How To Navigate Chicago's Grid System

[@ChicagoGeographer]

Hey everyone, thanks for watching! This is one of my older videos, but I hope you still enjoyed. If you like this kind of content make sure to subscribe!

[@bigcatproductions2789]

Don't forget to wear your bullet proof Boxers 😂

[@arribalaschivas91]

These rules made me feel like a master navigator at 10 years old. Now that I’ve left Chicago, no street layout or grid system is good enough anymore

[@ErdTirdMans]

Same rules in Philly and lots of American cities...

[@gosnooky]

Try Denver

[@SamsungS23Ultr]

European cities neg.

[@nylexmo9019]

Where have you moved to? - fellow Chicagoan

[@tortellinifettuccine]

​@ErdTirdMans no they are not lmao not even remotely. Very different grid layout, not to mention Chicago itself is the only real city in the country besides new york. No city has a grid even remotely like Chicago, well exept European one.

[@geniyabolton6651]

I’m from Chicago and the grid system is amazing. Imagine my confusion moving to New Orleans for college.

[@ravenswood118]

I had to live in Toronto for a while and was constantly getting lost, I don't know how people get anywhere haha

[@aircooledhead]

This is so true! You could blindfold me, take me anywhere in Chicago, and I could figure out where I was and which way I wanted to go within a block or 2. Makes every other cities streets unbearably confusing. 1 thing not mentioned, when you cross from N to S, or E to W, the even/odd numbers stay on the same side of the street. 123 N. Streetname will be on the same side of the street as 123 S. Streetname.

[@ChicagoGeographer]

Great point about the numbering, should've included that! Thanks for watching!

[@jbw53191]

I've lived in Chicago for 20 years and I love having the grid. When I go out to the suburbs I feel like I'm lost. I need my grid!

[@mic1240]

Many of the suburbs are on exact same grid, especially the nearby suburbs, many very densely populated (Oak Park unusual in making Lake Street their middle, so 200 off addresses there.)

[@Clementinee]

the south suburbs are on the grid

[@amyhull754]

I'm with you, @jbw53191. I literally consider the northwest suburbs to look like the old "Here there be dragons" on a map. I get lost INCREDIBLY consistently up thataway.

[@seanpittacora9668]

@@Clementinee Was gonna say, when my grandparents moved out of Mt Greenwood (about S 111th) they moved out to Orland off 179th….so 179 blocks south of Madison. I’ve seen streets numbers into the low 200’s.

[@Clementinee]

@@seanpittacora9668 Yep me too, I live off 166th and MLK Dr. Orland Park is a nice chill neighborhood, or at least used to be when i was over there like 2015-2019. south suburban representation

[@freddykinney2214]

It’s crazy how big Chicago is, not just talking about downtown area

[@FirstLast-gd6yu]

As someone who lived 1/2 block from the corner of W 31st Pl and S Morgan St for around 10 years i appreciate the 31st street shoutouts lol

[@mic1240]

Many of the nearby suburbs use the same grid, but Oak Park uses Lake Street (not Madison) for whatever reason as it’s north/south zero axis. Sometimes the same streets in the area change names, more so in suburbs like Lee Street, Mannheim, La Grange Rd, 96th Ave all are the same street, or Cermak is 22nd, Pulaski/Crawford, etc. it is very easy to figure where places are in Chicago based on the numbers

[@amyhull754]

This is excellent. The only thing I wish you'd done was to show the coordinates like on a cartesian grid, so, the N. Troy example, (3100W, 2700N) as the near-coordinate. (Oh, and my one nit-pick is that Chicagoans seem to pronounce Goethe St. not like the German poet, as you listed, but as /go-thee/ (with the soft /th/ like in /think/). The /ger-tuh/ you listed is totally correct for the poet Goethe, though!) I LOVE Chicago's grid so much, and I wish more schools (especially here in the city) would use it to show the practical application of the coordinate grid. Thanks for a great video!

[@OGimperial97]

I didn't appreciate this until I started going to other cities, I thought every major city in America used this system, it seems like common sense.

[@pab1381]

It’s the 6 corner lights that make shit confusing. South side is easy same with west side but the north side always gets me confused but I mastered it finally. If you know where the lake is wherever you’re at you’ll never get lost. People forget how big Chicago is. Not just downtown with all the levels but north and south sides are huge. West side is big too but not as big as the others. East side is the lake so there isn’t much. Plus if you live in the city there’s mostly only 7 different types of houses like the bungalow or 2 flat. Idk I love my city even if it’s a warzone now but we’ve always been a gangster city so it’s all good.

[@amyhull754]

@pab1381, that is the truth. Those 6-way stops are just scary to navigate...and when I'm on an angle street, I can't intuitively figure out which way to turn. The beauty of the grid is that, if I do it wrong, I can tell by the numbering within 2 blocks. My young adult offspring says routinely, "I love my big, terrible city. It is perfect to me."

[@pab1381]

@@amyhull754 I agree. I love this city. I just wish they’d get the crime under control

[@Therealmoseslupai]

I've always wanted to visit Chicago since I was a teen, just like NY, for sightseeing.

[@peterjamesfoote3964]

It is much easier in these gps days but this was clear and very well done.

[@bearinmind50]

The street alignment Is different on the Southside from the North side. Blocks are arranged with the long dimension heading north-south on the Southside with exceptions in various neighborhoods depending partially on when the neighborhood joined the city or was carved out from farmland or empty space. Streets run east-west, avenues run north-south, and roads run the diagonals. Of course these rules aren’t perfect. Then there are the boulevards. They often take the place of a street or avenue and may even change from one street to another. I lived on the Southside for a while in Hyde Park and in Kenwood, Woodlawn, and Englewood at different times.

[@etiennephilippe9302]

People always ask me why I always use cardinal directions and say turn north instead of turn left, this is why

[@kelleybrown1666]

Kinda like DC: my home is on the 1100 block of a north south street, roughly 11 blocks away from East Capitol Street.

[@bigj200016]

I’m a little surprised you didn’t mention anything about the far south neighborhoods or Hegewich or the East Side, namely the alphabet avenues of the East Side

[@TheGiantKillers]

Chicago natives who emigrate to another city, especially outside the USA must find life very frustrating.

[@Zylork0122]

Now let's talk about North Ave and how every street it touches is shifted.

[@YB00]

What do you mean?

[@ethan60645]

@@YB00 if you’re going south past North Ave, your street shifts west a little bit, not too noticeable on a map but very noticeable to pedestrians and drivers. It starts mostly west of kedzie/humboldt park

[@YB00]

@@ethan60645 Ohhhh I think I know what you're talking about. I was on Pulaski (I think?) one time and the traffic light was positioned in a weird angle because of where the street was going. Thanks for taking the time to explain.

[@charliejamz.]

I’m not sure how accurate that is. Cumberland and North I never noticed a shift.

[@matthensle9391]

@@charliejamz. the shift is there from Kedzie going west to Austin and seems to line up again at that point continuing west.

[@mrs.morris5506]

You got a thumbs up on that opening line. I was born and raised in Chicago, and have traveled extensively across this country. I cannot understand the"logic" of the layout of half these cities. NJ is especially driving me crazy.

[@huntrrams]

LA is the worst ones yet

[@warreneckels4945]

Chicago, Manhattan and Washington DC were laid out "from above". Chicago set its city limits well into the countryside (at the time). Washington DC's grid was laid out upon its founding. I don't know where Manhattan's came from. Los Angeles has a grid downtown oriented about 35 degrees clockwise from the cardinal directions. Some distance south, the grid continues through South Central to the 405. Los Angeles' development was spurred when it managed to snag water rights to the waters of the Owen Valley. Suburbs and small towns in the area were enticed into the city by offering connections to the Los Angeles water supply. The smaller areas annexed into Los Angeles had their own grids. Boston is built on the European plan...laid out by ruminants.

[@ErdTirdMans]

Jersey is built for cars, not people. It's an entire state of suburbs

[@JJ12194]

@@ErdTirdMans what part of jersey are you in lmao

[@mariowalker9048]

@@ErdTirdMans North Jersey has easy access to Manhattan via train.

[@leonardofranco8143]

Great video.

[@gordogmc13]

Love my city

[@brandoncole5533]

For the PONMLK section im a little confused If im right the streets are, going westward, Kostner, Laramie,Austin, Oak park, and after that i think its out of city limits. But it not what are the streets??

[@matthewd1918]

Here in Plainfield we use the Chicago numbering system! Route 59 is 24000W and Lockport St is 15100S. It's just all our neighboring cities/towns like Joliet and Aurora that use their own numbering system.

[@chicagolandnation635]

24000S* and 15100W* Renwick Rd. Is also 15900 west.

[@matthewd1918]

@@chicagolandnation635 But isn’t it the other way around? Since Renwick Rd is an east-west street, isn’t it 159 blocks *south* (15900S)? If you take street view to the intersection of Van Dyke Rd and 127th St [SW], the sign of Van Dyke Rd says underneath “24400 W”. I get it if you’re saying that portion of Renwick Rd is *west* of State St in Chicago, but if not, isn’t it the other way around?

[@tcorourke2007]

Most of the towns surrounding Chicago continue to use the numbering system, with the glaring exception of Oak Park. I had no idea it extended out to Plainfield, however.

[@nexhaduka8260]

Nice explanation, thank you. If you can oriented yourself in Chicago than you can do the same in each other town/s in the states or opposite. Just follow the centet of the town . Europe are messy streets and small towns that they dont use north, south, west and east as orientation, more possibilities to lose yourself.Even Europians can not oriented them self in their own town where they live.

[@nbumbic]

You are right to some extent about Europe. Having lived in a few countries I can say that it takes more time to learn how to navigate European cities but saying the "Even Europeans can not orient themselves in their own town, where they live" - is a bit much. It just takes more time to learn and they do it differently. If you ask Europeans how to get to some places in a US way, they will get confused and you will think, as you do that they do not know the way around their city. Also, some things can be learned from Europe e.g. how to develop a street grid, layout parks, etc. so to reduce wind speed and it actually works. Also, Chicago had one big advantage - the fact that it was created in an empty field in the 19th century. Citi planers by that time learned quite a bit from problems back in Europe and on the East coast. I lived in NYC, and I think that the layout of Chicago is better even though, for some reason it was easier for me to learn how to get around Manhattan than downtown Chicago.

[@warreneckels4945]

(laughs in Bostonian) Seriously, that city was laid out by the path cows would take to the Common.

[@nexhaduka8260]

@@warreneckels4945 every city was laid out by path cows.

[@wiiplayers19]

I live near Foster and Kedzie. How have I never noticed the KLMNO?

[@trekkorea3097]

No idea how you didn't know that but I grew up on an M street.

[@strechemall]

That area of the west side where the K is known as K town. I lived there for a few years its dangerous asf.

[@mejia1911]

I used to live on the 2700 block of N Troy St lol

[@ChicagoGeographer]

That's insane lmao

[@tdiego5]

Bro I live on troy just the south side

[@madagirl2026]

Didn’t understand a goddamn thing but very well-made video sir🤦🏾‍♀️💖💖💖😉

[@ChicagoGeographer]

Lol thanks!

[@nasteel1188]

Is there a 29th Street?

[@FirstLast-gd6yu]

yes it’s pretty short though. It’s very close to where i used to live

[@herotheplottmix6690]

Also all some street in the loop are named after dead president. Balbo which is by Columbia College...then like mentioned...it starts number streets. That's all I got

[@timmmahhhh]

Balbo is a controversial name because it is named after Italo Balbo, the head of the Italian Air Force under Mussolini who flew a column over from the Ancient Roman seaport of Ostia as a gift to the city for the 1933 World's Fair.

[@herotheplottmix6690]

@@timmmahhhh nice info. Was wondering wtf Balbo was

[@musicguy25100]

Why did you do my street dirty like that (throop). I have seen wrost names. Lol

[@tylerkochman1007]

And, at least, it's named for an abolitionist

[@musicguy25100]

@@tylerkochman1007 wow. Now that is something I didnt know. That is interesting. Thank you stranger.

[@gaelespriella8396]

Epic

[@brucebachelder9432]

Cool!

[@veronikabelmakeup2958]

Thank you for Russian subtitles:)

[@justinwarthen]

So it works like a normal grid

[@waynebaker4624]

your theory hold up until you reach either the far southeast or the far northwest sides where streets are longer with unpronounceable name and stop and restart with reason

[@danielloza1807]

Lol i move through my city without gps

[@live2hustle495]

OK..... U ain't the only 1 lmao..!

[@timmmahhhh]

Most gps now comes with traffic so I certainly use.

[@Angel-mc2mu]

Lmfao if you live in Chicago yk how to get around without knowing the street names 😂😂

[@osoonsumotha6121]

I don’t get it 😂 I just use the lake to get me around. fucking cps I didn’t learn shit

[@TheGreatCornholio.]

You dont