Slashdot Mirror
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."
Is this the first story to feature a period at the end of the title?
Call the intersection at 6th and 9th 42.
All streets will be named Douglas Adams. Only the hoopiest of froods will manage to find their way.
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
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.
...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".
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
Actually Matt Groening is from Portland,OR and many of the Simpsons character are named after streets in Portland.
I would strongly recommend not clicking that.
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
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.
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'.
init 11 - for when you need that edge.
No doubt being in America they're going to try and call it Doglas Adams or some other such vowel-mangling.
-1 not first post
Or rename ALL the streets to "DON'T PANIC". I think that might be more like him. xD
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!
09 f9 11 02 9d 74 e3 5b d8 41 56 c5 63
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.
For those who have never been in Portland, Oregon, we should explain that people are a little different here.
Question: Why do hippies move to Portland? Answer: Because there are no jobs.
The world's smallest park is here, and the world's largest bookstore.
The spirit of Douglas Adams lives on in the body of Linus Torvalds, who lives in Portland, creating artistic chaos for commercial operating systems. Douglas Adams loved technical gizmos. "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.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?