Update: Oreo, Dog Thrown Off Building, Was Euthanized
People Wait For Tomorrow's UWS Apple Store Opening
Cheap Chicken Wing Deal Ruined by Gunslinging Teens
FIT Students Busted For Drug Dealing Get Probation
Your Elevator Safety Week Guide: Dancing, "Rapping" Cat
The NY Times explores the world of the urban explorer this week. The group will also accept the following labels: urban spelunker, infiltrator, hacker and guerilla urbanist...in case you were wondering. They do exactly what their name(s) imply, granting themselves an all-access pass to the city whenever they want it.
Their tourist attractions and landmarks they're interested in generally aren't above ground, they want to unearth the history of New York, and there's only one place to do that: underground. The website for one such group, the LTV Squad, holds their own history: "Active since the late 70's and officially founded in the fabulous 1980's, the LTV Squad is NYC's longest running exploration team. We are a group of professionals, historians, artists and infrastructure fanatics that are in love with all things abandoned or not commonly seen by the public."
With photos and words they document what they find on a website they launched in 2001. Here's an exhaustive list of each nook and cranny they've been in. They aren't the only ones out there either, the Times jokes that "trying to calculate how many urban explorers there are puts one in the hapless position of the reporter who asked Bob Dylan in 1965 how many protest singers there were. 'Uh, how many? I think about 136,' Dylan replied sarcastically." The photo in this post is taken from one of the others (run by a teenager) called NYC Exposed (and yes, those are active tracks). Another group, UnderCity.org, took a visit to the Domino Sugar Factory (as did our publisher). You can read about what they saw, here, a story that begins "I really feel like we're going to get caught this time."
While the LTV Squad hadn't ever been arrested for their subterranean field trips, others have been. An MTA spokesperson is quoted in the article saying, “I personally took a track safety class recently, and then you really appreciate how dangerous it is — how big the trains are, how fast-moving they are, and how narrow the spaces are. It’s dangerous even for very experienced track workers. There’s no place for urban explorers.” We'd have to agree, but looking at the photos - we're sort of glad these urban spelunkers/infiltrators/hackers/guerilla urbanists are out under there.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
I find the results of urban spelunking expeditions are often fascinating, and while it's not a risk I'd be willing to take, I'm glad it's something that some people do and document. This city is built up on itself in layers, and there's all kinds of things that are interesting - both historically and visually - below us.
Underground nyc is by far the coolest thing ever.
Oh yeah, Im absolutely thrilled to have non-subway related people running around subway tunnels. Maybe one day one of these 'urban explorers' will bring a few bombs with him.
Its pretty irresponsible to be glamorizing this frankly.
Me and Constantine spend every freakin' day down in a hole and nobody writes an article on us. Typical New York Times bullcrap.
Uncle Eddie
While that Times article was interesting, it didn't really contain any "news." Typical of the NY Times, they focused on the establishment, covering groups that anyone could find after a few seconds on the internet. Some of these groups are practically inactive at this point. The Undercity trip to Domino happened about 5 years ago or something.... basically the story did not involve much research or depth.
More newsworthy is the current, active group of Urban Explorers who are documenting the crazed development that is sweeping the city. The publisher of Gothamist, Jake Dobkin, is one of these explorers. Check this link to see an photos from an illegal trip to the Domino Sugar Refinery that he and several other explorers took just over a month ago.... while a benefit concert to save to refinery was happening outside! Now thats some news right there!
http://gothamist.com/2007/06/06/the_present_dom.php
#5 -- Jake, is that you?
In recent years Detroit has been a center of urban exploring thanks to many large abandoned buildings. Sadly, at least for them, the Book-Cadillac Hotel is being redeveloped. It had long been one of the very favorite "exploring" spots.
I would LOVE to explore the city like that!
Hey #5...just because explorations aren't posted on a daily basis to a website doesn't mean the person or persons behind it aren't sleuthing around. it sounds as if you want to get into a pissing match on who has more balls, the transplant hipster POS who jumped on the bandwagon recently or those groups who are "inactive".
I think if you look around a little on LTV's site, you'll notice that maybe names and locations aren't spelled out in big letters but just about all the current "newsworty" locations are indeed covered covered there. I mean, what else would SugarFort-D be if not Domino?
Not glamorizing it, but bring it to the attention of the public. These hidden places under our city - out of the sight of all of us and officials - are unprotected and quite a liability.
I agree with number 5 - lets see some real exploration, not some naked chick in columbia's basement. Save the article on her for "Sunday Styles."
Poster #3 is correct - what is there about "No Trespassing" that people cannot understand.
How does the NY Times get away with publishing this claptrap rather than a real news article that is not biased or slanted.
what's next a NY Times article extolling the virtues of chemical dumping? Calling Jayson Blair??