The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1896-01-31
STREET NOMENCLATURE.
Patriotic Opportunities Of Which New
York Has Not Taken Advantage.

York Has Not Taken Advantage.
The duty of naming streets in New
York devolves upon the board of alder
men. The duty of numbering them de-
wolves by law upon the department of
public works. Though there has been of
late years no molestation of New York
aldermen by the Albany legislature as
respects street naming, while other du-
ties and responsibilities of the aldermen
have been interfered with, the city's
Legislators do not trouble themselves to
any great extent with this matter. act
ing only on petitions submitted by per-
sons in interest.
1t is very different with the munich
pal bodies in other large cities, especial
ly on the European continent and in.
South and Central America, for they
are constantly making alterations, to
the great confusion of travellers, in street
namef, and the municipal council of
Paris may be said to excel i'll this re-
spect, 'perpetuating the memory of sci
entists, warriors, financiers and navi-
gators and recalling certain anniversa-
ries and distinguishing certain localities
by the names of streets The council
changes the names from time to time as
the fancy seizes them and refuses, as
was recently the case with the proposed
Alexandra Dumas street, to assent to re-
quests which might seem to have the
warrant of precedent in the case of 9TH
er distinguished residents of Paris
The New York board of aldermen and
it's predecessor, the common council,
seem to have acted generally on the
principle made familiar in some retail
shops by the sign, eff you don't see
what you want ask for it. :" If, there
fore, any person or persons wish to have
a new name given to street, they petit
tiop the common council or board of al
dermen to that effect Otherwise the
street names continue as they are. The
owners of farms in ancient New York
which were cut up by streets have been
officially remembered, and some gener-
ais who took part in Revolutionary
struggles have had their fame perpetu-
ated too. But few geographical locali-
ties are reproduced in American street
names, and some of the founders of the
American republic have been totally ig
nofed.
The first vice president of the United
States, who was afterward the second
president. and was besides one of the
signers of the Declaration of Independ-
ence and American minister to Eng
land, John Adams, has no street named
after him in New York city. Martin
Van Buren,, the eighth president of the
United States and the first president
chosen from New York, was not oonsid-
cred in the choice of street names here
There is Lincoln avenue, it is true,
and Grant avenue as we'll, but no Lin
coin, Grant or Garfield street, and the
other presidents of the United States be
tween William Henry Harrison and Alb
raham Lincoln are not considered de-
serving of having either street or an
avenue called after them. No reference
appears in New York street names to
the chief battles of the Revolutionary
war or the best known American vic
tories over the British arms in the war
Of 1919. In all western and in some
eastern cities the triumphs of Union
arms during the civil war are perpetu-
ated in street names, but New York is
an exception. There is no Atlantic street
here, notwithstanding that New York
is the great western port of the Atlantic
ocean; there is no Pacific street either.
The choice of street names seems here to
have been on sort Of go-as-you-please
basis. New York Sun.