Head Tale

The day before we left for Hawaii a couple years ago, I did a post summarizing how much of a role various web sites – from Google to Reddit to Trip Advisor – played in helping to plan and just generally build excitement for our trip.

I mentioned Google Maps in passing in that post but didn’t really talk about the best feature of that service – the Street View option which allows you to drop yourself right on any street, pretty much anywhere in North America and beyond.  From there, you can use your mouse or keyboard to move or look in any direction.

I have to admit I’ve become a bit addicted to this site.  It started awhile back when I decided to try to see if I could find a White Castle fast food restaurant Shea and I stopped at when we passed through Detroit.  (Why trying to find this restaurant occurred to me, I have no idea!)  😉

I couldn’t find the White Castle but while looking around, I stumbled upon some streets in the Motor City that shocked me.  I knew the economy was hurting in Detroit but there were images of burned out homes, people (with their faces obscured as per Google’s privacy rules) using drugs and in one case, apparently urinating on a dumpster!

Seeing that inspired me to jump to Beverly Hills California and “walk” around looking at various mansions, trying to wrap my head around the disparity in wealth that exists in the United States (unsuccessfully, I might add.)

Since then, when bored, I often jump into Google Street View, sometimes when a specific location or landmark occurs to me, other times, by dropping myself at a completely random location.

Last night, I had a very similar experience to that first “trip” from the mean streets of Detroit to the golden streets of Beverly Hills.

I looked up the location of Dodger Station to see where the first NHL outdoor game in a warm weather location was being played in front of a wide range of celebrities and wealthy fans.

Looking at the stadium’s location on the LA map, I saw “Skid Row” labeled on a nearby section of the map, directly south of the stadium, and had the strange realization that Skid Row, a place I knew of conceptually and which has come to be short hand for any destitute area of a city anywhere in the world was an actual real place that not only existed but even showed up *as* Skid Row on a map!

I likely wouldn’t do it if I was physically in Los Angeles but I was able to spend some time “walking around” the area to see (again, with faces obscured) the reality of life in that area.

I ended up using Reddit and a few other sources to do some more reading and learning about the area.  Reddit led to all kinds of articles and even a YouTube vlogger – not sure if he’s a homeless guy or not but definitely seems to live in the area – who posts clips of his experiences on the street.

Google Street View is an amazing resource – to experience both the best and the worst of our world – without leaving the comfort of your computer.

I’d encourage you to try Google Street View out yourself sometime if you haven’t – just go to Google Maps, find a random location and then drag the “Pegman” figure onto the map to got to Street View and begin exploring.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyJiOr_1AE4