Playing Both Sides of the Street

Dinosaur that I am, I still get a print copy of the newspaper each morning. We’ve laughed about that before. However, it’s an old-school habit I’ll likely not break until the publisher itself gives up on the media. I’m no Luddite and I’ve left behind a huge digital wake as I’ve cruised the Intertubes. Nonetheless I still like to start the day with the crinkle of paper on my fingers and a strong cup of coffee by my side.


So what does that have to do with you?

I’m just about to get to that…

Occasionally I come across a print article that looks like it would fit perfectly within Twelve Mile Circle’s subject matter. The only difference is that it’s written by someone who actually knows how to write. I discovered just such an article this morning, and you’re in luck because it’s also available online.

I think you’ll enjoy reading: Playing Both Sides of the Street — District streets that border states create jurisdictional confusion.

Western Avenue. Photo by Payton Chung; (CC BY 2.0)
Western Avenue – riding the border between Washington, DC and Maryland

It describes the situation along Washington, DC’s border with Maryland (map). Residents on one side of the street live in the District and residents on the other side live in Maryland. Those of us who have studied the boundary stones realize that the border doesn’t go down the middle of the street. Instead, the District owns the street. However, the set of people who understand that are probably a razor-thin slice of the population. And by the way, neither Mapquest nor Google Maps seems to have sufficient detail to represent that nuance correctly. I’m sure that doesn’t help things


A Headache or a Blessing?

Anyway hijinks and hilarity ensue confusion sometimes leads to genuine public safety issues but overall the residents seem to enjoy living along an anomaly. I know I would! That would be so cool if my house was in one jurisdiction but my sidewalk was in another.

Comments

7 responses to “Playing Both Sides of the Street”

  1. Greg Avatar
    Greg

    Excellent find. I knew that the border seems to bisect properties, but I wasn’t sure what the practical implications of that were. Thanks for posting it.

    1. Twelve Mile Circle Avatar

      @wangi: Indeed, that’s just the kind of topic I find endlessly fascinating. Thanks for the link — I may feature it in a future post (giving you full credit for pointing it out, naturally).

  2. Benjamin Lukoff Avatar

    Love that Scottish border quirk.

    And as for the Washington Post article, yes, fascinating — thanks for the link (I think if I had the choice, I’d live on the Maryland side — I want representation in Congress and a local government whose decisions can’t be overridden by Congress) — but don’t sell yourself short. You know how to write, and very well, too.

  3. Matthias Avatar
    Matthias

    Check this out: the two sides of the street (the one over the Rue Nationale, it’s quite unclear because Google isn’t precise enough, but it’s true) belong to two different countries: France and Germany.

    The border doesn’t appear anymore because of Europe and Schengen, but it’s still an oddity!

    1. Twelve Mile Circle Avatar

      @Matthias: It’s a great oddity even with the Schengen agreement in place, so I definitely appreciate you pointing it out. I wonder though, how did they control the border before Schengen? It must have been an amazingly porous border even then… I can’t imagine they would have placed a wall down the middle of the road. Hmm…

  4. KCJeff Avatar
    KCJeff

    Interesting situatuion in Kansas City in 2009, a convienence store sat directly on top of the MO-KS state line. To save on taxes and not be subject to ridiculous Kansas liquor laws it moved 50 feet across the parking lot, to reside entirely in Missouri.

    http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=27+southwest+blvd,+kansas+city,+ks&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=33.626896,50.976562&ie=UTF8&ll=39.072128,-94.607426&spn=0.001006,0.001556&t=h&z=19

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