Author Topic: So, what's it like where you live? (Read 51495 times)

Piers · « **on:** May 23, 2009, 01:36:17 PM »

Currently I'm snooping and wooping with where some of you live using Google maps, since I'm a nosy shit like that.
Harrisburg has a road! In a valley! And rivers flowing through cities! Looks ideal. And Dubuque is full of greenery! Unless satellite imagery is just deceiving me. It also has lots of sporting areas, golf, baseball and such.
All of you live in much bigger areas than me

James · « **Reply #1 on:** May 23, 2009, 01:43:44 PM »

Really boring, with loads of ghetto people.

ila · « **Reply #2 on:** May 23, 2009, 01:46:17 PM »

Dubuque has lots of empty fields they like to call sporting areas, but the biggest sport around here is gambling. But there are a couple golf courses, one of them being right across the street from me.
However what googlemaps won't show you is how the downtown is riddled with one way streets and strange intersections. I've lived here all my life and I still can't navigate downtown worth shit.
Also, church on every street, bar on every corner.

...seriously of all places, why would you look up Dubuque first?

Mirai · « **Reply #3 on:** May 23, 2009, 02:05:15 PM »

Apartment building, university building, government building, university building, government building, government building, White House, government building, government building, Metro station, government building, business building, government building...

Piers · « **Reply #4 on:** May 23, 2009, 02:15:21 PM »

I see what you mean, J

Those do look like DANGEROUS CORNERS

And Mirai,

:O
Still really want to see Washington for myself before I kick the bucket.

Squishdiboo · « **Reply #5 on:** May 23, 2009, 02:17:31 PM »

Well I live in Hershey which is like 20 minutes from Harrisburg and is pretty much the same. Except, Harrisburg has all these awkward roads that turn onto steep hills. . . Wtf is up with that? And this is more of a suburban type area, I think.

James · « **Reply #6 on:** May 23, 2009, 02:18:25 PM »

Piers, you're looking on the wrong side of Michigan Avenue for DANGEROUS CORNERS. XP

Piers · « **Reply #7 on:** May 23, 2009, 02:30:29 PM »

What are you talking about! It's flowers! Th-

...

Southbird · « **Reply #8 on:** May 23, 2009, 02:49:03 PM »

Quote from: Squash on May 23, 2009, 02:17:31 PM

Except, Harrisburg has all these awkward roads that turn onto steep hills. . . Wtf is up with that?

Dude, it's Pennsylvania. I should know, being born and raised in Pittsburgh, and having relative in Philly requiring driving across the whole thing. The Midwest has been a shocking change... there's like SHOULDERS on ALMOST EVERY road, and ... and... actual turning lanes, not afterthought insertions. Man.

See this

Josie · « **Reply #9 on:** May 23, 2009, 03:13:11 PM »

The city proper is a little better about hills and corners.

only a little

there's lots of little streams with stands of trees around them here. I like them.

Chrispy · « **Reply #10 on:** May 23, 2009, 03:16:56 PM »

I grew up in west Pennsylvania (New Brighton to be exact) and yeah, place is hilly as fuck. Also riddled with pot holes.

Squishdiboo · « **Reply #11 on:** May 23, 2009, 03:21:21 PM »

I like how I can tell I've crossed from PA to Maryland, because I don't see any billboards every few hundred feet.

Chrispy · « **Reply #12 on:** May 23, 2009, 03:27:18 PM »

Help Keep PA Clean

SoNick · « **Reply #13 on:** May 23, 2009, 03:34:54 PM »

I can't seem to recall how to switch to the view you're using in Google Maps and having blurry images due to using a SDTV as a monitor isn't helping any, but check out Hays, KS if you want to see where I live.

It's been awhile since I checked it out, but last I checked at the very least 27th Street is viewable.

Seph · « **Reply #14 on:** May 23, 2009, 04:13:34 PM »

No hills, swamp only, Final Destination

Milo · « **Reply #15 on:** May 23, 2009, 04:19:21 PM »

Salinas, CA is an all right place. We're an agricultural city, so there's fields out the butt. There's a huge gang problem here, but I generally enjoy living here. It's just big enough so I don't feel like I'm in some hobunk town, but it's just small enough where people at restaurants and other establishments know who I am.

SonKnuck · « **Reply #16 on:** May 23, 2009, 04:28:06 PM »

I'm here. Wrong house by Google, but Right street.

yaj · « **Reply #17 on:** May 23, 2009, 04:32:28 PM »

the neighborhood i live in is right on the edge of pittsburgh. the people are generally nice here, and it's not too run down looking. the streets are narrow, and that combined with the cars parked on them makes driving difficult. it did for me when i was trying to learn anyway. this is pretty much it

Will Knavison · « **Reply #18 on:** May 23, 2009, 05:48:45 PM »

New Rochelle, NY. Surburban area, the high school I went to is a mere two blocks away

Corey · « **Reply #19 on:** May 23, 2009, 05:52:33 PM »

Raleigh, NC. I'm somewhere in the green blob of Hedingham golf course.

Look downtown and you can see our massive 24 story building. Other than that, there's the museum of art, which might have some free outdoor Google Maps exhibits, and Andrew Johnson's birthplace, which is too obscured my woods to be found. If anyone is actually interested, I can upload a photo of his hillbilly shack. My brother rented a house very close to it.

Piers · « **Reply #20 on:** May 23, 2009, 06:02:59 PM »

*raises hand*

Corey · « **Reply #21 on:** May 23, 2009, 06:19:01 PM »

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

I think it's cool. Hard to imagine a congress' trained monkey came from a shack.

James · « **Reply #22 on:** May 23, 2009, 06:38:55 PM »

Piers, it only gets worse when you head east.

Also, kinda crappy after the AutoZone further west.

Sputnik · « **Reply #23 on:** May 23, 2009, 08:26:26 PM »

I currently live in the St. Martí de Provençals district of Barcelona. It's composed of two main areas: northern St. Martí (Clot, Camp de l'Arpa, Sagrera, Guinardó), which is where I live in, and southern St. Martí (Poblenou, Vila Olímpica, Diagonal Mar).

I'll begin with Poblenou (pawb-blah-NO) since the most representative streets in my neighbourhood are pedestrian-only. Which means there's no Street View photos. Plus Poblenou is a really strange neighbourhood, really unusual for Barcelona but at the same time it contains all things typical of the city (to the eyes of a local, anyway: old red brick factories, parts built following the Eixample grid, parts rebuilt during the Maragall era, the sea, the traditional shops, etc.), so I hope you find it as awesome as I do. I should move there someday...

Parc Central del Poblenou: a funky park by Jean Nouvel. Note the red brick smokestacks: back in the day Poblenou was THE industrial neighbourhood (and Barcelona has been pretty much THE industrial city until the 70s.) There are smokestacks like those all over the city, but somehow people from Poblenou are especially proud about them. There's even a guy who sells miniature models...

http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/2372/77082764.jpg
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/7306/24952639.jpg
http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/5122/59171888.jpg
http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/4575/42868804.jpg
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/347/50246811.jpg

Pere IV Street: one of Poblenou's main streets.
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/9752/93944338.jpg

Can Felipa: another old factory (even though it looks like traditional housing in a northern French city, complete with mansard roofs)
http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/1631/41913013.jpg

Marià Aguiló Street: clearly the coolest street in the neighbourhood. This is where I should live. This or the Old City, where my dad was born.
http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/6999/34494091.jpg
http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/4627/94511296.jpg

Poblenou Market (background)
http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/8532/18153525.jpg

Atlètic Poblenou, the neighbourhood's soccer team. There's also a rugby team, els Enginyers de Poblenou, the "Poblenou Engineers". With names like this I'm surprised they haven't replaced the Martinenc flag with a smokestack over the Catalan flag or something like that...
http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/7624/31627727.jpg

Rambla Poblenou. Poblenou's actual main street.
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/9307/99799513.jpg
http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/7708/82148305.jpg

I suddenly jumped to the opposite corner of the neighbourhood for some reason.
Icària Avenue: main street of what was the Olympic Village for the 1992 Olympics.
Those funky brise-soleil things were designed by Enric Miralles. His work is part of what inspired me to become an architect - my dad was born in a very poor and run down part of the Old City, next to an old market which was eventually "restored" (more like totally made over) following a project by Miralles (Mercat de Santa Caterina.) This and some small-scale interventions revived the zone to an unbelievable degree, which really touched me (and my dad). That's what made me realise the potential of architecture.
http://img36.imageshack.us/my.php?image=56073754.jpg

"Bridge buildings" are an important part of the Olympic Village. They are buldings that create an entry to the inner courtyard of the blocks. The planners did this so they could build disperse, Modernist-style housing inside the blocks while retaining the urbanity and hierarchy of the traditional, commercial, Eixample grid street.
http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/3661/62737370.jpg
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/9269/24318456.jpg

I think that smokestack over 50 metres high? The high-rises are around 150m for comparison.
http://img42.imageshack.us/my.php?image=28851971.jpg

There's this weird pseudo-park between the city and the seafront. It actually covers a motorway.
http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/3438/98204322.jpg
http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/3535/37285431.jpg
http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/4331/24943292.jpg

It leads to Diagonal Mar, which is a pretty boring zone. However its core is a park by Enric Miralles so it can't be all that bad, right? I'm also fond of the building that looks as if it had been nuked. Pretty clever to turn the metallic blinds into the face of the building.
http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/4746/44583748.jpg
http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/5941/44323684.jpg

After which is the Fòrum area, which is like a pseudo-park minus the trees, next to the sea, with some high-rises around. Actually it's sort of like a Sonic level. There's a really awesome tower by Enric Massip-Bosch going up right now - just 3 floors for now. He teaches at my school, although I haven't heard anything good about him XD
http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/1677/40038739.jpg

St. Adrià's three smokestacks mark the frontier between Barcelona proper and the Besòs side of the metro area.
http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/9428/29686976.jpg

Everybody loves tramways!
http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/9518/26417762.jpg

...and dildos.
http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/5609/35679685.jpg

The Poblenou graveyard and some old factories. The photo doesn't show, but it's massive. I guess industrial workers didn't live long back in the 1880s.
http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/8262/93540627.jpg

Sputnik · « **Reply #24 on:** May 23, 2009, 08:28:12 PM »

Quote from: SonKnuck on May 23, 2009, 04:28:06 PM

I'm here. Wrong house by Google, but Right street.

...