An idea that occurred to me last night on the phone with <lj site="livejournal.com" user="policepeng

[camwyn]

I need to take a day or two and go into Manhattan with a list of famous landmarks and determine just how far one can get from said landmarks in five, ten, or fifteen minutes, on foot or by bike or by car.

... for the sake of OH GOD WHAT THE HELL IS THAT movie/fic writers. Because Google Maps just doesn't cut it when it comes to determining the amount of time that has to be allotted for IMPENDING DOOM to quit impending quite so much. The outer boroughs will have to wait, as most of those aren't generally targets in OGWTHIT movies, although mad props go to Men in Black for being willing to use my childhood home borough of Queens. Brooklyn would probably be the first of the outer boroughs tapped, since they're the most populated and the most 'New York-like' of the non-Manhattan boroughs in the minds of the rest of the country.

Comments

[colubra.livejournal.com]

Nice idea.
I'm remembering the running joke with friends in high school of 'The Creature That Ate Poughkeepsie', now.

[camwyn]

*glances in the direction of RPG journals*

I have a whole plot named 'Poughkeepsie Attacks!!!', but there were no creatures in it.

Besides, any respectable giant monster in the Hudson Valley area isn't going to bother with Poughkeepsie. Indian Point Energy Generation Center is thirty miles south in Buchanan, and that's a nuke plant. Standard monster attack target.

OTOH if we're dealing with an OGWTHIT attack that requires computational power/access for some reason, Poughkeepsie would be a reasonable Hudson Valley target on the grounds of the IBM facilities there. But other than, like, Decepticons or other tech-based aliens invading? Buchanan's more of a Creature target.

[paradisacorbasi.livejournal.com]

Zombies notwithstanding, I can probably help you out like that.

The problem is with OMGWTHIT movies, like with non-OMGWTHIT movies, is that the NY that appears is not the NY that exists. You can get on a train at 59th street, ride two stops and be at West 4th street.

So realistic distances are different.

Plus, keeping in mind the abandoned cars, the subway not running, and no cabs for obstacles...

[camwyn]

Right, exactly. THat'swhat I"m trying to offer- policepenguin asked me about the distances and locations mentioned in Cloverfield last night, like where 'Midtown' was and where Fifty-ninth Street was in comparison to other things. I've roughed out all the basic distances and important elements south of the Triboro Bridge in the past for Ghostbusters plots, so I'm fairly familiar with what you can do via car or bike in sequence- just not always what it takes in terms of time to get there.

[paradisacorbasi.livejournal.com]

If you can run a 4 minute mile, 24 blocks equals one mile if memory serves.

[avram]

20 north-south midtown blocks = 1 mile was the formula I grew up with.

Waitaminnit, we don't have to guess. [Launches Google Earth.]

OK, yes: Starting at 26th St and measuring one mile north along Park Ave, I get 46th St.

Starting at 10th Ave and 42nd St and measuring east, one mile gets me just past Madison Ave.

[adiva_calandia]

I really like this idea and would find it v. v. useful.

I would do something like it for Alaska, but no one really writes stuff that takes place in urban Alaska. Although I would like to point out to one Supernatural fic writer that there are no Inuit in Southeast. No. There are Tlingit-Haida there.

*cough* Anyway.

[camwyn]

I'm gonna go Scotch-tape the skin under my eye down. The facial tic that prospect engenders...

Sorry, I have a thing for the peoples of the Pacific Northwest. Anthro major.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

In Marvel Comics, a big chunk of urban Alaska explodiated. Does that count?

[ymfaery]

...I read a Nora Roberts novel set in Alaska? :D I wasn't sure how accurate it was though.

[gramarye1971]

I also like this idea. ^_^ I remember talking about the movie The American President with a DC resident who's been here far longer than I have, and she said that she has to bite her lip when one of the characters gives driving directions involving (IIRC) Dupont Circle that simply could not happen in RL.

London would also be a fun city to do, in that regard.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

DC roads have little to do with reality.

[valles-uf.livejournal.com]

I attempted to track down that post I'd seen of a giant isopod at point-blank range with the incredibly apropos first response, but failed.

*/em sad*

But having a pill-bug the size of the Hindenberg eat the Chrysler Tower would be a very entertaining thing to flee from, I think...

[lots42.livejournal.com]

Be sure to factor in insane, pedestrian-endangering end runs through Central Park, culminating in a jump over the fence.

And if the driver can fake out ambulances.