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Casting a spell Evanna Lynch, the actor behind the character of Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter series, visited Brescia University College yesterday. >> pg. 4
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canada’s only Daily Student Newspaper • founded 1906
Volume 106, Issue 22
Google comes to Western London downtown Street View bike maps out entire campus
core on the upswing Aaron Zaltzman News Editor
OH GOD, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR FACE?! While it may look the same old campus, this photo was taken through the lens of a Google Street View camera.
Julian Uzielli Online Editor It’s a small step for Google Maps, but a giant leap for Western— Google Street View arrived at the university yesterday. The add-on to Google Maps allows users to zoom in to campus at street level, and take a virtual 360-degree tour of its major streets and paths. However, so far the technology is reserved for main campus, and isn’t available at the affiliate colleges. After obtaining permission from Western, Google took the photographs in May using a car and a bicycle furnished with hightech camera equipment. Keith Marnoch, Western’s director of media relations, said the university was happy to give permission for Street View to come to campus, on one condition—that Google conceal the identity of anyone it photographed by blurring their faces. “Some of the communication we had with them was around the need for privacy, so if you see people in any of the images, hopefully for the most part they’re not identifiable,” he said. Google, reportedly, had no objections to the request. “They’re good with that, we were just making sure that that was part of what happens,” Marnoch explained. David Czosniak, a fourth-year biochemistry student, was on campus taking an intersession
course when the photos were taken. He followed the photographers, and managed to end up in several images that are now visible on the Web. “I had heard from one of my lab mates that they were coming around, so I kind of went scoping around a bit on campus and found them,” he said. “They were just driving around on campus on a bike, and I decided to go out of my way to get into a few of the shots.” Czosniak was happy to see himself in so many of the pictures, but said he was glad Google took measures to protect people’s privacy. “It’s a good thing that they blur out your face, because you don’t want the whole world knowing who you are,” he said. Western isn’t the first campus to
get the Street View treatment—the development comes on the heels of a big push by Google to add street view to 150 university campuses around the world, including McGill and UCLA, in time for the back-to-school rush in September. The feature was first added to London in 2009. Marnoch said Western was glad to be added to the Street View canon, and hoped the new mapping tool would prove useful for new and prospective students. “We see this as being valuable to people who use the campus, as well as those who are coming to campus as first-time visitors,” he said. “It’s a valuable tool that would be strange for us not to be offering, so we see it as a good thing.”
London’s downtown is looking up, according to new census figures showing the population of the area is growing five times faster than the rest of the city. “It’s probably a number of factors largely related to demographics,” Sean Galloway, manager of urban design for the city’s planning and development division, said. “People choose to live in locations that have a mix of retail, living opportunities, good amenities and wanting to be close to the action.” Judy Bryant, councillor of Ward 13, in which the downtown core is located, explained the population increase is a result of city hall’s $100 million investment in the area over the last decade. “When people move into the centre, they want to have all amenities available to them, including shopping, recreation and the quiet spots,” Bryant said. “That would be things like the new library, the John Labatt Centre and Covent Garden Market.” Bryant explained the original demise of the core could be traced to urban sprawl and development in outlying areas of the city. “It takes the energy out the downtown area and is also the most expensive kind of development,” Bryant said. “You have no roads or transportation to start with, and urban sprawl has been the demise of many cities.” However, the trend is also reversing in many cities across North America, including London.
“Downtowns all over the world are seeing rejuvenation because people desire a really active place to live that’s easy to get around,” Galloway said. “From an economic standpoint, the effect is quite big—you have a number of new jobs and economic opportunities in the core area.” “The population shift is a very sound economic move because all of the amenities are already there, so you don’t have to put in new infrastructure,” Bryant said. “Transportation is also excellent—one can walk to almost all the amenities they need or use public transport.” According to Galloway, the economic benefits go beyond easier development. “The downtown is the city’s identity,” Galloway explained. “If it’s thriving, then people have a more positive image of the city. That drives tourism and really promotes the city.” He cautioned, however, against highly aggressive commercial development in the core. “It’s striking the right balance between preserving the heritage downtown and taking opportunities to develop […] the area,” Galloway said. “It’s about getting density in the right spots and preserving the heritage.” However, Bryant said the downtown area is going in the right direction. ”In the end, the residential population will support the growth of the commercial centre,” Bryant said. “I think we have to stay on the same path—we have to encourage development, and overall make downtown a great place to live.”
Andrei Calinescu Gazette