Concession Street
This article will be only of local interest. It is not an environmental article.
There is an interesting site on the Internet that I have found to be useful. It is called Reverse Directory. If you have
an phone number, but do not know whom it belongs to, then you can use this site to get the name and address related to the
number. I tried it recently. I couldn't seem to get a response, so I tried my own phone number. Much to my surprise my name
and address were correct but the postal code was for a different area of town. This incident got me to thinking about a
topic for an article of local interest -- I hope.
Cambridge has at least two streets with similar names and I happen to live on one of them. This duplication has caused
numerous problems in the past and probably many more for my neighbours -- both detected and undetected.
Atlanta, Georgia, has a similar situation, but worse by far. It has a phenomenal number of streets with the name
Peachtree in them. It is amazing that people can even find their friends, or conduct business, when they venture out. If my
memory serves me correctly there are about 25 name variations with Peachtree in them. City planners seem to have been
captivated with the name.
I am sure that the city officials who were responsible for changing street names about 25 years ago, (during the
amalgamation of Preston, Hespeler and Galt) pondered this duplication, and similarity of names. They ultimately concluded
that there would be no problem with retaining both Concession Street, and Concession Road. The confusion this little name
duplication has caused me personally is worth noting. All of the intervening years since amalgamation have not made the
problem go away.
One evening a couple of years ago, I found an old Air Force acquaintance by doing an Internet search on the computer. We
made contact, and eventually made arrangements to meet in Trenton Ontario for the air show.
During a great re-acquaintance dinner after the air-show, my old buddy Gilles mentioned that he had tried to find me in
Cambridge many years ago. He drove up and down Concession Street and never found the number of my house. "There was
no number like the one you gave me," he said, in his fondly remembered Quebecois accent.
A little questioning revealed that he had been driving up and down Concession ROAD.
Another time I awaited the Airways Transit service to Toronto. After 30 minutes of waiting past the pickup time, I called
the office. "Sorry sir but, errrr, our driver will be there soon. He has been trying to find your address on Concession
ROAD." "He radioed in -- he will be there shortly," was the response to my questions. Fortunately, or unfortunately,
I didn't miss my plane.
I have a double driveway in front of my house that makes it easy to turn around, or to turn into, when someone is lost.
This has happened more than you would believe. "Excuse me, could you tell me where house number XXXX might be?" they ask.
&"Ah ha, you are looking for Concession ROAD -- there are higher numbers in the addresses over there," I say. "This is
Concession Streeeet." -- with special emphasis on the word street.
One day I made an appointment to get a quote on a new furnace. The sales representative was late. The phone rings and I
answer.
"I';m so sorry but I can't find your house," is the distressed message from his cell phone -- &"what is the house number
again?"
'You are on Concession ROAD in Preston, aren't you?" I say. "You need to come over to Galt and find Highway 97 -- that is
Concession Streeeet."
If the city fathers ever decide to rename our street Cedar Street East, I will have no objections. City planners would do
well to refer to a book called System Safety Engineering. It clearly points out the problems we mere mortals have in
situations where things are not perfectly clear.
Have a nice day.
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