If you thought that Las Vegas's town-planning eccentricity ended at the Strip when you left the pyramid, fairy castle, and Eiffel Tower behind you, think again.
Head into suburbia and it all gets much much more surreal, with streets named not only after Star Wars characters, but stars of both the celebrity (Chevy Chase Ave., Mel Torme Way, Bella Lugosi St., Ozzie Harriet Ave., Audrey Hepburn St., Butch Cassidy Lane, Marilyn Monroe Ave.) and celestial (Sirius, Polaris, and Pollux, not to mention Procyon, home of the Las Vegas Advisor, no less) kind, plus fish (in the desert?), birds, beverages, pirates, gangsters, household cleaning items, specialist apparel, songs, movies, composers, sports equipment, and all manner of whimsical colors and concepts.
We figure only Las Vegas could be home to Simple Life Ave. (close to Purple Haze Street and Mild Weather Ave. (mild weather? Here? Are you kidding?), Broken Putter Way, Hanky Panky Street, Macadamia Nut Ave. (off of Spiced Butter Rum St. and next to Toasted Almond Ave., Cinnamon Hazelnut St., and Frapuccino Ave.), Raggedy Ann Ave., Prince of Tides Court, Illusionary Magic Circle, and our personal favorite: Elvis Alive Drive (on the approach to Mt. Charleston).
And only in Las Vegas could Stetson Drive, Chaps Circle, and Rifle Drive be adjacent to Brahma Lane (of course, only in Vegas would there even be a street called Chaps Circle, which sounds like some kind of nasty chafing you might get after a long day in the saddle). How about the neighborhood that boasts Fly Fisher Street and Tackle Box, Canvas Vest, and Hipwader courts? Don't worry, they included something for the ladies: Feather Duster Court. We kid you not.
Okay, so you’re beginning to get the picture. Your question was, "How come?" And a very fair question it is, which necessitated us plowing through Appendix A of the Las Vegas Valley Street Naming and Address Assignment Policy –- a lot less romantic than searching out Pastel Colors Court or Fruited Dove Way, we can assure you.
Each year about 1,600 new streets are added to Las Vegas Valley and the task of naming them falls to the developers, who evidently tend to be an imaginative and poetic bunch (when they're not delegating the task to their 12-year-old sons). They submit their proposed list to the Las Vegas Fire Dept., which then approves or denies the names according to the aforementioned guidelines. If the Fire Dept. gives the thumbs up, a temporary map is then presented to the Planning Commission, which has final word in the approval process.
Some of the criteria used when making these decisions include the exclusion of same names or homonyms (the emergency services communicate by radio and don’t want any aural confusion), street names in foreign languages ("unless their meaning is polite and reasonable"), names that tend to be slurred or may be difficult to pronounce, and any name with more than 20 letters and spaces (due to the physical restrictions of the size of a standard street-name sign).
Aside from that there’s a lot of latitude, hence all the real street names cited above. One other interesting criterion is that "only the common or correct spelling of street names will be accepted (e.g., Jane not Jayne, Green not Greene)," which may be the explanation for Betty (sic) Davis Street. On the other hand, this may be due to the fact that the Fire Dept. is not permitted to correct a misspelling that’s submitted, hence Bugsy Siegal (oops) Circle.
So no, you hadn’t had one margarita too many and weren’t hallucinating from heatstroke when you stumbled upon Skywalker Avenue, Leia Street, et al. -– they’re quite real and can all be found in the 89120 zip code area. Meanwhile, check out the archives for a former QoD (01/18/08) on the Henderson neighborhood named for a popular TV cartoon...
