New Day #146

Eighteen years I've lived in Portland. Eighteen years. And still I don't know the order of the streets downtown. There's simply no order to them. For instance, we have Jefferson and Madison right next to each other with Washington seven blocks away. Meanwhile, Columbia is nowhere near the Columbia River and Main isn't the main street at all.

Of course, I shouldn't be surprised. This is a city where the numerical streets going the other way are 1st through 6th, followed by Broadway (7th), then Park, then Park AGAIN, followed by 10th and up. That's right, we have two streets going opposite directions with the same friggin' name.

Welcome to Portland.

So I finally decided once and for all to come up with a mnemonic device to remember the streets with names.

First, the streets: Market, Clay, Columbia, Jefferson, Madison, Main, Salmon, Taylor, Yamhill, Morrison, Alder, Washington.

Now, the mnemonic device:

The market for clay columns of Jefferson and Madison are maintained by Sammy the tailor, who yammers for more aldermans' washing.

I'll let you know if it works. In the meantime, here's Petula Clark singing "Downtown."




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