Jump to content

Who ate all the New York State Parks?


LeoGeo

Recommended Posts

Google Maps has suddenly destroyed hugh swaths of the Catskill and Adirondack state parks. Up until this week, for example, Ashokan and Turnwood and Oliverea, N.Y., used to appear smack in the middle of a gigantic swath of green that represented the Catskill State Park. Today, the only bits of park that show up on Google are a little patch east of Oliverea, and another little patch southeast of Windham.

 

Similarly, the southern three-quarters or so of the Adirondack Preserve has disappeared. Indian Lake and Long Lake, which used to be well inside the Preserve boundaries, are now in white, not green, areas, with only the extreme northern bit of the preserve showing up in green.

 

And I thought we had problems with our state park funding here in California! :(

 

I sent an error report to Google about this, but I wondered: has anybody else noticed this or know what underlying dataset may have changed (e.g., something supplied by the NY state parks agency) and why?

Link to comment

Google Maps has suddenly destroyed hugh swaths of the Catskill and Adirondack state parks. Up until this week, for example, Ashokan and Turnwood and Oliverea, N.Y., used to appear smack in the middle of a gigantic swath of green that represented the Catskill State Park. Today, the only bits of park that show up on Google are a little patch east of Oliverea, and another little patch southeast of Windham.

 

Similarly, the southern three-quarters or so of the Adirondack Preserve has disappeared. Indian Lake and Long Lake, which used to be well inside the Preserve boundaries, are now in white, not green, areas, with only the extreme northern bit of the preserve showing up in green.

 

And I thought we had problems with our state park funding here in California! :(

 

I sent an error report to Google about this, but I wondered: has anybody else noticed this or know what underlying dataset may have changed (e.g., something supplied by the NY state parks agency) and why?

 

Yes, I did notice that while answering the Adirondack Peaks thread! I surfed the Geocaching.com Google map looking at caches up there. And man, am I the most frequent poster around here lately, or what? :) j

 

I can also remember Yahoo! Maps "losing" all sorts of information about some of the local parks near me, and the names of small ponds and creeks, probably in like 2004. I never really looked to see if it was replaced. Yes, I would think an error report to Google is in order.

Link to comment

Pyramid Mtn lost land, but a new state park was created according to Google Maps. Great Piece Meadow State Park seems to be a new addition to the state park system according to Google. I know the state owns some of the land in GP meadow, but never heard of it being turned into a state park.

Edited by briansnat
Link to comment

I sent an error report to Google about this, but I wondered: has anybody else noticed this or know what underlying dataset may have changed (e.g., something supplied by the NY state parks agency) and why?

Google has changed where they get their map data from. Previously they used TeleAtlas, like many other mapping and GPS companies. I guess they decided to start making their own maps, which is no surprise. You may also notice they have started adding property lines and paved bike trails at closer zoom levels.

 

There are several places near my home area that are messed up now as well. Meaning, they're missing chunks of land along the shoreline and there is land where there's supposed to be water. I have submitted several error reports over the past couple days and surprisingly I got an email back already on a couple of them saying that I was correct and they will fix their maps. That is way cool, especially since I sent corrections into TeleAtlas nearly a year ago and they still haven't been acknowledged yet.

Link to comment

I sent an error report to Google about this, but I wondered: has anybody else noticed this or know what underlying dataset may have changed (e.g., something supplied by the NY state parks agency) and why?

Google has changed where they get their map data from. Previously they used TeleAtlas, like many other mapping and GPS companies. I guess they decided to start making their own maps, which is no surprise. You may also notice they have started adding property lines and paved bike trails at closer zoom levels.

 

There are several places near my home area that are messed up now as well. Meaning, they're missing chunks of land along the shoreline and there is land where there's supposed to be water. I have submitted several error reports over the past couple days and surprisingly I got an email back already on a couple of them saying that I was correct and they will fix their maps. That is way cool, especially since I sent corrections into TeleAtlas nearly a year ago and they still haven't been acknowledged yet.

 

You have a link for the error reporting?

Link to comment

Huh, I could have sworn I posted a correction to my initial post yesterday but I guess not. Or maybe it got eaten by the forums. In it, I stated that I was wrong and that Google Maps still gets their data from TeleAtlas, and will for four more years, as reported in this article. At this point, I'm not sure why the maps are so screwy all of a sudden.

 

You have a link for the error reporting?

If you're in plain old Google Maps (not within geocaching.com), in the bottom right corner of the map is a hyperlink labeled "Report a problem". Click that and it will bring up a dialog box where you can type in a problem. You can also move the pointer thingy around if it doesn't put it in the right spot.

Edited by Rayman
Link to comment

You have a link for the error reporting?

 

Their problem ID was 0x3eec5c48747e951d although I have no URL for it.

 

Google just now responded in email as follows:

 

"Your Google Maps problem report has been reviewed, and you were right! We'll update the map within a month and email you when you can see the change."

 

So, stay tuned, and I'll post the final response when it arrives. At the moment, some but not all of the Adirondacks Preserve is back, and a few pieces of the Catskills. At least there is some forward momentum....

Link to comment

Pyramid Mtn lost land, but a new state park was created according to Google Maps. Great Piece Meadow State Park seems to be a new addition to the state park system according to Google. I know the state owns some of the land in GP meadow, but never heard of it being turned into a state park.

 

A closer look showed "Great Piece Meadow State Park" to be part of what is Pyramid Mt (the newer section close to Lake Valhalla). It was a few miles from the actual Great Piece Meadow. I reported it and

they responded that I was correct and they would change it.

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...