http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/27/ny...l?ref=nyregion


My take: This doesn't stop building climbers. Most of them already know what they are doing is illegal.

BASE Jumping is also illegal in the United States in most places. There is only one known exception, and it happens to be West Virginia's largest tourist attraction:

The New River Gorge Bridge in WV is closed to vehicle traffic once a year around October 12th, and attracts well over 100,000 tourists on to the bridge to watch BASE jumpers who get the entire bridge to themselves, courtesy the state of West Virginia. The festival attracts more people than any state fair or event.




I think climbers and BASE jumpers should be allowed to practice their sport, despite how extreme it may be. Auto racing is just as dangerous even with all the precautions, and BASE jumpers, building climbers and skydivers are also in sports which have danger and have long lists of safety procedures which must be followed.

NYC is doing itself a disservice by trying to pass a law that won't be heeded, and besides--the climbers are unique to the city and help elevate its attraction among tourists, even if it is tourists of the extreme variety.


Other cities around the world take varying attitudes towards BASE jumpers and building climbers. For instance, in Kuala Lampur in Malaysia, every New Years the city celebrates the coming of the next year with a large group BASE jump from the twin Petronas Towers, each BASE jumper wearing a different color. Hundreds of thousands of people turn out to see the spectacle.

And in the US, we have been accostomed to parachutists jumping out of planes since the 1920s. Many groups pay parachutists to jump into sporting events such as stadiums or at air shows, even into high school football games.

With skydiving, it has had to defend itself from irrational detractors for so long, that it has its own lobby in Washington to protect itself from overzealous regulation in attempts to quash the sport and banning it from airports across the country: www.uspa.org

It looks like NYC's irrational twitch to pass another silly law goes unabated.


I think Philly should go the opposite direction. It would be fun if the City hooked up with Liberty Property Trust to have a BASE jump fair in Center City.

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Buh-bye.

Awwwwe..... go jump off a bridge why dontcha!.....LOL

Personally, I'm afraid of heights anyway, so I could care less about this issue.
I get jiggy just climbing a 6 foot ladder to put up my Christmas lights each year. The only time I enjoyed my feet in the air is when.... oh never mind.

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"Accept the fact that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue"

Given that they had two guys climb the new Times tower in the last couple of weeks (one of whom barely made it to the top), this is not just some random thing for NYC.

As to BASE jumping: the problem with doing it in an urban environment is it's hard to predict where someone's going to land. In a city, this translates to a range of several city block, and if the jumper gets caught by a gust of wind, they could still be blown out of the "safe" zone.

This is also why there are so few BASE jump stunts in movies: most cities won't allow them under any circumstances