Hello, Richmond! You’re on Google Maps!
According to various sources around the RVA blogosphere and here, Google Maps has added street view throughout the RVA metropolitan area. I was curious about it and successfully street viewed the school’s campus, as depicted on the shot to the right. I showed a faculty member who was blown away by how accurate the application displayed her house with such detail (for obvious privacy reasons, I won’t include the link here).
I think, now, a question of privacy is raised. Might it now be possible to make it easier for potential thieves to case prospective robberies by simply doing 360 degree views and seeing what various neighborhoods are like, i.e. how affluent they may be, are there any security cameras around, how quiet are these neighborhoods during the day, etc. In addition, what about license plates, etc.?
On a positive spin, for those considering vacation, moving, etc. to our area, this application allows them to check out neighborhoods such as architecture, amenities, restaurants, etc.
I see this application being very useful and, yet, very scary at the same time. Think I’ll be showing the kids this weekend just how cool this could be! 
Filed under: Geek Stuff, Richmond by kory
It is a strange and disorienting experience to take the virtual version that follows one of the routes I saunter from office to house each day. The West Broad and North Robinson Street stretches seem to have been photographed toward dusk, perhaps on a weekend?
I don’t see many people out on the sidewalks. The streets are deserted except for a few cars running with their headlights on.
I register this emptiness when I’m enjoying my pedestrian pleasures I can on my morning jaunts amble along several blocks and not see any one enjoying the bloom of spring on the bosky Fan streets.
I am reminded of a blog some visiting Chinese students kept and a theme running through their observations was the lack of people in the streets–but compared to Shanghai, I guess Richmond would seem deserted.
Still, using this Google Maps view, I’m reminded of that “Omega Man” film with Heston, or maybe “28 Days Later.” Weird.
A bicyclist here on Robinson, a woman talking on her cell phone near Floyd and Robinson, and on the street where I live, nary a soul stirring. Eerie — kind of like GoogleMaps itself.
There is something to be said about visiting a city before commiting yourself to physically coming there. Thing is, cities are dynamic and organic; streetscapes change — and does Google plan to do this again in another 10 years to reflect changes made in these cities?
One aspect of Richmond you can’t experience through this method is her alleyways, which are marvelous.