Behind the Headlines

By Stephanie Ariganello; stephaniea@monroenews.com

Google Maps recently launched their “street view” feature for Detroit. You can type Detroit, MI United States into Google and come up with a map of the city. Click the “street view” option to the left of the usual options and certain areas of the city will become highlighted in blue. You can pretty much click where ever on the blue parts and zoom in to street level. The idea is that you can see what you would see if you were standing there.

It’s really kind of neat. They’ve been doing this for awhile and there was some buzz when it first launched, but the fact that Detroit was added is important. It maps all the way down to Woodhaven and Trenton, stopping just short of Huron River Drive, and Monroe County. It also goes west as far as Plymouth in spots.

Detroit street view now joins the ranks of other cities like Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, LA, Minneapolis, NYC, Philadelphia, Portland, Orlando, Tucson, and a few others.

What I like is that you can get a feel for a place never having been there or check out where you grew up, if you happened to grow up in one of the cities that offers the feature. It takes a while to load, but once you’re at the spot you want to be at, you can zoom in, look all around, and travel down the street. So, if you’ve never been to central park, but would like to know what it looks like, go for a visit. It would be helpful also if you’re planning to go somewhere like downtown Detroit and want to get a feel for where the entrance is, where you can park, etc.
Click here for a place to start.