Finding Our Way!

The trip to Gus's downtown also gave us a couple of interesting experiences. Downtown Birmingham is laid out in a grid with sequentially numbered streets and avenues. The streets run generally north and south while the avenues run generally east and west. One can tell very close to the location of any address in this area just from the street address and street or avenue number. For example, Gus’s is at 1915 4th Avenue North, this is located obviously on 4th Avenue, but is also between 19th and 20th Streets (in the 1900 block) on the south side of the street/avenue (evidenced by the odd street number). There are a few of wild cards thrown in. For many years there was a 21st Street in downtown; but a few years ago it was renamed to “Richard Arrington Jr. Boulevard. To me, the name 21st street is the name that I first associate with it; but it has been renamed. The other name change in recent years was the renaming of 8th Avenue South to "University Boulevard". These name changes make navigating Birmingham just a little more confusing.

On this visit to downtown Robert and I encountered not one but two lost parties who were clueless as to how to find their destinations. I guess I could have counted us in this number but didn't. The first of these had the address but had no idea as to how to find it; the other didn’t have a street address but simply a verbal misdirection that his destination was "close to Regions Bank". We were able to assist both of these lost souls in getting to their desired destinations. I am surprised as to how little many of our citizens know about the city we live in.