Talk:George Street (St. John's)

message: Per square foot of WHAT? This is a pseudo-statistic. What is the denominator used to calculate it? And where do other streets, in other cities, rank so that the originator of the statistic can conclude that "George Street has the most bars per square foot", whatever that means? Mathematically, it would seem to mean that George Street has small bars, and not much else.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.138.165.136 (talk) 23:17, 12 November 2006
I think it means per square foot of land, oh intelligent one. Although George street's bars are not all huge, it is worth pointing out that they are in extremely hogh density. The only thing that the street has on it are bars, pubs and the occaisional pizza place. It makes for good pub crawls, let me tell you!—Preceding unsigned comment added by Songs4Jane (talk • contribs) 12:22, 13 November 2006
:I agree that it'a pseudostatistic, and should probably be, more accurately, "per linear foot (or metre)" - meaning that the number of bars when divided by the length of the street gives you a higher number than any other.  In order for it to be true, of course, we require a minimum length for such "bar streets" to be compared against each other, else single-storefront streets (where, perhaps, that storefront houses three bars on top of each other) could clearly win without really being anything special.  Another option, however, would be that perhaps we should be hauling out our maps of the area, and drawing a line around all buildings that face or back on to the street (whether a bar or not).  Once we have that line drawn and have the interior area calculated, we can clearly calculate a bars per square foot measure.  Again, we need a minimum or else some "world's smallest pub" can win all by itself.
:So, by the first measure, Google  tells me that the street is 300m long, approximately.  Our page lists 41 pubs that actually back or front on to George Street.  This gives us a phenomenal 137 bars per kilometre of street.  On the other hand, we can use the City of St. John's  great satellite photos/maps of the area to calculate a rough area of approximately 18,000 square metres or 1.8 hectares, giving 23 bars per hectare, or 0.000212 bars per square foot.  I do not believe any other location in North America, probably the world, approaches those sorts of numbers.
:...and to be clear, while what I've listed above qualifies, of course, as original research within the Wikipedia understanding of the concept, and thus has no place on the actual article page itself, I firmly believe that I am simply providing a numerical foundation for previously-existing anecdotal research done by many others over generations before, and that will probably be scientifically recreated repeatedly over the generations to come.  I, myself, may pursue some of this research on Friday after work. AshleyMorton 02:01, 15 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  My good friend, I believe the ad-hoc statistic is not for the entire length of what is George St.'s party side these days, but only the 150m or so between Trapper John's and Kelly's, what is enclosed for the festivals. In which case it's some 147 bars/km or so. :P -- CowMan 19:18, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

text: I dunno - but if someone wants to, why not?  Many of the world's commonly quoted "tourist statistics" involve finding something in your own community whereby, if one uses the right definitions and methods of measurement, your community has no equal in the world.  Commonly, those 'choices' aren't normal at all - in fact, they make the statistic useless in the grand scheme of things - but it doesn't make the information (if correct) less interesting or encyclopedic.  In fact, I think one could argue that the simple fact that the community chooses to advertise the fact tells one a lot about the community. AshleyMorton 19:48, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

text: Hmm... good question.  I am definitely willing to volunteer, however. AshleyMorton 19:48, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

text: Hmmm... I guess I could suggest that the research has been done on George Street over generations (it certainly has been home of a good number of pubs, even if not as insane as today, for many years) and its simply the case that, in those earlier years, the researchers found George Street lacking - only in recent years have these intrepid souls been able to identify such a grand confluence of alcohol-offering establishments. (although who are you to call me not a fruitfly?) AshleyMorton 19:48, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

text: I thought I was! - In all seriousness, no nastiness was intended by my comments.  I thought we were having a light-hearted debate over an acknowledgedly goofball stat (please see my very first sentence: "I agree that it'a pseudostatistic,...").  Sorry if my sense of humour didn't carry through my keyboard. AshleyMorton 19:48, 20 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: "Most bars per square foot"