Do You Recognize This Stretch 2nd Ave Southwest in Rochester?

That old adage says that, besides death and taxes, about the only thing constant in life is change. And no area embodies that statement more than 500 block of 2nd Ave in southwest Rochester in the last 8 years.

Seeing as the Quick Country 96.5 studios are located on the corner of 2nd Av and 4th St here in downtown Rochester, I usually travel down the 500 block of 2nd Av twice each day, on my way to and from work.

I'm not sure how I stumbled on it, but the Street View function on Google Maps along this stretch of 2nd Av is virtual walk back in time-- back to 2007, when the last photo of this block was apparently taken.

Take a look...

You can see Mayo Clinic's Stabile building off the the left, and what appears to be a cozy Cape Cod-style white house, still very much standing. Well, there's been a lot of development along this block since 2007, because I pulled into the parking lot across the street and tried to take a picture of roughly the same space today.

Here it is...

The perspective is a little off, but you can still see the corner of the Stabile Building in the far left of the current photo. But the trees are gone, along with that cozy little house, too. In fact, most of the area is now home to the parking lot of the People's Food Co-Op, which opened around three years ago. And the current construction project is replacing the somewhat rundown University Inn motel that used to sit at the corner of 2nd Av and 5th St.

It's pretty weird to see the same block appear totally different in only about 8 year's time. And it's even stranger that the photo Google Street View is still using for that block is still the photo from 2007. Elsewhere-- even along 2nd Av-- the images used were taken in 2012, when there was already much more development along that stretch of road.

But for now, that block-- as it existed in 2007-- lives on through Google's Street View.