Urbex Magazine by Marco Blomsma

xplore e n a b r u r o f gazine

complete ma

REVIEW CANON EOS 500D HIDDEN TREASURE IN BEIRUT

THE GHOSTTOWN OF BODIE

AND MORE... issue 01 / januari 2010

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INTERVIEW WITH STEVE DUNCAN

MAGAZINE

X E B R U

COLUMN It’s a building to hurry past: dingy, deserted, with dark, jagged holes of broken windows scattered across its 13 stories. “Hey, crackhead” is spray-painted on the black granite facade. This was once a grand department store, but it’s been derelict for a decade. Which means Lucas can’t wait to get in. Abandoned buildings like this one, the creepier the better, are treasured arenas for the treacherous -but trendy -- sport of urban exploring. Slip inside and a hidden world opens up. Over broken glass and sodden lumps of fallen plaster, there’s an eerie beauty in the decay. Through dark hallways, up rust-pitted stairs, there’s a thrill in the adventure.

Marco Blomsma

Kees Peenstra

Founder / Editor

Graphic Designer

Stephan Caffa

Jan Hibma

Copywriter

Scouting each step with his flashlight, breathing hard in the stale air, McGrail climbs to the top floor of the department store. Like most explorers, he’s in it for the daredevil fun of being someplace he shouldn’t. But he also loves the way these old buildings give him a glimpse into the past. McGrail, a 27-year-old architect, rummages through the records room for other memories of an era past, coming across a framed optometry degree from 1935 and swatches of shag carpet in fuchsia and split pea. “This is my way of opening a window into the past,” he says. “It’s the same charge other people get when they explore Stonehenge, or the ruins of ancient Rome.” Taking photos to document their exploits, they slink through steam tunnels and drainpipes, climb idle construction cranes, even descend into abandoned missile silos. Or, like the loose-knit Urban Exploration League in Detroit, they prowl forsaken buildings. Then they post their discoveries online, in narratives so packed with drama that an illicit crawl through a sewer comes off like an expedition to the North Pole. Marco Blomsma

E T I S om

E e.c H n i z T aga

T I anm S I b r V w.u ww

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COVER

URBEXCODE QYNP There is little information I can find about this place. Judging from records and papers left behind it operated from at least the early 1970s until around 1985. It probably was around before the ‘70s but nothing from that era has a date on it. It was a men’s clothing factory. I’ve never met any older people from Crespy-le-Neuf that even remember hearing the name of this place. So that is about all I know. There are tons of records out sitting in boxes. I wonder if they had issues with the IRS or something? Who knows...

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Photo by Mark Deschannel

"No one had ever heard of this place"

INHOUD PHOTOSHOOTS HIDDEN TREASURE IN BEIRUT

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THE GHOST TOWN OF BODIE

THE DESERTED CITY OF DOEL

EXPLORING THE NETHERLANDS

WHAT HAPPENED IN PEBRU?

INSIDE A MENTAL ASYLUM

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ARTICLES

REVIEWS

WHAT IS URBAN EXPLORING?

CANON 500D, NIKON KILLER?

INTERVIEW: STEVE DUNCAN

SHOWDOWN: MAGLITE GEAR

HDR: HOT OR JUST TOO MUCH?

HEAVY DUTY TRIPODS

LEGALITY OF EXPLORING?

TUTORIAL: THE DRAGAN EFFECT

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Abandoned

Mansion

BEIRUT

ast week I saw this abandoned mansion from the street and went in with my friend Michel as translator in case we ran into anyone. It took a bit of jimmying to force the door, and inside we found piles and piles of of binders and dozens of black and white photos, all showing one man at various political events. It turns out the mansion used to be the home of Takieddin el-Solh Lebanese Sunni politician who served as Prime Minister. The binders were full of voter lists and various political documents. I’m assuming he abandoned the place during the civil war and moved to a more secure location. A few minutes after entering, a very large and very humorless Lebanese man showed up out of the bowels of the place and told us we could either leave or talk the Lebanese Security Forces.

“Finding things like this is why I explore” The place was right next to Saad Hariri’s FutureTV headquarters, which Hizbollah set on fire last year, and they view anyone with a camera here as possible threat, especially big flashy DSLRs. His stated authority might or might not have been bullshit, but we managed to talk him into giving us 20 minutes (I’ve gone back, of course, but more slyly). These things used to be belong to the Prime Minister of Lebanon, and he abandoned while the city tore itself to shreds during the war. Finding things like this is why I explore. Text and photographs by Kevin Stone

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o upon venturing inside we found two things: piles and piles of of binders, and dozens of black and white photos, all showing one man at various political events. It turns out the mansion used to be the home of Takieddin el-Solh (born 1908, Sidon, Lebanon; died November 27, 1988, Paris) Lebanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Lebanon from 1973-74, and again briefly in 1980. The binders were full of voter lists and various political documents. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m assuming he abandoned the place during the civil war and moved to a more secure location. The house is in the Sunni section, but was within easy artillery distance of the Green Line.

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URBAN EXPLORING WHAT IS IT?

rban exploration (often shortened as urbex or UE) is the examination of the normally unseen or off-limits parts of urban areas or industrial facilities. Urban exploration is also commonly referred to as infiltration, although some people consider infiltration to be more closely associated with the exploration of active or inhabited sites. It may also be referred to as “draining” (when exploring drains) “urban spelunking”, “urban caving”, or “building hacking”. The nature of this activity presents various risks, including both physical danger and the possibility of arrest and punishment. Many, but not all, of the activities associated with urban exploration could be considered trespassing or other violations of local or regional laws, including - but not limited to invasion of privacy and certain broadly interpreted anti-terrorism laws.

TARGETS OF EXPLORATION

entures into abandoned structures are perhaps the most common example of urban exploration. At times, sites are entered first by locals, and may sport large amounts of graffiti and other acts of vandalism. Explorers face various risks in abandoned structures including collapsing roofs and floors, broken glass, guard dogs, the presence of chemicals and other harmful substances, most notably asbestos, hostile squatters and motion detectors. Some explorers wear respirators to protect their airways and proper attire to protect their bodies. Although targets of exploration vary from one country to another, high-profile abandonments include amusement parks, grain elevators, factories, power plants, missile silos, fallout shelters, hospitals, asylums, schools, poor houses, and sanatoriums. Many explorers find decay of uninhabited space to be profoundly beautiful and some are also proficient freelance photographers. Abandoned locations can be, at times, heavily guarded with motion sensors and active security. Others are more easily accessible and carry less risk of discovery. An important goal, overall, of exploring a location

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is to gain access, perform your task, and remove yourself undetected, unscathed, causing no harm to others or that which surrounds you.

POPULARITY

he rise in the popularity of urban exploration can be attributed to its increased media attention. Recent television shows, such as “Urban Explorers” on the Discovery Chan-

“Take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints” nel, MTV’s Fear, and the Ghost Hunting exploits of The Atlantic Paranormal Society have packaged the hobby for a popular audience. Talks and exhibits on urban exploration have appeared at the 5th and 6th Hackers on Planet Earth Conference, complementing numerous newspaper articles and interviews. With the rise in the relative popularity of the hobby due to this increased focus, there has been increasing discussion on whether the extra attention has been beneficial to urban exploration as a whole. The unspoken rule of urban exploring is “take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints”, but because of the rising popularity, many individuals who may have other intentions are creating a concern among many property owners. Many sites have launched featuring urban exploration, undergroundozarks.com, abandonedok.com, opacity.us, to name a few.

SAFETY AND LEGALITY

rban exploration is a hobby that comes with a number of inherent dangers. Storm water drains are not designed with human access as their primary use. They can be subject to flash flooding and bad air. There have been a number of deaths in storm water drains, but these are usually during floods, and are normally not Urban Explorers.

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Many old Abandoned structures feature hazards such as unstable structures, unsafe floors, asbestos, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, exposed electrical wires and entrapment hazards. Asbestos is a long term health risk for Urban explorers, along with breathing in contaminants from pigeon faeces. Urban explorers may use dust masks and respirators to alleviate this danger. Some sites are occasionally used by substance abusers for either recreation or disposal, and there may be used and/or infected syringe needles en route, such as those commonly used with heroin. The growing popularity of the activity has resulted

“Never vandalize, steal or damage anything!” not just in increased attention from Explorers, but also from vandals and Law Enforcement. The illicit aspects of Urban Exploring, which may include trespassing and breaking and entering [6], have brought along with them critical articles in mainstream newspapers. In Australia, the web-site of the Sydney Cave Clan was shut down by lawyers for the Roads and Traffic Authority of New South Wales, after they raised

concerns that the portal could “risk human safety and threaten the security of its infrastructure.” Another web-site belonging to the Bangor Explorers Guild was criticized by the Maine State Police for potentially encouraging behavior that “could get someone hurt or killed.” Likewise, the Toronto Transit Commission has also used the Internet to crimp Subway Tunnel Explorations, going as far as to send Investigators to various Explorers’ homes. Jeff Chapman, who authored Infiltration, stated that genuine urban explorers “never vandalize, steal or damage anything.” The thrill comes from that of “discovery and a few nice pictures.” Some Explorers will also request permission for entry.

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For more information about Urban exploring, go to our site: www.urbexmagazine.com

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GHOSTTOWN

STORY

BODIE

odie is a ghost town in the Bodie Hills east of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in Mono County, California, United States, about 75 miles (120 km) southeast of Lake Tahoe. It is located 12 miles (19 km) east-southeast of Bridgeport,at an elevation of 8379 feet (2554 m). As Bodie Historic District, the U.S. Department of the Interior recognizes it as a National Historic Landmark. The ghost town has been administered by California State Parks since becoming a state historic park in 1962, and receives about 200,000 visitors yearly.

MINING TOWN

he first signs of decline appeared in 1880 and became obvious towards the end of the year. Promising mining booms in Butte, Montana; Tombstone, Arizona; and Utah lured men away from Bodie. The get-rich quick, single miners who originally came to the town in the 1870s moved on to these other booms, which eventually turned Bodie into a familyoriented community. Two examples of this settling were the construction of the Methodist Church (which currently stands) and the Roman Catholic Church (burned about 1930) that were both constructed in 1882. Despite the population decline, the mines were flourishing, and in 1881 Bodie’s ore production was recorded at a high of $3.1 million. Also in 1881, a narrow gauge railroad was built called the Bodie Railway & Lumber Company, bringing lumber, cordwood, and mine timbers to the mining district from Mono Mills south of Mono Lake. During the early 1890s, Bodie enjoyed a short revival seen in technological advancements in the mines that continued to support the town. In 1890, the recently invented cyanide process promised to recover gold and silver from discarded mill tailings and from low-grade ore bodies that had been passed over. In 1893, the Standard Company built its own hydroelectric plant, located approximately 12.5 miles (20.1 km) away on Green Creek, above Bridgeport, California. The plant developed a maximum of 130 horsepower (97 kW) and 6,600 volts alternating current (AC) to power the company’s 20-stamp mill. This pioneering installation is marked as one of the country’s first transmissions of electricity over a long distance. In 1910, the population was recorded at 698 people, which were predominantly families that decided to stay in Bodie instead of moving on to other prosperous strikes. Photographs by Laurence Bakerfield

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VANDALISM

n the 1940s, the threat of vandalism faced the ghost town. The Cain family, who owned much of the land the town is situated upon, hired caretakers to protect and to maintain the townâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s structures.

AUTHENTIC GHOST TOWN

odie is now an authentic Wild West ghost town. The town was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961, and in 1962 it became Bodie State Historic Park. A total of 170 buildings remained. Today, Bodie is preserved in a state of arrested decay. Only a small part of the town survives. Visitors can walk the deserted streets of a town that once was a bustling area of activity. Interiors remain as they were left and stocked with goods. Bodie is open all year, but the long road that leads to the town is usually closed in the winter due to heavy snowfall, so the majority of visitors to the park come during the summer months. The park is still operating as of late 2009.

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n 1859 William (a.k.a. Waterman) S. Bodey discovered gold near what is now called Bodie Bluff. A mill was established in 1861 and the town began to grow. It started with about 20 miners and grew to an estimated 10,000 people by 1880! By that time, the town of Bodie bustled with families, robbers, miners, store owners, gunfighters and prostitutes of all kinds. At one time there was reported to be 65 saloons in town. Amongst the saloons were numerous brothels and ‘houses of ill repute’, gambling halls and opium dens. Needless to say that there was entertainment for every taste. After a long day working the claims, the miners would head for the bars and the red light district to spend their earnings. The mixture of money, gold and alcohol would often prove fatal. It is said that there was a man killed every day in Bodie. Presumably, the undertaker never had a slow day. There are records that say that Wm. Body took a ship from New York, around the horn to end up in San Francisco. The name of the town was changed at some point in time, before the majority of the people made their way to Bodie. There are different stories as to why - one says it was to keep the correct pronunciation of town’s namesake. Another says that the sign painter didn’t have the room for the tail of the lower-case “y”. Today, even though Bodie is lost down a dusty 13 mile long road, off of state highway 395, it is amazing just how many people are aware of this once glorious town.

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“It’s amazing just how many people are aware of this once glorious town”

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CANON 500D I

f you are familiar with the EOS 450D, the Canon 500D may seem like a deja vu. The Canon EOS 500D has an almost identical housing as that of the 450D, and it are only small details that make the difference. If you take the camera into your hand, you can feel the plastic. However,

thanks to the somewhat rougher surface, it does not come across as feeling cheap. The weight and the dimensions are equal to those of the 450D, ranking the 500D somewhere in the middle when com-

pared to its competitors.

DIFFERENT COLORS The layout of the monitorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reproduction has been changed slightly. Additionally, four different colors can be selected through the Settings mode. It is not only a case of being trendy; changing the monitorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s color may also prove handy in situations with scarce light. A lower contrast display is sometimes easier to read. The way of activating the quick menu is also convenient. Pressing the SET button activates the quick menu and the arrow keys let you scroll through the various settings. By pressing the SET button once more, adjustments can be made.

FEATURES The speed and ease of navigation are remarkable and are extremely userfriendly. The large monitor provides a beautiful and, especially, a clearly readable reproduction, and in combination with Live View, this makes the life of a photographer considerably more pleasant. Naturally, there are some comments to be made; in particular when it comes to the speed of focusing in Live View, however, for now, the advantages are plenty. One of the features first measured in the DIWA Lab is the accuracy of the color reproduction. How consistent is the reproduction over the entire ISO range, and how much does it deviate from the calibrated Gretag Macbeth Color Checker? The colors of the Canon EOS 500D are vivid and come across as quite natural. The reproduction is fairly accurate and deviates only slightly from that of the Color Checker, almost invisible to the naked eye. The color sensitivity is high over the entire ISO range, a color depth of a min of 21.26 bits is reached with a top score of 23.07 (from 24 bits).

The Canon 500D is extensively tested in our DIWA Lab. DIWA Labs evaluates the image quality of the Canon EOS 500D among other things. This fully equipped up-to-date test lab works with the DxO Analyzer (version 3), worldwide considered the most advanced software to test

Compatible

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the image quality of cameras. Artifacts in the

It seems to be virtually official by now; the era of the CompactFlash is almost over. Only the professional digital SLR cameras still support CF cards, but with the introduction of the SDHC and the expected SDXC (up to 2TB storage!), also this segment of DSLR cameras seems to be making its decision. The Canon EOS 500D features a card slot with support for SD and SDHC memory cards. This provides a maximum capacity of 32GB. Additionally, you can select from various speeds when it comes to data processing.

EXPERIENCE It should not come as a surprise; the Canon EOS 500D will certainly offer you a positive shooting experience. The Canon 500D is backed up by a wealth of experience, thanks to the many generations that came before it, at which various innovative image solutions have passed by. The Canon EOS 500D is an extremely full digital SLR camera providing

“It may seem like deja vu, but it’s not just a simple upgrade.” many options to the amateur as well as the enhanced photographer. If we solely look at the Canon EOS 500D body, we have to dig deep to find any actual disadvantages. The main downer was experienced when using Live View continuously. This does affect the energy capacity hugely, and means in practice the active photographer most likely has to purchase an (expensive) spare battery. Other than that, we are not able to find any disadvantages and the Canon 500D passes with flying colors.

CONCLUSION optical design, imperfections of the image sensor and shortcomings of image processing algorithms, are main factors playing a role in delivering high-quality pictures. Certainly with today’s technique, and small margins in the outcome, it is virtually impossible to judge a picture by the naked eye.

The EOS body is of high quality and generates a lot of photography fun. The camera is user-friendly and provides an extremely high image quality. The Canon 500D is everybody’s friend.As far as we’re concerned, the Canon EOS 500D is a complete camera and therefore a camera that will suit every urban explorer.

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STEVE

DUNCAN

How and why did you start to explore the hidden parts of the cities?

started pretty much as soon as I came to New York. I came to NYC for school, and fell in love with the city right away. For the first few months here, i kept on “discovering” things that everyone knows about-- I was really excited to find out i could walk across the Brooklyn Bridge; I biked around the city and wandered around the abandoned piers on the west side of Manhattan; and sometimes when i was around industrial parts of the city i’d go into random buildings and see if I could get onto the rooftops, just to be able to see the city laid out and see how the blocks connected. And i was in college, at Columbia University, which is a century-old campus

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which was actually built on the site of a former insane asylum (the Bloomingdale Insane asylum was there in the 19th century). Like most universities, all the buildings on campus are connected to each other with a series of utility tunnels that carry steam, water, and phone and data lines. But because it’s a fairly old university built in New York, the tunnels range greatly in age,

“I could see the past by going underground” and there are even one or two tunnels that incorporate old stone foundations from the insane asylum that used to be there. So I became fascinated when I realized that you could literally see the past by going underground. Also at the time it was a huge adventure to try to

find ways into the closed-off sections of the tunnels... The challenge was really exciting, and it was also exciting to realize that there were these relatively unknown and hidden spaces that were closed off to most people, just hidden away behind locked doors and the walls of ignorance that most people have about the world around them. What was the first “discovery” you made and how came?

here were two “discoveries” i made that really excited me, although of course they had long since been discovered and even researched by other people, and it was simply the fact that I had to work to find them myself that made them feel like discoveries.

INTERVIEW

The first was the “mole people” tunnel, a huge old freight train tunnel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side that was home to a colony of 200 or so homeless during the 1980s and early 1990s. By the time i heard about it, in 1997, Amtrak had taken it over and started running trains through it and in the process, along with Guiliani’s city government, had kicked out almost everyone who had previously lived in the tunnel. But there were still a few people living down there, and i heard that some of them got in by digging tunnels underneath the wall that formed the side of the tunnel in Riverside Park. I decided to do the same thing, and spent a long, very tiring night digging before eventually breaking through into the tunnel, where I found huge painted murals in the darkness-- some upwards of 20

feet high-- left over from the era when there had been a real community down there. Graffiti artists had come down and painted murals specifically for the community down there. I was really excited, but later on I was chagrined to find out that if i’d just walked a

“It was still radioactive!” half-mile north i could have gotten in through the wide-open tunnel entrance... Although actually that too was a bit of an education in the way that the multi-layeredness of the city makes even relatively accessible spaces hidden and hard to find. The other “discovery” I made was

at Columbia University-- I was still in school there-- and I’d heard for years that the origins of the Manhattan Project, which created the atomic bomb, had taken place at the physics building on campus and had utilized the tunnels for some of the transport of materials. In researching the history, I eventually found out that the first time the atom had been split in the United States-- the first step in making the atomic bomb-had been at Columbia University, using a primitive particle accelerator called a cyclotron. Between a bit of research and a lot of poking around, I eventually found the remnants of that original cyclotron, hidden away in a basement section of the physics building. It had been left there, and even walled off from the main tunnel system, because it was still slightly radioactive. That hooked me-- if these vital bits of american history were

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STEVE DUNCAN just hidden away and forgotten about, I realized what i really wanted to do was to find them-- to seek them out and try to share with other people both the historical stories and the thrill of researching and finding these objects and spaces that were a direct link to the history of the city. What’s the relation between urban archaeologists and police department? are your explorations seen as “dangerous” as graffiti, for example?

here are a lot of different opinions on this from different people who consider themselves “urban explorers” or “urban archeologists.” My own opinion is that urban exploration and historic preservation are two sides of the same coin-- and i think that generally “urban explorers” are people who love cities, who are interested in history, and who simply want to see and understand more of the city. And of course we urban explorers are not trying to leave their mark in the way that graffiti artist do. So my opinion is that the authorities-- the police and the municipal governments-- should welcome, or at least respect and appreciate, people who want to explore the city and its history. However, urban exploration is basically a very niche activity that few people think of as a real activity or hobby, and most police and authorities have never even thought about people doing things like that. So if someone like me gets caught climbing around some abandoned historic building, or peering down a manhole to try to find an underground river, the cops usually just assume that we’re either graffiti artists,

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vandals, thieves, or even misguided terrorists. I’ve spent plenty of time trying to explain to very puzzled security guards why in the world i would want to take pictures of some abandoned, fallen-down building or why i am interested in tunnels. Is there any special clothing you use? Any special tools or equipment?

air, but it’s always something to worry about.) Other than that, common issues in old buildings include asbestos and the dangers of falling through floors; some people use high-quality respirators when exploring or photographing old buildings that still have asbestos inside, but i don’t usually worry about it.

t really all depends on what specific thing i’m doing. One of the most expensive, but also most reassuring pieces of gear i have is an air-sensor, which checks for toxic gases, flammable gases, and also for low oxygen content. It’s the sort of thing that sewer workers use. It’s really reassuring to have it in abandoned mines, sewer

Tell us about the Franklin Roosevelt elevator in Grand Central Station in NYC

tunnels, underground rivers, and any other place where i’m not sure what the air quality is like. (Although in fact it’s actually very rare to run across bad

pull up into a special track underneath Grand Central. (Grand Central has two major levels underground, and each level has many lines and platforms;

n order to conceal his infirmity, Franklin Roosevelt would try to avoid reporters and the public when traveling to NYC from Washington. He had a private train car, which would

INTERVIEW

in addition there are other spaces between and around those two traintrack levels). Once there, underneath Grand Central, he would take a secret elevator which would take him to the road level, just across the street from the Waldorf-Astoria. What has been the best and the worst experience as an urban explorer?

been up to our chest level and moving so fast that we could barely stand in it, and it was utterly bizarre to look down the manhole shaft into the black and terrifying current of the water, nearly filling up the pipe, and then look up at the street and buildings and cars passing around us in the rain, with everything looking so normal. On the other hand, that kind of terrifying experience also really illustrated part of what i love about this stuff--

efinitely one of my worst experiences was being almost trapped and drowned in a storm drain underneath Queens; it was a drain with an outlet below the level of high tide, and through some incredibly bad planning, i was exploring it just prior to the arrival of a big storm that flooded parts of Queens. I was with one other person, and we hadn’t known

“New York is my favorite city” that the entrance would be blocked by the high tide until it started coming in. We were still about a mile from the exit, but to get there we had to fight the incoming current, and due to both the rain and the tide the water was rising rapidly-- we realized quickly we didn’t have any chance of making it to the exit in time. For a while we thought that we would have to go back further inland and wait out the tide, while hoping that the rain wouldn’t raise the level of water in the tunnel to the point of taking away all our airspace; but we were also checking out every side tunnel we could before the water rose too much, and eventually we were able to get out of a manhole onto a street. The water had

that you can be in another world, a totally different environment, having some crazy adventure and far separate from the normal life of the city-- while still being physically no more than a few dozen feet above or below the workaday city that we know on a daily basis. If nothing else, it proves that you don’t have to go far away to have

adventures-- you don’t have to travel to Mount Everest to challenge yourself-- if you look hard enough, you can find adventure and excitement in your own backyard. Is there any favorite city for urban explorers around the world and for you in special?

aris is definitely well-known for its underground-- a network of over 200 miles of old quarry tunnels stretches underneath the southern half of the city. It’s a labyrinth with parts dating as far back as the 12th century. They’re usually called the Catacombs because during the 18th and 19th centuries a few parts were used to deposit the bones of upwards of 7 million people-- but that’s only a fraction of what is to be found down there; you can also find places ranging from wine cellars from centuries ago to bunkers used during World War II. I particularly love underground spaces, so that city definitely is one of my favorites. In the States, the twin cities of Minneapolis/St Paul actually have what i think is the most extensive underground system in the US, because of a fortuitous combination of a rich industrial heritage and a soft sandstone layer that’s easy to tunnel through. Up to seven different systems of tunnels, from electric to sewer, interconnect underneath St Paul. New York doesn’t have nearly as extensive an underground, and our underground structures also aren’t connected to each other, so you can’t really travel from one underground space to another through the city. But New York is a unique city and the spaces here resonant with all of the amazing history of this place, so I still think of New York as my favorite city.

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