[Book Sip] Wealth and Power in Street Names: The Story of Addresses

Some sentences encapsulate the entire content of a book, while others instantly reach the reader's heart, creating a connection with the book. Here, we excerpt and introduce such meaningful sentences from books. - Editor's note

An address is not merely a means to specify a location. According to research, houses or buildings on a 'street' in the UK were traded at half the price of those on a 'lane.' In the US, homes with 'lake' in their address were priced 16% higher than the median home price overall. The author shares these stories while exploring the origins and history of addresses, and investigates various socio-political issues embedded in address systems and street names. The book covers diverse stories gathered through reporting and interviews from across the United States, as well as Europe?including the UK, Germany, and Austria?and countries such as Korea, Japan, India, Haiti, and South Africa.

Addresses are not only necessary for emergency rescue. They exist to find people, monitor them, levy taxes, and even sell unnecessary goods through the mail. Residents of West Virginia who view the address system with suspicion bear a striking resemblance to 18th-century Europeans who resisted governments placing numbers on their front doors.

However, many residents understood well the benefits of having their homes found on Google Maps. Much like the 18th-century Europeans who eventually came to love the cheerful 'thud' of mail dropping through the door slot.

The slums of Kolkata seemed to have more urgent needs than addresses. There were no sanitary facilities, clean water, or medical services, let alone roofs to shelter from monsoon rains. Yet, without addresses, they had no chance to escape the slums. Without an address, one typically cannot open a bank account. Without a bank account, saving money, obtaining loans, or receiving pensions is impossible.

Most importantly, an address is essential for proving identity. Every Indian resident must possess an Aadhaar card, a government-issued biometric identity card, but slum dwellers find it difficult to obtain the card due to the lack of an address.

Daniel Oto-Peralias, an economist who studied street names in Spain and the UK, found that people living in areas of Spain with many religion-related street names were indeed more devout. In the UK, people living in areas with street names containing words like 'church' or 'chapel' were more likely to identify as Christians, and in Scotland, those living on streets named 'London Road' or 'Royal Street' tended to have a weaker Scottish identity.

Address Stories | by Deirdre Mask | translated by Yeon Aram | Minumsa | 18,000 KRW