The Streets of Central San Diego Philip J. Erdelsky, pje@efgh.com

Most of central San Diego lies on a plateau about 350-400 feet above sea level. Although the area has no perennial streams, it is cut by numerous canyons of various sizes.

A glance at a street map shows where the canyons are. Nearly all streets run north-south or east-west. Very few of them are built along the natural contours of the land. If the sides of a canyon are very steep, a street may come to an abrupt end on one side of the canyon and begin on the other, as Olive Street does where it crosses Switzer Canyon:

Streets may also be interrupted by freeways, parks or schools:

Some streets are quite long and broken into as many as a half-dozen segments. This can make it very difficult to reach an address by following a street!

In a few places, the practice of imposing a rectangular street pattern on hilly terrain produces some complicated street configurations:

Fortunately, the house numbering system in this area is quite uniform and consistent in most cases:

• Even numbers are on the north and west sides, odd numbers are on the south and east sides.
• Numbers on east-west streets begin at 100 east of First Ave. and increase as one travels east. They also begin at 100 west of First Ave. and increase as one travels west. Addresses near First Ave. must specify "East" or "West". However, since most of central San Diego lies well east of First Ave., the "East" designator is generally not required.
• Numbers on north-south streets begin at 1 north of Commercial St. and increase as one travels north. They also begin at 100 south of Commercial St. and increase as one travels south. Addresses near Commercial St. must specify "North" or "South". However, since central San Diego is well north of Commercial Ave., the "North" designator is not required.
• Numbers increase by 100 per block in some cases (usually where the blocks are long) by 50 per block in most other cases (usually where the blocks are shorter), and by smaller amounts in a few cases. This is done so that house numbers on east-west streets near numbered north-south streets will be approximately 100 times the street number. For example, the houses on Polk Ave. (an east-west street) nearest 30th St. are number 2936 on the west side and 3027 on the east side.
• Numbers on north-south streets generally follow the same pattern, although east-west streets are named, not numbered.
• Numbers on an isolated segment of a street are approximately what they would be if all streets in the area were connected.

House numbers on north-south streets are approximately as follows (in order, from north to south):

The street names themselves show several patterns. To the south are streets identified by letters, in alphabetical order from north to south, with a few exceptions. Streets that would be called D, H and I Streets are called Broadway, Market St. and Island Ave., respectively. In the middle are the "plant" streets, in alphabetical order from south to north. To the north are streets whose names appear to be surnames, in no particular order.

There are also a number of north-south streets named after states. They do not appear to be in any particular order.

In the western part of central San Diego, there are a number of "bird" streets, in alphabetical order from east to west:

• Albatross St
• Brant St
• Curlew St
• Dove St
• Eagle St
• Falcon St
• Goldfinch St
• Hawk St
• Ibis St
• Jackdaw St
• Kite St
• Lark St

Closer inspection of a street map shows that even continuous streets may be more or less misaligned when they cross other streets. This usually occurs the edges of old development tracts where developers did not coordinate their plans. The pattern of alleys (or the lack thereof) often shows clearcut changes in the same places.