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Coercive Government
As I age, I have leaned a bit more libertarian without tumbling off of the cliff of insensibility. Something we are working on got me to thinking about how we view government intrusion.
One of the areas that our fire department services consists of some old ranch parcels that have been slowly carved up and sold off. The neighborhood consists of parcels from 6-50 acres, with one long private dirt road connecting them. Each (save one) has the address of 205 with a letter suffix. The problem is that the letters are entirely out of order. The first two parcels (one exception below) are 205A and 205B, then E, H, etc. 205D is the last parcel, about 3/4 of a mile down the private road.
We first encountered this about 15 years ago and when we asked about changing the addresses, one of the property owners said that people were absolutely refusing to change their addresses: “I’ve had this address for ten years and I’m not changing for anybody.”
We had a call there this week (to 205D). 85-year-old guy fell from on top of a toolbox behind the cab of his pickup and got knocked out cold, and didn’t know for how long. Pretty significant facial lacerations and possibly a dislocated shoulder. Our EMS unit transported him, and it’s all going to work out, but our initial response was a bit long, stopping to check each address carefully, as we knew the addresses were out of order. Had we not shown up earlier to assess the patient and drop traffic cones, the ambulance likely would have been delayed even longer; had our patient had a closed head injury (our major concern), the golden hour to get treatment would have been seriously curtailed.
I talked to our precinct commissioner this morning and we now have the legal ability to reassign the addresses over the objection of the homeowners. This is definitely for the good of residents but I imagine a few will be good and steamed up about it. I’m trying to figure out just how much we are villains here.
The picture is the entrance to the private road and the pertinent mailboxes. Almost funnier is that the first address on the road is 213, then followed by all the 205 addresses.
So what say the Ricochetti? Are we abusive government goons or helpful responders? Or something in between?
Published in General
It’s not names or numbers that give power. It’s the coercive ability.
When I moved to Kazakstan in 1996, the streets that had had Soviet or Communist names had been renamed to Kazak names. So Lenina had become Dostyq, Oktiabr’skaia had become Aiteke-bi, Kosomol’skaia had become Töle-bi, and so on. But everyone still knew and used the old names. If you gave directions to a taxi driver using the new street names, at best you would get a withering stare. But you might get a tirade of curses about all the changes, hyperinflation, the loss of pensions, the kleptocracy and on and on.
So I quickly learned the new street names, even those for small streets. I was one of the few foreigners who knew the old street name, and I got a lot of kudos from locals for it. But by the late 2000s, the new names had caught on. Young people didn’t know the old names at all. And there were fewer old people to resist the change. And as Kazakstan prospered economically, there was less nostalgia about the old, Soviet names. Thus the Soviet toponymy passed into the dustbin of history.
If enough people believe in the coercive ability, yes. At least that’s what some Soviet dissidents tried to point out.
When we lived in Minnesota, we were about a half mile south of I-94. So I would start that as a reference point. Turn south at the 4 way stop (even though it was a named street, there was only a County Road sign, not a street sign). When you reach the top of the hill, watch for the house number marker, it’s only a driveway, on the west side of the street. If you go down the hill, you are too far, turn around and come back. There were houses facing the road, but we were off the road quite a ways. I used east, west, south, and north rather than right and left, because I really wasn’t sure which direction they would eventually be coming from. One delivery driver said he drove up and down the road four times before he found us, but he was at first north of 94 instead of south.
When this is the biggest issue in your life, your not trying hard enough. Re-number the town.
A few years ago my FD has red numbered signs made up for every household and handed them out. They work very well because they are uniform and there is no searching. It jumps out at you. Also by just driving around all the time I have learned exactly where every number is.
One time I was responding to a call on XX West Sturbridge Road. The road curves to the left and changes towns. I lived there my whole life. I thought it went straight. If you ever seen a line of emergency vehicles trying to do a simultaneous three point turn it’s pretty funny.
In light of some of the other comments about landmarks, I’ll elaborate that the large landmark I use in the town high school. But sometimes when I’m talking to a real old-timer (there are relatively few in this town), I find I need to specify “the new high school on the south edge of town” (that was built in 1999) to distinguish from the old high school that is now a 9th grade only campus, but is where the football stadium still is.
Okay. I’ll say it – You’re an abusive government goon. Confusing addresses have a rich history. The Brits changed all the street signs when it looked like the Nazis were going to invade in 1940. My street has numbers sequentially up one side and down the other, rather than one side odd and one side even. It confuses the terrorists and gives us time to mobilize the local militia when they attack.
Your intention is obviously for the good of the residents. Not having readily findable addresses for firefighters, police, ambulances, etc. could cost residents their lives. However, it seems that other methods might have been tried first.
I had a friend who lived in Mill Valley Calif and this happened to her.
The one and only problem that came about was that after about five years, she began to be given property tax assessment notices for the property at the old switched-out address, as well as the property at the new address.
It took her a good long while to get it straightened out as the finance/tax people are hard to reach. They wanted proof that she did not own two separate properties at the same address. This was not actually all that unreasonable. For instance in neighboring San Rafael there were Bayview Ct addresses, Bayview Drive addresses, Bayview Road etc. So it would be possible to have two nearly identical addresses but at different locations and we taxes for both.
Very often these kinds of problems end up at the best solution long-term anyway, so better to do it right the first time, rather than do half-measures multiple times at higher cost and greater inconvenience.
The eastern edge of the town in which we lived in upstate New York (2000 – 2018) was also the county line between Monroe County and Wayne County. County Line Road ran along the border. Monroe County numbered addresses on north-south roads in ascending order from Lake Ontario toward the south. Wayne County numbered addresses on north-south roads in descending order from Lake Ontario toward the south (actually ascending from the southern county border. So, addresses on the east side of the County Line Road descended from Lake Ontario, while addresses on the west side of County Line Road ascended from Lake Ontario. Address numbers ran in opposite directions on the two different sides of the road. Just to add to the fun, all the mailboxes for properties on both sides of County Line Road were on the east side of the road, so anyone driving along the road saw on the same side of the road mailboxes with numbers going both up and down.
I’m so glad we’re asking these kinds of questions. I believe conservatives/libertarians need to better think through the line between individual rights and community needs to help with principled decision-making and provide sound logic to political causes. More clarity is needed for things like building standards, zoning laws, and approach to the homeless population. Really, we have pages and pages of laws. And many of them seem to keep our country humming along smoothly and our citizenry getting along with each other. However, when can we justifiably say that a government body has overstepped its bounds? When is it not doing enough?
One factor that muddies the waters are the many layers of government we have–city, county, state, and federal.
I don’t see any reason to defer to individuals as to their “addresses” etc, ever. Otherwise why not just allow everyone to claim their “address” is in some other state, or whatever? “I don’t like the name of this street, so I’m going to say my address is something else.” I could claim that I still have my old address in Arizona, and hilarity ensues.
In our area the local Postmaster plays a key role in assigning and reassigning addresses. I have been through each of those changes.
I agree that there is merit in what you say. I am just spooked by how big and powerful our bureaucracy is and automatically flinch when it claims to be working on my behalf
It can sometimes be true.
I was living in Arizona when one of the new-area-code things came up. As I recall, it was when the 480 and 623 area codes were added. It seems pretty obvious to me that having the area codes by actual AREA, made the most sense; but you had people arguing that it should have been “overlaid” which means you could have someone with an original 602 while next door someone has 480 or 623, just because some people didn’t want to get new letterhead, business cards, etc. Fortunately they “stuck to their guns” and the “overlay” was rejected. Of course it doesn’t matter with cellphones, but that’s a different story because they aren’t in fixed locations.
I could sure see how a business whether private or public would not want their number changed. It could be very expensive and cost revenue. But life happens, and you move on.
If you think they’re cross now, wait until they find out about the per-unit renumbering fee.
They always started out with automatically switching calls to the older numbers to the new numbers, it’s fairly simple with modern automation. So they could have a pretty extended period to adjust. And since many people were used to not “dialing” an area code AT ALL, when it first starts they get automatic recorded reminders, which helps a lot too.
For which we can be thankful. Let us praise our crazy patchworks of state and local regulation.
Too often though, the locals don’t themselves understand and respect that. For example, if you live in a state where only a rear license plate is required on your car, while traveling through another state that requires front and rear license places for THEIR residents, they are nevertheless not allowed to “punish” you for not following their local requirements. If they do so anyway, that’s a federal violation, and they should be dealt with accordingly. They can have their speed limits etc, but they can’t require you to have equipment etc that your local requirements don’t include.
But don’t move to California with a 48 state car. Your vehicle probably won’t pass the smog test.
To actually get it registered in California, that’s true. And California seems to be the worst in other ways too. You can find police encounter videos on YouTube where various CHP and others will insist that you must have a CALIFORNIA license to drive in California.