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Server Time:
2024-05-14 17:54:38
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 AAExplorer
  
Location: Washington, DC
Gender: Male
 |  | Righty, I forgot to post this before
< on 6/14/2006 1:57 PM >
|  | | | This is an article that was in my school paper a month or so ago, I wrote it, and I think I did a good job. Some people came up to me afterwards asking for help getting into the steam tunnels and I was forced to decline, but the response was positive. What do you all think? I would guess that about 300 people actually read it. I think it was a good summary of the hobby, written by someone who gives a shit.
At the top of a rusting service staircase I wiggle a knob. It turns smoothly and the door swings open into the frosty December night. I’m not supposed to be here. A rotting pigeon carcass shares the view from the Ann Arbor rooftop with me and my friend. “Sweet,” he breathes. I agree. Very little can beat the adrenaline of the five story drop below and the allure of forbidden adventure.
A month later, I’ve seen more than I thought this city ever had to offer. I’ve looked down from rooftops, and emerged in broad daylight from underground tunnels. I’ve also been put into the back of a police SUV and had my rights read to me for the first time. The sometimes illegal curiosity and exploring of buildings, both abandoned and active, is called urban exploring.
In Ann Arbor, the exploring community centers around the University of Michigan and most specifically, its steam tunnels. One Ann Arbor explorer called them, “A virtual ‘Urbex Transit System.’” The tunnels are man sized enclosures with exits to every building on campus that is connected to the utility grid they compose. The tunnels carry heat, internet, and electricity and provide a perfect route for those interested in accessing places that people don’t go or see. “Poking around a place that isn’t touched by humanity often is always an interesting experience,” says another Ann Arbor urban explorer. Finding the tunnel entrances, which are supposed to be locked, requires, “Trial and error, mostly luck.” From there, one explorer said he’d been to Hill Auditorium, Randall Laboratory, Angell Hall (unsuccessfully), the Michigan Union and more.
The philosophy behind urban exploration was developed largely by Jeff Chapman, a Toronto man who went by the handle of Ninjalicious until his death in late 2005. On This American Life, an NPR program, he described the invisible world he began exploring while he was in the hospital for terminal illness, “Most people have no idea the extent to which they’re being coddled and taken care of or the millions and millions of dollars and man hours that go into all the support systems that sustain them and make possible an urban existence.” Around Mr. Chapman, a community developed devoted to exploring these support systems. The biggest website, www.uer.ca, contains a massive database of more than 2,000 locations about which stories, pictures, and helpful statistics have been compiled.
Despite the large underground interest in Urban exploration (uer.ca has more than 9,000 members), many explorers think that exposure of the hobby will result in negative outcomes. “I’ve heard UE described as an extreme sport, as immature criminalism, and as a training course for domestic terrorists,” said Daniel Turner, a well respected photographer in the online community. Others believe that media exposure is a good thing, “If it becomes well known maybe some cop will take it easy on me because I’m not just some punk trespasser I’m ‘one a them urban explorers,’” says one explorer who goes by the handle of Jonsered.
A significant portion of urban exploring is illegal, but according to one Ann Arbor explorer, “I think that as long as I don’t harm the site, there’s not a whole lot that could bring out any moral conflict in me.” The exploring community has adopted the Sierra Club motto: take only pictures, leave only footprints. Many are frustrated at the incredulity that the powers that be often take toward the hobby. “Those curious have the right attitude and those who say stuff like, ‘I’m calling the cops,’ have the wrong I guess,” said another Ann Arbor explorer. Some explorers feel persecuted by this attitude, others consider laws against trespassing necessary. “While I personally have no moral objections to my trespassing, I understand that it is illegal, and that im not committing an act of civil disobedience by trespassing,” said an explorer who mentions that he has been in the steam tunnels at least 20 times.
On the other side of the criminality issue, many security officials take a firm stance against trespassing. Addressing steam tunnels, Pamela Hodermann, chief of police at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee said in a December 2005 Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article, “You could burn yourself on a pipe,” she also warned of poisonous gasses, “You’d get cooked pretty quick...and even a broken leg could prove fatal because the entrances are so spread out.” Explorers are quick to point out the safety precautions they take.
Most go exploring with a partner and many routinely don air filtering masks to ward off asbestos and other airborne dangers. They also take precautions to evade the police, “I carry two-way radios and so do my partners,” said Daniel Turner. In the same Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article, William Fadrowski, chief of a downtown security organization said, “I’m skeptical of whether this is occurring,” despite pictures and web posted stories of Milwaukee exploration.
The hobby of urban exploring may never be fully accepted or acknowledged by law enforcement or the media. But having experienced the rooftops, steam tunnels, and basements of Ann Arbor, I can safely say it’s happening. And despite the mass of Employees Only signs (no obstacle to most explorers), locked doors (there’s usually another way) and suspicious police (I was looking for the bathroom), it will probably continue.
[last edit 6/15/2006 3:41 AM by AAExplorer - edited 1 times]
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Caine In The Underdark
Location: Toronto, Ontario.
Gender: Male
Aah.... Shit.
| | Re: Righty, I forgot to post this before
<Reply # 1 on 6/14/2006 2:08 PM >
| | | | Nicely written.
†:: A strange thing has been happening in London.
A man wearing a rabbit mask has been cutting off the heads of young girls, and then fleeing from the scene. Spectators are calling this mystery man, The Mad March Hare. ::† |
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TaP
   
Location: Montreal, QC
Gender: Male
| | Re: Righty, I forgot to post this before
<Reply # 2 on 6/14/2006 2:08 PM >
| | | | nice! really good.
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snsabnorm
Location: Nova Scotia
Gender: Male
| | Re: Righty, I forgot to post this before
<Reply # 3 on 6/14/2006 4:48 PM >
| | | | I agree, well written.
--snsabnorm-- |
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AAExplorer
Location: Washington, DC
Gender: Male
| | Re: Righty, I forgot to post this before
<Reply # 4 on 6/15/2006 3:14 AM >
| | | | Hey thanks! Even after my crappy formatting some people still read it. I'm glad you liked it.
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ExploringOhio
Location: Hamilton, Ohio
Gender: Male
| |  |  | Re: Righty, I forgot to post this before
<Reply # 5 on 6/15/2006 4:29 PM >
| | | | yes indeed, very well done!
Founder of SOPER: Southwest Ohio Paranormal Exploration and Research
"It was a good drift," mused Erik, "but certainly not a great one!"
R.I.P. Ninj. . .we'll see in in the big transit tunnel in the sky! R.I.P. My little Chipmunk Ali Baker 11/25/2005 |
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Jonsered
 
Location: Back in New Mexico where I belong
Gender: Male
Dressed for a scarecrow ball.........
| |  | | Re: Righty, I forgot to post this before
<Reply # 6 on 6/15/2006 5:26 PM >
| | | | No complaints, although your numbers are off a tad and there are a couple of really minor tweaks I might have given it.
Hope to see more from you in the future. Every hobby needs good spokespeople.
I have changed my personal exploring ethics code. From now on it will be: "Take only aimed shots, leave only hobo corpses." Copper scrappers, meth heads and homeless beware. The Jonsered cometh among you, bringing fear and dread.
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Gazoo
Location: Barrie, ON
| | | Re: Righty, I forgot to post this before
<Reply # 7 on 6/15/2006 5:32 PM >
| | | | Nice
I want to die while asleep like my grandfather,
not screaming in terror like the passengers in his car. |
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QuePaso
Gender: Female
| | Re: Righty, I forgot to post this before
<Reply # 9 on 6/15/2006 9:13 PM >
| | | | I enjoyed that. A job well done!
Girl explorers rule! |
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