Bakersfield blogger secretly names Bakersfield Street after Johnny Depp
Working for a civil engineering firm that designs subdivisions and subsequently streets, naming streets is a routine detail of my job. Usually the developer of the subdivision picks the theme of the tract. Street names are then picked based on the theme. The developer and the engineering firm submit a list of approximately 160 possible street names to the City or County depending on where the subdivision is located. The street names are then approved or rejected by the City or County. The approved street names are used in the tract and left over street names are put on an alternate list.

Bakersfield subdivision themes are usually pretty boring. Themes typically have something to do with rivers or stones; for example: both River Lakes and Stone Creek are typical subdivisions in Bakersfield. My firm designed Stone Creek subdivision and I named a few of those streets. One of our clients who’s into racing and Nascar actually used racing as the theme of one of his subdivisions. In the Legacy tract out in Rosedale you’ll find streets named after famous Nascar race tracts. This is one of the more creative subdivision themes in Bakersfield. My personal favorite is one of the oldest subdivisions in town; the old tree tract in the Oleander area, downtown and Westchester. This tract shows up on the original map of Kern County from the late 1800’s.

So how did this Bakersfield blogger plot to secretly name a Bakersfield street after Johnny Depp?

It all started one day a couple months ago when one of our clients subdivisions, located in the Old River Road and Panama Lane area; its entire western theme including all of the subdivisions street names were rejected by the City. (Which meant my favorite street name from the western theme, ‘Darlin’ Way’, that I was hoping would be approved, would never be a Bakersfield street.) We needed a new subdivision theme and new street names fast. In typical boring Bakersfield fashion the developer decided to go with rivers as a theme since the subdivision was located on Old River Road. We needed at least a 100 street names maybe more and we needed them that day. My boss called me into his office, pulled out an atlas of rivers in California and we began picking names of rivers and creeks that we liked.

And then I saw it. In Northern California a creek named: Sleepy Hollow.

Sleepy Hollow is one of my favorite Johnny Depp movies. This was fate.

“What about Sleepy Hollow Lane?” I proposed to my boss.

“I like that.” He said.

We continued picking street names until we had enough to submit to the City. On the list of names was my secret Johnny Depp movie title and it had a chance because it fit the subdivision theme.

Over the next few weeks I checked with my boss and with the City to see if the street names had been approved yet and if my Johnny Depp reference: Sleepy Hollow Lane had been approved.

And then last Wednesday I received a phone call at work from the lady at the City who was in charge of street names. She had the power to approve or reject Sleepy Hollow Lane. I held my breath. She told me three street names that had been rejected. One of them was the other street name I was hoping would be approved: Stillwater Cove. Sleepy Hollow Lane had made the cut. It was approved!

My boss knew that I was hoping Sleepy Hollow Lane would be approved, but he didn’t know why. He didn’t know it was because I wanted to name a Bakersfield street after Johnny Depp.

To celebrate my street name getting approved, he let me pick the street in the subdivision that will be named Sleepy Hollow Lane. I picked a nice long street, a major street in the subdivision, not a little cul-de-sac.

Sometime in 2006, in Phase 1 of Tract 6359 off of Old River Road there will be a street named: Sleepy Hollow Lane that this Bakersfield blogger secretly named after Johnny Depp.

I would love to live on Sleepy Hollow Lane…  posted by Matildakay at 2:22 PM