Slashdot Mirror
As Google Maps Renames Neighborhoods, Residents Fume (nytimes.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: For decades, the district south of downtown and alongside San Francisco Bay here was known as either Rincon Hill, South Beach or South of Market. This spring, it was suddenly rebranded on Google Maps to a name few had heard: the East Cut. The peculiar moniker immediately spread digitally, from hotel sites to dating apps to Uber, which all use Google's map data. The name soon spilled over into the physical world, too. Real-estate listings beckoned prospective tenants to the East Cut. And news organizations referred to the vicinity by that term.
"It's degrading to the reputation of our area," said Tad Bogdan, who has lived in the neighborhood for 14 years. In a survey of 271 neighbors that he organized recently, he said, 90 percent disliked the name. The swift rebranding of the roughly 170-year-old district is just one example of how Google Maps has now become the primary arbiter of place names. With decisions made by a few Google cartographers, the identity of a city, town or neighborhood can be reshaped, illustrating the outsize influence that Silicon Valley increasingly has in the real world.
"It's degrading to the reputation of our area," said Tad Bogdan, who has lived in the neighborhood for 14 years. In a survey of 271 neighbors that he organized recently, he said, 90 percent disliked the name. The swift rebranding of the roughly 170-year-old district is just one example of how Google Maps has now become the primary arbiter of place names. With decisions made by a few Google cartographers, the identity of a city, town or neighborhood can be reshaped, illustrating the outsize influence that Silicon Valley increasingly has in the real world.
"It's degrading to the reputation of our area," said Tad Bogdan, who has lived in the neighborhood for 14 years.
He should be happy they didn't decide to call it Poop Map!
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Google can just give every SF neighborhood a really awful name. West gash, Buttfungus grove, Trashpile drive, Stank avenue, etc, lowering property values until housing is affordable for mere mortals again!
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
s/Cupertino/Fruit Market/
It's better here in Texas (like everything)
...except the weather, unless you're comparing to Oklahoma or something. The only thing I really miss from Texas, though, is the BBQ. Finding a BBQ place in California that knows anything about anything is a terrible chore. In Texas, you can't hardly drive after the first rain of the season without crashing into one. Hmm, the drivers are worse in Texas, too.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Gordon Ramsay would not be amused.
#DeleteFacebook
That's nothing. Many streets in South Houston just have Chinese or Korean on them. They used to be dual language in homage to the "little China" aesthetic, but someone has gone around removing some of the English parts.
This is racist AF, btw. Since the city is home to more Hispanics than Chinese. We don't see any signs in Spanish, or Ebronics for that matter...
(read it again, racist, it says eBronics, as in the "language" those e-Bronies neigh while watching MLP).
The difference between Europeans and Americans is that Europeans think 200 miles is a long way and Americans think 200 years is a long time.