nombres de las calles

I thought that cab drivers being unfamiliar with street names was a uniquely Zihua oddity.

I've read that Mexican street names as locations is a relatively new phenomenon in Mexico....say in the last few decades. Apparently, locations were identified more by familiar landmarks, even if those landmarks had disappeared years earlier. So, for example, people might continue to say they lived "near the Coca Cola depot", even though the depot may have closed years earlier. Street names might be used or referenced more often if Mexican towns and cities put up proper, legible street signs, instead of unreadable little plaques stuck halfway up a wall. Those plaques may work for pedestrians, (not very well), but they are almost useless if you are in a car, looking for a particular street. The same goes for house numbers, although there too, progress seems to be coming. How many Mexican homes, and even businesses, still have "S/N" (no street number) in their address?
Some would say this peculiarity is part of the charm of Mexico. Perhaps. From a motorist's perspective, it can be frustrating.

It's not that street names are some new phenomenon, it's that everyone is from somewhere else and that makes landmarks easier to refer to. In Zihuatanejo much of the town has new streets that didn't exist a few years ago. We actually called our main street "la calle principal" for several decades, but now you know it as Calle Cuauhtémoc, a partly pedestrians-only street, and hardly the main street anymore, even though most everyone who's lived here over 25 years knows it as (and some still call it) La Calle Principal.

Landmarks are more familiar for locals and often referenced even decades after they're gone. Villa del Sol will forever be thought of by locals who've lived here at least the past couple of decades as Villa del Sol, no matter what dumb Anglo name they change it to. Capricho del Rey hasn't been in business until recently for over 30 years, so a lot of young people don't know it's name but older folks do, if they've lived here or visited regularly for that long.

I knew the good ol' days were over when that first street light went up.