Review: The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power

The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power by Deirdre Mask
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

We never stop to think about the importance addresses have in our everyday lives. Without addresses we cannot receive (or apply for) official documents, benefits, jobs, etc. Even if we're not homeless, we need an address. And yet addresses aren't as ubiquitous as we'd think. West Virginia barely had any outside cities prior to 1991. 

Also, did you know you can buy any old address in New York for 11,000 dollars? Which is why Trump was able to open a building on "1, Central Park West" (he had the address changed from 15, Columbus Circle), and then he got mad when Time Warner also got the address "1, Central Park" (rather than 25, Columbus Circle). 

And What3Words seems like a fascinating idea. 

I have to say, however, that the idea brought up for creating an address for homeless people using houses that aren't in use at the moment seems a tad flawed. In theory it sounds good, but I could see these rich people with empty real estate protesting that they plan on moving back any time now, so the address can't be used. or something. 

However, I do think someone enterprising could come up with a solution. At first I thought just providing PO Boxes, like some coworking spaces do, would work. But I could see places of employment figuring that out and discriminating against these. Otherwise maybe something like choosing a place that shows up on Google maps, but with a different number. For example, my building has 7 floors, but there would be floors 8 through 12, say, which are addresses used for homeless people. They don't really exist, which is ok, since house calls aren't needed. But the post office will have an automatic trigger whenever any one of these addresses is used, to hold onto them in a PO box, which the homeless person can check. 

I'm sure I'm missing something in the details. Still, a very interesting and seemingly surmountable problem, which gets you thinking. 

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