Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Windsor Mill Road

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The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was no consensus, defaulting to keep. Can't sleep, clown will eat me 20:08, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Windsor Mill Road

Windsor Mill Road (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs) – (View log)

Non-notable city street. Not a numbered highway. —Scott5114↗ 04:42, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

  • Keep as an old road that predates the founding of Baltimore. --NE2 04:51, 21 September 2007 (UTC)
    • Because it's old, it's notable?—Scott5114↗ 05:04, 21 September 2007 (UTC)
      • Because it's old and sources cover that. --NE2 05:09, 21 September 2007 (UTC)
  • Delete. Unless any notability can be shown. There are hundreds of thousands of "old" roads in the world. Crazysuit 05:48, 21 September 2007 (UTC)
  • Keep The road is actually from 1730 [1], not only pre-dating Balitimore, but pre-dating the USA. "Not a numbered highway" is not a reason to delete an article. AfD Sunset Blvd. or Broadway if you feel it is. --Oakshade 07:26, 21 September 2007 (UTC)
    • Sunset and Broadway are both heavily referenced in pop culture. Broadway gives its name to the New York theater industry. Windsor Mills isn't comparable to those streets. —Scott5114↗ 08:15, 21 September 2007 (UTC)
  • Keep as notable and verifiable. I formated the existing references. --Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) 08:29, 21 September 2007 (UTC)
  • Comment- can anyone tell me why they feel this street is notable? There's lots of old things that aren't notable - that's not a good reason to keep. —Scott5114↗ 20:34, 21 September 2007 (UTC)
  • Comment Notability doesn't mean the biggest, or the best, or George Washington slept here. It means that reliable third parties have written about the topic so that the information in the article can be verified. Every town in the US has an article even if nothing ever happened there. --Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) 20:59, 21 September 2007 (UTC)
  • Delete there's thousands and thousands of very old arterials in the United States, why is this one so special? -- JA10 Talk • Contribs 21:38, 21 September 2007 (UTC)
  • Delete re above. --Rschen7754 (T C) 00:25, 22 September 2007 (UTC)
  • Delete. It's a road. No sign that its name has become associated with an industry, a cultural reference, or popular culture. Mere existence means nothing, even if you find a reliable source attesting to its existence. --Calton | Talk 01:09, 22 September 2007 (UTC)
  • Delete per nom and above arguments. --TMF Let's Go Mets - Stats 02:33, 22 September 2007 (UTC)
    • Comment Thanks to the above 4 responses, there are now more "deletes" than "keeps." But if you look clearly at them, it is likely that these are 4 people who know one another, or even possibly, the same person. The arguments do not seem individualistic, but rather supporting the previous one. They were all posted within a few hours of each other, late at night. It looks like part of a plan to rig this vote.
Meanwhile, there are many reasons for this and other articles strictly of regional appeal to be notable by Wikipedia standards. A place does not need to be known worldwide in order to be notable. Sure, people in Montana have no interest in Windsor Mill Road. Neither do they about all the public high schools in Baltimore County, most of for which an individual Wikipedia article does exist.
As for this article, it is well referenced, with information from reliable published books. The plain route description is verifiable from a Mapquest-like website. What Wikipedia policy opposes is creating an article on your own side street. Meanwhile, if you sit by Windsor Mill Road for some time, not a minute will go by without a large number of cars passing. Sebwite 14:43, 23 September 2007 (UTC)


  • Idea: Though I have very much and do still favor keeping this particular article, I understand the point behind its consideration for deletion - to limit the number of road articles. But it is possible to write about smaller roads within the articles about the towns in which they are in. If a road has some importance to thru traffic or is home to some landmarks, but is contained mostly to a single town name or zip code, a few lines or paragraphs about that road can be written within that town's article. See what I have done in the articles on Owings Mills and Pikesville for an example of this. Meanwhile, a road like this one that has no number but transverses two or more cities or towns can still have its own article. Sebwite 20:31, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
    • Or do a List of roads in Baltimore, Maryland or something similar and merge it there. Or perhaps best yet, put it on an external site. I'm sure there's a roadgeek out there somewhere that would give you space, or maybe even a wiki focusing solely on the Baltimore area. —Scott5114↗ 21:08, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
      • Actually, what I have done is I have taken two articles on other roads that I created and merged them into the articles on their respective localities. These include Red Run Boulevard and Shawan Road. At first, when I created them, they seemed to me to be notable. But after I could find little to write about them above the stub level, and I could not expect anyone else to, they look better within another article.
Meanwhile, this article, which I initially wrote as a small stub, has been expanded by others, and has really grown. It has more room for growth in the future. It already links from several other articles, and links to many more. It is 7.5 miles long and runs through both Baltimore City and County, so it does not work well in an article about a single town. Sebwite 01:16, 26 September 2007 (UTC)
  • Keep. Not because "it's old" but because it appears to be notably old (with cites support its historical nature, including role in local industry). Maryland jurisdictions are different from most other states as far as I can tell, in that towns are not incorporated: just because a road has a state number doesn't mean it's "important enough for the state to care" or is too large to be considered a local matter. DMacks 00:20, 25 September 2007 (UTC)


The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.