Jay Maynard <jmaynard@texas.net> writes:

>On Sat, Feb 13, 1999 at 10:37:41PM -0800, Paul Newhouse wrote:
>> South side downtown Minneapolis.  You can probably take the bus to
>> the University area (straight east at the river ... see Mapblast).
>> You'll need a car for all the other places I mentioned.  Oh, well.
>
>One caveat: If you're gonna drive somewhere, get *complete* directions
>before you go. 

That's pretty good advice in any place you are visiting.

>The twin Cities are the worst place I've ever been as far as
>finding your way around goes; 

On the East side of the Mississippi I agree. That area is much older (has been
settled longer). The Minneapolis side is laid out on a north-south/east-west
grid pattern, with a few exceptions:

  The original downtown area is on a grid pattern but rotated 45 degrees.
  (Streets are either perpendicular or parallel to the river in that area.)  It's 
  an area about 15 by 20 blocks.

  Any time you get close to the river, or a lake, the streets get warped a bit.
  And anything near Minnehaha parkway gets twisted around.

  Just east of downtown in the University of Minnesota West Bank area you
  find yourself in a maze of twisty turney passages, with a liberal dose of
  dead ends.

  A few of the original cow paths, deer trails and ant ways got paved over,
  so a few streets end up cutting across everything (Hennepin near downtown
  for example).

  In general however, things named "street" go east and west, and things named
  "avenue" go north and south.

Now the St. Paul side is a real mess, especially downtown.  Many more cow paths,
deer trails, and ant ways got established while the city was developing.

And on top of all of this they imposed the Interstate Highway system!!!!!

If it's your first time there it can be a bit confusing but, I don't think much
more than any new city would be.  One problem is the locals don't distinguish
between which city they are talking about (not just Minneapolis & St. Paul but,
all the burbs).  They will say things like," get on Wayzata Blvd. and then, ...",
well, everybody knows that the street is labeled I394, not Wayzata (BTW that's 
why-zet-uh) what they mean is the I394 frontage road in Golden Valley (immediately 
adjacent to Minneapolis on the west side). The frontage road is named Wayzata Blvd.
I394 got build on top of the old Wayzata Blvd (or they may refer to it as Hwy 12).

In Minneapolis you will be told, "take Hennepin to Snelling".  Well a stranger will 
get confused because on the east side of Minneapolis, where you enter Lauderdale, 
the street becomes known as Larpenteur.  Of course in St. Paul you are told, take
Larpentuer to the bridge', by which they mean the Hennepin Ave. bridge, since
Larpenteur is Hennepin, there's no confusion.

And of course, everyone knows, that the Midway is University Ave. around Snelling.
"Midway" between Mpls & St. Paul, sorta, (Don't bother trying to find it on a map.)

Now, with those helpful hints you should be able to get around the Twin Cities
with hardly any problems at all ... *8^))

>...Jay, wishing he could go just so he could go to Lindey's again

Yeah!  I resemble that!!!

Enjoy,
Paul