Thursday, August 09, 2012
Were I in charge of the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce, I would be irate and demanding change in the way the name of my city is routinely butchered by the Michigan Department of Transportation. MDOT consistently replaces Grand with Gd.
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| Yes, they could sneak "ran" in |
Grand Rapids deserves a full ID. It is known for several, admittedly not overly important, things. Grand Rapids is Michigan’s second largest city. Grand Rapids is the birthplace of former President Gerald Ford. Grand Rapids is a leading producer of office furniture. More important to me, the city has two really good Mexican restaurants.
How demeaning is a contrived Grand abbreviation? Can you imagine a sign saying: Gd Canyon--27 miles?
Could MDOT put the “ran” back in Grand as a practical matter? Of course it could. Possibilities include compressing the type, enlarging signs a bit, moving arrows, and changing the shape of arrows.
Because I am not the head honcho at the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce, the strange signage is of no personal concern. Anyway, it is starting to pop up all over, so Gd may be making a move toward supplanting Grand in common usage. A recent Google travel search yielded this instruction: Turn right to merge onto US-131 N toward Gd Rapids.”
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Lo and behold . . . This summer MDOT decided to make things right. At least a dozen signs in our area suddenly pointed the way to GRAND Rapids! Included was the one I photographed back in 2012. Here it is today. The picture was snapped from a slightly different angle because a tree limb had grown to block part of the sign from the original camera viewing point.
Isn't it grand?
6 comments:
The Ran came back, hurray.
A grand finishr indeed!
Thank GD (God) this has changed. Now I won't have to listen to all the grumbling every time we pass the old signs!
Little Bug
Now, Bug, I can give my full attention to those signs that tell us the little bridge may be icy without adequate time for us to do anything about it! Stay tuned.
Hurray! That abomination would have bugged me too. Fort to Ft, Saint to St. I've seen those all my life. But Grand to Gd? There's no such thing in the language I know. Maybe some texting Millennial employee thought it was okay.
Never underestimate the power of the pen!
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