Results tagged “googlemaps”

Back in the day, being able to say, "Hey it's that Eyewitness News van!" after a run-in with the news vehicle was enough fodder to get through cocktail parties for the month to follow. Nowadays that sort of excitement is reserved for spotting the Google Street View vehicle, currently at the tail end of a month where it is traversing the five boroughs in order to update the nerd's eye view of New York on Google Maps. Street View is so popular that it's even spawned a website dedicated to capturing and sharing some of the more unusual images caught by the Google vehicle. While some of those pictures include being able to detect New Yorkers at specific spots around town, a concern for the local ACLU, Google spokeswoman Elaine Filadelfo told the Times, "The spirit of Google Maps is not to tie in a specific person to a specific place." We passed along a Street View sighting by Nylon last month; the Times mentions the car's appearance on Jeremiah's Vanishing New York. While Google keeps many details of the car on the DL, the driver did tell one New Yorker that his next stop was Dubai.

If you happened to look at Google Maps' Street View, you may have noticed the usual yellow "peg man" has been replaced by a panda. (Doesn't seem to be Sad Panda, though.) According to GoogleMapsMania, "Following complaints that the little yellow man shaped Street View icon wasn't cute enough Google have today replaced Pegman in Google Maps Street View with a panda." And Google Maps users in different countries have different icons. Unfortunately, it appears to be part of Google's April Foolery, involving an artificial intelligence program named CADIE (which also has a blog).

As a reader pointed out, while Google's Google Maps ads-wrapped subway cars are nifty-looking, an ad inside the car "mislabels Times Square as Grand Central Station." The mistake implies that one can get the 1, 2 or 3 from Grand Central--when everyone knows that the only way to get to the 1, 2, or 3 from Grand Central is to take the S shuttle or the 7 (if the S isn't working) to Times Square first, and then get the 1, 2, or 3 there. At least, that's what experience and Google Maps tells us.

   

Last month the History Channel series "Cities of the Underworld" was the first subway wrap ad to be unveiled on the Times Square Shuttle. Now Google Maps has stepped up to the plate, helping the MTA with their huge budget crisis by paying for a colorful ad campaign on the S. NYC the Blog notes that "Google has only wrapped the exterior of the train, leaving the interior with the more traditional ads we are used to seeing."

Intertube-savvy metropolitan diners now have yet another way to make sure their every culinary craving is sated: the new website FoodieBytes, now beta testing, lets users search restaurant menus based on the food they desire. For instance, typing in “pesto” and “whole wheat pasta” yields over a hundred New York eateries. You can narrow your search by neighborhood and, once you find a restaurant that seems appealing, peruse the entire menu, get the hours, address and price info, and find directions through a Google Maps interface.

While even Google can't help out with the subway perv problem, Subway Blogger reports that they are "getting geared up to start mapping New York City Transit systems. Ultimately, you’ll be able to map a transit or subway route just like Google Maps."

What do tourists like more than walking slowly in bunches, visiting Ground Zero, buying fake handbags in Chinatown, and wearing socks with sandals? Eating at restaurants they can find at home! The Post is reporting that IHOP (aka the International House of Pancakes) is in talks with Vornado to open a location at 1540 Broadway (btwn 45th and 46th). It would be the 2nd Manhattan location for the chain - the first location opened in 2004 at 135th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard in Harlem.

No one likes getting a parking ticket, but it's those instances when tickets are handed down unfairly that really make people crazy and determined to beat them. Sanford Young, a lawyer, spent two years and an estimated $10,000 to beat a $65 ticket in Manhattan Supreme Court. From The Post:

Young got the ticket on Nov. 29, 2005, after he parked on First Avenue near East 70th Street to have dinner with a friend. He returned from his $60 dinner to find a $65 ticket.

Continue reading "How Far Would You Go to Beat a Parking Ticket?"

Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on.

Google Maps has upped its considerable offering to include "Street View," which offers views of the certain locations at the street-level imagery. The areas where you can see images are noted by blue lines on the map (click the "Street View" button). Manhattan is pretty covered and downtown Brooklyn is covered, but the Bronx, Queens and State Island views are pretty much limited by major roads. Below is 1 Centre Street; you can't get an image of City Hall, because the blue line doesn't go into City Hall Park. Here's what Eastern Parkway at the Brooklyn Library looks like and this is the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

Today was Transportation Alternatives' Battle for the Fastest Commute! where a bike rider, subway rider, and cab rider are pitted against each other to see who can get to a destination fastest. This year, the race started at 8:25AM at Fix Cafe on North 11th Street and Bedford in Williamsburg and ended at Bellevue Hospital at East 26th Street and First Avenue in Manhattan.

If you've ever used Google Maps for driving directions, you might like the new feature they added. They've added real-time traffic information to the site. If you're actually navigating at street level though, the new feature isn't very useful. The traffic info only covers some highways and river crossings (it almost looks like only interstates and US highways).

Google Maps Mania says it's the "ultimate travel mashup". The NY Times Travel section has integrated its Travel guide pages, with all its hotels and restaurants, with Google Maps to create guide for different cities. The map above is the New York City Guide, which is certainly useful, if not definitive.

Google Maps has added two useful features: subway stations and building outlines. The subways are indicated with an M on the map (Metro? MTA?), and the building outlines can be seen, faintly, in magnifications at the top two zoom levels. For instance, you can see them here, around Broadway and Lafayette.

Google Maps Mania points to a new map offering: Walking, subway and bus directions from GypsyMaps, all laid out on a Google Map. Actually, bus information will be coming in April, but GypsyMaps has a nice start, as it shows the point to point directions all laid out. (We asked for directions between 1 West 57th Street in Manhattan to 1 Centre Street.)

Following the announcement earlier this week that Pfizer is closing their Brooklyn plant, the Times has a virtual paean to the company and how they've played a role in the community for the past century-and-a-half. Founded in 1849, the company's first best-selling drug was an intestinal-worm remedy called antonin, Pfizer's headquarters remained on Flushing Avenue until 1961, when it moved to Manhattan.

Today's our lucky day! As late as 4:30 this morning, Gothamist was having a little insomnia problem, the Weather Service was calling for widespread freezing rain during the morning rush. Thankfully, that threat and the mess it would have created, have passed and all we've got to worry about today is a few flurries.

Twelve-year old Jacob Colon was killed after being hit by a speeding Mercedes-Benze while crossing 108th Street at Atlantic Avenue yesterday. Colon was going home after helping his mother at her laundromat job.

Via The Daily Politics, the City of New York has created its own Google-type map with all sorts of information overlaid to show you the nearest services.

For the "Too Good to Be True, So It's Just Not True" file: The NY Times reports that 23 year old Daniel Markovitz "told people that he could get their parking fines reduced, saying that he knew someone in the Parking Violations Bureau or that he worked for a Web site that helped adjudicate tickets." Markovitz collected up to $780 from each person and did pay off fines for 53 parking tickets (which totaled $4,700). Except he used stolen credit cards to do so and making a profit of $2,000.

In the tradition of "There's a website for everything" (and also file under "scatological"), there is a site called Worst Places to Take a Dump, which tackles the worst places to take a dump in the city. Here is the site's mission:

George Costanza famously claimed to know of all the best toilets in the city; I know the worst. This photoblog documents the breadth of my knowledge, and features a Google Maps mashup to guide eccentric tourists. Please take the time to comment on the bathrooms you would least like to take your dumps in, and the losingest toilet will be honored accordingly. I would love to hear from anyone who has documented more of New York’s worst lavatorial phenomena, as I am only one man; I can only attempt to void my bowels in so many terrible places. All chosen submissions will, of course, receive due attribution.

Today is all about the rainfall. A half-inch has already fallen from today's storm and that's just the beginning. We can expect that rain to continue throughout the day. The most intense rain should occur this afternoon. If you were hoping to see Mercury's transit of the sun you'll have to wait until May 2016. One to two inches more rain is expected before this evening.

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Everyone has taxis on the mind! Mike at Google Map Mania let us know about this new Google Maps mash-up: The Taxi Fare Finder. We ran the imaginary taxi route of Mayor Bloomberg, going from City Hall to his East 79th Street townhouse and got a fare of just under $21 not including tip. The Fare Finder does have a disclaimer:

Please remember that this number is estimated--many factors, such as traffic and weather, will affect the actual fare. Tips are NOT included in the fare, and they are appreciated. This tool does NOT yet take tolls into account, which are your responsibility. Sorry, this site does not yet support fares outside of the five Boroughs and Newark Airport.

, but your pantry is empty (so to speak) and you don't have the energy or the desire to put on your shoes and go out to get food. Like most of us you've got a stack of take-out menus, but how do you know who's going to be open? It is, after all, three in the morning.

So, yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the first Son of Sam killings and today is another sad day in local history (*cough* Jersey *cough*). On July 31, 1916 Black Tom island, which was next to Liberty Island, literally blew up and off the map (what was left of the island is now part of the mainland in Liberty State Park). The island was a major munitions depot. And by major we mean "2,000 tons of munitions parked in freight cars and pierside barges." After midnight small fires started on some of the piers and then began to grow. Around 2:08 a.m. the munitions started to explode.

Willie Neuman points out an interesting conundrum in today's Big Deal (third item). If a developer with a known history of building oversize and then biting the cost in sheer profits comes into your neighborhood and makes a play to build an oversize building there, what do you do? What if the property in question is an enormous pit? That's exactly what has happened in Borough Park where Mendel Brach, a specialist at the 'we'll build extra and just say teachers will live here' style of building development, is asking the city for a variance to build a 12-story building and 259-car parking garage at 886 Dahil Road in Borough Park, specifically over the area on the other side of the supermarket parking lot in the aerial shot above.

Neighbors said the abandoned building had been a scourge for years, attracting the homeless and people who illegally dump trash. A violation issued by the Buildings Department last Tuesday was taped to the gate, citing hazardous conditions and ordering the owners to clean up the building, shore up a weak wall and secure the entrances. It was the second such violation since the developers bought the building.

Figuring out how to get where you are going, without driving, in a city with as many options as our own can be a chore. After very little time in the city your average New Yorker (imported or native) normally has a pretty good grasp of their basic routes but beyond that things can quickly get hazy. Enter the internet. Just like Mapquest and Google Maps simplified driving directions, the past two years has seen a cottage industry of municipal directions services pop up. The Times today takes a look at three of them, two of which we'd, tellingly, never heard of: HopStop, Trips123 and PublicRoutes.

If you're a fan of Overheard in New York, you're going to love today's Google Maps Mashup. Overplot takes "2876 quotes at 1108 locations" and reformats it all as a clickable map. So now you can find quotes conviently located near your home or office. For instance, near Gothamist HQ:

The internets are abuzz with Jason Kottke's "Manhattan Elsewhere" project. In it, he uses Google Maps and Google Earth to place Manhattan on the same map as other cities (Chicago, SF, Boston, Minneapolis, and the teeming metropolis that is Barron, Wisconsin!) The project is a loving remake of Bill Rankin's Errant Island of Manhattan project-- check that one out for LA and Philadelphia comparisons. Six years passed between the two projects, and it is fun to see how far internet maps have come since Mapquest-- especially in the 3D rendering department.