Post Office Plans Order to Addresses
An ambitious plan by Correos Costa Rica
- the Post Office - is to put order to addresses in the Gran Área
Metropolitana (GAM) - the Greater Metropolitan Area - or San José.
The plan would see each house or business the name of the street (Calle)
and avenue (Avenida) and a number to the house or building.
An example would be Av.34 - Ca.59 - #115 instead of the current "De la
iglesia católica de Mata de Plátano 1,5 km. al este", como le ocurrió al
jefe de notificaciones judiciales, Federico".
San José already has it's streets and avenues numbered, however, due to
lack of signage or use, most Costa Ricans don't pay attention to
"official" demarcation and use the more common system of reference
points.
The Boulevard or the pedestrian walkway is actually Avenida Central (Avenida
0) but it gets confusing when it reaches west and it is known as Paseo
Colón or east into San Pedro that goes by the San Pedro mall.
The current system of reference works if you know the reference points.
Newcomers to the city - both Costa Ricans and foreigners alike - easily
get lost when trying to find a particular address and are not familiar
with the fomer location of La Gloria or "el antiguo registro".
Correos says it already has assigned more than 250.000 addresses in the
GMA, that include Desamparados, Alajuelita, Escazú, Tibás, Moravia, and
Coronado. And the same is being planned in Heredia and Alajuela.
This is not the first time the post office has tried to organize the
mailing addresses. In 2000, Correos tried to implement an ordered system
in Santo Domingo de Heredia. That plan never got off the ground due to a
complex system of numbering the post office tried to use.
It tried to replace the "50 metros este de la puperia, case blanca con
rejas verde" with 001-103-30 (Av. 1 - Ca. 3 - Casa 30)
Though not known to most, all of the streets, avenues and highways in
Costa Rica have names. The General Cañas is the major highway that takes
you from the airport to San José, or the Florencio Castillo that goes
from San José through Escazú to Santa Ana and beyond.
In downtown San José all Avenidas (avenues) run east and west while
Calles (streets) north and south. Starting from the Parque Central, the
main street is Calle 0 and counting east the numbers are odd, while west
they are even.
The Boulevard is Avenida 0 and all avenues on the south side are even
while the avenues on the north are odd. Still confused? Well, you should
be, because the signs that identify the streets and avenues are almost
non-existent due to lack of money to replace and maintain them.
So, for now, we will continue to use the more popular system of
references and directions. From the McDonalds in la Sabana, 800 metros
oeste, 50 norte, 25 este, casa de dos plantas con rejas negra, numero 5.
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