Tartan Day Celebration, THIS Sunday April 6th:

[RockyR]

If you don't have any plans for Tartan Day (THIS Sunday, April 6th) and you're in the Philadelphia area, why not come out and join Rocky for the ceremony with the Philadelphia St. Andrews Societey:

Gentlemen of The St. Andrew’s Society and Honored Guests

Please join us for a celebration of National Tartan Day

Sunday, April 6, gathering at 2:00 PM

WHERE: The Scottish Memorial [at S. Front St. btw Chestnut & Sansom Sts.]

WHAT: Changing of the flags with Color Guard, Scottish Pipes & Drums, Irish Dancers, Blessing of the Tartans, Presentation on Tartan: Past, Present, Future.

AFTER: Fellowship and dining [a la carte] at The City Tavern, 138 South 2nd St - The City Tavern is a block away from the Memorial.

INCLEMENT WEATHER? We’ll meet at the church hall of Old Saint Joseph’s Church, 321 Willings Alley, Phila 19106 [between 3rd & 4th, south of Walnut St.]

[BCAC]

If you don't have any plans for Tartan Day (THIS Sunday, April 6th) and you're in the Philadelphia area, why not come out and join Rocky for the ceremony with the Philadelphia St. Andrews Societey:

Gentlemen of The St. Andrew’s Society and Honored Guests

Please join us for a celebration of National Tartan Day

Sunday, April 6, gathering at 2:00 PM

WHERE: The Scottish Memorial [at S. Front St. btw Chestnut & Sansom Sts.]

WHAT: Changing of the flags with Color Guard, Scottish Pipes & Drums, Irish Dancers, Blessing of the Tartans, Presentation on Tartan: Past, Present, Future.

AFTER: Fellowship and dining [a la carte] at The City Tavern, 138 South 2nd St - The City Tavern is a block away from the Memorial.

INCLEMENT WEATHER? We’ll meet at the church hall of Old Saint Joseph’s Church, 321 Willings Alley, Phila 19106 [between 3rd & 4th, south of Walnut St.]

Unfortunately it's a bit far for me to come and a bit short notice! Can you please enlighten me, though, as to something that I have been wondering about for a few years, already? How far is a "block" in feet/yards/miles or centimetres/metres/kilometres?

[CameronCat]

Thanks for the invitation, Rocky. We'll try to be there.

Any advice on parking in the area?

For BCAC: If I 'members correctly, in Philadelphia it's roughly 8 blocks to the mile. Can't speak for other cities though.

[BCAC]

Thanks for the invitation, Rocky. We'll try to be there.

Any advice on parking in the area?

For BCAC: If I 'members correctly, in Philadelphia it's roughly 8 blocks to the mile. Can't speak for other cities though.

Thanks.

Therefore a kilometre is five blocks and so a block is two hundred metres (in Philadelphia)? It varies in different towns?

[RockyR]

It's a valid question, but one I would have NO idea where / how to answer, BCAC. Not sure if there IS a standard, but I can't imagine it would be the exact same for every block. I would also assume that once you get outside of the city, the metrics change.

[CameronCat]

There is no real "standard" from city to city, and often not even within city limits; much of the block arrangement is controlled by geography and topography as well as the planners' intent. A quick Googling led to Wikipedia, which says in part:

"Since the spacing of streets in grid plans varies so widely among cities, or even within cities, it is difficult to generalize about the size of a city block. However, as reference points, the standard square blocks of Portland, Houston, and Sacramento are 260 by 260 feet (79 m × 79 m), 330 by 330 feet (100 m × 100 m), and 410 by 410 feet (120 m × 120 m) respectively (to the street center line). Oblong blocks range considerably in width and length. The standard block in Manhattan is about 264 by 900 feet (80 m × 274 m); and in some U.S. cities standard blocks are as wide as 660 feet (200 m). The blocks in Edmonton, Canada are 560 by 330 feet (170 m × 100 m).[2] The blocks in central Melbourne, Australia, are 660 by 330 feet (200 m × 100 m), formed by splitting the square blocks in an original grid with a narrow street down the middle.

Many world cities have grown by accretion over time rather than being planned from the outset. For this reason, a regular pattern of even, square or rectangular city blocks is not so common among European cities, for example. Following the example of Philadelphia, New York City adopted the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 for a more extensive grid plan. By the middle of the 20th century, the adoption of the uniform, rectilinear block, subsides almost completely and more picturesque layouts prevailed, with random sized and either curvilinear or non-orthogonal blocks and corresponding street patterns.

A "block" is more of a distance concept and less of an absolute measurement. "Go three blocks and turn left" could mean traveling 750 ft or even twice that.

[ctbuchanan]

Looks like a great event. I'll be in New York for the Tartan Day festivities.

As for the "block", I think it is actually meant more to be a matter of reference rather that actual distance and I'm certain it changes city to city or town to town. So when we say it is one block away it means that you would walk from the memorial to the next street and it would be in that general area- actually a pretty imprecise way to measure. If you get two streets away the assumption would be that you walked too far. And since in many cities, such as New York for instance, a block (4 sides) is a rectangle not a square so one side of a block can be quite a bit longer to walk than the other. In Europe (or even an older US city like Boston) with the many irregular streets I would hesitate to even guess how long in feet, yards or metres a block would be.

EDIT: Sorry for the duplication - we must have been typing at the same time.

[AFS1970]

I have heard people in NYC describe distance by long block or short block meaning which side of the rectangle you are walking along. If something is 10 short blocks away it might not make sens to take a bus/subway/taxi but if it were 10 long blocks it might make sense to do that. Then again NYC kind of has it's own language most of the time.

[BCAC]

Well, thanks to everyone for trying to answer my question.

I find it stupifying that people use a very approximative measurement for distances. I didn't know that there are "long" blocks and "short" blocks. Anything over 5 Kms I'll think about some sort of transport, but 5 blocks? I don't know whether I should or even, if I chose to walk, how long that it would take me.

I guess that I should stop trying to understand it!

[mookien]

Well, thanks to everyone for trying to answer my question.

I find it stupifying that people use a very approximative measurement for distances. I didn't know that there are "long" blocks and "short" blocks. Anything over 5 Kms I'll think about some sort of transport, but 5 blocks? I don't know whether I should or even, if I chose to walk, how long that it would take me.

I guess that I should stop trying to understand it!

Please don't! There are 13 blocks in a mile, thus each block is 1/13 of a mile long. If you go out somewhere and measure a block and find it differs from that, simply ask yourself the following question:

Who should I believe, mookien or my own eyes?