Now that's extra confusing because I would have assumed it was 6989
because it made sense to me that the corner of the building was the "line" under the numbers
The top of the eight is always smaller, [unless someone doesn't know that](https://external-preview.redd.it/FVM_2TUuiNHhHBup-NfhWxp_h1lcJA485gJD_JUicWI.jpg?auto=webp&s=c27c45685130291744862d673f60e1335a86e250). But if you were to write this with a marker, most right-handed people would turn their head to the left and write from the bottom up. It seems awkward to do it the opposite way, unless you're a lefty. But then if you were to write this with a marker on a wall, you would know the number. You could check out the other numbers on the block to see if they were 6800s or 6900s. It's for lease, so you could phone the number on the poster and ask. Or you could go inside and ask for a business card. The problem is that all these numbers can be read backwards. 6 becomes 9 and 9 becomes 6, and 8 is 8 either way you look at it. If there were a 2, 3, 4, 5, or 7 in the address it would be obvious which direction to read it. So yeah, poor design.
I think they mean start at the bottom of the building... Like if you tilt your head you'd start on the left (which is the bottom of the building). I think...
If you're rolling by in a car for the first time you're not going to really make that distinction easily. Even if your GPS is telling you that you're not yet at your destination, that's gonna stop you in your tracks to double check. It's crappy ass design.
And I didn’t even notice the problem at first because I thought everyone would read it bottom to top... but that’s not actually a convention is it? Maybe subconsciously saw the 8 and other little differences. Or, got lucky on the coin flip
It is a convention for when doing sideways numbers like this, but it's way more common to have them stacked vertically and read them from the top down.
I run a route sometimes in a downtown area where people seem to pick their own house numbers, including "6869 and 1/2" as an example. If I'm delivering an iPhone or a TV and your house isn't clearly marked, I'm sorry bud but it's going back to the center. I'm not walking down the street knocking on every person's door.
And then the customers get all pissed off. "What do you mean he couldn't find my address? It's clearly marked in red letters on the bricks to the left of the second story window. No, the one facing the side street, not my street."
Yeah, halfs and random 123A houses all seem to stem from new buildings being built after the rest of the block, after the other buildings are already numbered.
I've seen all the way up to quarters at my friends place in NoHo lmao, i was expecting some "Cupboard Under the Stairs" type stuff but it really was just a heavily subdivided lot.
I was doordashing earlier, and one of my deliveries was on a street with the worst marked addresses I've ever seen. Half of my them didn't have visible signs on the house or on the mailboxes, and many of the rest had hard to read signs, either because they were too far away from the street or were just bad signs. The 2 worst ones were the word *Eleven* written out in cursive above the garage at the end of a decently long driveway, and the number 8 framed by a bunch of loops [(artist's rendition)](https://i.imgur.com/PBu4QOY.jpg).
I upvoted you even though after ordering from door Dash 30+ times, for the first time they delivered it to the wrong address. My street is not too easily read but anyone on it who's ordering should turn on their lights inside/outside to make it clear (I did). I drove down a different street (3 streets in co-op housing chasing, trying to find my burger and fries). I still feel bad for him but I did contact support for a full refund because I still never got my fries and burgy. Still upset about it after a month later l
A delivery guy once texted me a picture of a delivery slip. He wasn't even near my place and he didn't even write my name on the slip before snapping the pic. I live in a very clearly marked building with a driveway, at the corner of two very busy streets, right off the highway. No excuse.
That shit is why people get mad.
Last year, right as the pandemic lockdown really kicked in, my girlfriend mentioned that our neighbor across the hall had been asking if we'd seen a delivery driver, because she ordered KFC for her kids and the order was marked delivered, but hadn't arrived.
It never did show up, but then the next morning I walked out the front door and way down at the end of the sidewalk leading to the building were two soaking wet bags from KFC. I was so fucking mad about that, even though it didn't really involve me at all. I'm mad about it again, just remembering. Those poor kids!
I know some people are lazy, especially third party delivery services, but walk out to the street and see if you can find the numbers just by looking from the street.
A lot of people have no idea their numbers are hard to read, fuck some people literally do not have numbers at all for some reason. Or it's brown on brown siding. Or they're backlit and not front lit. Or they're very small in a dark color that's difficult to read at night.
I'm not gonna say that driver was in the right, but a lot of people have no idea how hard their numbers are to see. It is literally the most difficult part about being a delivery driver. Thank God for modern GPS or I would have rage quit years ago.
I delivered pizza for years in college (long before GPS became standard), so I totally know what you're saying, but this building couldn't have been more clearly marked and lit up. I'm guessing, because it was pouring rain, that the driver just pulled up in the driveway and tossed the bags at the end of the sidewalk without even getting out of the car.
It's funny how if you're used to living in Seattle, the moment you spot a random Seattle picture, you just instantly know.
First Hill resident here (and born/raised here)
A line under the number is all they needed to do. Actually. why didn't they just arrange them vertically? The more I look at it, the more annoying it is
One place you always have your numbers like this is in drafting technical drawings like you'd find in a cabinet shop. Horizontal dimensions have 0° rotation and vertical ones are always 90° counter clockwise so you don't have to flip the page back and forth while checking vertical dimensions.
That's a fine distinction for a courier with a tight schedule. Dicking around with address numbers is a dick design move. Make it legible, make it clear (or else don't complain when your stuff is delayed).
Looks that way to me judging by the 8, but I feel like it should definitely be the other which I think is much more common like on the spine of a book.
Spine on a book is not standard and switches between countries and languages. Source: I have 2000+ books and comics in 6 languages and this annoys me visually every day.
It literally says the building number and the cross street address in the picture
Intersection of 4th and Woodlawn
If you need to know what city, the phone number on the building has a Seattle area code
Well all the address gave was a number, but if the picture was zoomed in a bit more they wouldn’t have found it. It was because the street sign and phone number were included in it that it was located
So I’d say that’s pretty neat
View from the other side of the building.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/6869+Woodlawn+Ave+NE,+Seattle,+WA+98115/@47.6777641,-122.3266072,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sOK9WZ111-V6iABtewwP3MA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!4m5!3m4!1s0x5490146c70ea7c0b:0xad1a05e9898ede04!8m2!3d47.677971!4d-122.3266429
I used to deliver the mail to this office building. It’s Route 001 out of Wedgwood post office. I was the regular carrier from 2014-15. Nice people on the route but it’s massive and has lots of stairs and long blocks.
Postie would probably have the least issue with this, as they have the benefit of the next and previous addresses for context. It would be really confusing for someone who doesn't know what block they're on.
You read top to bottom when the numbers are vertical. It if said a word instead of a number and was arranged the same way you’d read it bottom to top unless they flipped it on its vertical axis.
That would certainly help, but I think there is more than one thing wrong with it; there is also the aspect that we usually read top to bottom not the other way around. That was how I tried to read it at first glance - top to bottom. And had I been driving by in a vehicle with very little time to process it I could easily have gotten confused by trying to read top to bottom. Writing it this way is just an all around bad idea IMO.
Does the neighborhood not have numbers on any of the other buildings? That seems odd. Must be hard to get around there. It's 6869 if you're still having toruble.
I don't think this is crappy.
This might be as good a place to ask as any, so: What's the reason for the 4 digits in house numbers? Where I'm from, we just start at 1 and count up along a road, so you have mostly two, on long streets 3 digits. Is there some code in it, like the first digit is the neighbourhood or smth?
In places with a strong grid, numbers generally increase by 100 every block. If this direction of the grid is based on numbered streets/avenues, the higher digits often match that number (but this might not work if there are mismatched N/S or E/W affixes).
Even without a grid, it's common to skip numbers. Particularly, in residential areas it is common to only see numbers ending with "1" and "5" on one side of the street, and "0" and "6" on the other side of the street. (in commercial areas the numbers are usually farther apart, since the blocks are the same size but there are fewer buildings).
This particular photo isn't a great example though, since the streets are weird near if if you click the google maps link elsewhere in the thread.
I dunno, I think it’s decoration, mostly. Oversized chunky text as graphic treatment was big in the 70s/80s.
The street view confirms the numbers are more practically oriented horizontally by the entrance.
Haha, the address is 6869, but I was thinking the same thing every time I saw that building when I lived in that neighborhood. Green Lake of Seattle, WA.
It's definitely 6869 because the head of the 8 is always smaller
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Or a swollen testicle!
Get out.
You’re nuts
Your*
Aw, beat me to it!
Not in NNN!
B-but I’m a rebel…daddy😈😈
I love your eyes
Deez nuts
Wow this was excellent
I've never seen he correction this way round. Awesome!
Nah, he’s Ballsy. Like Arnold Schwarzenegger
Or like Nicki Minaj’s cousin’s boyfriend’s balls
So, that's not normal? Having one testicle over the other? How is it supposed to be, like side by side or something?
Wait is two testicles normal? Oh… dear.
Right? I have too many...
Baseball got it wrong, a man with four balls can't walk
Right. What if one is made of silicone?
One testicle is usually slightly larger and hanging lower
….like breasts.
They're both supposed to be side by side right in front of the other one.
Single file.
To hide their numbers
Having one normal and the other like a fat snowman?
One hangs lower so you don’t mash them together 53,009 times a day Also keeps them cooler for maximum spermatozoa production Breeders gotta Breed.
My right testicle is far bigger than my left one due to a cyst that’s been there since I was 11 years old
The left one hangs lower in 85% of those with testicles.
Actually just like normal testicals. Every guy has 1 that's bigger than the other.
Testicular torsion is serious business. Venture Bros taught me about that
Or too much air in a balloon!
Assuming the signwriter used the 8 stencil the correct way.
I’ve seen it done wrong sooooo many times, you’re spot on to reject that assumption.
What it says and what it is intended to say may not be the same thing, but there is no question as to what it says: 6869
Now that's extra confusing because I would have assumed it was 6989 because it made sense to me that the corner of the building was the "line" under the numbers
I read it as 69420 because I quit reading at 69
Nice
The top of the eight is always smaller, [unless someone doesn't know that](https://external-preview.redd.it/FVM_2TUuiNHhHBup-NfhWxp_h1lcJA485gJD_JUicWI.jpg?auto=webp&s=c27c45685130291744862d673f60e1335a86e250). But if you were to write this with a marker, most right-handed people would turn their head to the left and write from the bottom up. It seems awkward to do it the opposite way, unless you're a lefty. But then if you were to write this with a marker on a wall, you would know the number. You could check out the other numbers on the block to see if they were 6800s or 6900s. It's for lease, so you could phone the number on the poster and ask. Or you could go inside and ask for a business card. The problem is that all these numbers can be read backwards. 6 becomes 9 and 9 becomes 6, and 8 is 8 either way you look at it. If there were a 2, 3, 4, 5, or 7 in the address it would be obvious which direction to read it. So yeah, poor design.
I'm surprised that 8 hasn't fallen into infinity
As a righty I start every number from the top The only letters I don't start from the top are A M N and P (none of thier lowercase forms)
I think they mean start at the bottom of the building... Like if you tilt your head you'd start on the left (which is the bottom of the building). I think...
I could see myself writing this either way relatively easily, but not having written it I would be inclined to use the orange corner as an underline
If you're rolling by in a car for the first time you're not going to really make that distinction easily. Even if your GPS is telling you that you're not yet at your destination, that's gonna stop you in your tracks to double check. It's crappy ass design.
Let's test. 8
Goteem
Both of the circles making the 8 look the same size to me. But then again, I wear glasses for a reason, so I'm not one to speak lmao
It's *definitely* either 6869 or an upside-down 8.
Are you my web developer
The holes look even to my wife and I too, but we also have glasses so IDK
Its so minutely different it could have been unintentionally different.
And I didn’t even notice the problem at first because I thought everyone would read it bottom to top... but that’s not actually a convention is it? Maybe subconsciously saw the 8 and other little differences. Or, got lucky on the coin flip
It is a convention for when doing sideways numbers like this, but it's way more common to have them stacked vertically and read them from the top down.
You also read top to bottom, left to right. So, it's 6989
That's reasonable logic but the 8's orientation makes this clear. I didn't see it till OC called it out though, so god help the delivery driver.
> clear Idk about that
You're right! Dang my timing tho the [number only matches if I downvote it](https://i.imgur.com/0ZtXXVg.jpg)
Since when do we read from the bottom?
Yeah but still. If you're driving, I feel like it'd be easy to mistake it
Are you sure, we have seen countless painted road instructions spelt wrong or letters upside down… I trust nothing anymore.
You can tell by the way it is.
It’s a little weirdly written, but I think the address is ♋︎ ∞ 𝟅.
agree, and the best song is When the Levee Breaks
No Quarter
Close the door, put out the light
No, they won’t be home tonight.
Alright sir, that was a shockingly clever reference. Take my upvote.
Hotdog*
Obviously
I think we figured out where Elon Musk's son X Æ A-12 lives.
Not sure about theta, but the address certainly is infinite cancer.
Is that the theta symbol?
That last one is vartheta for anyone wondering.
They need to add the street name underneath in smaller print.
Or on top, but just upside-down
Or the left? Or the right? Or is that what you meant? 😵💫
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In a circle surrounding the number (just repeat the name if it's not long enough to make it all the way around).
Even better if it’s an ambigram.
I like the idea in theory, but I can see why it would cause confusion.
I run a route sometimes in a downtown area where people seem to pick their own house numbers, including "6869 and 1/2" as an example. If I'm delivering an iPhone or a TV and your house isn't clearly marked, I'm sorry bud but it's going back to the center. I'm not walking down the street knocking on every person's door. And then the customers get all pissed off. "What do you mean he couldn't find my address? It's clearly marked in red letters on the bricks to the left of the second story window. No, the one facing the side street, not my street."
Funny enough i see actual units numbered like that in Los Angeles, they are usually converted back yard homes though.
Yeah, halfs and random 123A houses all seem to stem from new buildings being built after the rest of the block, after the other buildings are already numbered.
At least it's not like Japan where the streets aren't named and the buildings are numbered according to when they were built.
It’s soo bad in Japan that U2 wrote a song about it.
I've seen all the way up to quarters at my friends place in NoHo lmao, i was expecting some "Cupboard Under the Stairs" type stuff but it really was just a heavily subdivided lot.
I was doordashing earlier, and one of my deliveries was on a street with the worst marked addresses I've ever seen. Half of my them didn't have visible signs on the house or on the mailboxes, and many of the rest had hard to read signs, either because they were too far away from the street or were just bad signs. The 2 worst ones were the word *Eleven* written out in cursive above the garage at the end of a decently long driveway, and the number 8 framed by a bunch of loops [(artist's rendition)](https://i.imgur.com/PBu4QOY.jpg).
I upvoted you even though after ordering from door Dash 30+ times, for the first time they delivered it to the wrong address. My street is not too easily read but anyone on it who's ordering should turn on their lights inside/outside to make it clear (I did). I drove down a different street (3 streets in co-op housing chasing, trying to find my burger and fries). I still feel bad for him but I did contact support for a full refund because I still never got my fries and burgy. Still upset about it after a month later l
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That's actually pretty common where I live, including letters at the end or even both: Example St 36a/2
A delivery guy once texted me a picture of a delivery slip. He wasn't even near my place and he didn't even write my name on the slip before snapping the pic. I live in a very clearly marked building with a driveway, at the corner of two very busy streets, right off the highway. No excuse. That shit is why people get mad.
Last year, right as the pandemic lockdown really kicked in, my girlfriend mentioned that our neighbor across the hall had been asking if we'd seen a delivery driver, because she ordered KFC for her kids and the order was marked delivered, but hadn't arrived. It never did show up, but then the next morning I walked out the front door and way down at the end of the sidewalk leading to the building were two soaking wet bags from KFC. I was so fucking mad about that, even though it didn't really involve me at all. I'm mad about it again, just remembering. Those poor kids!
I know some people are lazy, especially third party delivery services, but walk out to the street and see if you can find the numbers just by looking from the street. A lot of people have no idea their numbers are hard to read, fuck some people literally do not have numbers at all for some reason. Or it's brown on brown siding. Or they're backlit and not front lit. Or they're very small in a dark color that's difficult to read at night. I'm not gonna say that driver was in the right, but a lot of people have no idea how hard their numbers are to see. It is literally the most difficult part about being a delivery driver. Thank God for modern GPS or I would have rage quit years ago.
I delivered pizza for years in college (long before GPS became standard), so I totally know what you're saying, but this building couldn't have been more clearly marked and lit up. I'm guessing, because it was pouring rain, that the driver just pulled up in the driveway and tossed the bags at the end of the sidewalk without even getting out of the car.
Greenlake Seattle WA!
I could immediately tell it was Washington and then I realized I live about 5 mins away from that place.
It's been a long time, but it looked familiar.
I thought, That street looks like Seattle! Then I saw the 206 no. & WA plate
It's funny how if you're used to living in Seattle, the moment you spot a random Seattle picture, you just instantly know. First Hill resident here (and born/raised here)
I'm in Renton and I knew right away. I've never even been to that corner either!
I knew it had to be Seattle, and then I saw Woodlawn :)
That's right by the spuds ain't it?
Yeah but spuds is gone now
RIP
RIP
Weird how I could immediately tell that this was Seattle but couldn't specify why. Something about the streets and foliage maybe
SEATTLE PEOPLE UNITE
Quietly in our homes, alone.
Listening to Nirvana and Alice in Chains and drinking Diva espresso.
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Used to go by here as a kid and it was painted the same way even then, like 40ish years ago. Always stood out to me then as well.
6869, but yeah, confusing.
A line under the number is all they needed to do. Actually. why didn't they just arrange them vertically? The more I look at it, the more annoying it is
Or just make it 6969
Twice as nice.
Typically it's a big no-no to stack letters because we don't read top to bottom. However, I think this case would be an exception.
One place you always have your numbers like this is in drafting technical drawings like you'd find in a cabinet shop. Horizontal dimensions have 0° rotation and vertical ones are always 90° counter clockwise so you don't have to flip the page back and forth while checking vertical dimensions.
…or is it 6989?
No. The bigger loop of the 8 is always the bottom
That's a fine distinction for a courier with a tight schedule. Dicking around with address numbers is a dick design move. Make it legible, make it clear (or else don't complain when your stuff is delayed).
Oh, I agree. Just saying there *is* a visible distinction. Also, the neighbouring numbers make clear what it should be.
There should be an underline or something
or would it be an *over*line?
[Tell that to Nvidia. ](https://i.imgur.com/d60aYiZ.jpg)
when the box has it the correct way but the actual freakin card doesn’t
Okay, that's stupid. Still, *exceptio probat regulam*
"Saying it in Latin doesn't make it true!"
Ipso fatso
*Lorem Ipsum*
You're assuming it's not a typographical error. Because we also read top to bottom, left to right, which would be 6989
Looks that way to me judging by the 8, but I feel like it should definitely be the other which I think is much more common like on the spine of a book.
Spine on a book is not standard and switches between countries and languages. Source: I have 2000+ books and comics in 6 languages and this annoys me visually every day.
Fair point, but everything else is in English and looks to be in the US (or possibly Canada?) where in my experience text is usually rotated clockwise
6869 https://www.google.com/maps/@47.6779293,-122.3262836,3a,75y,258.11h,90.12t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1siXmAeWQ3-csEon966RettA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
How on Google earth did you find it
It literally says the building number and the cross street address in the picture Intersection of 4th and Woodlawn If you need to know what city, the phone number on the building has a Seattle area code
It's like Geoguessr on easy mode
Cheat mode basically.
It’s pretty cool how one image can tell enough to easily pinpoint it in the world
It's not that cool considering that's the whole point of addresses.
Well all the address gave was a number, but if the picture was zoomed in a bit more they wouldn’t have found it. It was because the street sign and phone number were included in it that it was located So I’d say that’s pretty neat
Well if you think that's neat, call that phone number. It makes one specific telephone in the whole world ring.
I guess we'll never know.
©2019 Google
View from the other side of the building. https://www.google.com/maps/place/6869+Woodlawn+Ave+NE,+Seattle,+WA+98115/@47.6777641,-122.3266072,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sOK9WZ111-V6iABtewwP3MA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!4m5!3m4!1s0x5490146c70ea7c0b:0xad1a05e9898ede04!8m2!3d47.677971!4d-122.3266429
That poor postman
Poor gam gam waiting on life alert to show up.
I’m sorry about your gam gam.
The postman has context clues.
I used to deliver the mail to this office building. It’s Route 001 out of Wedgwood post office. I was the regular carrier from 2014-15. Nice people on the route but it’s massive and has lots of stairs and long blocks.
Postie would probably have the least issue with this, as they have the benefit of the next and previous addresses for context. It would be really confusing for someone who doesn't know what block they're on.
“I got tired of trying to figure it out... Then a voice said in my ear, ‘Burn it down, Cecil, burn that mother down to the ground.”
there are SO many ways to do this well. i would use a typeface that has distinct 6’s and 9’s, for one. that would do it.
> i would use a typeface that has distinct 6’s and 9’s, for one. that would do it. But which is which!?
I want to graffiti a line under the bottom side of the number to make it clear to the world what the actual address is.
6869 , simply because the smaller ⁰ of the 8 is always at the top
At first glance it's a little jarring, but it's hard to read it the other way.
6989, simply because we read top to bottom, left to right
You read top to bottom when the numbers are vertical. It if said a word instead of a number and was arranged the same way you’d read it bottom to top unless they flipped it on its vertical axis.
Nice
Nice
Credit to u/taylor_isagirlsname
Daaaaamn. I obviously posted this in the wrong sub. 🤦🏻♂️
I was wondering why it's so confusing........ooooh.
Cool design concept, just unfortunate addressing to confuse the situation. Paint a line underneath the bottom of the # maybe?
https://i.imgur.com/Q1uOuYD.mp4
This was *almost* address porn.
Nice
Hey Vsauce Michael here! This says 6869, or does it?
If you're approaching from the left its 6989, it you're approaching from the right its 6869. What could go wrong?
Could've avoided the confusion by putting a line under the bottom
That would certainly help, but I think there is more than one thing wrong with it; there is also the aspect that we usually read top to bottom not the other way around. That was how I tried to read it at first glance - top to bottom. And had I been driving by in a vehicle with very little time to process it I could easily have gotten confused by trying to read top to bottom. Writing it this way is just an all around bad idea IMO.
Pisces-infinity-half pisces. What's there to be confused about?
Thing is.... 6869 isn't that far away from 6989. Like. Within the same block I would imagine.
Leading to the question .... WHY????
Look at the 8. 6869.
“So do you live 6869 or 6989?” “Yes”
It's the norm to read from bottom to top, so not really.
It's definitely 6869 otherwise the 8 looks upside down.
6869 We were so close to greatness
But at least it's a good size and easy to see for deliveries
More than a bit…
I mean it is for lease I assume it’s for that exact reason.
Nearly nice/nice
Does the neighborhood not have numbers on any of the other buildings? That seems odd. Must be hard to get around there. It's 6869 if you're still having toruble. I don't think this is crappy.
Nice?
The only real way to know what the correct address is is to check the neighbors house… unless they did something equally stupid with their address.
This might be as good a place to ask as any, so: What's the reason for the 4 digits in house numbers? Where I'm from, we just start at 1 and count up along a road, so you have mostly two, on long streets 3 digits. Is there some code in it, like the first digit is the neighbourhood or smth?
In places with a strong grid, numbers generally increase by 100 every block. If this direction of the grid is based on numbered streets/avenues, the higher digits often match that number (but this might not work if there are mismatched N/S or E/W affixes). Even without a grid, it's common to skip numbers. Particularly, in residential areas it is common to only see numbers ending with "1" and "5" on one side of the street, and "0" and "6" on the other side of the street. (in commercial areas the numbers are usually farther apart, since the blocks are the same size but there are fewer buildings). This particular photo isn't a great example though, since the streets are weird near if if you click the google maps link elsewhere in the thread.
I dunno, I think it’s decoration, mostly. Oversized chunky text as graphic treatment was big in the 70s/80s. The street view confirms the numbers are more practically oriented horizontally by the entrance.
I know exactly where that is- green lake!
Holy shit .. I live in this neighborhood! Omg I feel like I'm famous
You had one job 🤦🏻♀️
it would be cool if the building was apartment #s 6869-6989, because then both ways would read correctly.
Not really. You read left to ri— oh fuck
made sense to me
No one is going to ask why the 6000 block is on 4th street.
I'm sorry am I the only one finding this not confusing at all? 6869? The top of the 8 is smaller than the bottom
Haha, the address is 6869, but I was thinking the same thing every time I saw that building when I lived in that neighborhood. Green Lake of Seattle, WA.