Carmel-by-the-Sea is very small upscale town near where I live, where Clint Eastwood and Brad Pitt own homes and rich people own vacation homes. It is a quirky place that has some very strange laws that derive from its early history when it was incorporated in 1916 as a place for artists of various kinds.
One of the many quirks is that the houses have no street numbers, a topic I wrote about a few years ago, looking into the history of that issue. Currently homes are identified by specifying ““Lincoln Street 3 southeast of Fifth Avenue” or other formulations. Any measure to introduce street number arouses fierce opposition from some residents, even though they seem to be in the minority.
The most recent issue of the weekly town newspaper The Carmel Pine Cone discusses a contentious town meeting where this topic was once again on the agenda, where they were seeking a solution that would allow for creating street addresses while retaining the quirkiness. As you can imagine, this effort was like trying to square a circle. Even though I do not live there and have no vested interest in the outcome, (though if I did live there, I would be pro-numbers because I think convenience outweighs tradition when it comes to public policy) I am writing about it because small town politics can be as intense as national ones, and also it can give us a respite from the massive upheavals taking place on a national and global scale.
The opponents of street numbers seem to not be bothered that the lack of street numbers means that they cannot get home mail delivery, and even seem to desire that inconvenience because they like the idea of going to the local post office to pick up their mail, seeing that as a way of meeting and socializing with the members of their community. They fear that having street addresses will inevitably lead to getting home delivery of mail and then the closing of the post office. They urged that more time be spent studying the issue, even though it has been a hot topic for over a hundred years..
Opponents are also willing to put up with the complications of setting up accounts, utilities, insurance, and all the other practical details of working with businesses and government agencies that require street addresses and are not satisfied with a post office box, but other residents are fed up and at the meeting described the nightmare of trying to live with this problem
[Administrative analyst Emily] Garay told the council that research done by her and others revealed that assigning house numbers would not trigger home mail delivery and closure of the Fifth Avenue post office but that the city could assure the post office will never close since it’s operated by a federal agency in a privately owned building.
…Resident Joe DiNucci observed that people who don’t want house numbers can opt not to use them. If they want to tell the 911 dispatcher that they live in the fifth house on the west side of whatever street south of whatever other street, he suggested, that’s fine.
…During his door-to-door campaign last fall, Buder said, 75 percent of residents favored house numbers, and he estimated an advisory vote would reveal a similar result.
“People were concerned about an ambulance getting to them. I spoke to homebound seniors who wanted to get meals delivered. I spoke to business owners who couldn’t get the Secretary of State to recognize their business entities ” he said. “I spoke to homeowners who got their insurance canceled, and of course I spoke to plenty of folks who were sick of spending an entire day on the phone with Comcast.”
…[Councilman Baron] Baron urged the council to make a decision and then figure out how to make it happen. He also acknowledged Dramov’s desire to find middle ground but doubted it exists and suggested pursuing it would be futile.
“There are people here who will die if they get an address — they’ll presumably commit hari-kari in their house — and there are people who want an address that will die if the ambulance doesn’t get to them,” he said. “There’s no middle ground here.”
I suspect that the split is largely between old-time residents who have learned to live without street addresses and hate the thought of change, and more recent arrivals who find it incredible that anyone would choose to continue such an antiquated system. From the point of view of the old-timers, if you don’t like it, don’t move here.
Even though this is about as parochial a small town issue as you can imagine, national politics is likely to intrude. The Trump-Musk wrecking ball will soon target the postal service (the idea that everyone’s mail is treated the same will strike them as socialism) and even if they do not privatize the entire system, they may well close small post offices like the one in Carmel. Deprived of their favored meeting place and having to travel further to get their mail in a larger, more impersonal post office, residents may decide to throw in the towel and get street numbers.
Reject the commie committee allocation of approved street names where everyone must use the same thing, and refuse the numeric markings which presage the biblical end times. Instead, allow everyone to choose their own name for their own street like a rugged individualist artist should.
Your neighbour might name the street after a particularly wise tree they enjoy conversation with; you might name the same street after the colour of the sky the week before last Thursday. Truly artistic locations would vie for the most numerous names from the most creative people.
Delivering anything (like time-sensitive pharmaceuticals) would become a truly soul-inspiring artistic journey and uplifting spiritual experience. You would gain much insight into the lives of the people you seek.
brilliant, eigen. that last paragraph is gagging for a screen treatment by wes anderson. committee approved!
They could use Plus codes. I don’t think that would satisfy businesses or governments that need an address but anyone using a navigation system would easily find the place and it shouldn’t be too difficult to remember.
” if you don’t like it, don’t move here”
This. I used to work at a chemical factory that had residential properties close by. We’d get regular complaints from a Mr. Anderson (and nobody else) about relatively infrequent occurrences like alarm tests -- things that had been going on since the 1930s. There are people like this everywhere. They’re best just ignored, as they thrive on the attention they get in these sorts of arguments.
The real estate must have legal descriptions or lot numbers for taxes purposes.
Right?
Some anarchist could tell their preferred AI to assign numbers to the houses in Carmel-by-the-Sea that don’t have them yet, and publish them in online maps, The Carmel Pine Cone, and other relevant media .
OK, no numbers. Use letters. A Main St, B Main St, etc…. If there are more than 26, then AA, AB etc…
I second what #3 @ Jean said about Plus Codes.
I do have an address. My landlord hasn’t put the address on the building since the old one broke about seven years ago. He has some fantasy in his head about making the new address a tribute to his mother? I dunno. Even before this, four of the streets parallel to mine had the same house number and they were mostly apartment buildings. A mild brainfart by the USPS sorter or by whatever one of the companies that was contracted to deliver my non-USPS packages would result in a misdelivery sometimes.
I find adding Google’s Plus Code to the ‘second address line’ helps me get deliveries. Just like y’all can look up your zip+4 (I also recommend) you all can look this up.
The scope and top level assumpts include:
a) status quo with USPS delivery only to our Post Office’s PO boxes,
b) today’s model of going to the post office to pick up mail is the most cost efficient for USPS -- therefore the Post Office would not close (although there is some risk to this assumption given today’s craziness in Washington DC),
c) definitely there are newer folks (of all ages) in town (less than 10 years) that prefer the current approach
d) there are approaches to resolving most all challenges that you mention -- that are documented as tips for all
e) our Village has the best emergency response of most everywhere in the USA -- but we “pay for this -- via local 911 dispatch -- that understands our current “directional addresses”
All said streamlining and support of local and regional requirements for standard #’s definitely has advantages. Making the transition between today’s model and a standard approach -- has many questions yet to be answered. We are working on getting these questions asked and answered in short order.
Regards -- a 8 year full time resident and 35 year prior frequent visitor to this Village
I second EigenSprocketUK @ 1
After a month everyone will be so exhausted they will surrender to a modern street naming convention.
I’ve heard that this is a larger-scale issue in parts of Japan, where entire districts (even some within Tokyo itself) were basically addressed by lot number. Which isn’t assigned spatially along streets: it’s assigned sequentially by allocation or subdivision date. The result is that locating a house can be very difficult if you’re not already familiar with the neighbourhood or get exactly the sort of ‘three houses of ‘ directions as mentioned above.
@sonofrojblake:
We actually had something similar in a part of Toronto near where I live when a new subdivision was built about twenty-five years ago. In that case it was people who complained about the smell… when moving into houses built downwind of what had been the stockyards many years prior. And if you ask ‘rolling stock’ or ‘livestock’, the answer is yes: the stockyards of West Toronto Junction were responsible for giving Toronto its nickname of ‘Hogtown’ because that’s where the slaughterhouse was right next to the freight station for unloading pigs and loading meat. It took years and a good bit of dedicated remediation to fix up the area, and now there are big box stores and a parking lot sealing off what’s left in the ground.
@chigau (違う):
As I just noted, the problem is that lot numbers don’t necessarily map in any appreciable way to order along a street unless the entire subdivision was built at once. So they’re fine for people who actually know the map in detail, but not good for actually finding places.
Though if the only concern is ‘We can’t fill out these computerized forms without a street address’ that would be good enough, of course.
(Though now I’m remembering Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names.)