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Galveston: Today's mopes and dopes

Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 8:18 am
by seamusTX
Yesterday evening, three adult women roughed up a female bartender while their he-man boyfriend stole the contents of the tip jar in a bar at 9th and Seawall. These criminal geniuses got away with about $15 and were arrested minutes later.

http://www.galvnews.com/story/170134" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Also on Thursday, a 92-year-old man was the victim of a strong-arm robbery in the 5100 block of Avenue M½. The robber is described as a heavy-set black man. That should narrow it down.

http://galvestondailynews.com/story.las ... bb6c6#Robb" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Neither area is the pride of Galveston.

- Jim

Re: Galveston: Today's mopes and dopes

Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 8:36 am
by Oldgringo
I think we may be going to Virginia in October.

Re: Galveston: Today's mopes and dopes

Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 8:41 am
by seamusTX
I'm sure Virginia and every place between Texas and there are crime-free zones. :???:

- Jim

Re: Galveston: Today's mopes and dopes

Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 9:20 am
by old farmer
:tiphat:

The island is safer than any place off a freeway in Houston. :iagree: "Neither area is the pride of Galveston."

:patriot:

Re: Galveston: Today's mopes and dopes

Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 1:18 pm
by WildBill
seamusTX wrote:Yesterday evening, three adult women roughed up a female bartender while their he-man boyfriend stole the contents of the tip jar in a bar at 9th and Seawall. These criminal geniuses got away with about $15 and were arrested minutes later.

Also on Thursday, a 92-year-old man was the victim of a strong-arm robbery in the 5100 block of Avenue M½. The robber is described as a heavy-set black man. That should narrow it down.

Neither area is the pride of Galveston. - Jim
These guys are giving mopes a bad name. :lol:

Re: Galveston: Today's mopes and dopes

Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 1:29 pm
by threoh8
seamusTX wrote:... in the 5100 block of Avenue M½.
Saving money on street names? ;-)

Re: Galveston: Today's mopes and dopes

Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 3:02 pm
by seamusTX
threoh8 wrote:Saving money on street names? ;-)
It's a long story. I'll tell it if you really want to know.

- Jim

Re: Galveston: Today's mopes and dopes

Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 3:04 pm
by WildBill
seamusTX wrote:
threoh8 wrote:Saving money on street names? ;-)
It's a long story. I'll tell it if you really want to know. - Jim
Enquiring minds want to know. :cool:

Re: Galveston: Today's mopes and dopes

Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 3:45 pm
by seamusTX
Spanish cities in the new world were platted with a rectangular grid of streets aligned north-south-east-west. If they could possibly do it, given the geography, they made the alignment with the compass as accurate as they could with the instruments available.

You can still see this in the old part of many cities that the Spanish founded.

They also were fond of giving streets numbers instead of names. Then, as time went by, they would name streets after heroes, prominent people, or events.

That is how Galveston was laid out. The streets are numbered from 1 to the high 80s from east to west, and had letters from A to U going from north to south.

All the streets from A to J have names now (J is Broadway).

The streets near the bay were on a grid of about 100 yards. Before the construction of the Seawall (in the early 1900s) the southern sections were low-lying and subject to flooding, and the city fathers did not want them to become densely populated. The streets there were on a grid more like 200 yards, and each lot was about 10 acres.

After the construction of the Seawall, the surface of the island was literally reconstructed. At that time they added streets halfway between the existing streets in the south, so we got M½, N½, O½, P½, Q½, etc.

Avenues O½ and Q½ cause a lot of grief with misdirected mail.

I don't know why they didn't just give the new streets names like Houston, Bowie, Crockett, etc.

This weird practice spread around the county. A lot of towns have ½ streets. I think I even ran across ¼ in Santa Fe.

- Jim

Re: Galveston: Today's mopes and dopes

Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 4:15 pm
by WildBill
seamusTX wrote:This weird practice spread around the county. A lot of towns have ½ streets. I think I even ran across ¼ in Santa Fe. - Jim
Thanks for the education. Maybe they should have gone metric with Q.5 Avenue and O.25 Avenue. Actually, if you know the alphabet and how to count, it makes getting around in Galveston easier than some other cities. :mrgreen:

Re: Galveston: Today's mopes and dopes

Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 4:28 pm
by seamusTX
I agree that numbers or letters make it easier to find your way around than a bunch of streets named after trees or non-existent geographic features (Hill Street, River Glen Drive, etc.).

However, it seems like every city that has this kind of numbering system has some weird, confusing variation. Chicago has a Fifth Avenue without bothering to have first through fourth or any others.

- Jim

Re: Galveston: Today's mopes and dopes

Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 5:06 pm
by Oldgringo
seamusTX wrote:I'm sure Virginia and every place between Texas and there are crime-free zones. :???:

- Jim
Yes.

This is a RV trip and if it all works out, we're gonna' also tourist the nation's capital where it's against the law to shoot, stab or otherwise booger tourists while we're in the 'hood.

Re: Galveston: Today's mopes and dopes

Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 5:28 pm
by WildBill
seamusTX wrote:Chicago has a Fifth Avenue without bothering to have first through fourth or any others. - Jim
They must have been jealous of New York City.

Re: Galveston: Today's mopes and dopes

Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 5:56 pm
by seamusTX
I could never find out how that street was named. It has been there since before the dawn of history. ;-)

Ironically, Fifth Avenue in New York City is the one of the most high-rent addresses. Fifth Avenue in Chicago is in a neighborhood on the West Side where I would not go today without a really good reason, an armored vehicle, and close air support.

- Jim

Re: Galveston: Today's mopes and dopes

Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 6:11 pm
by snorri
Oldgringo wrote:This is a RV trip and if it all works out, we're gonna' also tourist the nation's capital where it's against the law to shoot, stab or otherwise booger tourists while we're in the 'hood.
Remember to keep your booger hook off the bang switch.