Northeast of St. Paul lies the unique suburban community of North Oaks and its 4500 residents.

According to the “city’s” Web site, “Because residents’ properties extend to halfway across the road, all residential roads in the City are private and for the use of North Oaks residents and their invited guests only. The City owns no property. With residents owning the roads, the North Oaks Home Owners’ Association owns the park and recreation areas and trails throughout the City.”

Hmmm…I didn’t realize Minnesota had its own secret yuppy compounds fronting as private cities. And apparently, they like to keep their private roads private. From KARE 11:

Several months ago North Oaks administrators found three dimensional pictures of North Oaks homes on the Google street map website.

This wouldn’t be a problem for most neighborhoods, but the entire community of North Oaks including its roads are private.

The city administrator says the contractor working for Google maps crossed right by the town’s no trespassing signs.

The North Oaks mayor sent a letter to Google explaining that its a private community and the internet giant apologized. The community of 4500 is now off Google’s street view website.

Google’s current policy is to remove any homeowner or business who requests to be removed from the service, but this is being billed as the first “city” to ask to have their entire community removed. I guess I would argue that a private community is a city.

There’s a compelling comment on the Strib story by Ripanderson, “The roads in MY town are funded by the residents of MY city too. But we let residents of North Oaks drive on OUR streets, why shouldn’t the City of North Oaks let our residents drive on theirs?”

Anyway, I highly respect the privacy issues that led to North Oaks asking Google to remove the street view photos. Pictured here is the last Google Maps Street View image you see of North Oaks before you’re left in the dark.

I’ll admit it does kind of make me want to go on a road trip northeast of town and take some pictures of my own.

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