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."

A better suggestion

[fliptw]

Call the intersection at 6th and 9th 42.

In my city...

[SetupWeasel]

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

In next weeks news...

[Tastecicles]

...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".

Re:In my city...

[w3c.org]

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

Good for business

[denzacar]

I can see business booming in that street if renamed.

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

So...

[morgdx]

So that's where I left my towel.

Re:Good for business

[Fizzl]

towel and fish shops...

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

Spelling differences

[youthoftoday]

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

Re:In my city...

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:If only...

[PinkyDead]

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

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

[Auraiken]

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

Re:They need something else

[FredDC]

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

Let us know when you find one, ok?

Of course,

[SinVulture]

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]

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

Re:Holy Crap!

[noidentity]

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]

Only until the dupe shows up.

Re:Spelling differences

[Tim Browse]

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.

Re:Doh! Flanders!

[clickety6]

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.

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

[MiniMike]

Better yet they rename it "DON'T WALK" - I can already see the crowds lined up on every corner, just waiting...

Of course, there would still be plenty of people crossing in the middle of the block (maybe looking for a telephone to clean...).

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

[Penguinisto]

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

/P

Re:MLK

[hey!]

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:In my city...

[Anonymous Coward]

That's nothing compared to the number of towns in Germany named Ausfahrt [google.com].

Re:Which Portland?

[tachyonflow]

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...