Yuma street plan pretty basic, but it has its quirks
Some names deviate from otherwise logical system
Finding one’s way around Yuma is generally an easy thing to do.
The streets and avenues are named after letters and numbers, and for the most part, they stay in order: 1st Avenue, 2nd Avenue, 3rd Avenue, 1st Street, 2nd Street, etc. The streets run east to west, and the avenues run north to south. It makes finding places in Yuma fairly simple. But there are a few quirks that can be perplexing. Take the streets near 24th Street and Avenue A, for example. Elks Lane intersects with 24th Street, which was once home to the Elks Lodge. However, a few blocks down, Elks Lane becomes 14th Avenue.
A few blocks down 14th Avenue, one finds Parkway Drive. It’s a short little street that also intersects with Ridgeview Drive. Ridgeview crosses 14th Avenue, and then curves around to connect with 24th Street. But once one crosses 24th, Ridgeview Drive becomes Parkview Loop.
So confusing. Then there is 11th Avenue, which unexpectedly breaks the rules and curves into Avenue A — an unusual example of an avenue ending at another avenue in Yuma.
There are also entire neighborhoods that break with the normal naming venture of lettered or numbered avenues and streets. There is a perfect example off 20th Street with city names — Athens and Naples avenues, London Drive, Paris Court, Lisbon Street (a neighborhood that Google Maps has labeled Paris Court East).
Another neighborhood off 24th Street goes with “Camino” … Camino Cerro, Camino Kino, Camino Tierra, etc.
Downtown Yuma breaks with the naming convention as well, with Orange Avenue offering an unusual diagonal, and Madison Avenue running parallel to Main Street, Gila Street and Maiden Lane.
Every city has its roadway quirks, and in a way, those quirks are part of the fun of living here. It’s interesting to look at a Yuma map and see what areas have deviated away from the otherwise very methodical naming scheme.
Which roads or streets do you find to be perplexing, readers? Let us know! Share your thoughts online at www.YumaSun.com, or send us a Letter to the Editor at letters@yumasun.com.