New views from Google Maps

I've been playing with Google Maps today. Google Maps has added a satellite view.

Check this one out. Weird angle to see Coit Tower. Pioneer Park is more or less centered in the photo. You can see most of the circular parking lot just north of Coit -- completely filled, as usual, with cars.

Montgomery Street is the wide street to the east of Coit Tower. You can see the tree where Montgomery splits in two, just north of the intersection with Union. Walking north on Montgomery, past where it splits, you can see the green swath, where the Filbert Steps head down to Sansome at the bottom of Telegraph hill. Which of those places is ours? We can't tell. You'd have to pull the view even closer. North of the Filbert Steps, the Greenwich Steps make a swath of green just south of a bunch of condo complexes.

Heading down the Filbert Steps you can see Levi's HQ and Levi Plaza. Pretty space, isn't it? You can see the bar at Pier 23 (oddly enough named "Pier 23") just across the Embarcadero from the Plaza. A ship is tied up to Pier 25. See those circus tents to the east of the ship? That's Teatro Zinzanni. We've never been. We're not much into audience participation dinner shows, but should Joan Baez come back again to reprise her role as Madame Zinzanni, I just might be tempted.

Here's another Google map satellite photo. I've put the Transamerica Pyramid front and center. Note the shadow? Coolio, eh? Obvious why folks downtown bitch about the shadows thrown by the 'scrapers, isn't it?