The east-west dividing line
It occurred to me as I’m writing this whole “Eastside Rocks” series that I’ve never defined what the east-west dividing line for Bend is exactly. For the record, the boundary is the Parkway (the old Division Street); everything east of the Parkway (including Third Street) is the “Eastside,” and that’s what I’m basing my criteria on.
For what it’s worth, I generally consider the “Westside” to start at the river—that is, the Deschutes is the boundary, and Downtown and (now) the Old Mill District are their own separate geographic entities. (I would even be pedantic and carve out a separate “Old Town” section from the Downtown section.)
And north and south? The north section (“Northside”) starts at the Third Street overpass where the Parkway, Third and Division all effectively intersect. The “Southside” boundary is right around where Third and Brosterhaus intersect, though it could be as north as Reed Market.
Keep in mind, all these boundary markers are all in my head and probably somewhat arbitrary. What do other people think of as Bend’s geographic sections and dividing lines?
I whipped up a quick map graphic corresponding roughly to how I see it…
You cut half of Awbrey Butte off the west side, didn’t you? I’d consider those two golf courses to be part of the west side.
Well, I *did* say it was rough… I’m pretty haze on that northwest section/Awbrey Butte anyway. Perhaps Awbrey should be its own section! 🙂
I always would think of 3rd street as the East – West divider and Greenwood / HWY 20 / Newport as the North and South divider. It used to be that if you wanted to get from one side of town to the other, those were the ONLY direct routes.
monkey: That works, too. It’s always been Division/Parkway in my mind because historically (I think; I may be way off here), the railroad (which largely parallels Division through town) was the "official" east-west dividing line, in terms of postal(?) zones… and Bear Creek (and the line made by extending that west, I think) was the postal(?) dividing line between zipcodes (01 and 02).
I’m sorry, but this is kind of a stupid argument. Are we ignoring the fact that the city has already designated the N/S/E/W dividers? Every address within city limits begins with an NW or SE before the street name to designate the quadrant. 3rd St is the EW boundary and Simpson/Colorado/Railroad is the N/S boundary.
I never thought it was very confusing.
Riverine: …except for addresses WEST of 3rd but east of the Parkway/Division, they are "NE"… the Open Book, for example: 155 NE Greenwood. You know, because 1st Street (and 2nd… up to 3rd) starts at the dividing line…