Ave of the Finest, Civic Center

I had to smile to myself when I first saw the Avenue of the Finest. It was a grim and rainy morning, and I had to take care of some official business downtown, in the general area that includes the courthouses, the social security offices, immigration, and a couple of detention centers. If you have to be in this area, chances are it's for some serious official purpose, so you might not be feeling especially fine or expecting this whimsically named street. I'm guessing it refers to the Police Department, which is the building that connects the two fragments of the street together, otherwise it's hard to wrap your head around the logic of why the two apparently disjoint pieces of street share this particular name. Mostly, you just want to move on out of the area as quickly as you can. If you're downtown on a lark, you will see two kinds of buildings: either the purely functional boxes that often have a serious case of the uglies, or else monumental architecture intended to inspire awe and respect. If you start to feel like a mere speck among such architectural behemoths as populate this downtown space, it's not by accident. At least you can feel pretty safe from being mugged around here, hunh?