(VEHICLE BEEPING)
(GLASS CRACKING)
♪ (WHIMSICAL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
JOHN WILSON: Hey.
Everyone in New York is going to die.
But sometimes the city tries to stop that from happening.
Many people worry about things that can kill them at eye level.
But you're probably more likely to be destroyed
by something above you.
This is why the city has installed
a sprawling network of temporary sidewalk shelters
to protect pedestrians from falling objects.
(CLEARS THROAT) This is called scaffolding,
and almost everywhere you look in Manhattan,
you are guaranteed to see some form of it.
It's as common as a fire hydrant...
or a honking horn,
but most New Yorkers don't even seem to
give it a second thought.
So, do you have strong thoughts about scaffolding?
No, not at the moment.
♪ (MUSIC CONTINUES PLAYING) ♪
JOHN: I didn't understand why there was so much of it
in New York,
so I went on an expedition to figure out
why anyone would wanna cover up such a handsome city
in so much scaffolding.
There wasn't always this much scaffolding in New York.
-♪ (PIANO MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ -Long ago,
the island of Manhattan was a lush, green paradise.
But ever since the Dutch came across the sea
and colonized this unspoiled virgin island,
New York has been a casualty to man's ravenous appetite
for over-development.
Once the original settlers tamed the bedrock,
the only other direction to build was upwards,
towards the heavens.
♪ (PIANO MUSIC STOPS) ♪
At this point, New York has some of the oldest,
tallest, uh, most historic buildings in the country.
But their toxic relationship with gravity
has, uh, turned them into a fatal liability.
In 1979, a young student was hit by a brick
that fell off the facade of a building and killed her.
This is the intersection where it happened, right here.
Her name was Grace Gold.
And they renamed the street after her, uh,
a few years later.
After she died, the city passed a local law
which basically says that every building in New York
has to have their façade inspected every five years,
whether the building needs it or not.
This turned New York City scaffolding
into an eight-billion-dollar- a-year industry.
And it doesn't seem like it's gonna be slowing down
anytime soon.
♪ (UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
♪ (MUSIC STOPS) ♪
JOHN: The average scaffold is made of a few simple elements.
Your main vertical pole is called the standard,
or sometimes the upright.
These are usually made of steel or aluminum.
And, um...
Uh...
The people that put up scaffolding
are affectionately known as "scaffies."
And they may do more to alter the landscape
than any other group of people in New York.
♪ (JOLLY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
They are a polarizing bunch.
Uh... they seem like a vigorous and virile breed.
But there are also hierarchies, uh, within the business
that most people may be unaware of.
A scaffie is someone that actually erects
most of the structure.
A "groundie" is someone that yells at a scaffie
from the street to make sure they're doing the right thing.
The "plankie" is in charge of all the wood.
The "flagger" tells civilians where to walk,
uh, while the "beam boys" move the steel overhead.
The "foremen" make sure that everything is done
according to OSHA safety standards.
Every crew has a-- a "hammer guy," uh, just one.
Or sometimes two. Two hammer guys.
Uh, the "roll-dog" drives the crew between job sites.
The "bathroom attendant" gives them a--
a pot to piss in.
The "sweetman" cools them down at the end of a long afternoon.
And Spot here, uh, grabs them the paper.
-(DOG BARKS) -JOHN: Atta boy.
And when they all work together,
this glorious ballet produces a majority
of New York's roughly 280 miles of scaffolding.
Because scaffolding is only meant to be temporary,
the people who put it up usually don't care how it looks.
At best, the design of most scaffolding
is aggressively neutral.
But a lot of people see this
as a divine opportunity to personalize it
and make it their own.
Outside of this building, they covered it in fake vines,
which makes it feel like you're waltzing
through some kind of Italian villa.
♪ (MANDOLIN MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
-♪ (FLUTE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ -JOHN: And it seems like across the city,
just about every culture has made scaffolding its own.
♪ (DANCE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
♪ It's a dancing night Gonna dance the ni-- ♪
♪ (WHIMSICAL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
♪ ("I'LL BE THERE FOR YOU" BY THE REMBRANDTS PLAYING) ♪
♪ ("HALLOWEEN" BY MAURA MATLAK PLAYING) ♪
♪ Halloween, Halloween ♪
♪ Halloween ♪
-♪ Hehehe ♪ -♪ Trick or treat ♪
♪ My friend-o'-lantern We call him Jack, he's gri-- ♪
♪ (MUSIC STOPS ABRUPTLY) ♪
JOHN: Many residents of New York have discovered practical ways
to make use of scaffolding.
This person turned it into a-- a public fitness center.
This person is using scaffolding as an office.
This person, uh, turned it into a ba-- a bathroom.
These people turned it into a bedroom.
-(PLAYING FLUTE) -JOHN: This person turned it
into their own personal concert venue.
When I asked him how to get to Carnegie Hall,
he said, uh, he didn't know.
I pass these guys every day,
and they're always playing backgammon
underneath the scaffolding...
day and night, in every kind of weather.
I even met someone who used scaffolding
on a romantic date.
He had scaffolding set up on the side of his house.
It was in Hawaii.
He left me outside when it rained.
That was interesting.
-JOHN: Like this? -Yep, yep.
But picture, um...
of course, without clothes.
Because, like I said, he was a nudist.
And, uh, that's the time he came in with the blindfold,
he used a whip on me.
And, um, he-- he edged me while I was blindfolded,
then he'd just walk away.
And, um, session lasted about two hours.
And then he did finish me off,
and I squirted all over the floor.
♪ (UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
JOHN: I went to a museum in Queens,
and they had an art installation
that was entirely made out of scaffolding.
It was heavily decorated with, uh, waterfalls and stuff...
and even a bunch of hammocks
that people could relax on.
They even paid 22 dollars each
for the chance to admire it and interact with it.
I guess it doesn't take much to transform
such a common object into something extraordinary.
It's kind of like when a superhero puts on a cape
and for some reason, no one can recognize them anymore.
And when I left, I noticed that every single building
outside the museum had scaffolding up in front of it.
But nobody seemed to want to interact with this stuff.
♪ (CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Since the dawn of cinema,
scaffolding has offered a setting
for some of our wildest fantasies.
Countless action scenes have taken place
on or around scaffolding.
This includes pretty much every movie
that Jackie Chan has ever been in.
It seems like the poor guy just can't catch a break
whenever there's construction going on.
It's probably so popular because it's a modular set piece
that is stable enough to fight on
and makes sense in almost any environment.
It often transmits that whatever property they're on
is not worthy of respect,
and that any damage they do to the structure
is of no significance.
It's a great place for comedy too...
and drama.
It's industrial, yet romantic,
and its erotic qualities cannot be denied.
There are a lot of iconic buildings
that show up all the time in movies about New York City.
There's usually never anything obstructing them
in the establishing shots, but in reality,
all of these buildings are usually covered
by a bunch of scaffolding.
Here's the Flatiron Building in The Usual Suspects...
and here's what it usually looks like.
Here's the Plaza Hotel
in the background of Midnight Cowboy...
and here it is in real life.
Here's Tiffany's in the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's...
and here-- and there's scaffolding.
Here's 101 Park Avenue in Gremlins 2,
and it seems like it's one of the few buildings
that's untouched in real--
Nope, actually, there-- there's scaffolding there too.
♪ (CLASSICAL MUSIC STOPS) ♪
We cover ourselves in scaffolding all the time.
Uh, braces are scaffolding of the mouth.
A cast can be a scaffold for the limbs.
A brassiere is scaffolding for the breast.
These things give us structure, support, and protection.
We even have scaffolding in our bodies,
inside every cell.
BIOLOGIST: Um, this is the scaffolding protein
-in pink here. -JOHN: Ah.
BIOLOGIST: And this is the three different proteins
you might have positioned on it that need to work together.
JOHN: Could we live without scaffolding proteins
-in our bodies? -No. No.
JOHN: But not everyone likes scaffolding.
-♪ (SAD MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ -I've almost had that stuff
hit me in the head.
'Cause these guys are up there,
and they don't know what they're doing.
And they-- they're barely able to hold it up.
And you're walking underneath--
And one time, a piece actually fell,
and it was maybe about eight feet away from me,
but it was about that far away
from the pregnant woman in front of me.
So we both got hysterical.
JOHN: A lot of people complain that it interrupts foot traffic
and obscures the signage of, uh,
beloved businesses underneath.
This lawyer had an amazing view, but not anymore.
A lot of trees don't receive the light that they deserve
underneath all this stuff.
It decreases property value sometimes,
and also decreases the quality of life
-for the residents inside. -♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪
WOMAN: This scaffolding has been up for... (LAUGHS)
-...for over a year now. -JOHN: Oh, really?
WOMAN: Uh, it's...
(SIGHS)
This, uh, it blocks your view of the street.
We have some nice trees out here.
You can't see the trees.
We've had people drilling outside. (IMITATES DRILL)
You know...
It's-- It's depressing. It's just depressing.
♪ (JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
JOHN: Sometimes people even spontaneously snap
and try to take it down themselves.
But if you really can't stand
scaffolding outside of your building,
the most effective removal method
is to hop into a cab, uh, put on your seat belt,
and tell the driver to plow strai-- to-- to--
to drive directly into it.
Um, then, they'll have to take it all down.
And everyone will thank you for your service.
(SINGING) ♪ Sandman, bring me... ♪
JOHN: Most New Yorkers will put up with anything
as long as they know it's temporary.
(SINGING) ♪ Bring me a dream ♪
JOHN: But for some people,
the temporary nature of something can be the problem.
BLIND MAN: You won't know there's--
there's a pole there until you run right into it.
Uh, the ones I really hate
is when you got poles that are, uh, elevated mostly,
um, like chest level,
uh, stomach level, or even head level,
where the cane can actually...
glide under-- under it and it won't detect it.
And you won't know there's a pole there until you hit it.
-You see how this one is lower? -JOHN: Yeah.
So, immediately, I would, uh,
immediately try to go around this if I feel it.
Goes right underneath.
Uh, yeah, it'd be great
to live in a city without scaffolding.
But, um, unfortunately, uh...
you know, you work with what you got.
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
JOHN: About a decade ago,
I had this job where I had to wake up at 4 a.m.
and go film infomercials that were broadcast live
to local cable stations around the country.
It was right here at 229 West 36th Street.
I spent many, many cold mornings
waiting for someone to buzz me in
so I could go shoot some infomercials.
This is one of the things that I shot.
I was instructed to film the beef exactly like this,
for ten hours straight.
So, they're just wonderful. They're all the buzz right now.
Sweet and savory, just delicious.
Your guests will love them,
and you will totally take them to Roast-Beef-atopia.
JOHN: I remember after the first one I did,
I told myself that I would never return
under any circumstances.
But five years later,
I was still somehow standing behind the same camera,
filming the same beef the same way.
INFOMERCIAL HOST: Look at all that great food,
hand-trimmed to exacting specifications... (INAUDIBLE)
JOHN: I was afraid I wouldn't be able to
support myself without steady work,
even though I knew in my heart that I was helping to create
some of the most grotesque content on the planet.
♪ (TRANQUIL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
It's really easy to settle for something that you don't like.
Because if you never admit
you're unhappy with something...
then you never have to change anything.
Most of us don't speak up when we're dissatisfied...
and then things just begin to accumulate
until you can't really imagine an alternative.
You could end a relationship that offers you nothing,
or you could just stay in it indefinitely
because it's too hard to move on.
This scaffolding has been up for over 20 years.
It's at 409 Edgecombe Avenue
in the Sugar Hill area of Harlem.
Yeah, it's been here my entire life.
I don't know when it was put up,
when they plan on bringing it down. It's...
It's just something that's been here.
Like, I-- I know we used it for, like, sports and games.
I know I used to play, like, manhunt,
and we used to climb up this and just run it.
You know, to me, I--
I've known it my whole life, so, to me, it is a landmark.
JOHN: But despite whatever emotional attachment you have...
scaffolding was never designed to be up for this long.
I was walking down Fifth Avenue recently,
and I saw that a bunch of scaffolding had just collapsed.
There were broken planks and bricks everywhere,
but thankfully, nobody was hurt.
It seemed like all this old scaffolding
was a ticking time bomb.
But instead of figuring out a way to get it down sooner,
the only noticeable innovation
has been to make it more stylish.
In 2009, they held a scaffolding design competition,
and this thing won.
♪ (TRIUMPHANT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Not long after,
its creamy, pearly-white pillars
started to pop up on some of the city's more genteel buildings.
Although it may be brighter and less cave-like,
this new scaffold seems a lot less customizable.
There are fewer places to hang things.
And I can't imagine an action scene
working the same way.
It's almost as if it wants New York to be a different city,
where it looks like every building
shops at the same store.
And I'm not sure that turning scaffolding
into a status symbol is really making us any safer.
♪ (MUSIC STOPS) ♪
Fortunately, there was a scaffolding convention
happening, uh, down in New Orleans.
So I went down there
to see if there was a solution on the horizon
that could work for everyone.
♪ (TRIUMPHANT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
When I checked in to the Sheraton,
I could already see signs
that the scaffolding industry had invaded.
This was supposed to be the cutting edge
of scaffold technology,
and I was, uh, I was very excited.
♪ (TRIUMPHANT MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
-JOHN: Did you invent this? -Yeah.
JOHN: Uh, why did you invent this?
Because I had a window cleaner fall off a building and die.
JOHN: Oh.
♪ (TRIUMPHANT MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
WINDOW WASHER MANUFACTURER: And we can make it 13 feet long.
It's an eight-footer now, but we--
That's a small side brush, so we can add
two side brushes and it'll clean...
It'll clean almost twice as much.
♪ (TRIUMPHANT MUSIC STOPS) ♪
JOHN: Wow.
I only talked to a couple of people
before the organizers of the convention approached me
and told me that I needed to stop filming.
Uh, why is that?
ORGANIZER 1:
ORGANIZER 2: Yes.
JOHN: They said that there were too many industry secrets here,
and I couldn't be trusted not to steal them.
So I can't go around--
ORGANIZERS:
JOHN: All right.
I was crushed.
But thankfully, there were a bunch of
scaffolding people hanging around outside,
and they were fine telling me all their secrets.
Business is good, business is booming, uh,
our s-- our sales are increasing year over year.
If you're in New York City, you will--
you will never get away from scaffolding,
-I can promise you that. -(CHUCKLES)
JOHN: Do you worry about stuff falling on you, uh,
when you walk around cities?
-Oh, yes. Yes. -Sometimes, yes.
Unless my husband has done the scaffolding,
I don't worry about it.
JOHN: When you see a well-done scaffolding job,
do you see beauty?
-Yes. -Yes.
-And safety. -Yes.
JOHN: Can scaffolding be art?
-Yes, it can. It is art. -It is. Yes.
-It is art. -It is art.
♪ (MYSTERIOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
JOHN: Walking around downtown,
I actually didn't even see any scaffolding.
Maybe this is because all the scaffolding in New Orleans
was actually built into the architecture down here.
It was a beautiful alternative.
Would New York be better off if we had something permanent
instead of this temporary stuff being erected
and dismantled all the time?
Is this what it looks like
when you finally commit to something?
The locals here were lucky to live in a state of bliss
enjoyed only by those ignorant of scaffolding.
What are your thoughts on scaffolding?
I don't even know what that is, I'm gonna be honest with you.
JOHN: Do you ever worry about, uh, things falling
and hitting you on the head?
All the time. They got balconies up here,
they got people who would throw shit at you.
I've had it happen to me.
They'll see the big gold glasses, a nice juicy buff guy.
"Hey, that's a target. Let's get him."
All the time, it happens, believe me.
JOHN: Can you do a trick for me?
Sure. (MUFFLED) You wanna hold the mic?
♪ (STREET MUSICIAN SINGING) ♪
JOHN: The only scaffolding I could find anywhere
was at the new Hard Rock Hotel,
which was being built on Canal and North Rampart Street.
Compared to what I was used to seeing in New York,
this scaffolding looked cheap and haphazardly assembled.
And for the size of the building,
I couldn't imagine that it would offer much protection
if something were to fall from way up above.
I was stunned to see that the entire side of the building
that faced North Rampart had no scaffolding set up at all.
And for the first time in my life,
I found myself wishing for a little more scaffolding.
I'd heard there was a place in the French Quarter
that made a cocktail served in a fishbowl.
So I went looking around for it.
And I ran into a guy from the convention
who actually bought and sold scaffolding companies.
And he wanted to talk.
Do you think there's such a thing as too much scaffolding?
No.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
JOHN: Why not?
It's where I make my living.
There can never be too much scaffolding.
Roll it out.
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
JOHN: The whole industry seemed pretty confident
that scaffolding was here to stay
and it would continue to grow like a fungus,
but I couldn't help but think that it posed its own danger.
I tried going to a bar
to get away from the industry for a minute,
but even the movie they had on at the pub
was filled with cartoon scaffolding.
I even read a terrifying statistic
that scaffolding failure
was responsible for 80 deaths annually across the country.
Maybe these people in the construction industry
weren't as careful as we thought.
And when I went back to Bourbon Street,
I saw the same guy from before wandering around,
half drunk, without a care in the world...
trying to find the right strip club to go into, like...
uh, Goldilocks tasting porridge.
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC STOPS) ♪
JOHN: The next morning, I walked down to the levee
to clear my head.
I guess a levee is kind of like scaffolding too...
and sometimes its failure could be extremely dangerous
for the people it's designed to protect.
There was a fisherman down there,
and I wondered how he felt about living in a city
that's constantly trying to kill you.
(BIRDS CHIRPING)
JOHN: I guess sometimes the beauty of a city
is in its danger.
But you do always have a choice
in how much risk you wanna take on.
And no one is really forcing you to live on the edge.
♪ (RELAXING MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
So, I headed home and it was great to...
finally, uh, be back in New York.
But shortly after I arrived, I saw some terrible news.
The Hard Rock Hotel that I had just been filming
down in New Orleans had just collapsed
and killed three people.
MAN: Oh, my God!
NEWS ANCHOR: Panic and mass confusion
in the heart of New Orleans.
This morning, the upper floors of the Hard Rock Hotel,
currently under construction, suddenly began to crumble.
JOHN: The video was horrifying.
And I couldn't believe that I had just been standing
right underneath it just a-- a few days before.
They had to keep everyone out of the area for a while,
because the only way to make the construction site safe again
would be to blow up the cranes that were dangling
precariously above the street.
But they weren't even sure how to do that safely.
And the more I watched the video,
the more I suspected that no amount of scaffolding
could have prevented something like this.
♪ (SAD MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
You can waste your entire life playing it safe.
But the real danger is never what you expect it to be.
And if you put up too much scaffolding to protect yourself,
you might just end up buried underneath it.
But if we try real hard to take it down,
piece by piece...
eventually, one day, it'll all be gone.
And only then will we know if it was all for show.
It could be kind of scary at first...
but we may be better off finding new ways
to protect ourselves from all the uncertainty in the sky.
-♪ (MUSIC STOPS) ♪ -(BIRD CAWING)
(EXPLOSION BOOMS)
(CAR ALARMS BLARING)
JOHN: This is John Wilson. Thanks for watching.
(ALARMS CONTINUE)
♪ (UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
♪ (ETHEREAL MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
JOHN WILSON: A good memory is
one of the most attractive qualities a person can have.
My memory's not very good,
and it's always made me feel insecure.
♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪