well the old street light/street signs --the white letters on navy (both enamal)ones, not silk screened green/white on aluminum) had the full word East or West (but it was much smaller letters)--you know the kind of signs found on bishops crook's lamp poles.
queens (been living here 25 years) is very difficult to navigate. house numbers have 2 sets of digits.
my old house was at 249-36 -- the first digits(249) indicated that it was close to 249th street.
the second set of digits (36) designated the lot number.
Not a bad system (10-63 Jackson Avenue is near 10th street/63rd lot... )
problem is: Queens has both STREETS and AVENUES that are numbered 10. (so there could be 10-63 Ditmars Blvd, (and the #10 would refer 10th avenue)--so you have to KNOW what is being references (and there is no real clue!) Unless you knew were Jackson avenue in queens was (and where Ditmars blvd was too!)--the 2 'similar numbers' could be 4 miles apart!
Second problem-- While 99% of the time streets are nominal NORTH/SOUTH in oriention --(Nominally means: the streets are more or less parallel to the island of manhattan (which is not quite north/south, but we all pretend it is) and Avenues are more or less (often, a lot less!) cross the streets at right angles (ie, nominally the run east/west,
Queens if full of roads, places, courts, drives, and lanes,blvds, and parkways as well avenues. (and these can and do replace streets!)
its not uncommon for you to find 67th Avenue to be followed by 67th Drive, 67th Road, followed by Jewel Avenue--
and then followed by 71st STREET (68th, 69th and 70th totally missing!)
Nor is it uncommon for streets to change names as they cross intersections.. (stand on one side of Queens Blvd, and you're at 63 Drive (a 2 way street) cross the Blvd, and you are on 63rd Road, (a 1 way street) and 63rd Drive is a block away (200 or so feet!) (well at least the subway stairs are right--on both sides of the street, the 63rd Drive subway stop exits are at 63rd Drive--
(meanwhile, try to exit the #1/9/3/4, (or the A, E, D, F) trains to West 4th street from the West 4th street station--Dare you to!)
Manhattan is by far, the easiest borough to navigate. the bronx, is almost as easy, (it follows the same plan, but its avenues are all named (only Park Avenue continues with its name unchanged from Manhattan to the bronx)
Queens is bad, and the rule in brooklyn is: NEVER GET OFF THE HIGHWAY. but even Brooklyn is easy compared to Staten Island.
ALL of queens resembles the twisted confusing streets of lower manhattan (a 3 square mile area)--but queens is 100 square mile area!
Near were i used to live, there is an interesting intersection. Its pretty much a true + (vs a X shaped intersection)
the Road, (little neck parkway) runs North/South. travel on it 1 block south of Grand Centeral Parkway, and the cross street is labeled 273rd Street (on the East side of Little Neck parkway) On the WEST side of Little Neck Parkway, the street is 268th Street.
Its enough to drive you crazy!
