Google Maps: Grit, Funny, WTF, Anything Interesting

Ex-Ithacan · #1 Posted **Mar 20, 2016, 7:56 PM**

Since I've got extra time on my hands now (retirement), I thought I'd do more exploring of Google Maps. I don't remember seeing a thread with what folks have discovered on the site, so why not?

I'll start with a short series from North Philly; I saw a guy running down the street and it seemed he wasn't just jogging:

So I checked closer:

Sure enough..... so I followed his progress down the block:

This is the closest he got:

It was the end of the block and he disappeared. I wonder what happened to him (and the Google driver)?

photoLith · #2 Posted **Mar 21, 2016, 9:25 PM**

I havent ever found anything funny but I spend hours everyday on google earth mapping out places in PA, WV, OH, VA, etc on the National Register of Historic Places, and other places I want to photograph or have photographed. Been making this map for two years now, got over 10,000 spots on it of historic value.

dfd by photolitherland, on Flickr

HomeInMyShoes · #3 Posted **Mar 21, 2016, 9:53 PM**

Maybe he just really wants to be on Google Maps.

Tucumanisfuture · #4 Posted **Mar 21, 2016, 10:42 PM**

Tucuman, Argentina

Ex-Ithacan · #5 Posted **Mar 21, 2016, 11:02 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

Maybe he just really wants to be on Google Maps.

I can buy that. Or maybe he doesn't want to be known around the world.

Some San Francisco:

A somber alley:

Maybe he ate a bad slice of pizza:

I don't know what's going on here:

KevinFromTexas · #6 Posted **Mar 22, 2016, 3:40 AM**

The Google car caught my sister and my brother-in-law sitting on their front porch.

Ex-Ithacan · #7 Posted **Mar 22, 2016, 12:32 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

The Google car caught my sister and my brother-in-law sitting on their front porch.

Did you try to find their pic?

Ex-Ithacan · #8 Posted **Mar 22, 2016, 10:45 PM**

Here's a block in East Baltimore (near Johns Hopkins Hospital), in 2009. This is now gone and replaced with a new elementary school (2012): http://hendersonhopkins.org/About/factsheet.html

Progress.

KevinFromTexas · #9 Posted **Mar 23, 2016, 2:25 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ex-Ithacan

Did you try to find their pic?

I did at the time, but they've changed it since then. I don't think I grabbed a screenshot either. I'm kicking myself now. haha

MolsonExport · #10 Posted **Mar 23, 2016, 3:31 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ex-Ithacan

Here's a block in East Baltimore (near Johns Hopkins Hospital), in 2009. This is now gone and replaced with a new elementary school (2012): http://hendersonhopkins.org/About/factsheet.html

Progress.

Wow. Brutal but fascinating.

Ex-Ithacan · #11 Posted **Mar 23, 2016, 7:59 PM**

Here's some grit from a small city just outside of Pittsburgh; McKeesport, PA. I visited the town over ten years ago, and as of 2013 it's still got plenty of grit:

Dead End Street 1:

I did notice the house at the end of the street above seems occupied:

I see this old guy is trying to clear out the entrance to his side yard:

Dead end street 2. Looks like the house on the right might be occupied....decent chairs on the porch.

MolsonExport · #12 Posted **Mar 23, 2016, 8:24 PM**

Wow. Looks worse than Calcutta. Population peaked in 1940, now only slightly more than a third of the peak.

Historical population
Census Pop. %±
1850 1,392 —
1860 2,166 55.6%
1870 2,523 16.5%
1880 8,212 225.5%
1890 20,741 152.6%
1900 34,227 65.0%
1910 42,694 24.7%
1920 46,781 9.6%
1930 54,632 16.8%
1940 55,355 1.3%
1950 51,502 −7.0%
1960 45,489 −11.7%
1970 37,977 −16.5%
1980 31,012 −18.3%
1990 26,016 −16.1%
2000 24,040 −7.6%
2010 19,731 −17.9%
Est. 2014 19,561 −0.9%
Wookie's Pedia

Ex-Ithacan · #13 Posted **Mar 23, 2016, 9:18 PM**

^ Yep, it's a sad situation. There's quite a few towns around Pittsburgh in the same shape.

photoLith · #14 Posted **Mar 24, 2016, 7:59 PM**

Every town down the Monongahela just past downtown Pittsburgh is more or less like McKeesport. Duquesne, Braddock, North Braddock, Homestead, Clairton, Glassport, Brownsville, Monesson are all destroyed and have been hugely declining since the death of the steel mills. Same goes for many of the towns west of Pittsburgh down the Ohio River.