Despite living in Minneapolis for 5 years, I never understood the street grid until reading this article. The fact that streets and avenues are opposite in Northeast vs South Minneapolis (and how North Minneapolis only has avenues) is a constant source of confusion. Obviously it can be worse (I've spent enough time in Pittsburgh to know that), and having GPS navigation means the inconsistency hasn't caused me very many actual problems. But still, it's annoying that the grid system isn't more consistent.