Okay, this is just...dumb

Topic: Okay, this is just...dumb (Read 691 times) previous topic - next topic

Okay, this is just...dumb

February 14, 2010, 01:19:25 AM

I have the Olympics on TV, and just for kicks I started playing around on Google Maps in the area. It was pretty neat being able to go down to Street View at the Blaine, WA border crossing and look at the user photos of the park. It's *almost* like being there.

The park isn't dumb at all, or the photos. I started looking at the surrounding area. Street View doesn't cover much beyond the border crossing itself, but I found gazillions of residential streets that go riiiiiiight up to the border on both sides but don't cross. You can literally drive along someone's house with just a 5-foot grassy border between your street and the street on the Canadian side, but the only way to cross on a paved surface is through an official crossing point.

Yeah, that'll stop those bad terrorists /sarc.

Now, I'm all for securing our southern border (so we can at least throttle the rate of immigration from Mexico), and don't even get me started on how I feel about dealing with anyone who means the US harm (don't ask me what I really think, I'll scare you, as Lawrence Eagleburger once said), but what we're doing on our northern border is just dumb. There is no illegal immigration problem with Canada, and I think it's pretty safe to say that the Canadians are just as competent as we are about screening terrorists.

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=48.997677,-113.095922&spn=0.020976,0.043731&t=h&z=15

So now check this out. This is somewhere in Montana. You've got "Emigrant Gap Rd." on **both** sides of the border, and it even looks like the road used to go straight across, but it doesn't anymore. Now, am I supposed to believe that 300 feet of grass (that looks like it still gets driven over) is a meaningful deterrent? Is there any real point to "blocking" the road? I don't think so.

I'm not trying to start a political thread, but I'm very curious about what people who regularly cross the border think. There isn't any easy way to get from Philly to Canada, so I've never been there (heck, the farthest I've ever driven is Dayton, OH). Still, as someone who is used to crossing state lines on a very regular basis (from my roof I can literally see NJ, and I buy just about **everything** in Delaware -- no sales tax!), to me this just seems ridiculous. From the link I posted, try scrolling left or right. there are countless side streets that literally come within **six feet** of each other on opposite sides of the border with nothing but **grass** between them. By treaty, the border must be undefended, so WHAT IS THE POINT OF NOT LETTING THEM TOUCH?

Edit: I found this just a few miles east of an "official" border crossing point (once again, between MT and AB). Having the border crossing point seems pretty pointless to me at this point...

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=48.996706,-111.781168&spn=0.010432,0.021865&z=16

Hmm, this one's just odd. Huh?

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=48.995805,-111.25818&spn=0.010432,0.021865&z=16

Okay, this is just...dumb

Reply #1 – February 14, 2010, 02:07:10 AM

Very strange, and I'll have to admit, I've never given it much thought myself. As a kid, and a young adult, I traveled all over the states with my dad, especially in the Pacific NW. One time, we were in northern Washington, literally yards from the border. Not much between "them and us" except a sign, a fence, and as you mentioned, a short strip of grass. When you're 10, you tend to not think about such things ( leastways, I didn't) but it always did stay in my memory.

Then again, how many Canadians have you seen fleeing their native country to find a better life in the US?

(don't take that as a rag on our country..it was a joke

. I'm patriotic as any of us here...)

The whole terrorism/border thing...I'm too ignorant of that to make a comment....so I'll just make another joke and say that we ALL know the Governments have our best and dearest interests at heart, so we should all sleep soundly at nights

/end joke

I'll read up on it....stuff like this kinda interests me anyways :D

Okay, this is just...dumb

Reply #2 – February 14, 2010, 02:36:41 AM

Definite weirdness. I guess you have to go through the border station when you enter the US (in MN), but there's nothing at all on the MB side.

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=48.998472,-95.766449&spn=0.002608,0.005466&z=18

Interesting...I saw this pretty much everywhere. Even in the middle of nowhere (in upstate NY in this case), you can still "see" the border. I'm wondering why.

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=44.996361,-74.005789&spn=0.002811,0.005466&z=18

Ah, ha. I guess we have those little obelisks every few feet. Weird. The people living here can walk to Quebec, but they can't drive there without going through a crossing point. Bizarro.

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=45.002437,-73.652043&spn=0,359.989067&z=17&layer=c&cbll=45.002599,-73.652014&panoid=sd2br4l7nmluuG37zkFfug&cbp=12,27.61,,0,11.01

Wow. I'd love to take a ride to this place just to see it. The Google line, as is often the case, is just a little off. If you scroll east a few hundred feet, you'll see that the east-west road is ***right on*** the boundary, with access to it from both sides. No customs office, nothing more than a post office. So the neighbors on either side of the street are in different countries. And the large property to the west, including the long building, actually straddles it. I wonder how that works out. Do they pay property taxes to Quebec and Vermont?

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=45.005335,-72.14204&spn=0.002826,0.005466&z=18

Hmm, I guess it's not so uncommon. Guess what that white line on the road signifies

It's too bad that Google Street View didn't go down the street. I'm curious as to what the sign on the left says.

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=45.005836,-72.095289&spn=0,359.994534&z=18&layer=c&cbll=45.005519,-72.095436&panoid=pMFr6ZO7_rM8VLNPsSEN2g&cbp=12,8.85,,0,8.53

LOL!

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=45.101214,-71.465464&spn=0.045317,0.087461&z=14