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Sharfa Ahmad
HON 122, Section 13060
Professor Karacas
May 26st, 2017
Theoretically, if you were standing a few yards down from the intersection of Brielle and a street that cannot be named for security purposes, you could perform a magic trick. There is no special training required for this disappearing act. For one moment, you would appear standing there on the side of the street and in the next you would no longer be a part of this world. To duck through that nondescript opening in the fence is to find yourself in an Alice in Wonderland worthy rabbit-hole. But only theoretically of course because this particular property, once known as the New York City Farm Colony, is owned by the city of New York and Raymond Masucci, a developer based in Staten Island (Dunlap). If you find yourself on the more interesting side of the fence, you are “trespassing.”
According to Cornell Law School, trespassing is “the act of knowingly entering another person’s property without permission” and this act is a crime because “such action is held to infringe upon a property owner’s legal right to enjoy the benefits of ownership.” However, in the eyes of urban explorers, it is “generally assumed that such laws are antiquated or unjust” (Jonathon H). If I were to empathize with the art of urban exploration, it would be an easy argument to claim that trespass on abandoned buildings does not infringe upon the owner’s rights in any manner. Despite the colorful walls of the Farm Colony’s buildings, entering this space is a moral gray area. The tendency of abandoned and potentially unstable buildings to be illegally repurposed for unregulated and “unsavory” activities such as illicit drug use, urban exploration, and vandalism, has created a stigma against their existence in the community that is not condoned by all members of society.
The urban explorer is an advo
