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It sounds like you're conflating blocks and rectangular grid plan. A block is just a cluster of buildings in an urban or semiurban environment that don't have s

by ebg13 7y ago

It sounds like you're conflating blocks and rectangular grid plan. A block is just a cluster of buildings in an urban or semiurban environment that don't have streets between them. They don't have to be rectangular. When used as an informal distance, it means the distance between subsequent urban cross-streets that you should be able to walk in about a minute. If you've been anywhere in Europe that has more people than sheep, then you've definitely seen blocks without realizing it.

pbhjpbhj 7y ago
Ah, OK, I assumed it was some standard demarcation - like in USA cities the modal average distance between crossroads (intersections) was 80m, or something. In UK we say "to the next corner" sometimes (but not as a measurement, per se), I guess that would be equivalent? It sounds like when you say "about a minute" that this would over-rule the "next intersection" part. So when you say "it's a blocks walk away" (or whatever) you're saying "it's a minute['s walk] away"?
- ebg13 7y ago
  > In UK we say "to the next corner" sometimes (but not as a measurement, per se), I guess that would be equivalent? That would be 100% equivalent when counting blocks. "Go four blocks and then turn left" means "go left at the fourth intersection". There will inevitably be some interpretive ambiguity when one passes a T intersection that only goes right. Was that a block even though there was no available left turn? Did the person mean "pass three lefts and this one doesn't count because it's a right"? Nobody knows. It's why we name streets now. > It sounds like when you say "about a minute" that this would over-rule the "next intersection" part. When talking abstractly, yes. "A block's-worth of walking" cannot be interpreted with any particular block in mind, so one must use an imaginary platonic ideal of block length.
debrice 7y ago
let's be real, I've been living in the US for 10 years now and almost 100% of the US cities are based on a rectangular grid plan. Almost all European cities are too old to have one unless they were rebuilt (ie. Baron Haussmann work in Paris). I don't think he's conflating, I had the same exact impression when hearing "I had to run 5 blocks"... it's just an American thing.

by ebg13 7y ago

pbhjpbhj 7y ago

Ah, OK, I assumed it was some standard demarcation - like in USA cities the modal average distance between crossroads (intersections) was 80m, or something. In UK we say "to the next corner" sometimes (but not as a measurement, per se), I guess that would be equivalent? It sounds like when you say "about a minute" that this would over-rule the "next intersection" part. So when you say "it's a blocks walk away" (or whatever) you're saying "it's a minute['s walk] away"?

ebg13 7y ago
> In UK we say "to the next corner" sometimes (but not as a measurement, per se), I guess that would be equivalent? That would be 100% equivalent when counting blocks. "Go four blocks and then turn left" means "go left at the fourth intersection". There will inevitably be some interpretive ambiguity when one passes a T intersection that only goes right. Was that a block even though there was no available left turn? Did the person mean "pass three lefts and this one doesn't count because it's a right"? Nobody knows. It's why we name streets now. > It sounds like when you say "about a minute" that this would over-rule the "next intersection" part. When talking abstractly, yes. "A block's-worth of walking" cannot be interpreted with any particular block in mind, so one must use an imaginary platonic ideal of block length.

debrice 7y ago

let's be real, I've been living in the US for 10 years now and almost 100% of the US cities are based on a rectangular grid plan. Almost all European cities are too old to have one unless they were rebuilt (ie. Baron Haussmann work in Paris). I don't think he's conflating, I had the same exact impression when hearing "I had to run 5 blocks"... it's just an American thing.