This is 99% invisible.

I'm Roman Mars.

In 2005 I took a job at W.B.E.Z in Chicago and I was so excited to be moving there.

I was excited about the job, of course, but I was so excited to be moving there. I was excited about the job of course, but I was also very excited about the grid.

The streets of Chicago and the address numbering system are beautiful.

Starting from the zero zero access point downtown,

the streets conform to a rigid grid pattern

where the major streets are exactly one mile apart

and have address numbers which are in multiples of 800.

You don't really have to be able to picture this, but I know that if you know it, you're

nodding your head vigorously, but just know that it's amazing and I was mesmerized by it. So much so that I made flashcards with

Chicago Street names on one side and the corresponding address number on the other so that

my wife and I could quiz ourselves on the 2,000 mile road trip from

San Francisco to Chicago.

Yes, I was always like this.

Division is 1,200 north.

Armitage is 2,000 north and therefore one mile north of division.

After living in the jumble of San Francisco streets for years, the thought of moving to a place where people planed the city to help people know where they were and where

they were going soothed my lizard brain and gave me peace. As humans have developed cities and built environments we have also

needed to develop ways to find our way through them.

Signage goes back at least as far as the Roman Empire.

They constructed milestones along their roadways.

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