Pokémon takes over Las Vegas as streets get named after iconic monsters


Pokémon takes over Las Vegas as streets get named after iconic monsters

A Californian property company is naming Las Vegas streets after Pokémon, bringing adorable life to the casino city.

Property development group Harmony administrator Andrea Miller decided to grace the new streets with the names of everyone‘s favourite pocket monsters.

In the new developments, Jigglypuff Place, Squirtle Lane and Snorlax Road signs adorn the new streets. Maybe in the future we could see roads named after acyual Pokémon places. Let me live in Pallet Town!

Speaking to CBC, Miller explained that the new naming convention comes from her children. However, the new names also helps the housing company battle tougher regulations when it comes to proposing new streets.

Miller explains that newly created streets can’t have names that are too similar to already existing ones in the state of Nevada. However, naming streets after beloved Pokémon is easy, inoffensive and also fun for everyone.

"I would go home from work and kind of bounce names off of my kids, and they would come up with silly street names and then we would have to push those ones aside," Miller said. “[Then] my oldest was like, 'What about Pokemon?'"

A lot of the most popular first generation Pokémon are now represented in the form of new streets. For example, Jigglypuff Place and Charizard Lane intersect one another.

However, the housing development has decided not to use the most popular Pokémon character for its streets: Pikachu. The reason being that the adorable electric mouse is just too famous and will stand out too much.

"I didn't want to use Pikachu because I didn't want it to really stand out that the community was named after Pokemon," Miller said.

We’re not quite sure if Pikachu Avenue would stand out anymore than Charizard Lane, but the new Pokémon-inspired streets are incredible fun for fans of the franchise all over the world.

Miller explains that the cute names of the newly named streets always bring a smile to her face.

“Every time I hear 'Jigglypuff,' it makes me giggle a little bit," she told CBC. "So I was hoping that it would do the same for my buyers."

As the biggest media franchise in the world, Pokémon has seen anything from streets to new species of animals named after its collection of colourful creatures. In fact, last March, a new species of cockroach was named after a creature from Pokémon Sun and Moon.

In the 27 years since Pokémon Red and Green first launched in Japan, the franchise has sold almost 500 million copies and produced billions of trading cards. With Pokémon Scarlet and Violet selling 20 million units on Nintendo Switch alone, the franchise shows no signs of stopping.

For more articles like this, take a look at our News, Pokemon, and Gaming pages.