This may well be a good thing, but… why doesn’t Google Street View include coverage of Bernal Heights? Our status is conspicuous when you look at the city as a whole, because in a sea of Street View blue, Bernal Heights is an island of invisibility.
Arguably, given Bernal’s history as “a village within the city,” our absence from Street View is probably in keeping with local tradition. Yet it’s also odd, given the comprehensiveness of Google’s coverage elsewhere.
Since we know that a few Google employees live in the ‘hood, perhaps someone can explain why Bernal Heights remains Street View terra incognita?
Bernalwood 
I was getting out of my car last year when the Google street-view car went by. I keep checking for my blurred out face to appear, but no.
Yet Bernal is VERY well covered (and in great detail) by MapJack:
http://www.mapjack.com/?MFtmWFs5bF7C
how old are those pics on mapjack? 2007?
Sounds about right..I found a pic of my “old” car from the time i “used to park” on Bonview…
They just took the pictures once, and never updated them…
although the copyright note on the Mapjack pages shows 2009
many of the Mission’s small streets (Lexington, Bartlett, Capp) also aren’t covered…
No Bernal. yet, every goddamn soulless street of the sunset it covered. WTF google
What is this obsession with Bernal?
However, I do enjoy the view of The Hill from my house in upper Noe.
@ Almostnative
if you lived in Bernal, you’d get the obsession. we love our ‘hood.
Yeah, Bernal Heights blog, WTH?
Yeah, what’s up with THAT???
lol. most clueless post ever.
I wondered the same thing in 2009: http://sf.metblogs.com/2009/08/18/google-still-leaves-much-of-southeast-sf-from-street-view/ , and in 2007 when Street View was originally released, it seemed San Francisco simply stopped at Cesar Chavez: http://sf.metblogs.com/2007/06/03/sf-stops-at-cesar-chavez/
Funny – I saw the street view camera car on Leese@Richland just this morning, so it appears this dubious honor will eventually be bestowed on our ‘hood too.
Good timing on this post? Or more evidence of Bernalwood’s influence?
The Googlecar drove by this morning.
Shit. Really?
I rather liked being in a street-view black hole.
Sorry our cover got blown, if indeed it has.
Well, my Bernal Heights house/street show up on google street view. It’s an old photo — at least 4 or 5 years old — I can tell because it’s a “before” shot of our house before it was painted. And I’ve definitely seen the street-view car go by before. Wonder whether there’s any rhyme or reason to which streets made it and which didn’t.
That’s odd because we’ve seen Google’s camera cars driving up our street (Stoneman St. in North Bernal) for years now. And our house/block shows up in a search. Freaky!
It’s the Cone of Silence.
Lexington used to be available but according to a friend who lives there was removed after another resident complained. Jeff on Capp noticed this as well in October 2009 and assumed the same thing. However he said, “[he’s] assured by someone who works on the SV team that this is a ‘known bug’ and … that it will be fixed soon.” As these areas are still unavailable, perhaps resident complaints are the cause.
Also, note that the slim coverage in the east side is really inaccurate. If you try to look on our street (Bronte), it actually shows photos of the next block over on Bradford. I know I should be grateful for the privacy, but am sort of annoyed that people might think that’s my house when it really isn’t. However, Bing maps with birds-eye view has Bernal more than covered. I was able to show my parents recent backyard improvements when we visited there last winter.
Once in while, we come across a cab driver who doesn’t know where Bernal Heights is. I have to say, it makes me smile. Most through streets in the other neighborhoods are mapped by Google camera but not their small streets. Isn’t it part of Bernal’s charm that it has so many tiny streets, that it is mostly ‘off the map’? We hope it stays that way for time to come. Otherwise, we could have moved to Noe Valley.
I work on the communications team at Google, saw this post and just wanted to share that we’re working to expand Street View coverage to areas that are not presently represented on Google Maps.
Thanks for your enthusiasm!
well… I guess I’ll see it when I believe it. but you still didn’t clear up the mystery of “why?” as many others have said, they have the data… I’ve seen google cars drive thru bernal on at least 4 occasions over the last several years… why is it not on there? there’s gotta be a good reason.
I consider it a positive thing. It may thwart any TeaParty Militia invading.
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