly getting lost all the time. The human brain is quite capable of linking names to places...

The human brain is, however the grid system is rather handy. For example "4242 Don't Panic St. South". Odds are it's 42 blocks south of city center, with the nearest cross street being 42nd. No grid system is perfect, there are almost always hills, ravines, rivers, lakes, junk in the way.

One can learn the streets of a city, but an intelligent syntax and order are there to help out those who are not so intimately familiar with your city. A good layout a person without a map can establish direction of tr

Re:

[cheater512 (783349)]

I hear the gridlock is fun too with a grid system. :)

Well, I AM from Portland, and it's in my hood

[sethawoolley (1005201)]

I live on 34th and NE Stanton, just 8 blocks (20 blocks per mile in Portland, so .4 miles away), and AS a resident, I HEAVILY support this measure. I used to work on 42nd and Broadway and am involved in the local business community there.

I'm also an atheist and an environmentalist, as are most of the people here. Well, there are a lot of lesbians, too, at least according to the Census Bureau factfinder website (I have no idea how they found that out, but it's true, for I bought my house from a couple).

It actually came up because the Hispanic community wanted to rename Interstate Ave after Cesar Chavez (since Union was renamed MLK), which the people on Interstate thought was dumb, so it met with heavy public protest. The Mayor and Council were all for it, and then the public found out.

Since 42nd is a kind of major street, it would be very cool to have it renamed after Douglas Adams! We could open a Don't Panic Coffee Shop (or electronic gadget store).

I think the only major complaint would come from "42nd Street Station", a little mini-mall just off Sandy Blvd that would probably have to change their name!

It just needs some money to pay for paperwork, so please, donate!

Re:

[hey! (33014)]

Somoene makes a joke about Martin Luther King being a pointer to Jesus Christ and I laugh about it.

Hmm. Does that make your local MLK Blvd a handle to Jesus? It might be handy if you expect Jesus' address to change.

Re:

[Simonetta (207550)]

I live also in Portland and I simply detest these street name changes. This isn't simply a matter of swapping a handful of street signs. There are millions of maps both printed and internet-based throughout the world that are now out-of-date. And with millions of GPS navigational devices being installed in cars and other vehicles, all the software becomes invalid. And with the absurd tendency to change a major street name every few years, none of the software for Portland Oregon is ever correct. Try r

Re:

[tachyonflow (539926)]

And Portland, OR, is a quadrant city, so there's two 42nd Ave's, on the east and the west side of the river. And each of those is divided into north and south sections by Burnside... so are we talking about NE/SE 42nd, or NW/SW 42nd, or both, or maybe just 1/2 of one of those Avenues?

It's too bad there aren't any numbered avenues in N Portland, the fifth of Portland's increasingly inaccurately named quadrants...