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Photograph, top, of Alain Robert climbing the Times building by Carol Quillen; photograph, below, of Renaldo Clarke climbing by Michael Chan
After two incidents of X-treme attention whoring Thursday afternoon, cops were stationed around the perimeter of the New York Times building on 41st St. Friday, successfully preventing anyone else from taking a shot at scaling the side of the new skyscraper. Famous urban climber Alain Robert drew quite a crowd as he climbed up the side of the building around noon and then unfurled a banner decrying the human toll of global warming. The spectacle drew quite a police response and large crowds of spectators. Robert was released on bail shortly after being removed from the side of the building.
Hours later, a second man was attempting to duplicate Robert's publicity stunt. Renaldo Clarke, Brooklyn resident and IT manager at a marketing firm, was spotted also climbing the side of the building in what he described was an attempt to raise awareness about malaria prevention. Clarke said he had planned his climb and didn't realize Robert already managed it; a prosecutor said Clarke explained, "I heard that some other guy had done it, and I was disappointed."
The Times is working with Forest City Ratner (48% owner of the building) and police to prevent similar incidents. Short-term measures include slapping plywood sheets onto the facade to eliminate gaps that gave the climbers access to the ceramic rungs they used in their climbs. Security personnel are also being hired and stationed outside the building. NY Times company vice chairman Michael Golden, though, admitted that no one thought the building's ladder-like design would tempt climbers.
Frenchman Alain Robert has scaled approximately 70 buildings around the world and said that the Times building was an obvious choice because of its series of ceramic rods, which are supposed to serve as an energy-saving feature. On a scale of one to ten, with 10 being the most difficult challenge, Robert ranked the Renzo Piano-designed Times building a one.
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He rated it a .5 out of 10 in the nypost article.
heh.
They should grease the polls!
Clarke really said he wasn't aware of Robert's climb? Hard to believe, but quite the coincidence, if true.
Wait, NYPD spent several hundred thousand dollars to collar Alain Robert? I know city agencies are inefficient, but just how much does it cost to have a few cops standing around the base of the tower and a few more at the top to arrest him? Did they call in some off-duty cops for overtime, or are they including costs of cops that would have been paid anyway? Heck, just break out the tranquilizer darts and a big net to catch him.
The Times is missing a huge opportunity here. Don't they have any idea how much people pay to use rock-climbing walls? They should just charge $200 or so for each would-be climber, advertise it as the world's largest climbing wall and just rake in the bucks. Newspapers are dying anyway and they need the revenue.
didn't the have to pay cops to cordone off the buildings and control the large gathering crowds as well as nypd helicopters?
Why are taxpayers footing the bill to "protect" a building owned by a private company?
Why doesn't the private company hire its own security people to "protect" its own building?
Am I missing something?
How many cops does it take to cordon off a building and what would they have been doing otherwise? Would they have been at home and unpaid? I doubt it. What would the helicopter pilot have been doing? What did they need helicopters for anyway? Were they going to use a sniper to take out the climbers? Could they have gotten close to the building without blowing the climber to his death? Were they afraid that the climber might have some amazing escape route halfway up so they'd never catch him on the roof? They burned at most, what, 100 gallons of fuel assuming they used two helicopters. Unless they don't know what they're doing, no way that fuel should cost more than $1000, not hundreds of thousands.
dave, i realize the internet is no place for compliments but i just have to say that your writing consistently impresses me.
"After two incidents of X-treme attention whoring" kudos!
There should be a Critical Mass style 'Climb Up The Times' with hundreds of ant-like humanoids scaling that tower all at once. A few will naturally plunge to their deaths, but all in all, I would predict a very pleasant and successful outing.
"Why are taxpayers footing the bill to "protect" a building owned by a private company?
Why doesn't the private company hire its own security people to "protect" its own building?"
Yeah, and they should hire their own firefighters, too, so taxpayers don't have to foot the bill for protecting private buildings!!1!
Obviously the police are not there protecting the building, which wouldn't be harmed by someone climbing it... but what if they were? That's what the police are supposed to do. That's what part of the taxes paid by private companies, as well as private citizens, are meant to provide: police protection of our property and welfare.
Should we all be required to hire private security and bodyguards?
Actually that suggestion was made once by a cop who responded to a call about an assault at a bar I worked out. When told that in the 15 minutes it took them to arrive the perpetrator had left, he said "you should hire your own security." Never thought I'd see public support for that idea, but leave it to Gothamist commenters.