Clinton Street

Last year I worked in the very near West Loop, and walked every morning from the Clark/Lake Blue line to Washinton & Canal. Clinton Street runs north-south one block east of Canal, so I crossed it every day.

All of this was while my mental map of Chicago was growing and piecing itself together. I learned the names of the big north-south streets that run every 1/2 mile (in order from east to west: Halsted, Racine, Ashland, Damen, Western, California, Kedzie...) and which of those have the most reliable buses. (Never trust the Damen bus.) I learned also that the east-west streets at 0 and south are named after presidents ((Washington), Madison, Monroe, Adams, Jackson, Van Buren...).

About halfway through the year I began to wonder if Clinton Street was also named after a president, and if so, what had it been named before? Very brief internet research reveals that Clinton was not named after Bill Clinton, but...before him. It is named for DeWitt Clinton (who has a LOT of other things named after him), who was a US Senator and the Governor of New York in the early 1800's. He did run for president, in 1812, but was defeated by Madison (for whom the Chicago grid X-axis is named after...) .

He seems to have been and "authentic but largely forgotten hero of American democracy." So, on my lunch break today, I salute DeWitt Clinton and all the other forgotten heros. And maybe in a few hundred years, our space stations, space borders, boundaries, cities and counties (with "roads" for orderly space travel) will be named after BILL Clinton.