If you’re looking for one of San Diego’s best addresses, look no further than home. That’s because the city’s University District has streets named for local municipalities every Albertan surely knows..A quick search on Google Maps has gone viral on social media. Edmonton Drive? Red Deer Street? Calgary Avenue?.They also appear to be in geographic order, with Edmonton Drive in the north, Calgary Avenue to the south and Red Deer Street in the middle. And Genessee Cove — a little less obvious to even most Albertans (hint, it’s near Wabamun) — to the west..It’s a little bit of love from our American cousins who are notorious for being clueless for most things Canadian. One TikTok user reportedly quipped: “Once heard an American pronounce Calgary as ‘calorie,’ so I wonder how the resident pronounce these names.” .But it’s also in character for a city that’s long been known for its quirky street names..When it was founded in the 1600s, the city’s founders gave numbers to north-south streets and letters to east-west avenues. And then used any word they could think of, organizing neighbourhoods by theme..There are districts named after trees — Ash to Walnut. Birds — Albatross to Lark. Presidents. Mollusks. Gemstones — Agate, Turquoise and Sapphire. Authors. Mythology. And now, Alberta streets..“If some of the foregoing suggestions seem a bit facetious, they are intentionally so,” wrote Ray Brandes, the editor of the San Diego Historical Society Quarterly back in 1964..“The possibilities are almost inexhaustible. As San Diego continues to expand, its developers may be at a loss for names of the new streets. They have only to pick a category and romp through the alphabet. The names they would choose might be better than many now used. They could not be worse than some.”.He was surely in jest.
