Aug 26 2008
Street Name Game in Sacramento
Surviving the trauma of moving to California is nothing compared to the pain of trying to understand Sacramento street names. I have traveled to cities in several states, and maybe it was for lack of attention or because of the fact that sometimes I was a tourist and not a resident, but for the life of me I don’t remember seeing so many streets that have a name that changes to a totally different name when you just drive from one block to another.
Stop the street sign madness!
When I came to Sacramento for the first time (several years ago) I went forth from the airport with no map and without the aid of what I later learned was an essential of life, my trusty GPS (which is a story for another day). My mission was to scope out Sacramento for the possibility of moving to this great city. Once I settled comfortably into my hotel my first priority, as any self respecting woman should have, was to find the nearest shopping mall. When driving down Garden Highway toward Arden Fair Mall the street suddenly became Arden Way. So that’s what that sign meant that said Arden/Garden. I thought it was a local landmark, maybe a beautiful water garden, but much to my surprise it was just the place where the two streets merged. This was only the first of many such encounters with wayward street names in Sacramento.
Since Sacramento is the Capitol of California, I took another excursion to visit the Capitol Building. On my way there driving down M Street it suddenly became Capitol Avenue. At least that is a little bit logical since M Street leads to the State Capitol Building, but then even that’s not the end of the name game. The section between Front and 10th streets if Capitol Mall.
Welcome to Sacramento!
