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The handsome host tipped us off that something was a little awry with this urban exploration video. But even if it's part of an ad campaign pimping boots, it's still pretty cool. The short doc "takes viewers on a virtual tour of empty structures that have been part of the NYC cityscape for decades," and they even climb up the Red Hook Grain Terminal.
Get your graffiti boots on guys, we're going to the Freedom Tunnel!
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i appreciate the fact that you guys think you're pretty hot shit, but for the rest of us urban explorers who don't feel compelled to flaunt our cool points on the internet, we'd appreciate it if you didn't constantly expose these places to the general public.
the more of these documentaries/flickr photos/blog posts we see, the more these places get wrecked, looted, and blocked off from accessibility. think of the kids and future generations who will never get to see this stuff. thanks a bunch.
Shouldn't the kids of the future find their own ruins to explore?
who's to say that these aren't their ruins too? in my opinion, it's our job to preserve them, without having to museumify them. that's an almost worse fate.
@spiritross, i'm totally for real. at the risk of exposing some of my own cool points, i've seen places unspeakably cooler than those shown in the video get absolutely wrecked, blocked off, or torn down after being made famous by hipster jerks with fancy cameras on the internet. it's a real damn shame.
Are you for real?
Is she for real?
Seriously
If people don't already spit on you when you walk the streets - they certainly should.
These stories are amazing, thank you for sharing gothamist and forgotten new york.
Ignore the facist, her kind's days are numbered anyway.
This might be the stupidest comment I have ever read on this site and that is saying a lot.
Keep abandoned spaces secret? What?
Again...What?
Actually most of these places become inaccessible because you're essentially trespassing and the owners don't want to be sued when you fall through the floor and break your Hello Kitty Thermos.
If I'm not mistaken 'urban explorer' is a term that coined and propagated through people via the web chronicling their explorations, no?
what do you mean by "essentially" trespassing? you're definitely trespassing, and it's definitely dangerous in many cases. the problem is that property owners (often the city) figure out that you're trespassing when more people start showing up and wrecking the place, which is more often than not the result of the place being made popular by xhasselbladx's flickr account.
the point is not that these places shouldn't be shared, period. it's that flaunting them on the internet like this is deleterious to the existance of these places. there are plenty of on- and off-internet communities centered around this very sort of activity that are much more about sharing information constructively, rather than flaunting it.
so, you can go there and the kids and future generations can go there... but the rest of us should stay at home? wow, that sounds so reasonable!
also, from that video, those buildings are probably the last places anyone would want kids to go. well, unless you want them to die...
the rest of you can go and shoot time-lapse photography in your converted loft apartments (which probably used to be bad-ass factories) for all i care.
for the record: i invite anybody interested in crawling under some chain-linked fence or wandering down some low-traffic subway tracks to do so. bring your friends, i applaud you in sharing the experience with somebody special. just be careful about flaunting your findings so that the next guy can do it, too.
Your logic is completely flawed
If you cared about any of these places at all you would scream their existence to the world - the more people that know and care about them the more likely it is for them to be historically designated and protected
But no
You don't care about their protection or restoration
You just care about yourself and how "cool" you seem to think you are
Act your age not your shoe size
Don't be scared
Please
Please
Don't be scared
Hey Hotcup, I want to ask - what planet do you currently spend most of your time on?
I don't want to argue with you, because it would be like arguing with my kitchen table.
it seems like arguing with inanimate objects is the most practice people in this thread seem to have at debating anything. a lot of half-assed put-downs as opposed to a fruitful exchange of ideas.
@spiritross, historical designation and protection is pretty useful when you want something converted into, say, residential use, but then most would-be admirers would be locked out, wouldn't they?
and even a site is converted into a museum or something, what's so cool about hanging out in an old, sterilized factory or power plant? a small sunday thrill for architects, maybe, but you've kind of sapped all of the adventure out of it in my opinion.
hottub, you wanna maybe explore some tunnels privately with me. i dont tell
'a fruitful exchange of ideas' ? HAHAHA! As if you have actual ideas of your own worthy of exchange?
Here's an idea: Take your whiny ranting back to one of your super secret internet nerd clubs and share your 'ideas' with your exclusive nerd 'friends'.
yeah, maybe i'll take your example of making a new username for the sole purpose of trolling threads that i would otherwise have nothing to add to.
Get over yourself, HOTCUP. Another classic example of I-was-there-first syndrome. The spots weren't "blown up" until after you knew about them, right? Please...
I get so fucking sick of people thinking they have sole access to these places. Guess what? You're not supposed to have access at all! Let the other guys have fun and if they get into trouble, that's their issue.
You attempt to take the preservation angle. Nice. I guess someone gave you certified credentials as an acceptable explorer, too. By all means, if you see someone destroying the place feel free to invoke your brand of street justice but don't act like you and your buddies are the only ones that deserve to enjoy our urban treasures.
Finally, the Freedom Tunnel has been out in the open for so long why are you even arguing about it? This alone makes me think you might not be as experienced in the field as you seem to believe.
Explore. Be careful. Have fun.
if you're read the whole conversation (which i'm sure few of us here have), i actually invite people to go explore these places, or wherever. i think it's great, and I encourage it!
the issue is publicizing it. i said it before and i'll say it again, these supposed "treasures" are invariably destroyed or made inaccessible when people want to show off on the internet. if you want to share with your buddies, that's fine, but be careful about opening up to the general public.
if you just want to show off, then that's a different story. don't act like you value these places if you're not going to treat them like they're sacred.
Is HOTCUP felixthecat2???????
These places are hardly hidden. People see them every day, it's just that the vast majority of them don't go inside because they don't want to break the law and/or get hurt.
It's a bit cheeky for somebody that doesn't actually own any of these places to start playing lord of the manor with them.