4/28/2003

so i was doing some work online the other day and found this address : "E 42nd Stra, Tucson AZ." I thought, "what the hell is a 'stra'?" it's not spanish, as spanish for street is "calle" and the other words that mean avenue and pass and such aren't like "stra" either. and senorita is "srta", not "stra." so i looked some more online and found this page, the postal service abbreviation list, which, if you go down to s, you see Stra is "Stravenue". I've never heard of a stravenue before, so I guess it's half street, half avenue, which doesn't make any sense, as an avenue is defined (on the american heritage dictionary on yahoo at least) as:



1. abbr. Ave. or Av. A wide street or thoroughfare.

2a. A broad roadway lined with trees. b. Chiefly British The drive leading from the main road up to a country house.



so a stravenue is half wide street (possibly lined with trees) and half not a wide street, not lined with trees? why not just call it avenue? i am sure that not every part of an avenue has trees or is wide. and in towns in lots of places, especially in texas, a "street" runs east-west, while an "avenue" runs north-south, or vice versa, whether or not they are wide or tree-lined. looking them up on a map, such as this one, they seem to be in the city and in no particular area, just sort of strewn around. i also think that "Cherrybell stravenue" is about the funniest and most made-up sounding street ever. it sounds like it's where strawberry shortcake or the my little ponies live. when i was looking around, i found another page where a postal worker asks "what's a stravenue?" so apparently even the postal workers don't know, and i was unable to find anything else explaining what it is. i expect to see an avenulevard next.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Stravenue: A street which runs diagonally between and intersects a Street and an Avenue.

According to Arizona Address System

http://www.pima.gov/cob/code/c18b17.html#3133

Andrew W said...

thank you good sir (or madam). sounds pretty str-upid to me though

Foust said...

I find it funny that I've found this years after you've posted this, but I just had to answer, being a Tucsonan. Not only is a stravenue a made up term to describe what is usually a diagonal street dissecting both streets (east/west) and avenues (north/south), Cherrybell Stravenue is named for two avenues it joins: Cherry Ave and Campbell Ave. What makes it even more humorous, at least in my eyes, is that the main post office in Tucson resides on Cherrybell Stravenue.

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