Why the blur on the arch?

March 2, 2021 10:31 AM

In this lockdown era, I have been taking some Google Street View walks around cities I love. I was surprised today to find that the Washington Square Arch in Manhattan is blurred out. It must be intentional, as when you get within view of it to the north, east, or west, you lose the ability to shift your view to different years. Any idea why this would be?
posted by ricochet biscuit to Grab Bag (14 answers total)

As an arm chair tourist, you may find it interesting to learn Why Photos of the Eiffel Tower at Night are Illegal. Whether this has anything to do with the Washington Square Arch... I don't know.
posted by oceano at 10:45 AM on March 2, 2021 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: As an arm chair tourist, you may find it interesting to learn Why Photos of the Eiffel Tower at Night are Illegal yt .

Interesting indeed. I am glad to hear the restriction in on commercial use; it would be a hell of a way to learn I am a wanted man in France.

I would not that if you take a Street View walk through the park proper, the arch is clearly in view. And it was not blurred out the last time I looked at it there maybe a year ago, so it must be a new thing.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:00 AM on March 2, 2021 [1 favorite]

I don't know why this particular site would be blurred, and neither does Reddit, but Google allows people to request that their house be blurred out in street view; I'd imagine this is a case of that.
posted by ook at 11:50 AM on March 2, 2021

Ooh, I'm fascinated by this since I recently discovered an apartment building on a random block I was visiting is also blurred out.
posted by BlahLaLa at 11:53 AM on March 2, 2021

Especially odd since there's a Streetview path around it that is too close for a view of the whole arch, and oddly disconnected from the street grid. Plus there are tons of user-submitted photos from within the park and on Washington Square North that show uncensored views.
posted by me3dia at 12:07 PM on March 2, 2021 [2 favorites]

Terrorism fears, perhaps? Not great to let people study it from afar up close?
posted by tiny frying pan at 12:32 PM on March 2, 2021

It seems to have something to do with the arch itself rather than anything temporarily going on at the time the Street View imagery was shot (June 2019). I was going to say there may have been an artwork displayed around or beneath the arch at that time and there could be copyright issues because of it.

What suggests it's about the arch itself is the fact that Street View history is disabled directly in front of the arch (preventing you from seeing any older Street View imagery). However, if you travel a little ways down the block in either direction where the arch is obscured behind the trees, Street View history is enabled and you can see imagery going back to 2009.

But then you can just click on the Street View path that's directly behind the arch and clearly see it, along with Ai Weiwei’s ‘Good Fences Make Good Neighbors’ installation which was underneath it in 2017. You can also see the arch from Washington Sq S on the opposite side of the park, as well as in the dozens of Photo Sphere shots scattered around the area.
posted by theory at 2:26 PM on March 2, 2021

Response by poster: Terrorism fears, perhaps? Not great to let people study it from afar up close?

I’ve been through the park dozens of times in my life and have never not seen eight or twelve people taking photographs of the arch, or of friends under the arch. I’d imagine a malefactor could get a lot more detailed information simply by walking up to it and taking as many photographs as he wanted than through studying a half-dozen relatively low-res pictures from the Street View car.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 3:21 PM on March 2, 2021

Maybe try contacting somebody in the Parks Department? This page on the park and the arch recommends calling "Art & Antiquities" at [phone] for more info. You can also email a question to the commissioner's office here.
posted by Rhaomi at 4:39 PM on March 2, 2021

Oh! Theory might have it.

Around June 2019, there was an Ai Weiwei installation -- it was a cage of some sort, stuffed under the arch. (FWIW, despite liking a lot of Ai Weiwei's stuff, I thought this was a pretty poor showing.)
posted by cgs06 at 5:05 PM on March 2, 2021

A 2008 blog post specifically mentions the arch as a landmark that can be seen using street view, so whatever the issue is, it doesn't seem to date back to the launch of the service.
posted by eponym at 5:08 PM on March 2, 2021

Hmm... it happened in late 2017, not 2019.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/oct/11/ai-weiwei-launches-controversial-public-art-project-focused-on-immigration
posted by cgs06 at 5:08 PM on March 2, 2021

Response by poster: A 2008 blog post specifically mentions the arch as a landmark that can be seen using street view, so whatever the issue is, it doesn't seem to date back to the launch of the service.

As I say, a year ago (or five or ten years ago) it was visible. This is why I remark on it now.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:24 PM on March 2, 2021

me3dia: Especially odd since there's a Streetview path around it that is too close for a view of the whole arch, and oddly disconnected from the street grid.

That is weird, because I can't escape from the viewpoints around the arch when clicking on your link, nor can I get that close to the arch from the regular streetview. That said, for a bit of fun if you walk *through* the arch in the weird closed off portion you can see the reflection of the person wearing the capture rig reflected in the Ai Weiwei sculpture's reflective interior.
posted by indexy at 9:40 PM on March 2, 2021 [2 favorites]