June 11, 2008
Times Building Climbers Tell Their Stories
Photograph, top, of Alain Robert by Carol Quillen; photograph, below, of Renaldo Clarke by Michael Chan
A lawyer for the "French Spiderman" who scaled the New York Times building last week believes his client should be honored, not reprimanded by the city. Alain Robert, who used the 52-story climb to draw attention to global warming (he unveiled a banner reading "Global warming kills more people than 9/11 every week"), appeared in court and faces misdemeanor charges including reckless endangerment, trespassing, disorderly conduct and graffiti.
Lawyer Daniel Arshack recalled George Willig's 1977 climb on the World Trade Center. Back then, Mayor Abe Beame only fined him one penny r for every floor scaled, for a total of $1.10. Of course, Mayor Bloomberg was displeased with Robert's and Renaldo Clarke's climbs, noting the hazards to public safety.
Robert was on the Today show and said he didn't intend to disrespect the families of 9/11 victims, "I feel so sad about what’s happened in New York seven years ago," but "The global warming is killing and the government are not doing that much." He is supposed to be back in court this October, and the Manhattan DA's office will decide whether to present the case to a grand jury. Robert told the AP, "If there is something I can do for the city of New York, I would be very happy to do it."
As for second climber Clarke, the NY Times' Jim Dwyer spoke to the 32-year-old, who used his ascent to promote awareness of malaria. Clarke had been thinking about climbing the building for two years and when he saw Robert do it, he decided to climb the building that day, too. After he was arrested, Clarke shared a jail cell with Robert for 10 minutes, "I said, ‘Hey, you’re Alain Robert.'"
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Apparently not too many people carried their camera around in 1977... it's hard to find any images of Willig's ascent.
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In my case, Alain Roberts has certainly failed his cause. I have no idea how global warming is supposed to kill thousands of people every week. It sounds implausible, I assume he is crazy or lying, and if I weren't a discriminating character I'd accumulate bias against all global warming claims as a result. You may climb ze tall buildings, Alain, but you suck as a spokesperson.
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what? global warming is bad? duh! Hello? it's like when the pope says War is Bad and Peace is good. Everybody knows this. Humanity just doesn't give a shit.
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attention whores and causing problems for drivers and cops. waste of resources for real crime. should be shot but they should be fined to hell for the stunt they pulled.
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I liked George Willig. His cause?
Fun.
I kept the Daily News the day after his climb for many years but don't have it now. The headline was "Human Fly!" Times have changed; the headline of AMNY the day after the 2 Times Building guys was INSANE!
Rigid thinking has taken over the last few years. Blame the age of terror I suppose.
www.forgotten-ny.com
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i love the typical suburban american whining about these guys. 'bad for traffic,' 'nuisance to cops,' etc. you know what happened when these guys reached the top? people cheered.
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The judge needs to throw the thicking books at these morons, and I don't give a damn if they were climbing for a cause, the laws were broken. Cheers to Bloomie for being tough on these bozos, and all their supporters are asses.
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Maybe the Times would turn a profit if they just turned the building into an amusement ride and let people climb it for a fee. Clearly there is an interested audience for this activity.
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Robert doesn't actually live in a rock, right? He's not actually surprised that the response was a whole bunch of cop cars and backed up traffic spewing exhaust into the air the entire time he was conducting his little joy-climb, right?
I do believe I have found a candidate for the FAIL blog, Mr. Robert, and it's you. Please go plant a fscking tree instead, thanks.
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Maybe the Times would turn a profit if they just turned the building into an amusement ride and let people climb it for a fee. Clearly there is an interested audience for this activity.
Sorry, I already copyrighted this idea on the day they climbed the Times building. It's right here in the Gothamist archives. And I demand a percentage of the profits if they do this. Not that they ever would.