Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Without being too obvious with famous landmarks, what are some Google Street Views of various locations that just have "the look" of a certain place to you? As in, if someone blindfolded you, drove you there, and took off the blindfold, you could make a very good guess at your location?
I've moved around quite a bit in the Southeast. I'll start off with a couple of "typical views" from some places where I have lived.
If you unblinded me here, I would almost immediately know I was in the suburbs of Southshore New Orleans. The drainage canal, tightly packed houses, and not a lot of attractive landscaping. Very typical for the area.
This just looks so Birmingham to me with the modest, blue collarish neighborhood sitting on top of a ridge...lots of trees (including pines)...and the views of the hills. This look feels distinct to me, although I imagine it gets duplicated in other ridge-and-valley cities.
Without being too obvious with famous landmarks, what are some Google Street Views of various locations that just have "the look" of a certain place to you? As in, if someone blindfolded you, drove you there, and took off the blindfold, you could make a very good guess at your location?
I've moved around quite a bit in the Southeast. I'll start off with a couple of "typical views" from some places where I have lived.
This just looks so Birmingham to me with the modest, blue collarish neighborhood sitting on top of a ridge...lots of trees (including pines)...and the views of the hills. This look feels distinct to me, although I imagine it gets duplicated in other ridge-and-valley cities.
Without being too obvious with famous landmarks, what are some Google Street Views of various locations that just have "the look" of a certain place to you? As in, if someone blindfolded you, drove you there, and took off the blindfold, you could make a very good guess at your location?
I've moved around quite a bit in the Southeast. I'll start off with a couple of "typical views" from some places where I have lived.
If you unblinded me here, I would almost immediately know I was in the suburbs of Southshore New Orleans. The drainage canal, tightly packed houses, and not a lot of attractive landscaping. Very typical for the area.
This just looks so Birmingham to me with the modest, blue collarish neighborhood sitting on top of a ridge...lots of trees (including pines)...and the views of the hills. This look feels distinct to me, although I imagine it gets duplicated in other ridge-and-valley cities.
Few will see these 3 views as anything unique to pinpoint to a city's uniqueness.
- 1st one shows no homes and could just be anything behind the gates.
- 2nd one with the ugly power-lines and polls and ditch-like sewer even (I know it is not of course) I would have guessed in Houston with its ditches by nice new developments left intact.
- 3rd one could be by me in Appalachia Pennsylvania going over mountains by me too.
So no way I could guess the cities they are actually from without google telling me. Funny how the Birmingham street-view which is the deep south. Gives me more a Northern look scene that would have entirely threw me off.
Those are very good comparisons, but I would immediately know that Baltimore is not Memphis because of the vegetation (you don't see big spruces in Memphis, or they are at least rare). Pretty much the same with Framingham. Northern vegetation. I guess I'm too in tune with these locations and the plant life to realize what looks distinct to me doesn't look distinct to most people.
Those do look very distinct to me. I guess I was looking at something more subtle, maybe familiar to people from the locations (there's no place like home). I could pick this neighborhood that is obviously New Orleans as a match for the Boston neighborhoods: https://www.google.com/maps/@29.9234...7i16384!8i8192
Few will see these 3 views as anything unique to pinpoint to a city's uniqueness.
- 1st one shows no homes and could just be anything behind the gates.
- 2nd one with the ugly power-lines and polls and ditch-like sewer even (I know it is not of course) I would have guessed in Houston with its ditches by nice new developments left intact.
- 3rd one could be by me in Appalachia Pennsylvania going over mountains by me too.
So no way I could guess the cities they are actually from without google telling me. Funny how the Birmingham street-view which is the deep south. Gives me more a Northern look scene that would have entirely threw me off.
Well, I guess I was going for something more subtle that looks "like home" to people very familiar with the locations and not sterotypical or obvious.
I agree that some parts of suburban Houston look like suburban New Orleans.
And they don't call Birmingham the Pittsburgh of the South for nuthin'. I don't *think* I could be fooled into thinking I was in Birmingham by being dropped into Pittsburgh, but it might be mainly due to the vegetation. I might have a hard time distinguishing between hilly Pittsburgh and hilly Cincinnati since they are in similar climate zones.
Inside the city limits, Seattle and Portland are immediately identifiable to me and only look like each other --- at least the areas south of 85th St N in Seattle and west of I-205 in Portland don't even look like those cities' inner-ring suburbs. The preponderance of Craftsman and other wood houses with a smattering of new "boxy" buildings, the high population density (typically exceeding 10,000 ppsm), the conifers, the high level of upkeep and lack of severe blight --- it all makes up the very distinct Seattle/Portland style. The farther-out parts of those cities, incorporated into the city limits in the 1950s and the 1980s respectively, are more suburban in character, but still look identifiably "PNW" and are still denser than the suburban areas farther out.
Now, telling Seattle and Portland apart. This is a bit more subtle, but there are a few differences:
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
