When we moved to Portland about 7 years ago, our first apartment was in the Pearl District on Couch (asking someone to pronounce it correctly is another good Portlander test). I'm a huge fan of the alphabetic street names. It made it really easy to get around a new city. I know the system eventually breaks down when you hit the 27th street, but I still think it's great. Anyways, I'm back in Chicago now and memorizing street locations.