Dakota County Commissioner Joe Atkins can find almost any house in Inver Grove Heights without a phone or GPS, which once made his daughter think he was “some kind of savant.”
- He’s not — he just knows the system that much of Dakota County has used to name streets since the 1960s.
The big picture: Once you learn the alphanumerical criss-cross, you can navigate huge swaths of the south metro — and see how the suburbs grew.
Map: Kyle Stokes/Axios; Note: The grid also covers townships, but this map highlights the most populous areas following the system.
How it works: In mile-wide strips ribboned across nine cities, every north-south street starts with the same county-assigned letter.
- It’s why, for example, most street names on either side of Cedar Avenue start with a G.
😵💫 Kyle’s thought bubble: Growing up in this grid felt like living in a dictionary.
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- I have always wondered why every street in my neighborhood was named after obscure “J” words like…