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1
00:03:33,900 --> 00:03:35,380
- There are a lot
of parts of New York
2
00:03:35,430 --> 00:03:37,950
where you hear a lot of birds,
3
00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:41,780
which you might not
think would be the case,
4
00:03:41,830 --> 00:03:43,090
and a lot of times
you don't hear them
5
00:03:43,130 --> 00:03:46,480
just cause you're not
listening for them.
6
00:03:57,230 --> 00:03:58,930
- So she said she forgot.
7
00:03:58,970 --> 00:03:59,840
- How you doing?
8
00:03:59,890 --> 00:04:02,110
- Oh hi, what are you doing?
9
00:04:03,280 --> 00:04:04,940
- I'm doing this
big walking project.
10
00:04:04,980 --> 00:04:06,890
I'm walking every block
of the five boroughs.
11
00:04:06,940 --> 00:04:07,760
- Okay.
12
00:04:07,810 --> 00:04:09,460
- Over like a few years.
13
00:04:09,510 --> 00:04:11,250
That's kind of my progress map.
14
00:04:11,290 --> 00:04:12,940
- Okay, you walked a lot.
15
00:04:12,990 --> 00:04:14,420
- I got a lot of
Staten Island left.
16
00:04:14,470 --> 00:04:16,990
- Was you always slim, or
you was bigger than that?
17
00:04:17,030 --> 00:04:17,860
I was
always about the same.
18
00:04:17,910 --> 00:04:18,820
I was always about the same.
19
00:04:18,860 --> 00:04:19,600
- You were the same?
20
00:04:19,650 --> 00:04:20,820
'Cause you never know.
21
00:04:20,860 --> 00:04:21,390
People lose weight
after all that walking.
22
00:04:21,430 --> 00:04:22,170
- I know.
23
00:04:22,210 --> 00:04:23,080
I never lost any weight.
24
00:04:23,130 --> 00:04:24,960
Still just little gut here,
25
00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:26,390
never goes away.
26
00:04:57,680 --> 00:04:58,860
- You got it?
27
00:04:58,900 --> 00:04:59,860
Need a hand?
28
00:04:59,900 --> 00:05:00,600
- Yeah, I got it.
29
00:05:00,640 --> 00:05:01,380
Okay.
30
00:05:01,430 --> 00:05:02,430
- Thank you.
31
00:05:09,780 --> 00:05:11,000
- Nice garden.
32
00:05:11,920 --> 00:05:13,790
How long has it been open?
33
00:05:13,830 --> 00:05:15,960
- Oh man, we've been
here for 22 years.
34
00:05:16,010 --> 00:05:16,790
- Oh yeah?
35
00:05:18,840 --> 00:05:20,270
I'm Matt.
36
00:05:20,320 --> 00:05:22,540
I see a lot of community
gardens, but this is a nice one.
37
00:05:22,580 --> 00:05:24,840
- We've been here 12 years.
38
00:05:24,890 --> 00:05:25,760
Oh yeah, there you are.
39
00:05:25,800 --> 00:05:27,410
Back when I was young.
40
00:05:27,450 --> 00:05:28,760
Still
look young to me.
41
00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:30,060
- Okay, yeah.
42
00:06:39,310 --> 00:06:41,350
♪ And you know just
what I wanna do ♪
43
00:07:08,730 --> 00:07:11,950
But you guys
got the fuck out.
44
00:07:33,230 --> 00:07:35,580
- So I don't have an apartment,
45
00:07:35,620 --> 00:07:38,800
which is a big part of how
I can afford to do this walk
46
00:07:38,850 --> 00:07:40,110
by not having to pay rent.
47
00:07:40,150 --> 00:07:42,330
The place where
I'm staying today
48
00:07:42,370 --> 00:07:44,550
is a friend of mine's apartment.
49
00:07:44,590 --> 00:07:49,120
He has two kids, including
a 9 year old daughter
50
00:07:49,160 --> 00:07:50,600
whose room this is,
51
00:07:52,120 --> 00:07:54,080
although it's pretty
much my style too.
52
00:07:54,120 --> 00:07:56,210
I would probably decorate
a place just like this,
53
00:07:56,250 --> 00:07:57,120
so it feels like home.
54
00:08:01,350 --> 00:08:04,220
I have probably
stayed at somewhere
55
00:08:07,260 --> 00:08:09,570
around 50 different places.
56
00:08:12,180 --> 00:08:16,140
I've stayed in a very
wide variety of places.
57
00:08:17,190 --> 00:08:21,240
You know, from someone
who has roommates,
58
00:08:21,280 --> 00:08:24,240
like the couch in their
kind of common room,
59
00:08:24,280 --> 00:08:28,160
to my own bedroom in like
really nice apartments.
60
00:08:29,940 --> 00:08:33,730
Sometimes I'll just stay with
someone for a couple days.
61
00:08:33,770 --> 00:08:36,210
Sometimes I'll be at a place
62
00:08:36,250 --> 00:08:39,080
for two weeks or
more, house sitting,
63
00:08:39,120 --> 00:08:43,870
and sometimes I'll just be
at a place for a day or two.
64
00:08:49,520 --> 00:08:52,140
A lot of the places are
just friends of mine.
65
00:08:52,180 --> 00:08:53,310
Some of them, I'll just say,
66
00:08:53,350 --> 00:08:55,230
hey, can I come over
for a couple days?
67
00:08:55,270 --> 00:08:57,180
And there are a
few people I've met
68
00:08:57,230 --> 00:08:59,140
who just found my
blog and emailed me
69
00:08:59,190 --> 00:09:01,710
and invited me to come over.
70
00:09:02,540 --> 00:09:04,190
Ow.
71
00:09:04,230 --> 00:09:06,930
Cat sitting is one way that I
find a lot of places to stay.
72
00:09:06,980 --> 00:09:11,980
I've probably taken care of
maybe two dozen different cats,
73
00:09:12,810 --> 00:09:14,940
so this one here is Mufasa,
74
00:09:16,290 --> 00:09:17,470
and let's see.
75
00:09:19,950 --> 00:09:21,860
I've also watched Remy,
76
00:09:25,210 --> 00:09:26,210
Ed and Huck,
77
00:09:28,650 --> 00:09:30,570
Misha and Nico,
78
00:09:30,610 --> 00:09:32,050
Mishi and Shimi,
79
00:09:33,570 --> 00:09:34,700
Greta, Nanya,
80
00:09:36,750 --> 00:09:38,970
Miss Kitty and Ralph,
81
00:09:39,010 --> 00:09:41,010
Frosty, Dizzy and Miles,
82
00:09:43,320 --> 00:09:44,360
Quippy,
83
00:09:45,540 --> 00:09:46,360
Henry,
84
00:09:49,630 --> 00:09:51,190
and then a few dogs.
85
00:09:51,240 --> 00:09:54,070
Milo, Sugar, another little guy,
86
00:09:55,290 --> 00:09:57,810
I can't even remember
his name right now.
87
00:09:57,850 --> 00:09:59,770
I think if I were really
kind of organized about it,
88
00:09:59,810 --> 00:10:02,820
I could just cat sit
for the rest of my life
89
00:10:02,860 --> 00:10:05,510
and like never
have an apartment.
90
00:10:10,170 --> 00:10:13,520
I mean, I kind of estimate that
I spend on average probably
91
00:10:13,570 --> 00:10:16,130
about $15 a day on basically,
92
00:10:18,610 --> 00:10:21,660
pretty much transportation and
food are the only real costs.
93
00:10:23,440 --> 00:10:26,840
Some people, I think, are so
used to a life of spending
94
00:10:26,880 --> 00:10:31,890
that my lifestyle seems
miserable to live or something,
95
00:10:33,410 --> 00:10:34,890
that I'm like depriving
myself of the basics of life.
96
00:10:34,930 --> 00:10:36,150
I mean, every once
in a while I'm like,
97
00:10:36,200 --> 00:10:38,460
oh, I'd like to get a sandwich,
98
00:10:38,500 --> 00:10:40,160
but that'll cost 6 bucks,
99
00:10:40,200 --> 00:10:45,420
and I can go home and eat
rice and beans for 75 cents.
100
00:10:46,730 --> 00:10:49,780
So it's just kind of helped
me find more satisfaction
101
00:10:51,040 --> 00:10:52,870
in the basic stuff
of life that's free
102
00:10:52,910 --> 00:10:54,780
or that's really cheap,
103
00:10:54,820 --> 00:10:57,520
but yeah, pretty
much everything else,
104
00:10:57,570 --> 00:10:59,000
I don't really miss it.
105
00:11:06,840 --> 00:11:09,190
This is Bowling Green.
106
00:11:09,230 --> 00:11:12,750
Transfer is available
to the Staten Island Ferry.
107
00:12:18,300 --> 00:12:20,870
- Something people have
said a lot in regards
108
00:12:20,910 --> 00:12:22,480
to what I'm doing,
109
00:12:22,520 --> 00:12:25,350
that I could be doing
something much more useful
110
00:12:25,390 --> 00:12:26,920
for the world,
111
00:12:26,960 --> 00:12:31,490
so that's definitely criticism
that I've heard a lot of.
112
00:12:33,050 --> 00:12:35,320
I mean, they just kind of
consider me to be some kid
113
00:12:35,360 --> 00:12:37,450
who graduated from college
114
00:12:37,490 --> 00:12:40,360
and never did anything
with his life.
115
00:12:42,580 --> 00:12:43,980
When I tell them
I'm doing this walk,
116
00:12:44,020 --> 00:12:46,200
they assume there's
some plan to turn this
117
00:12:46,240 --> 00:12:49,420
into some kind of revenue
stream when I'm done,
118
00:12:49,460 --> 00:12:52,990
whether that's writing a
book or becoming a tour guide
119
00:12:53,030 --> 00:12:57,080
or whatever it is you could do
with this kind of knowledge,
120
00:12:57,120 --> 00:12:58,030
and I don't think
there's a whole lot
121
00:12:58,080 --> 00:13:00,040
of commercial use for it.
122
00:13:02,390 --> 00:13:04,690
The people in the world
who captivate me the most
123
00:13:04,740 --> 00:13:09,350
are people who do something
just because they want to do it.
124
00:13:09,390 --> 00:13:11,480
They're not making
any money off of,
125
00:13:11,530 --> 00:13:14,050
maybe that other
people think is stupid.
126
00:13:18,010 --> 00:13:19,270
So I'm of two minds about it.
127
00:13:19,320 --> 00:13:20,620
I have no problem
with people thinking
128
00:13:20,670 --> 00:13:24,450
that I'm just being
a worthless bum,
129
00:13:24,490 --> 00:13:26,800
but I'm also fully
engaged in this thing
130
00:13:26,850 --> 00:13:28,110
that I really care about
131
00:13:28,150 --> 00:13:29,410
and that I think is
important in some kind
132
00:13:29,460 --> 00:13:33,330
of intangible way that
I can't really describe,
133
00:13:33,370 --> 00:13:34,460
well, anyway.
134
00:13:35,810 --> 00:13:37,380
The point of it all,
135
00:13:37,420 --> 00:13:39,510
I mean, I don't entirely
know what the point is.
136
00:13:39,550 --> 00:13:42,770
I'm kind of learning
that as I go along too.
137
00:14:11,800 --> 00:14:13,370
- Matt and I have been friends
138
00:14:13,410 --> 00:14:17,630
since I joined him for his
walk across every bridge
139
00:14:19,460 --> 00:14:21,250
that touches Manhattan.
140
00:14:21,290 --> 00:14:23,080
It was a 35 mile walk.
141
00:14:24,550 --> 00:14:26,250
We started in New Jersey,
142
00:14:26,300 --> 00:14:28,340
walked over the George
Washington Bridge,
143
00:14:28,380 --> 00:14:29,910
and then made our way
down the East River,
144
00:14:29,950 --> 00:14:32,390
finishing at the
Brooklyn Bridge.
145
00:14:32,430 --> 00:14:34,610
So when Matt was
starting to prepare
146
00:14:34,650 --> 00:14:35,830
for his New York walk,
147
00:14:35,870 --> 00:14:37,520
I volunteered to make
a website for him.
148
00:14:37,570 --> 00:14:40,830
The original idea was that he
would post one photo a day,
149
00:14:40,880 --> 00:14:42,090
and then as he got on his walk,
150
00:14:42,140 --> 00:14:44,230
he started posting
more and more photos.
151
00:14:44,270 --> 00:14:46,580
Also, Matt sort of ended
up using the website
152
00:14:46,620 --> 00:14:47,710
a lot differently.
153
00:14:47,750 --> 00:14:49,450
Matt started doing
a ton of research.
154
00:14:49,490 --> 00:14:50,620
He found a thing.
155
00:14:50,670 --> 00:14:52,190
He got curious about it.
156
00:14:52,230 --> 00:14:54,760
He'd stay up all night reading
newspapers from the 1800s,
157
00:14:54,800 --> 00:14:57,280
and write a really
perfect description
158
00:14:57,330 --> 00:14:58,940
of what this bridge was
159
00:14:58,980 --> 00:15:02,240
and why it's interesting
and important.
160
00:15:04,550 --> 00:15:05,940
I haven't looked at
stats in a long time.
161
00:15:05,990 --> 00:15:07,550
I don't think Matt
looks at stats.
162
00:15:07,600 --> 00:15:10,120
It's not like a ton of people
are coming to his website.
163
00:15:10,170 --> 00:15:12,650
I would guess he probably
has a dozen or so people
164
00:15:12,690 --> 00:15:15,000
looking a day, coming
to visit a day.
165
00:15:15,040 --> 00:15:17,910
I suspect it's
pretty low, frankly.
166
00:15:25,490 --> 00:15:29,360
- This is Mount
Olivet Baptist Church.
167
00:15:29,400 --> 00:15:32,710
It's one of New York's
many churgagogues,
168
00:15:34,020 --> 00:15:36,240
former synagogues
in neighborhoods
169
00:15:36,280 --> 00:15:38,670
where most of the Jewish
population moved out,
170
00:15:38,720 --> 00:15:40,630
and they've since
become churches.
171
00:15:40,670 --> 00:15:42,370
In areas that used to
172
00:15:42,420 --> 00:15:44,770
have big Jewish
populations that don't,
173
00:15:44,810 --> 00:15:46,770
there's not but
so much you can do
174
00:15:46,810 --> 00:15:49,030
with a big old kind
of sanctuary building,
175
00:15:49,070 --> 00:15:51,860
so often times they
become churches.
176
00:15:51,900 --> 00:15:55,520
Sometimes you can kind of get
a sense from the architecture
177
00:15:55,560 --> 00:15:57,040
that it used to be a
synagogue or something,
178
00:15:57,080 --> 00:15:58,870
but sometimes there's
more explicit symbols,
179
00:15:58,910 --> 00:16:01,130
like here you can
see below the windows
180
00:16:01,170 --> 00:16:03,440
there are little Stars of David.
181
00:16:03,480 --> 00:16:04,870
So they kind of run the gamut.
182
00:16:04,920 --> 00:16:07,050
Some of them are very
obviously former synagogues,
183
00:16:07,090 --> 00:16:09,570
and others, just after
you've seen enough of them,
184
00:16:09,620 --> 00:16:13,050
you kind of can recognize
the architecture.
185
00:16:14,580 --> 00:16:18,060
Parts of Harlem had
big Jewish communities.
186
00:16:18,100 --> 00:16:22,540
Harlem, South Bronx, East
New York, and Brownsville,
187
00:16:22,590 --> 00:16:25,410
those are places that used
to have a lot of Jews,
188
00:16:25,460 --> 00:16:29,330
so a lot of synagogues that
aren't synagogues anymore.
189
00:16:29,380 --> 00:16:33,680
You can see the Ten
Commandment tablets in Hebrew
190
00:16:33,730 --> 00:16:36,430
up above the name
of the church there.
191
00:16:59,540 --> 00:17:00,750
Mikey.
192
00:17:08,940 --> 00:17:11,720
I'm doing a big
project where I'm walking
193
00:17:11,770 --> 00:17:14,550
every block in the whole
city, in the five boroughs.
194
00:17:14,590 --> 00:17:15,680
- That sucks.
195
00:17:15,730 --> 00:17:16,640
- Yo, can I shake
your hand, please?
196
00:17:16,680 --> 00:17:17,550
It sucks?
197
00:17:17,600 --> 00:17:18,690
- I need to shake your hand.
198
00:17:18,730 --> 00:17:20,380
You want
to shake my hand?
199
00:17:20,430 --> 00:17:22,560
- Oh, I want to shake
your hand please.
200
00:17:22,600 --> 00:17:24,780
- Are you really
walking all of them?
201
00:17:24,820 --> 00:17:25,560
- Hey, can you shake
my hand please?
202
00:17:25,610 --> 00:17:26,740
I am.
203
00:17:26,780 --> 00:17:27,390
- Can I do that with you?
204
00:17:27,430 --> 00:17:28,170
I have a bike.
205
00:17:31,310 --> 00:17:32,570
- Alright.
206
00:17:32,610 --> 00:17:34,090
Oh, I'm doing this
big walking project.
207
00:17:34,140 --> 00:17:36,790
I'm trying to walk every
block in all five boroughs.
208
00:17:36,830 --> 00:17:37,790
- That's cool.
209
00:17:37,830 --> 00:17:38,710
- Thanks man.
210
00:17:38,750 --> 00:17:39,750
- Cool.
211
00:17:39,790 --> 00:17:40,970
- Yeah.
212
00:17:41,010 --> 00:17:41,750
- When do you assume
it's gonna be finished?
213
00:17:41,800 --> 00:17:43,320
- At least another year,
214
00:17:43,360 --> 00:17:46,670
but I also take a lot of photos
and kind of research stuff.
215
00:17:46,710 --> 00:17:48,540
- So how long have
you been doing this?
216
00:17:48,580 --> 00:17:49,720
- Over three years now.
217
00:17:49,760 --> 00:17:50,980
- Three years?
218
00:17:51,020 --> 00:17:53,500
- I thought it was
gonna take maybe two
219
00:17:53,550 --> 00:17:54,810
to two and a half years,
220
00:17:54,850 --> 00:17:57,380
but that was almost
five years ago now.
221
00:17:58,640 --> 00:18:00,250
- So how much did you do so far?
222
00:18:00,290 --> 00:18:01,990
Like 6,800 miles.
223
00:18:02,030 --> 00:18:02,820
- What?
224
00:18:02,860 --> 00:18:03,900
- Dang.
225
00:18:03,950 --> 00:18:05,600
- I've got like 1,500 left.
226
00:18:05,650 --> 00:18:06,650
- Are you serious?
227
00:18:06,690 --> 00:18:07,560
- Yeah.
228
00:18:07,600 --> 00:18:08,210
- Must be in good shape too.
229
00:18:08,260 --> 00:18:09,000
- Right?
230
00:18:09,040 --> 00:18:10,560
- Hell yeah.
231
00:18:10,610 --> 00:18:13,700
- I hope I'd be in better
shape than I am but.
232
00:18:13,740 --> 00:18:14,740
I used to be an engineer.
233
00:18:14,780 --> 00:18:16,310
- Yeah.
234
00:18:16,350 --> 00:18:20,830
- And I had a kind of desk job,
and I quit that job in 2009.
235
00:18:21,790 --> 00:18:23,450
- So how do you
support yourself?
236
00:18:23,490 --> 00:18:24,710
- I don't have an apartment.
237
00:18:24,750 --> 00:18:25,970
- Good.
238
00:18:26,010 --> 00:18:27,620
- I stay with people
and watch people's cats,
239
00:18:27,670 --> 00:18:28,970
stuff like that.
240
00:18:29,020 --> 00:18:30,710
So you just walking
along, huh?
241
00:18:30,760 --> 00:18:32,240
- Yeah, walking
along, taking photos,
242
00:18:32,280 --> 00:18:34,020
just seeing what I see, yeah.
243
00:18:34,070 --> 00:18:35,020
- Sorry, I'm so sorry.
244
00:18:35,070 --> 00:18:36,590
- Yeah, yeah.
245
00:18:36,630 --> 00:18:39,030
- You just wander through
New York City streets?
246
00:18:43,200 --> 00:18:44,080
- Morning.
247
00:18:44,120 --> 00:18:45,290
- You guys shooting a movie?
248
00:18:45,340 --> 00:18:46,600
- Yeah, yeah, I'm
doing this big project,
249
00:18:46,640 --> 00:18:48,820
walking every block
of the five boroughs.
250
00:18:48,860 --> 00:18:50,780
- Oh, you walking every
block in the five boroughs?
251
00:18:50,820 --> 00:18:51,870
- Every block of the
five boroughs, yeah.
252
00:18:52,820 --> 00:18:53,820
- Hey yo, come over here though.
253
00:18:53,870 --> 00:18:55,480
- Aren't you tired?
254
00:18:55,520 --> 00:18:57,040
- I'm a little tired.
255
00:18:57,090 --> 00:18:58,390
Everything's tough
though, right?
256
00:18:58,440 --> 00:18:59,830
- Yeah, you know, that's
what life is about.
257
00:18:59,870 --> 00:19:00,870
- That's true.
258
00:19:00,920 --> 00:19:01,660
It's about suffering.
259
00:19:01,700 --> 00:19:03,180
Yeah.
260
00:19:03,220 --> 00:19:04,270
- It's the only thing keeping
us going, the suffering.
261
00:19:04,310 --> 00:19:06,660
So this is my progress map.
262
00:19:06,710 --> 00:19:09,100
All the red stuff is
things I've walked.
263
00:19:09,140 --> 00:19:09,930
- I wanna see.
264
00:19:09,970 --> 00:19:11,750
I wanna see.
265
00:19:11,800 --> 00:19:13,280
- Okay.
266
00:19:13,320 --> 00:19:14,540
- So you can see that part
Brooklyn is basically done.
267
00:19:14,580 --> 00:19:15,760
- Done, wow.
268
00:19:15,800 --> 00:19:16,720
- I've been all over New York,
269
00:19:16,760 --> 00:19:18,330
but there's not even,
270
00:19:18,370 --> 00:19:20,890
there's no way you could
even cover a portion
271
00:19:20,940 --> 00:19:23,680
'cause I'm always
in the same neighborhoods.
272
00:19:23,720 --> 00:19:24,770
- It's funny too.
273
00:19:24,810 --> 00:19:26,380
Even the neighborhoods
you're in,
274
00:19:26,420 --> 00:19:27,810
there's like streets a block
over you've never been on
275
00:19:27,860 --> 00:19:29,990
'cause you just never have
any reason to go there.
276
00:19:30,030 --> 00:19:31,250
You're always going
this way or that way.
277
00:19:31,300 --> 00:19:32,560
- When I'm on those
streets, I'm like,
278
00:19:32,600 --> 00:19:33,860
oh, I'm on this street
for the first time.
279
00:19:33,910 --> 00:19:34,600
- Yeah, isn't that
a cool feeling?
280
00:19:34,650 --> 00:19:35,340
You fix the trains?
281
00:19:35,390 --> 00:19:36,080
- Nah, the buses.
282
00:19:36,130 --> 00:19:37,430
- Oh, the buses, nice.
283
00:19:37,480 --> 00:19:39,300
What garage you work out of?
284
00:19:39,350 --> 00:19:40,870
- QV, Queens Village.
285
00:19:40,910 --> 00:19:41,780
- Oh yeah, I walked by there.
286
00:19:41,830 --> 00:19:43,090
I already walked by that one.
287
00:19:43,130 --> 00:19:44,220
I remember that.
288
00:19:44,270 --> 00:19:45,140
You live around here?
289
00:19:45,180 --> 00:19:46,440
- Yeah, I live right here.
290
00:19:46,490 --> 00:19:47,880
- Nice, you live
here a long time?
291
00:19:47,920 --> 00:19:49,710
- Yeah, I'm watching the
football games right now.
292
00:19:49,750 --> 00:19:50,580
- Who's on?
293
00:19:50,620 --> 00:19:51,840
- Carolina.
294
00:19:51,880 --> 00:19:53,010
- What's the score?
295
00:19:53,060 --> 00:19:53,800
- 14, seven.
296
00:19:53,840 --> 00:19:54,840
- Alright.
297
00:19:54,880 --> 00:19:55,760
Is this tucked back?
298
00:19:55,800 --> 00:19:57,020
- Yes.
299
00:19:57,060 --> 00:19:58,190
- So it would be really
long if you pulled it.
300
00:19:58,240 --> 00:19:59,850
I mean this part,
would this be longer
301
00:19:59,890 --> 00:20:00,850
if you pulled it down?
302
00:20:00,890 --> 00:20:01,760
- It's all here, yeah?
303
00:20:01,800 --> 00:20:02,810
- Oh, it's pulled back.
304
00:20:02,850 --> 00:20:03,720
This is beard hair?
305
00:20:03,760 --> 00:20:06,290
- Yeah, in the ponytail.
306
00:20:06,330 --> 00:20:08,810
Only in New York,
man.
307
00:20:08,860 --> 00:20:10,160
- Alright man, good
to talk to you.
308
00:20:10,200 --> 00:20:11,120
Thanks for all the info.
309
00:20:11,160 --> 00:20:13,430
Well, it's good to talk to you.
310
00:20:13,470 --> 00:20:14,210
- Nice to meet you.
311
00:20:14,250 --> 00:20:15,040
- Yeah.
312
00:20:15,080 --> 00:20:15,820
Thank you.
313
00:20:15,860 --> 00:20:16,860
Thank you.
314
00:20:16,910 --> 00:20:17,650
Good to meet you, man.
315
00:20:17,690 --> 00:20:18,430
Matt.
316
00:20:18,470 --> 00:20:19,210
- Papo.
317
00:20:19,260 --> 00:20:20,040
- Papo, Freddy.
318
00:20:20,080 --> 00:20:20,820
- I'm Naomi.
319
00:20:20,870 --> 00:20:21,870
- Naomi, Matt.
320
00:20:21,910 --> 00:20:23,130
Nice to meet you too.
321
00:20:23,170 --> 00:20:24,130
Hey, I'm Matt.
322
00:20:24,180 --> 00:20:24,960
Good to meet you all.
323
00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:25,740
- I'm Shaquana.
324
00:20:25,790 --> 00:20:26,790
- Matt, Matt.
325
00:20:26,830 --> 00:20:27,570
Matt.
326
00:20:27,610 --> 00:20:28,350
Good, Matt.
327
00:20:28,400 --> 00:20:29,140
Matt, Matt, Matt.
328
00:20:29,180 --> 00:20:30,090
- Matt?
329
00:20:30,140 --> 00:20:30,750
- Yeah, what's your name?
330
00:20:30,790 --> 00:20:31,790
- Matt.
331
00:20:31,830 --> 00:20:32,660
- Matt, really?
332
00:20:32,710 --> 00:20:33,620
- Okay, Matt.
333
00:20:33,660 --> 00:20:34,580
- Alright, good to meet you.
334
00:20:34,620 --> 00:20:35,530
- One day come in, come in.
335
00:20:35,580 --> 00:20:36,880
One day come, I like you.
336
00:20:36,930 --> 00:20:38,620
- Am I about to
embarrass myself?
337
00:20:38,670 --> 00:20:39,890
- And there's no brakes,
I'm just letting you know.
338
00:20:39,930 --> 00:20:41,320
- Alright, so use your foot?
339
00:20:41,370 --> 00:20:43,850
- Yeah, just wiggle
back and forth.
340
00:20:43,890 --> 00:20:44,850
- Like this?
341
00:20:44,890 --> 00:20:46,370
- The hips, it's in the hips.
342
00:20:46,410 --> 00:20:47,150
Aw, yeah, okay.
343
00:20:47,200 --> 00:20:48,500
Wiggle, yeah.
344
00:20:50,160 --> 00:20:52,070
♪ It's wrong how every day
another nigga getting shot ♪
345
00:20:52,120 --> 00:20:54,730
♪ In the hood by another
minority or a cop ♪
346
00:20:54,770 --> 00:20:57,030
♪ It's wrong so many
dudes that ain't seen 25 ♪
347
00:20:57,080 --> 00:20:58,380
♪ All because
their friend died ♪
348
00:20:58,430 --> 00:20:59,780
♪ And they felt
they had to ride ♪
349
00:20:59,820 --> 00:21:00,950
♪ It's wrong cause you living
350
00:21:00,990 --> 00:21:02,170
♪ Don't mean you
living your life ♪
351
00:21:02,210 --> 00:21:03,170
♪ 'Cause it could
be taken from you ♪
352
00:21:03,210 --> 00:21:04,820
♪ If you ain't living it right
353
00:21:04,870 --> 00:21:05,610
- That's it, man.
354
00:21:05,650 --> 00:21:06,700
That's it.
355
00:21:06,740 --> 00:21:07,610
That's it.
356
00:21:07,650 --> 00:21:09,220
What's your name, man?
357
00:21:09,260 --> 00:21:10,050
What's your name?
358
00:21:10,090 --> 00:21:11,090
- My name's Cyrus.
359
00:21:11,140 --> 00:21:12,010
- Cyrus.
360
00:21:12,050 --> 00:21:13,830
- Cyrus, the one and only.
361
00:21:13,880 --> 00:21:15,840
I take pictures
of interesting things,
362
00:21:15,880 --> 00:21:18,750
so I saw the car with
the Pen license plate,
363
00:21:18,790 --> 00:21:20,930
that one over there,
that one over there.
364
00:21:20,970 --> 00:21:22,760
- Oh, okay, 'cause you
are taking pictures
365
00:21:22,800 --> 00:21:24,060
of my license plate,
366
00:21:24,100 --> 00:21:27,280
so, you know, what is this for?
367
00:21:27,330 --> 00:21:29,150
- Just a personal project.
368
00:21:29,200 --> 00:21:30,890
It's just a personal
project that I'm doing,
369
00:21:30,940 --> 00:21:33,200
walking every block
in the whole city.
370
00:21:33,240 --> 00:21:34,030
Walking every block?
371
00:21:34,070 --> 00:21:35,460
- Uh huh.
372
00:21:35,510 --> 00:21:36,900
And you
don't work for anybody?
373
00:21:36,940 --> 00:21:38,120
I don't
work for anybody.
374
00:21:38,160 --> 00:21:40,210
I'm walking every
block in New York City.
375
00:21:40,250 --> 00:21:41,600
Oh, okay.
376
00:21:41,640 --> 00:21:42,950
- Hey, turn that off.
377
00:21:42,990 --> 00:21:44,950
Don't take pictures of me.
378
00:21:44,990 --> 00:21:46,170
What you doing?
379
00:21:46,210 --> 00:21:48,040
You can't take pictures
of the property.
380
00:21:48,080 --> 00:21:49,350
- Yeah, you can take
pictures of property.
381
00:21:49,390 --> 00:21:51,830
Yeah, as long as you're
standing in a public,
382
00:21:51,870 --> 00:21:53,440
like in a public sidewalk.
383
00:21:53,480 --> 00:21:54,400
- Says who?
384
00:21:54,440 --> 00:21:56,050
- That's the law.
385
00:21:56,090 --> 00:21:57,400
- No, you can't just take
pictures of people's property.
386
00:21:57,440 --> 00:21:58,230
- Yeah, you can, yeah.
387
00:21:58,270 --> 00:21:58,920
- No, you can't.
388
00:21:58,970 --> 00:22:00,490
- Yeah.
389
00:22:00,530 --> 00:22:01,750
- You don't just come to
people's neighborhood and--
390
00:22:01,790 --> 00:22:03,320
- You can't walk onto
people's property.
391
00:22:03,360 --> 00:22:05,010
- But still, that's not cool.
392
00:22:05,060 --> 00:22:06,630
What you taking pictures for?
393
00:22:06,670 --> 00:22:08,240
- I'm taking a picture of
this sign, Canal Avenue.
394
00:22:08,280 --> 00:22:10,060
You know why it's called that?
395
00:22:10,110 --> 00:22:10,980
- You tell me.
396
00:22:11,020 --> 00:22:12,410
- Because there used to be,
397
00:22:12,460 --> 00:22:13,110
well, you know there's
Coney Island Creek up there.
398
00:22:13,150 --> 00:22:13,940
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
399
00:22:13,980 --> 00:22:15,110
- They made it into a canal--
400
00:22:15,160 --> 00:22:16,370
- So you doing a
journalism or something?
401
00:22:16,420 --> 00:22:17,200
- Yeah, kind of.
402
00:22:17,240 --> 00:22:18,110
I'm doing this walk.
403
00:22:18,160 --> 00:22:19,030
I'm walking every block--
404
00:22:19,070 --> 00:22:20,070
- Good, man.
405
00:22:20,120 --> 00:22:20,860
Good, man.
406
00:22:20,900 --> 00:22:21,640
What's your name?
407
00:22:21,680 --> 00:22:22,950
- Matt.
408
00:22:22,990 --> 00:22:23,690
- Okay, now you
can take pictures.
409
00:22:23,730 --> 00:22:24,990
- Alright, alright, man.
410
00:22:25,030 --> 00:22:26,170
So it's
like a mission?
411
00:22:26,210 --> 00:22:27,950
- Yeah, it's a mission,
a personal quest.
412
00:22:27,990 --> 00:22:29,260
- Mission impossible.
413
00:22:29,300 --> 00:22:32,430
- Mission possible,
just difficult.
414
00:22:32,480 --> 00:22:33,700
- That's cool.
415
00:22:52,110 --> 00:22:53,320
- Just here this morning,
416
00:22:53,370 --> 00:22:55,150
kind of a usual morning for me,
417
00:22:55,200 --> 00:22:57,720
reading my copy of 29 Post,
418
00:22:57,760 --> 00:23:00,980
the official newspaper of
P.S. 29 in Cobble Hill,
419
00:23:01,030 --> 00:23:03,030
the John M. Harrigan School.
420
00:23:03,070 --> 00:23:05,250
"Meet Matt Green,
The Walking Man.
421
00:23:05,290 --> 00:23:08,340
"Matt Green is walking every
street in New York City.
422
00:23:08,380 --> 00:23:10,040
"If you add it up
block by block,
423
00:23:10,080 --> 00:23:13,000
"it would be 8,500
miles in total.
424
00:23:13,040 --> 00:23:15,350
"Before he started walking
every street in New York City,
425
00:23:15,390 --> 00:23:17,130
"he used to work as
a civil engineer,
426
00:23:17,170 --> 00:23:19,790
"and did not like being
at a desk all the time.
427
00:23:19,830 --> 00:23:21,740
"Green quit his job and
came up with an idea
428
00:23:21,790 --> 00:23:24,090
"to walk across the
United States of America,
429
00:23:24,140 --> 00:23:27,230
"which is approximately
3,100 miles.
430
00:23:27,270 --> 00:23:32,280
"After walking the U.S., Green
wanted to walk even more."
431
00:23:35,450 --> 00:23:38,540
Okay, I think we're ready maybe.
432
00:23:38,590 --> 00:23:40,280
Ah, okay, here we go.
433
00:23:40,330 --> 00:23:43,030
So I actually, the first
big walk that I did,
434
00:23:43,070 --> 00:23:45,290
before I started this
walk in New York,
435
00:23:45,330 --> 00:23:47,680
I did a walk across
the United States.
436
00:23:47,730 --> 00:23:49,120
Wow.
437
00:23:49,160 --> 00:23:52,030
- Have you guys been to
Rockaway Beach, in Queens?
438
00:23:52,080 --> 00:23:52,820
Yes.
439
00:23:52,860 --> 00:23:54,040
- I started there,
440
00:23:54,080 --> 00:23:55,780
and I found out there's
a town in Oregon
441
00:23:55,820 --> 00:23:57,480
called Rockaway Beach,
442
00:23:57,520 --> 00:24:00,090
so I walked from one side
of the country to the other,
443
00:24:00,130 --> 00:24:02,310
from Rockaway Beach
to Rockaway Beach.
444
00:24:02,350 --> 00:24:04,790
So I did that back in 2010,
445
00:24:04,830 --> 00:24:06,830
and it took about
five months to do.
446
00:24:06,880 --> 00:24:10,180
- Imagine what it would be
like to walk across America.
447
00:24:10,230 --> 00:24:12,010
Well, that's what one
New York man is doing.
448
00:24:12,050 --> 00:24:15,060
29 year old Matt Green left
Rockaway Beach, New York,
449
00:24:15,100 --> 00:24:17,020
on March 27th.
450
00:24:17,060 --> 00:24:18,670
He has a cart
full of essentials,
451
00:24:18,710 --> 00:24:20,760
and he sets up camp along
the roads that he travels.
452
00:24:20,800 --> 00:24:22,940
He says he has no cause,
453
00:24:22,980 --> 00:24:25,370
just got tired of cubicle
life as a civil engineer
454
00:24:25,420 --> 00:24:27,200
and wanted to live simply.
455
00:24:27,240 --> 00:24:29,550
- Instead of using a backpack
to carry all my stuff
456
00:24:29,590 --> 00:24:31,380
'cause it was so much weight,
457
00:24:31,420 --> 00:24:35,160
I pushed everything
in this baby stroller.
458
00:24:35,210 --> 00:24:37,860
This is kind of what I looked
like when I was walking,
459
00:24:37,910 --> 00:24:41,390
except actually usually looked
a little crazier than that
460
00:24:41,430 --> 00:24:44,650
because I had this big hat
to keep the sun off my face,
461
00:24:44,700 --> 00:24:46,090
and when the wind would blow,
462
00:24:46,130 --> 00:24:47,570
it would just lift
up off my head,
463
00:24:47,610 --> 00:24:49,530
just like a weird
mushroom head person.
464
00:24:51,220 --> 00:24:52,360
My name's Matt Green.
465
00:24:52,400 --> 00:24:54,620
I walked from Rockaway
Beach, New York,
466
00:24:54,660 --> 00:24:56,100
to Rockaway Beach, Oregon,
467
00:24:56,140 --> 00:24:59,100
and that was a trip
of about 3,100 miles.
468
00:24:59,150 --> 00:25:00,630
- So how did you
choose your route,
469
00:25:00,670 --> 00:25:02,580
and talk a little bit about
the logistics and rules--
470
00:25:02,630 --> 00:25:04,190
- Sure, okay, sure.
471
00:25:04,240 --> 00:25:07,410
I chose my route just using
Google walking directions,
472
00:25:07,460 --> 00:25:10,680
just kind of asking for
basically the shortest distance
473
00:25:10,720 --> 00:25:13,070
between New York and Chicago,
474
00:25:13,120 --> 00:25:15,120
where my brother
lived, to visit him,
475
00:25:15,160 --> 00:25:16,680
and then Rockaway Beach, Oregon.
476
00:25:16,730 --> 00:25:18,430
So just Googled directions,
477
00:25:18,470 --> 00:25:20,080
with the idea of taking away
478
00:25:20,120 --> 00:25:22,690
the decision making
aspect from me,
479
00:25:22,730 --> 00:25:24,340
but it turned out to
be an important part
480
00:25:24,390 --> 00:25:27,350
of my walk because
it basically changed
481
00:25:27,390 --> 00:25:28,870
the way I was
traveling from the way
482
00:25:28,910 --> 00:25:30,390
I had always
traveled before that,
483
00:25:30,440 --> 00:25:33,220
which was to try to come up
with a list of cool things
484
00:25:33,270 --> 00:25:35,530
to see and go from
one to the other,
485
00:25:35,570 --> 00:25:38,880
and so, by just taking
these directions blindly,
486
00:25:38,920 --> 00:25:40,450
whatever was around
me at any moment
487
00:25:40,490 --> 00:25:43,320
was all that I had to
enjoy in the world.
488
00:25:43,360 --> 00:25:45,060
Green says
so far his walk
489
00:25:45,100 --> 00:25:47,110
has gone better than expected.
490
00:25:47,150 --> 00:25:48,930
- Just so many great
people I've met,
491
00:25:48,980 --> 00:25:52,200
and I mean nothing bad
has happened to me.
492
00:25:52,240 --> 00:25:55,160
I've just had so many people
take me into their houses
493
00:25:55,200 --> 00:25:57,680
and feed me and
let me stay there
494
00:25:57,730 --> 00:25:59,420
or take a shower or do laundry.
495
00:25:59,470 --> 00:26:03,780
Just all kinds of generosity
pouring out of people.
496
00:26:11,700 --> 00:26:13,390
- Why do you like to walk?
497
00:26:13,440 --> 00:26:15,310
That's a
hard question to answer.
498
00:26:15,350 --> 00:26:16,920
I don't know.
499
00:26:16,960 --> 00:26:20,180
I mean, it's a cool way to
kind of really be in a place
500
00:26:20,230 --> 00:26:22,620
but also be moving,
501
00:26:22,660 --> 00:26:24,320
and you're moving at
a slow enough speed
502
00:26:24,360 --> 00:26:26,190
that you can still kind of
take in what's around you,
503
00:26:26,230 --> 00:26:27,490
so I feel like it's
just the perfect way
504
00:26:27,540 --> 00:26:29,930
to explore the world.
505
00:26:29,980 --> 00:26:33,630
Most of what I saw was just
kind of stuff like this,
506
00:26:33,670 --> 00:26:37,160
just kind of simple things
in the middle of the country,
507
00:26:37,200 --> 00:26:38,850
and I was really able
to appreciate them
508
00:26:38,900 --> 00:26:41,250
'cause I was just kind
of moving very slowly.
509
00:26:41,290 --> 00:26:42,810
You know, when you're
going in a car,
510
00:26:42,860 --> 00:26:44,160
this just looks like one field,
511
00:26:44,210 --> 00:26:45,770
and it's just flat and boring,
512
00:26:45,820 --> 00:26:47,910
and when you're walking
you see individual plants,
513
00:26:47,950 --> 00:26:49,470
and you can hear birds chirping,
514
00:26:49,520 --> 00:26:52,610
and you can kind of look at
things in a lot more detail.
515
00:26:52,650 --> 00:26:54,830
So again, especially in
the middle of the country,
516
00:26:54,870 --> 00:26:56,960
this was just kind of a
lot of what I was seeing.
517
00:26:57,000 --> 00:26:58,660
This is just a swamp somewhere,
518
00:26:58,700 --> 00:27:00,010
but when you stop
and look at it,
519
00:27:00,050 --> 00:27:01,270
and just take the
time to look at it,
520
00:27:01,310 --> 00:27:02,530
it becomes really pretty.
521
00:27:02,570 --> 00:27:03,310
Whoa.
522
00:27:03,360 --> 00:27:04,530
- Same thing here.
523
00:27:04,580 --> 00:27:06,930
This is just kind of
out in eastern Montana,
524
00:27:06,970 --> 00:27:10,320
just kind of a little
deserty kind of area,
525
00:27:10,360 --> 00:27:12,450
but it's really pretty
in its own way too.
526
00:27:12,500 --> 00:27:13,670
Whoa.
527
00:27:13,710 --> 00:27:15,370
- And this is maybe
the best example
528
00:27:15,410 --> 00:27:18,150
because you can probably
kind of try to imagine
529
00:27:18,200 --> 00:27:19,720
what it would be like to
just stand in the middle
530
00:27:19,760 --> 00:27:22,160
of this field with bright
yellow flowers around
531
00:27:22,200 --> 00:27:23,860
as far as you can see.
532
00:27:23,900 --> 00:27:25,160
So it's the kind of thing that,
533
00:27:25,200 --> 00:27:27,210
as beautiful and
as powerful it is
534
00:27:27,250 --> 00:27:28,510
to stand there and look at it,
535
00:27:28,560 --> 00:27:30,990
it's also kind of
invisible in a lot of ways
536
00:27:31,040 --> 00:27:32,430
to people who aren't walking
537
00:27:32,470 --> 00:27:34,390
because you wouldn't take
the time to go out here
538
00:27:34,430 --> 00:27:35,300
just to see it,
539
00:27:35,340 --> 00:27:36,560
but the thing about walking
540
00:27:36,610 --> 00:27:37,870
is you can stop
anywhere you are.
541
00:27:37,910 --> 00:27:39,310
You can just stop
and look around,
542
00:27:39,350 --> 00:27:40,920
and you can take in
what's around you.
543
00:27:40,960 --> 00:27:43,480
Every step was just kind of
something new to look at,
544
00:27:43,530 --> 00:27:45,400
and all the way
across the country
545
00:27:45,440 --> 00:27:47,400
it was just one more step and
one more thing to look at,
546
00:27:47,440 --> 00:27:49,660
and it really opened up
my eyes to all the things
547
00:27:49,710 --> 00:27:52,840
around me that I wouldn't
normally pay attention to.
548
00:27:59,980 --> 00:28:02,020
So this is Staten Island.
549
00:28:02,070 --> 00:28:05,980
It's kind of northwest
corner of Staten Island.
550
00:28:07,250 --> 00:28:08,860
That's the toll plaza
for the Goethals Bridge.
551
00:28:08,900 --> 00:28:11,560
That's the Staten
Island Expressway,
552
00:28:11,600 --> 00:28:15,340
and all of this area
used to be tank farms,
553
00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:19,210
natural gas, and oil,
554
00:28:19,260 --> 00:28:24,180
and now it's just this
huge tract of vacant land,
555
00:28:24,220 --> 00:28:25,920
just kind of otherworldly.
556
00:28:27,960 --> 00:28:30,400
There was this famous
disaster that happened back
557
00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:34,400
in here at one of the
liquified natural gas tanks.
558
00:28:36,750 --> 00:28:39,840
Something like it was
supposed to be empty,
559
00:28:39,890 --> 00:28:43,280
and there were workers in
there cleaning the tank,
560
00:28:43,330 --> 00:28:46,290
and there was some
kind of explosion,
561
00:28:46,330 --> 00:28:49,330
and this giant roof just
collapsed and killed,
562
00:28:49,380 --> 00:28:52,330
I think, essentially
all of them.
563
00:28:56,640 --> 00:29:00,600
I think that's where the
NASCAR stadium was gonna be.
564
00:29:00,650 --> 00:29:04,780
There was a proposal for
that five, 10 years ago
565
00:29:04,830 --> 00:29:06,520
that didn't work out.
566
00:29:10,050 --> 00:29:13,360
Oh, we got a little
tree house up here.
567
00:29:26,150 --> 00:29:28,370
Whoa, this is pretty cool.
568
00:29:31,290 --> 00:29:33,940
This is like the penthouse view.
569
00:29:51,570 --> 00:29:54,480
Oh, so there's
something going on here.
570
00:29:54,530 --> 00:29:56,660
Looks like there's some
kind of work going on.
571
00:29:56,700 --> 00:30:00,140
Maybe this is the early stages
of some development plan.
572
00:30:03,930 --> 00:30:05,490
What you
got going on here?
573
00:30:05,540 --> 00:30:07,320
- I'm walking every block
in the five boroughs,
574
00:30:07,370 --> 00:30:08,670
every block of every street,
575
00:30:08,720 --> 00:30:11,110
plus like parks and
beaches and stuff.
576
00:30:11,150 --> 00:30:12,500
You got a job or--
577
00:30:12,550 --> 00:30:14,330
- No, that's all I do.
578
00:30:15,720 --> 00:30:17,460
Are you like independently wealthy or something?
579
00:30:17,510 --> 00:30:20,470
- No, I'm
independently homeless.
580
00:30:21,730 --> 00:30:24,340
I stay with people, watch
their cats and stuff.
581
00:30:24,380 --> 00:30:27,600
I do this walk, take
photos, write about it.
582
00:30:27,650 --> 00:30:30,560
How many hours
in a day do you do?
583
00:30:30,610 --> 00:30:31,480
- Depends.
584
00:30:31,520 --> 00:30:32,700
Are you a writer?
585
00:30:32,740 --> 00:30:33,520
You going to write
book on all this stuff?
586
00:30:33,570 --> 00:30:34,130
- I don't know.
587
00:30:34,180 --> 00:30:35,090
I don't know.
588
00:30:35,130 --> 00:30:36,740
There's no particular goal other
589
00:30:36,790 --> 00:30:38,660
than just to see the whole city,
590
00:30:38,700 --> 00:30:41,100
and then we'll see what happens.
591
00:30:41,140 --> 00:30:42,230
You get mugged and shit?
592
00:30:42,270 --> 00:30:43,180
- No, never.
593
00:30:43,230 --> 00:30:44,530
Ever get beat up?
594
00:30:44,580 --> 00:30:45,490
- Never got beat up,
never got mugged.
595
00:30:45,530 --> 00:30:46,410
Unless you're about to mug me,
596
00:30:46,450 --> 00:30:47,800
that would be the first time.
597
00:30:47,840 --> 00:30:49,450
We're actually
going back that way
598
00:30:49,500 --> 00:30:50,540
and then coming back through
here a little bit later.
599
00:30:50,580 --> 00:30:52,190
I just wanted to get a picture
600
00:30:52,240 --> 00:30:53,330
while there's still some
good light of this puddle.
601
00:30:53,370 --> 00:30:54,500
It's a cool reflection.
602
00:30:54,540 --> 00:30:56,240
- That puddle's like that--
603
00:30:56,280 --> 00:30:57,020
- All year?
604
00:30:57,070 --> 00:30:58,630
All year.
605
00:30:58,680 --> 00:30:59,550
- That's cool.
606
00:30:59,590 --> 00:31:00,460
You gotta mark that,
607
00:31:00,510 --> 00:31:02,160
The Puddle That Never Goes Away.
608
00:31:02,200 --> 00:31:04,340
- Ah, looks good.
609
00:31:22,400 --> 00:31:24,880
This is just somebody's bike.
610
00:31:24,920 --> 00:31:26,230
Tires are full.
611
00:31:27,100 --> 00:31:30,060
I think this is a ridable bike.
612
00:31:30,100 --> 00:31:34,450
Don't ever show anyone this
footage of me not walking.
613
00:31:35,670 --> 00:31:37,060
See you, losers.
614
00:31:41,550 --> 00:31:43,810
I mean, it works perfectly.
615
00:31:43,850 --> 00:31:47,640
I gotta go drop it off
where I picked it up.
616
00:33:01,060 --> 00:33:01,850
Somewhere,
617
00:33:04,150 --> 00:33:07,500
somewhere out near
the edge of Queens
618
00:33:07,550 --> 00:33:08,630
on Linden Boulevard,
619
00:33:08,680 --> 00:33:11,330
there was a really good one.
620
00:33:11,380 --> 00:33:12,420
Ah, here we go.
621
00:33:13,940 --> 00:33:15,730
Penny's Handz of Godz.
622
00:33:17,560 --> 00:33:20,520
Yeah, we were just kind of
walking under the awning here,
623
00:33:20,560 --> 00:33:22,300
and the barbershop
caught my eye,
624
00:33:22,340 --> 00:33:24,690
and just realized I
needed to step back
625
00:33:24,740 --> 00:33:25,910
and check the awning,
626
00:33:25,960 --> 00:33:28,610
and in fact it did
have a Z in the title,
627
00:33:28,650 --> 00:33:31,140
so I will take a photo of it.
628
00:33:36,140 --> 00:33:37,580
If anything kind of
started me on this,
629
00:33:37,620 --> 00:33:40,490
it was back in, I think, 2009.
630
00:33:40,540 --> 00:33:42,020
I was in Coney Island,
631
00:33:42,060 --> 00:33:44,630
and I passed by a barbershop,
632
00:33:44,670 --> 00:33:48,280
and it was called
Faderz, Kutz Wit Skillz,
633
00:33:52,590 --> 00:33:54,770
and it had three Zs in it,
634
00:33:54,810 --> 00:33:56,680
and that was kind of the
one that got me thinking
635
00:33:56,730 --> 00:33:59,510
of all the Zs that
barbershops use.
636
00:34:03,730 --> 00:34:04,600
Oh, ho, ho.
637
00:34:06,780 --> 00:34:09,130
Got a good barbershop up here.
638
00:34:13,440 --> 00:34:14,830
How you doing man?
639
00:34:20,750 --> 00:34:24,670
Designz and Lignz,
a new barbershop.
640
00:34:24,710 --> 00:34:27,280
I like the Lignz, L, I, G, N, Z.
641
00:34:29,020 --> 00:34:32,240
Oh, we've got not
only a Z barbershop,
642
00:34:33,680 --> 00:34:38,070
but one that is ripping off
the Brooklyn Nets' logo.
643
00:34:41,640 --> 00:34:44,080
Pretty good, Brooklyn Cutz.
644
00:34:44,120 --> 00:34:46,380
I was hoping to hit 200
by the end of the walk.
645
00:34:46,430 --> 00:34:47,780
I think that's a
little ambitious,
646
00:34:47,820 --> 00:34:50,950
but I think I'll
definitely be over 150.
647
00:34:52,220 --> 00:34:55,570
C, U, T, Z is one of
the most common ways
648
00:34:56,350 --> 00:34:58,050
to throw a Z in,
649
00:34:58,090 --> 00:35:00,310
or its sibling, K, U, T, Z.
650
00:35:05,970 --> 00:35:07,750
You know, people have
theories about everything.
651
00:35:07,800 --> 00:35:09,280
People can tell you
why this is this way,
652
00:35:09,320 --> 00:35:10,630
why this is this way.
653
00:35:10,670 --> 00:35:12,060
Of course you can look at this
654
00:35:12,110 --> 00:35:14,060
and say it has something
to do with hip hop culture
655
00:35:14,110 --> 00:35:16,850
and how it's rooted
and how it's spreading,
656
00:35:16,890 --> 00:35:19,500
and you can look at the
different ethnic neighborhoods
657
00:35:19,550 --> 00:35:22,380
where the Zs are and kind of
come up with some theories,
658
00:35:22,420 --> 00:35:23,770
and it could all make sense,
659
00:35:23,810 --> 00:35:24,810
but what does that say?
660
00:35:24,860 --> 00:35:25,600
Does it say anything?
661
00:35:25,640 --> 00:35:26,860
Probably not.
662
00:35:26,900 --> 00:35:28,690
So I think if it says anything,
663
00:35:28,730 --> 00:35:30,730
it's not anything
about barbershops.
664
00:35:30,780 --> 00:35:35,690
It's just about the value of
paying attention to something.
665
00:35:35,740 --> 00:35:37,090
I like the sign.
666
00:35:37,130 --> 00:35:38,260
It's a new sign.
667
00:35:38,310 --> 00:35:40,920
- I'm Betty, and P is for Pedro.
668
00:35:42,480 --> 00:35:44,750
Oh, B.P. over
there, Betty and Pedro.
669
00:35:44,790 --> 00:35:46,180
Yes.
670
00:35:46,230 --> 00:35:46,970
- I'm walking every block
in all of New York City,
671
00:35:47,010 --> 00:35:47,880
all five boroughs.
672
00:35:47,920 --> 00:35:49,400
I walk all over the city,
673
00:35:49,450 --> 00:35:50,800
and I take pictures
of a bunch of stuff,
674
00:35:50,840 --> 00:35:53,280
but I take a lot of pictures
of barbershop signs,
675
00:35:53,320 --> 00:35:54,800
especially ones with the Zs.
676
00:35:54,840 --> 00:35:56,540
I like the ones with
the Z on the name.
677
00:35:56,580 --> 00:35:59,330
Alright.
678
00:36:00,760 --> 00:36:02,460
- I seen a million barber shops.
679
00:36:02,500 --> 00:36:03,420
This is the only
one with that name.
680
00:36:03,460 --> 00:36:04,680
- There's only one A List Cutz.
681
00:36:04,720 --> 00:36:06,680
- Yep, yep, and it's good.
682
00:36:06,730 --> 00:36:08,730
You'll be up there in the
phone book starting with A.
683
00:36:08,770 --> 00:36:11,900
- Exactly, so the next one
will be A List Cutz Two.
684
00:36:11,950 --> 00:36:12,770
- Oh, you gonna franchise it?
685
00:36:12,820 --> 00:36:14,080
Yeah, of course.
686
00:36:14,120 --> 00:36:18,390
- And Z is, instead of
like Cuts, it's Cuts.
687
00:36:18,430 --> 00:36:19,520
- It's got attitude, right?
688
00:36:19,560 --> 00:36:20,960
Yes.
689
00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:23,660
- Some people throw
a K in there too.
690
00:36:23,700 --> 00:36:24,830
- With the Kutz, yeah.
691
00:36:24,870 --> 00:36:27,830
- I like the purity of the C.
692
00:36:27,880 --> 00:36:28,960
- Yeah, me too.
693
00:36:29,010 --> 00:36:30,530
- You just change
the end, you know?
694
00:36:30,580 --> 00:36:31,790
It's like normal and then
at the end,.
695
00:36:31,840 --> 00:36:34,010
Oh yeah, right over
there, right over there.
696
00:36:34,060 --> 00:36:35,750
Oh, get that, okay.
697
00:36:38,970 --> 00:36:39,710
What's
your name again?
698
00:36:39,760 --> 00:36:40,630
Matt.
699
00:36:40,670 --> 00:36:42,760
Matt, I'm Betty.
700
00:36:49,550 --> 00:36:50,860
- I walk because there's nothing
701
00:36:50,900 --> 00:36:53,600
that gives you the
texture of a place,
702
00:36:53,640 --> 00:36:55,080
the texture of its people,
703
00:36:55,120 --> 00:36:58,860
and even your own texture
of yourself, like walking,
704
00:36:58,910 --> 00:37:01,300
that walking puts me in
touch with my own humanity
705
00:37:01,350 --> 00:37:04,390
and other people's humanity in
a way that nothing else does.
706
00:37:06,520 --> 00:37:07,960
As I began walking
around New York City,
707
00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:09,830
I've been here almost a decade.
708
00:37:09,880 --> 00:37:11,090
I moved from Jamaica,
709
00:37:11,140 --> 00:37:12,490
and the first thing
I did was decided
710
00:37:12,530 --> 00:37:13,880
to get to know the city
711
00:37:13,920 --> 00:37:15,790
by walking and
exploring it on foot,
712
00:37:15,840 --> 00:37:18,140
and so various friends
and acquaintances
713
00:37:18,190 --> 00:37:20,800
and colleagues said, "Oh,
do you know Matt Green?
714
00:37:20,840 --> 00:37:21,970
"You have to know Matt Green.
715
00:37:22,020 --> 00:37:23,450
"You have to go walking
with Matt Green."
716
00:37:23,500 --> 00:37:26,150
- I just Googled walk
every block in Manhattan,
717
00:37:26,200 --> 00:37:27,760
and up came his website,
718
00:37:27,810 --> 00:37:30,070
so I reached out to
him to just basically
719
00:37:30,110 --> 00:37:32,420
get some logistics of how
he's mapping his route,
720
00:37:32,460 --> 00:37:33,730
and then I had some
random questions
721
00:37:33,770 --> 00:37:37,250
about where does he find
water and bathrooms.
722
00:37:37,290 --> 00:37:39,770
- So yeah, so it's
not necessarily
723
00:37:39,820 --> 00:37:41,470
by neighborhood or anything.
724
00:37:41,520 --> 00:37:44,610
I try to walk wherever I
can that's kind of close
725
00:37:44,650 --> 00:37:46,300
to where I'm staying,
726
00:37:46,350 --> 00:37:49,830
but like today I was able to
just walk out of the door,
727
00:37:49,870 --> 00:37:51,530
the apartment I was in
in downtown Brooklyn,
728
00:37:51,570 --> 00:37:55,660
and just walk here and
mostly cover new ground.
729
00:37:55,700 --> 00:37:57,580
- I'm Bill Helmreich.
730
00:37:57,620 --> 00:38:00,670
I'm a professor of
sociology at City College,
731
00:38:00,710 --> 00:38:02,360
and with the exception
of Matt Green,
732
00:38:02,410 --> 00:38:03,800
I believe I am the only one
733
00:38:03,840 --> 00:38:06,890
to have systematically
walked New York City.
734
00:38:06,930 --> 00:38:10,070
I started that walk in 2008.
735
00:38:10,110 --> 00:38:13,500
I completed it four
years later in 2012.
736
00:38:13,550 --> 00:38:16,720
Walked it in rain,
sun, evenings,
737
00:38:16,770 --> 00:38:19,420
mornings, afternoons, weekends.
738
00:38:19,470 --> 00:38:23,950
Matt has identified the city
as being about 8,000 miles,
739
00:38:23,990 --> 00:38:25,390
whereas I say 6,000,
740
00:38:25,430 --> 00:38:27,610
but that's because Matt
is walking all the parks
741
00:38:27,650 --> 00:38:30,090
and all the paths
and all the piers,
742
00:38:30,130 --> 00:38:32,310
and I have generally
restricted myself
743
00:38:32,350 --> 00:38:35,050
to the inhabited
streets of the city.
744
00:38:38,010 --> 00:38:39,270
Yeah, it's
kind of overwhelming
745
00:38:39,310 --> 00:38:40,840
as I'm going through it.
746
00:38:40,880 --> 00:38:41,880
- Are you from here?
747
00:38:41,920 --> 00:38:43,930
- No, I'm from Virginia.
748
00:38:43,970 --> 00:38:44,710
- Okay.
749
00:38:44,750 --> 00:38:45,880
- My dad grew up here,
750
00:38:45,930 --> 00:38:47,020
and I have cousins here,
751
00:38:47,060 --> 00:38:49,580
so we're kind of
rooted in New York,
752
00:38:49,630 --> 00:38:52,060
but I didn't spend much
time here growing up.
753
00:38:52,110 --> 00:38:55,070
- Matt's approach to
doing this is not focused
754
00:38:55,110 --> 00:38:57,330
on organizing what he sees.
755
00:38:57,370 --> 00:39:00,070
It's focused on
describing what he sees.
756
00:39:00,120 --> 00:39:03,210
His approach appears to
me to be more random,
757
00:39:03,250 --> 00:39:06,380
to expose people and let
them see what the heart,
758
00:39:06,430 --> 00:39:09,080
soul, and pulse of this city is,
759
00:39:09,120 --> 00:39:12,000
and this is a case
where the parts
760
00:39:12,040 --> 00:39:15,310
are actually greater
than the whole.
761
00:39:15,350 --> 00:39:16,870
- The great thing
about New York City
762
00:39:16,920 --> 00:39:21,920
is that every street feels
like a fossil record,
763
00:39:21,960 --> 00:39:25,010
that you just peel
and peel and peel,
764
00:39:25,050 --> 00:39:27,930
and there are stories
buried beneath stories.
765
00:39:27,970 --> 00:39:31,020
No street becomes
the simple picture
766
00:39:31,060 --> 00:39:32,630
of what you see
before your eyes,
767
00:39:32,670 --> 00:39:35,060
that suddenly it's
rich with history,
768
00:39:35,110 --> 00:39:37,020
and it's rich with adventure,
769
00:39:37,070 --> 00:39:39,290
and it's a whole panoply
of stories waiting
770
00:39:39,330 --> 00:39:41,030
for you to uncover them.
771
00:39:44,070 --> 00:39:46,160
- People grow up in
neighborhoods in New York.
772
00:39:46,210 --> 00:39:48,250
They'll say, "Oh, I grew
up on the West Side.
773
00:39:48,290 --> 00:39:49,950
"I know the West Side."
774
00:39:49,990 --> 00:39:52,120
It often is not true
that you even know
775
00:39:52,170 --> 00:39:53,600
the neighborhood you grew up in.
776
00:39:53,650 --> 00:39:55,740
The block you walked on
because the subway was there
777
00:39:55,780 --> 00:39:57,220
becomes more important
than the block
778
00:39:57,260 --> 00:39:59,130
that nothing is there on.
779
00:39:59,170 --> 00:40:00,830
The block where you
bought your candy
780
00:40:00,870 --> 00:40:02,960
or where you did your
shopping becomes important,
781
00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:06,230
but the block where you didn't
shop becomes irrelevant,
782
00:40:06,270 --> 00:40:08,050
so that when people say
they know a neighborhood,
783
00:40:08,100 --> 00:40:09,360
they really don't.
784
00:40:10,750 --> 00:40:13,970
- A lot of this area, I
walked really early on,
785
00:40:14,020 --> 00:40:15,230
and I found that,
786
00:40:15,280 --> 00:40:17,500
I feel like I was almost
blind when I started.
787
00:40:17,540 --> 00:40:20,980
Like I'll go back places
now, and I'll see things.
788
00:40:21,020 --> 00:40:23,420
It's funny how long it
takes you to see stuff,
789
00:40:23,460 --> 00:40:26,110
to get in the right
frame of mind, you know,
790
00:40:26,160 --> 00:40:27,160
like all, yeah, these little--
791
00:40:27,200 --> 00:40:28,070
So great.
792
00:40:28,120 --> 00:40:30,120
A little family.
793
00:40:31,560 --> 00:40:33,950
- One of the wonderful things
about walking with Matt
794
00:40:33,990 --> 00:40:37,600
also is that we get
to compare notes,
795
00:40:37,650 --> 00:40:42,090
so for instance, I have a
whole costume, as I call it.
796
00:40:42,130 --> 00:40:44,090
I go through a whole pantomime
797
00:40:44,130 --> 00:40:47,140
to avoid the appearance
of criminality.
798
00:40:47,180 --> 00:40:49,180
Time and again,
because of my race,
799
00:40:49,220 --> 00:40:53,100
because I am black,
people are fearful of me,
800
00:40:53,140 --> 00:40:55,750
and that in itself induces
a certain fear in me.
801
00:40:55,800 --> 00:40:57,800
I try to dress in a certain way
802
00:40:57,840 --> 00:41:00,980
that makes me appear
safe and non-threatening.
803
00:41:01,020 --> 00:41:03,110
I'll have reading glasses
on the bridge of my nose
804
00:41:03,150 --> 00:41:04,540
and a book.
805
00:41:04,590 --> 00:41:06,890
I try to move in ways that
appear non-threatening,
806
00:41:06,940 --> 00:41:08,370
no quick or sudden movements.
807
00:41:08,420 --> 00:41:11,250
I avoid hoodies or dark clothes,
808
00:41:12,250 --> 00:41:14,380
and so in walking with Matt,
809
00:41:14,420 --> 00:41:17,780
it was refreshing just to
hear him telling me just ways
810
00:41:17,820 --> 00:41:20,170
in which he doesn't
have to think
811
00:41:20,210 --> 00:41:24,040
about some of the things
that I have to think about.
812
00:41:55,470 --> 00:41:57,160
- We're about to go through
813
00:41:57,210 --> 00:42:00,430
this really weird
kind of vacant part
814
00:42:00,470 --> 00:42:02,860
where there used to
be beach houses there,
815
00:42:02,910 --> 00:42:04,170
little bungalows,
816
00:42:04,210 --> 00:42:06,260
and the city tore them down
817
00:42:06,300 --> 00:42:09,220
as kind of like an
urban renewal effort,
818
00:42:09,260 --> 00:42:11,350
and then never built
anything there.
819
00:42:11,390 --> 00:42:13,180
So it's this kind
of part of Edgemere,
820
00:42:13,220 --> 00:42:14,830
the southern part of Edgemere,
821
00:42:14,880 --> 00:42:17,790
basically these streets that
kind of go toward the beach,
822
00:42:17,840 --> 00:42:19,180
and then it's just all abandoned
823
00:42:19,230 --> 00:42:21,190
until you get to the boardwalk.
824
00:42:21,230 --> 00:42:22,970
This is pretty rare to just have
825
00:42:23,010 --> 00:42:26,020
a totally wiped out
grid of streets.
826
00:42:27,320 --> 00:42:31,810
I don't think there's anywhere
else like this in the city.
827
00:42:43,300 --> 00:42:45,470
- My name is Nicky Rodriguez.
828
00:42:45,520 --> 00:42:50,080
I met Matt probably
going on four years now.
829
00:42:50,130 --> 00:42:52,350
I read about him in
The New York Times,
830
00:42:52,390 --> 00:42:55,480
and at the time, I was
working in a kitchen basement.
831
00:42:55,530 --> 00:42:57,140
I was really unhappy,
832
00:42:57,180 --> 00:42:59,010
and then I read about
this guy who's out
833
00:42:59,050 --> 00:43:00,310
seeing the world, exploring.
834
00:43:00,360 --> 00:43:02,310
It was an interesting contrast
835
00:43:02,360 --> 00:43:05,140
to what I was
experiencing at the time.
836
00:43:05,190 --> 00:43:07,970
I was like, I gotta
meet this guy.
837
00:43:10,320 --> 00:43:12,190
So we probably dated
for about two years.
838
00:43:12,240 --> 00:43:13,370
I don't know.
839
00:43:17,110 --> 00:43:18,590
I think I probably
fell in love with him
840
00:43:18,640 --> 00:43:22,330
from the first day, and he
would probably debate that,
841
00:43:22,380 --> 00:43:24,470
but I know how I feel.
842
00:43:30,210 --> 00:43:32,170
- Matt and I met when
we were in college.
843
00:43:32,210 --> 00:43:36,130
We were together for
three or four years
844
00:43:36,170 --> 00:43:37,740
before we got engaged.
845
00:43:37,780 --> 00:43:41,570
He and I moved in
together in New York City.
846
00:43:41,610 --> 00:43:44,230
We got engaged and broke up six,
847
00:43:45,400 --> 00:43:47,140
seven weeks before our wedding,
848
00:43:47,190 --> 00:43:49,670
so never ended up
getting married.
849
00:43:49,710 --> 00:43:52,360
We had already mailed out
our wedding invitations
850
00:43:52,410 --> 00:43:55,370
and had started receiving RSVPs
851
00:43:55,410 --> 00:43:57,060
and were sorting the
yes's and the no's
852
00:43:57,110 --> 00:44:00,980
and figuring out how many
people would be there.
853
00:44:03,330 --> 00:44:05,380
I used to say to him when
he and I were together,
854
00:44:05,420 --> 00:44:07,250
oh, we're gonna turn 35.
855
00:44:07,290 --> 00:44:08,510
We're gonna have kids.
856
00:44:08,550 --> 00:44:10,160
It'll be fine,
857
00:44:10,210 --> 00:44:12,470
and the closer and closer
we got to getting married,
858
00:44:12,520 --> 00:44:15,650
it became clear that we
wanted very different things.
859
00:44:15,690 --> 00:44:18,390
I wanted to get
married, have kids,
860
00:44:18,430 --> 00:44:20,090
do the whole
settling down thing,
861
00:44:20,130 --> 00:44:21,920
and I think Matt wanted
to go wander the country
862
00:44:21,960 --> 00:44:23,220
or the city.
863
00:44:23,260 --> 00:44:25,700
- I sometimes questioned
whether it was healthy,
864
00:44:25,750 --> 00:44:29,010
all that isolation that
he would do with his walk.
865
00:44:31,010 --> 00:44:32,360
There were a lot of
times where I felt
866
00:44:32,400 --> 00:44:35,580
like I was vying for attention.
867
00:44:35,630 --> 00:44:37,580
Yeah, we fought a
lot about things
868
00:44:37,630 --> 00:44:39,980
that I didn't even
realize were a big deal,
869
00:44:40,020 --> 00:44:41,670
like going to the movies,
870
00:44:41,720 --> 00:44:45,640
and he doesn't really
care for that stuff, and,
871
00:44:47,550 --> 00:44:48,810
so his project,
872
00:44:50,290 --> 00:44:51,820
although it was the thing
that drew me to him,
873
00:44:51,860 --> 00:44:54,340
was also the thing
that separated us.
874
00:44:56,520 --> 00:44:58,910
I kind of badgered
him a little bit
875
00:44:58,950 --> 00:45:01,260
at wanting to know when
the project would end.
876
00:45:01,300 --> 00:45:03,260
He would give me two years out.
877
00:45:03,300 --> 00:45:04,480
Then he would give
me three years out,
878
00:45:04,520 --> 00:45:05,700
then four years out,
879
00:45:05,740 --> 00:45:08,570
so I kind of decided
to just accept
880
00:45:08,610 --> 00:45:13,580
that there is no known time
when this project is gonna end.
881
00:45:14,450 --> 00:45:15,670
- He doesn't go to what's next,
882
00:45:15,710 --> 00:45:17,620
and when you ask him
about what's next,
883
00:45:17,670 --> 00:45:19,450
he gets vague and uninterested.
884
00:45:19,490 --> 00:45:21,630
He's mostly interested in
what's happening today,
885
00:45:21,670 --> 00:45:25,500
what he saw today, and what
he's planning for tomorrow.
886
00:45:25,540 --> 00:45:27,590
- So yeah, I guess
it seems trivial.
887
00:45:27,630 --> 00:45:29,370
Oh, you complain about
going to the movies,
888
00:45:29,420 --> 00:45:32,380
but that kind of was
a big deal for us.
889
00:45:32,420 --> 00:45:33,990
He didn't really get
enjoyment from those types
890
00:45:34,030 --> 00:45:35,250
of things that I did,
891
00:45:35,290 --> 00:45:38,080
like going to a nice
restaurant and--
892
00:46:23,210 --> 00:46:26,390
- It's our first big
snow of the season.
893
00:46:27,910 --> 00:46:31,610
There were lots of blizzard
warnings and stuff today.
894
00:46:31,650 --> 00:46:33,570
It's not too, too bad yet,
895
00:46:33,610 --> 00:46:35,700
but it's supposed to
keep snowing all day
896
00:46:35,750 --> 00:46:37,180
and through the night.
897
00:46:38,570 --> 00:46:39,710
The city is kind of a
whole different place
898
00:46:39,750 --> 00:46:41,010
when it's covered in snow,
899
00:46:41,050 --> 00:46:42,800
like the same kind of
skeleton of the city,
900
00:46:42,840 --> 00:46:45,020
but the experience of being out
901
00:46:45,060 --> 00:46:47,370
in it's completely different.
902
00:46:49,500 --> 00:46:51,850
We'll see how far we go today.
903
00:46:51,890 --> 00:46:54,500
I'm hoping to get in maybe,
904
00:46:54,550 --> 00:46:58,380
like eight miles or
something would be good.
905
00:46:58,420 --> 00:46:59,380
We'll see.
906
00:47:01,120 --> 00:47:01,900
Woo.
907
00:47:10,210 --> 00:47:13,520
I just got a message
on my phone saying
908
00:47:14,870 --> 00:47:18,530
that all non-emergency
vehicles have
909
00:47:18,570 --> 00:47:22,620
to be off the streets of
New York City by 2:30 p.m.,
910
00:47:23,440 --> 00:47:26,140
so a little later in the day,
911
00:47:26,190 --> 00:47:28,540
we'll have the streets
all to ourselves.
912
00:47:30,060 --> 00:47:32,500
Oh, there's a football game
going on in the street.
913
00:47:39,420 --> 00:47:40,510
Who's winning?
914
00:47:40,550 --> 00:47:41,770
- It's four to three.
915
00:47:41,810 --> 00:47:44,290
Four,
three, close game.
916
00:47:44,340 --> 00:47:45,210
What's your name?
917
00:47:45,250 --> 00:47:46,120
- Matt Green.
918
00:47:46,160 --> 00:47:47,030
- Matt, nice to meet you.
919
00:47:47,080 --> 00:47:48,470
- Yeah, nice to meet you too.
920
00:47:48,510 --> 00:47:49,560
Go go, get in.
921
00:47:51,820 --> 00:47:52,600
Hold on.
922
00:47:52,650 --> 00:47:54,170
Yo, this guy's in.
923
00:47:54,210 --> 00:47:55,170
Hut.
924
00:47:58,480 --> 00:47:59,610
He got it.
925
00:47:59,650 --> 00:48:00,390
Let's go.
926
00:48:00,440 --> 00:48:01,440
Get him.
927
00:48:01,480 --> 00:48:02,220
Get him.
928
00:48:02,270 --> 00:48:03,010
Get him.
929
00:48:20,070 --> 00:48:21,760
Touchdown.
930
00:48:30,380 --> 00:48:31,560
- We are in Brighton Beach now,
931
00:48:31,600 --> 00:48:33,470
in this little kind
of sub-neighborhood
932
00:48:33,510 --> 00:48:36,740
with these little pedestrian
alleys crisscrossing it.
933
00:48:36,780 --> 00:48:39,000
It used to be a kind
of bungalow colony.
934
00:48:39,040 --> 00:48:41,440
A lot of the bungalows
are gone now,
935
00:48:41,480 --> 00:48:42,790
and then sometime,
936
00:48:42,830 --> 00:48:46,180
I think in the late
'90s, early 2000s,
937
00:48:46,220 --> 00:48:49,570
there was a big kind
of wave of development
938
00:48:49,620 --> 00:48:52,450
where a lot of the
bungalows were knocked down
939
00:48:52,490 --> 00:48:56,930
and replaced with these big
multi-unit developments,
940
00:48:56,970 --> 00:48:59,320
but it was all just done
kind of thoughtlessly,
941
00:48:59,370 --> 00:49:00,890
and then the economy crashed,
942
00:49:00,930 --> 00:49:05,070
and now you just have all these
half built vacant buildings
943
00:49:05,110 --> 00:49:08,550
just kind of looming
over the landscape.
944
00:49:08,590 --> 00:49:09,860
Some of them have
just been half built
945
00:49:09,900 --> 00:49:12,340
for like five years or more.
946
00:49:29,530 --> 00:49:31,140
- I threw my kid away.
947
00:49:33,920 --> 00:49:34,710
That's my daughter.
948
00:49:34,750 --> 00:49:35,580
She's 6 years old.
949
00:49:36,930 --> 00:49:38,800
She wanted to be buried
like in the beach.
950
00:49:38,840 --> 00:49:40,230
Yeah, it's
like the winter version
951
00:49:40,280 --> 00:49:42,020
of going to the beach.
952
00:49:42,060 --> 00:49:42,980
I had too many kids.
953
00:49:43,020 --> 00:49:45,020
I had to throw one away.
954
00:51:12,630 --> 00:51:15,850
- So this is Ashland,
Virginia, my hometown.
955
00:51:15,890 --> 00:51:19,550
This is the house
that I grew up in.
956
00:51:19,590 --> 00:51:21,120
My parents still live here.
957
00:51:21,160 --> 00:51:23,990
So Ashland is a little
town of, I think,
958
00:51:24,030 --> 00:51:26,770
maybe 7,000 people now,
something like that.
959
00:51:26,820 --> 00:51:29,560
It's kind of got
a small town feel
960
00:51:29,600 --> 00:51:31,170
and a little downtown area.
961
00:51:31,210 --> 00:51:33,300
The railroad tracks
run right through,
962
00:51:33,350 --> 00:51:36,700
so there's a old
fashioned kind of feel.
963
00:51:41,920 --> 00:51:44,580
I never thought that
I would ever want
964
00:51:44,620 --> 00:51:46,360
to live in a big city,
965
00:51:47,530 --> 00:51:49,490
New York least of all of them,
966
00:51:49,540 --> 00:51:52,800
so yeah, I mean, I kind of
thought I was just a small town,
967
00:51:52,840 --> 00:51:55,410
I thought that was kind
of the place for me.
968
00:51:55,460 --> 00:51:57,410
So this is the backyard.
969
00:51:58,680 --> 00:52:00,680
This is the old, we'll
call it a tree house
970
00:52:00,720 --> 00:52:03,250
though there's no tree involved.
971
00:52:03,290 --> 00:52:06,030
I was, quote, unquote,
helping my dad build this
972
00:52:06,080 --> 00:52:08,730
when I was in third
grade or something,
973
00:52:08,770 --> 00:52:09,900
which is where this
scar came from,
974
00:52:09,950 --> 00:52:13,390
by smashing my
hand with a hammer.
975
00:52:13,430 --> 00:52:15,430
Wow, what do
you call this, Matthew?
976
00:52:15,480 --> 00:52:17,040
I like this thing
your dad built.
977
00:52:17,090 --> 00:52:19,480
What do you call it?
978
00:52:19,520 --> 00:52:22,130
Is it a tree house
or what is it?
979
00:52:22,180 --> 00:52:23,700
- It's a playhouse.
980
00:52:23,740 --> 00:52:26,700
Playhouse, did you
help him build it a little bit?
981
00:52:26,750 --> 00:52:27,750
- Yeah.
982
00:52:27,790 --> 00:52:29,530
Great.
983
00:52:29,580 --> 00:52:30,840
- I don't know.
984
00:52:30,880 --> 00:52:32,410
I feel really lucky
in general, you know,
985
00:52:32,450 --> 00:52:34,540
my parents and where I
was raised and everything.
986
00:52:34,580 --> 00:52:35,710
We were really fortunate
987
00:52:35,760 --> 00:52:37,760
to always have
everything we needed,
988
00:52:37,800 --> 00:52:40,070
but we also, I had a
sense instilled in me
989
00:52:40,110 --> 00:52:41,890
and my parents that stuff's
990
00:52:41,940 --> 00:52:43,810
not what makes you
happy either though,
991
00:52:43,850 --> 00:52:46,120
so it was like, if you
can just walk around
992
00:52:46,160 --> 00:52:47,380
in the woods and be happy,
993
00:52:47,420 --> 00:52:50,860
then you're kind of
set for life, you know?
994
00:52:55,340 --> 00:52:57,600
- When people ask
us what he's doing,
995
00:52:57,650 --> 00:53:00,610
I normally tell them that
he's very well educated,
996
00:53:00,650 --> 00:53:02,350
that he was a licensed engineer,
997
00:53:02,390 --> 00:53:03,920
but he didn't like it.
998
00:53:03,960 --> 00:53:07,480
I guess maybe in the very
beginning it was a little odd
999
00:53:07,530 --> 00:53:10,360
because their kids were all
going off and finding jobs,
1000
00:53:10,400 --> 00:53:13,060
but to me he really is
accomplishing something.
1001
00:53:13,100 --> 00:53:14,840
- It might not have
not been our choice
1002
00:53:14,880 --> 00:53:16,670
for what our son
would have done,
1003
00:53:16,710 --> 00:53:19,320
but he is happy doing
what he's doing.
1004
00:53:19,370 --> 00:53:21,720
It's his decision and his life.
1005
00:53:21,760 --> 00:53:23,500
I would like for him
to make money doing it,
1006
00:53:23,540 --> 00:53:25,110
so he'd have a way to live.
1007
00:53:25,150 --> 00:53:27,810
I mean, admittedly, he doesn't
make any money at his walk,
1008
00:53:27,850 --> 00:53:30,770
but he is able to
live on very little.
1009
00:53:30,810 --> 00:53:33,080
He doesn't ask us for anything.
1010
00:53:33,120 --> 00:53:34,770
He saved up his money
when he was working,
1011
00:53:34,820 --> 00:53:37,470
and he manages to
get by very well,
1012
00:53:37,510 --> 00:53:40,650
but we've had a
couple of instances,
1013
00:53:40,690 --> 00:53:42,130
one with him, one
with his brother,
1014
00:53:42,170 --> 00:53:46,220
where there was some life
threatening situations.
1015
00:53:47,790 --> 00:53:51,090
So Matthew was riding
his bike in Brooklyn.
1016
00:53:51,140 --> 00:53:53,920
There was an older driver,
1017
00:53:53,970 --> 00:53:56,140
and the driver apparently
became distracted,
1018
00:53:56,190 --> 00:53:57,450
and he hit Matthew.
1019
00:53:57,490 --> 00:53:58,750
He hit his head on the curb,
1020
00:53:58,800 --> 00:53:59,970
and he was knocked out.
1021
00:54:00,010 --> 00:54:02,190
Of course, if he didn't
have that helmet,
1022
00:54:02,230 --> 00:54:04,450
he wouldn't be here,
1023
00:54:04,500 --> 00:54:06,890
and then his brother Jonathan,
1024
00:54:08,240 --> 00:54:10,810
who is five years
younger than Matthew,
1025
00:54:10,850 --> 00:54:14,640
two and a half years ago had
a fairly major brain bleed.
1026
00:54:14,680 --> 00:54:18,030
He had something that
he was born with.
1027
00:54:19,210 --> 00:54:22,430
He had no symptoms
whatsoever until it blew.
1028
00:54:25,950 --> 00:54:28,780
- In the fall of
2012, I had a stroke,
1029
00:54:28,830 --> 00:54:31,660
and I was in the
hospital and rehab.
1030
00:54:31,700 --> 00:54:34,570
That was after Matt had
already started his walk,
1031
00:54:34,610 --> 00:54:36,880
but he came out to Chicago
1032
00:54:36,920 --> 00:54:39,880
and lived there
for several months.
1033
00:54:39,920 --> 00:54:42,270
I think that people
have experiences
1034
00:54:42,320 --> 00:54:46,370
that sort of reminds
them of the value of life
1035
00:54:46,410 --> 00:54:47,630
and of living,
1036
00:54:49,060 --> 00:54:52,500
so yeah, when he had his
bike accident in New York,
1037
00:54:52,550 --> 00:54:54,200
I don't know if
that was the thing
1038
00:54:54,240 --> 00:54:56,940
that set him off on this trip,
1039
00:54:56,980 --> 00:54:59,640
but I think his bike
accident and my stroke
1040
00:54:59,680 --> 00:55:01,550
remind us all that
we're not promised
1041
00:55:01,600 --> 00:55:03,950
any time on this earth.
1042
00:55:03,990 --> 00:55:06,950
- I would say that
maybe isn't the reason
1043
00:55:06,990 --> 00:55:08,300
that he goes out walking,
1044
00:55:08,340 --> 00:55:10,430
but I think at this
point in time he realizes
1045
00:55:10,480 --> 00:55:11,910
that stuff can happen.
1046
00:55:11,960 --> 00:55:13,350
I mean, it almost
happened to him.
1047
00:55:13,390 --> 00:55:15,130
It almost happened
to his brother.
1048
00:55:15,180 --> 00:55:17,880
I think it really
opens you up to life
1049
00:55:17,920 --> 00:55:20,440
and to the fact that
either you live it,
1050
00:55:20,490 --> 00:55:22,450
or you put it off
for the future,
1051
00:55:22,490 --> 00:55:25,320
and you don't know that the
future is gonna be there.
1052
00:55:40,380 --> 00:55:41,200
- Hey, look at that.
1053
00:55:41,250 --> 00:55:42,770
Fig tree.
1054
00:55:42,810 --> 00:55:46,510
You can see the
figs hanging off it.
1055
00:55:46,560 --> 00:55:51,560
Oh look, it's a whole little
patch of garden here even.
1056
00:55:52,260 --> 00:55:53,130
Oh, look at that,
1057
00:55:56,740 --> 00:56:00,660
a little broccoli or
broccoli rabe or something.
1058
00:56:03,010 --> 00:56:05,230
Oh yeah, some tomatoes
over here too.
1059
00:56:10,930 --> 00:56:15,320
This is an edible plant
called lamb's quarter,
1060
00:56:15,370 --> 00:56:17,460
or some people call
it wild spinach.
1061
00:56:17,500 --> 00:56:18,720
Pretty tasty too,
1062
00:56:18,760 --> 00:56:20,070
I'm only not eating that
'cause it's at prime
1063
00:56:20,110 --> 00:56:21,940
like dog piss level.
1064
00:56:24,720 --> 00:56:28,900
Ah, here's a good example
of a squash trellis.
1065
00:56:28,950 --> 00:56:31,860
I mean, there's no dirt.
1066
00:56:31,910 --> 00:56:33,300
There's no soil here.
1067
00:56:33,340 --> 00:56:35,300
It's just a paved area,
1068
00:56:35,340 --> 00:56:37,000
but with a little ingenuity,
1069
00:56:37,040 --> 00:56:38,700
you put down a few
containers of soil.
1070
00:56:38,740 --> 00:56:40,170
You put up this trellis.
1071
00:56:40,220 --> 00:56:41,830
Let the vines climb up,
1072
00:56:41,870 --> 00:56:45,220
and all of a sudden you have
this giant canopy of green,
1073
00:56:45,270 --> 00:56:48,750
and you can see all the
squashes just dangling from it.
1074
00:56:48,790 --> 00:56:50,580
You could see moving
into this house saying,
1075
00:56:50,620 --> 00:56:52,360
"Ah, I just got this driveway.
1076
00:56:52,400 --> 00:56:54,670
"It's all paved, nothing
I can do about it,"
1077
00:56:54,710 --> 00:56:58,630
but a little ingenuity
and you could have this.
1078
00:57:08,510 --> 00:57:09,990
I'm a professional now.
1079
00:57:15,170 --> 00:57:16,340
It's pretty surprising to me
1080
00:57:16,390 --> 00:57:19,170
how much I've
learned about plants,
1081
00:57:19,210 --> 00:57:22,000
about flowers and
trees, on this walk,
1082
00:57:22,040 --> 00:57:23,350
given that I'm in New York,
1083
00:57:23,390 --> 00:57:26,740
which is not a place you
associate with greenery
1084
00:57:26,790 --> 00:57:29,700
or any kind of
natural life really,
1085
00:57:30,920 --> 00:57:33,710
kind of concrete
and hard surfaces.
1086
00:57:39,840 --> 00:57:42,020
Ah, there's some butterfly weed,
1087
00:57:42,060 --> 00:57:43,890
that cool orange flower.
1088
00:57:43,930 --> 00:57:47,630
I saw that in Marine
Park a couple years ago.
1089
00:57:50,940 --> 00:57:55,210
This giant tree right
here on Houston Street
1090
00:57:55,250 --> 00:57:57,160
is actually a redwood tree.
1091
00:57:57,210 --> 00:57:59,300
It's a type of redwood
called a dawn redwood
1092
00:57:59,340 --> 00:58:01,210
that was thought to be extinct,
1093
00:58:01,260 --> 00:58:02,470
and in the 1940s,
1094
00:58:03,690 --> 00:58:05,220
some were discovered
in central China,
1095
00:58:05,260 --> 00:58:07,570
and the seeds were
taken and spread out
1096
00:58:07,610 --> 00:58:08,920
around the world,
1097
00:58:08,960 --> 00:58:10,660
and now it's actually
a popular street tree
1098
00:58:10,700 --> 00:58:12,140
in New York City.
1099
00:58:12,180 --> 00:58:14,620
The first one I saw was
this giant one in Brooklyn,
1100
00:58:14,660 --> 00:58:16,400
and I figured out what
kind of tree it was
1101
00:58:16,450 --> 00:58:18,060
and was shocked to realize
1102
00:58:18,100 --> 00:58:22,840
that there are these redwoods
growing all around New York.
1103
00:58:33,770 --> 00:58:36,200
That is a good looking tree.
1104
00:58:37,160 --> 00:58:40,510
There's a grape vine
down there, delicious.
1105
00:58:43,170 --> 00:58:45,600
There's a little mint here.
1106
00:58:45,650 --> 00:58:48,650
Can you smell it
through the camera?
1107
00:58:54,130 --> 00:58:57,010
One of my favorite
examples is figs
1108
00:58:57,050 --> 00:58:59,360
because I didn't really,
1109
00:58:59,400 --> 00:59:00,880
I mean, I guess I
had a vague sense
1110
00:59:00,920 --> 00:59:04,060
of what a fig looks
like when you eat it,
1111
00:59:04,100 --> 00:59:05,100
but I had no idea
what they look like
1112
00:59:05,150 --> 00:59:07,280
growing on trees or anything,
1113
00:59:07,320 --> 00:59:09,320
and I started noticing.
1114
00:59:09,370 --> 00:59:11,630
A few months into my walk,
1115
00:59:11,670 --> 00:59:13,150
I started noticing these trees
1116
00:59:13,200 --> 00:59:18,160
with these little kind of
nodules growing off of them.
1117
00:59:19,420 --> 00:59:20,600
Actually, there's a fig
tree in a garbage bucket
1118
00:59:20,640 --> 00:59:23,900
right over there
as I'm saying this.
1119
00:59:23,950 --> 00:59:26,300
So this is a relatively
small fig tree.
1120
00:59:26,340 --> 00:59:28,870
The fig, we think
of it as a fruit,
1121
00:59:28,910 --> 00:59:32,390
but it's actually an
inside out inflorescence,
1122
00:59:32,430 --> 00:59:34,960
which means that it
has hundreds of flowers
1123
00:59:35,000 --> 00:59:37,400
growing inside of it.
1124
00:59:37,440 --> 00:59:38,610
You want a half a fig?
1125
00:59:38,660 --> 00:59:39,960
Here, I'll eat it if you eat it.
1126
00:59:40,010 --> 00:59:40,750
- Ew, I don't know what this is.
1127
00:59:40,790 --> 00:59:41,530
- It's good.
1128
00:59:41,570 --> 00:59:42,710
It's good.
1129
00:59:42,750 --> 00:59:43,490
It's a fruit.
1130
00:59:43,530 --> 00:59:44,450
Try it.
1131
00:59:44,490 --> 00:59:46,450
- Ew, what's it good for?
1132
00:59:47,360 --> 00:59:48,100
- It's a fruit,
1133
00:59:48,150 --> 00:59:49,280
like it's sweet.
1134
00:59:49,320 --> 00:59:51,240
People eat it for desserts.
1135
00:59:51,280 --> 00:59:52,280
- Ew.
1136
00:59:52,320 --> 00:59:53,060
- It's good.
1137
00:59:53,110 --> 00:59:53,850
Try it.
1138
00:59:53,890 --> 00:59:54,630
I just ate it.
1139
00:59:54,670 --> 00:59:55,460
I like that.
1140
00:59:55,500 --> 00:59:56,370
You're adventurous.
1141
00:59:56,410 --> 00:59:57,110
- Oh, it does taste good.
1142
00:59:57,150 --> 00:59:58,290
- It's not bad, right?
1143
00:59:58,330 --> 00:59:59,500
- Yeah, it does taste good.
1144
00:59:59,550 --> 01:00:00,680
I like it.
1145
01:00:06,420 --> 01:00:10,300
- Here we have the mighty
cornfields of Queens.
1146
01:00:18,220 --> 01:00:21,130
Geographically, I
knew what to expect
1147
01:00:21,180 --> 01:00:23,660
with the walk in terms
of the amount of time
1148
01:00:23,700 --> 01:00:26,230
it would take to
walk that distance,
1149
01:00:26,270 --> 01:00:28,970
but I didn't expect
that I would be spending
1150
01:00:29,010 --> 01:00:31,360
this much time
digging into things
1151
01:00:31,410 --> 01:00:34,060
that I saw after the fact.
1152
01:00:34,100 --> 01:00:37,460
That's ended up
taking up more time
1153
01:00:37,500 --> 01:00:38,540
than the walking itself,
1154
01:00:38,590 --> 01:00:40,760
which was a big surprise to me.
1155
01:01:23,630 --> 01:01:25,900
All these pock
marks in the facade
1156
01:01:25,940 --> 01:01:29,250
of the building are
almost 100 years old.
1157
01:01:30,770 --> 01:01:34,340
They're from this bombing
that happened here in 1920.
1158
01:01:34,380 --> 01:01:38,210
These Italian anarchists
set off a bomb.
1159
01:01:38,260 --> 01:01:42,520
It was the deadliest terror
attack in U.S. history
1160
01:01:42,560 --> 01:01:43,480
at that point.
1161
01:01:43,520 --> 01:01:45,610
I think close to 40 people died.
1162
01:01:45,650 --> 01:01:48,130
The bank intentionally
left all the marks here
1163
01:01:48,180 --> 01:01:50,440
as a reminder of that.
1164
01:02:04,320 --> 01:02:07,200
This is Trinity Churchyard,
1165
01:02:07,240 --> 01:02:10,900
so it's a little bit
of a incongruous scene,
1166
01:02:10,940 --> 01:02:12,940
seeing all these
graves in the middle
1167
01:02:12,990 --> 01:02:15,420
of all these skyscrapers.
1168
01:02:15,470 --> 01:02:17,730
There's Alexander Hamilton.
1169
01:02:20,510 --> 01:02:22,170
Lower Manhattan looks different
1170
01:02:22,210 --> 01:02:23,690
than the rest of the city.
1171
01:02:23,740 --> 01:02:27,300
It's where the original
settlement of New Amsterdam was,
1172
01:02:27,350 --> 01:02:28,960
and as a result of that,
1173
01:02:29,000 --> 01:02:30,660
streets are curving around.
1174
01:02:30,700 --> 01:02:32,610
Streets are narrower,
1175
01:02:32,660 --> 01:02:37,440
just this swirl of history
and so many layers of history,
1176
01:02:37,490 --> 01:02:42,410
and it makes it impossible to
take in even a small percent.
1177
01:02:43,360 --> 01:02:45,630
Well, just half
a block up there,
1178
01:02:45,670 --> 01:02:48,190
on Wall Street between
Pearl and Water,
1179
01:02:48,240 --> 01:02:50,460
that's apparently where
New York's municipal
1180
01:02:50,500 --> 01:02:53,330
slave market was
from 1711 to 1762,
1181
01:02:55,030 --> 01:02:57,380
and if it weren't
for this sign here,
1182
01:02:57,420 --> 01:03:00,640
I don't think I would
have any clue about it.
1183
01:03:00,690 --> 01:03:03,910
This is a particularly
poignant reminder
1184
01:03:03,950 --> 01:03:05,300
of a hidden story in New York,
1185
01:03:05,340 --> 01:03:07,650
but these hidden stories
are all over the city,
1186
01:03:07,690 --> 01:03:11,090
and I'm missing things
every single day.
1187
01:03:12,700 --> 01:03:15,480
I was just reading
recently about how garbage
1188
01:03:15,530 --> 01:03:19,490
has become such big
problem in Lower Manhattan.
1189
01:03:19,530 --> 01:03:21,710
Before 9/11, it was just
a business district.
1190
01:03:21,750 --> 01:03:23,580
Not that many people
lived down here.
1191
01:03:23,620 --> 01:03:25,490
Apparently now the
population's shot up,
1192
01:03:25,540 --> 01:03:27,580
the sidewalks are
narrow down here,
1193
01:03:27,630 --> 01:03:32,240
and so there's all these
problems with walls of trash.
1194
01:03:38,720 --> 01:03:39,590
I was surprised to learn there
1195
01:03:39,640 --> 01:03:41,810
was a big Vietnam memorial,
1196
01:03:43,080 --> 01:03:44,510
and I had never heard of it.
1197
01:03:44,560 --> 01:03:47,300
"We are all afraid to die,
1198
01:03:47,340 --> 01:03:51,040
"and all we do is count
the days till we go home.
1199
01:03:51,080 --> 01:03:53,480
"I want to hold my
head between my hands
1200
01:03:53,520 --> 01:03:56,440
"and run screaming
away from here."
1201
01:04:06,270 --> 01:04:08,190
You know, I'll come back
from this walk today,
1202
01:04:08,230 --> 01:04:10,020
and I'll have a lot
more photos to add
1203
01:04:10,060 --> 01:04:12,410
into the pile of
thousands of photos
1204
01:04:12,450 --> 01:04:15,590
that I still have to go through.
1205
01:04:15,630 --> 01:04:19,810
Right now, I'm a year and
a half behind on my blog.
1206
01:04:19,850 --> 01:04:21,460
When I go out and walk,
1207
01:04:21,510 --> 01:04:23,510
I'm done with those blocks
when I'm done walking them,
1208
01:04:23,550 --> 01:04:26,510
and the photos,
they lag behind me,
1209
01:04:26,550 --> 01:04:30,560
and they're just creating
this giant weight
1210
01:04:30,600 --> 01:04:32,820
that I'm pulling
behind me all the time,
1211
01:04:32,860 --> 01:04:35,300
but I've never thought
about quitting,
1212
01:04:35,350 --> 01:04:37,610
about cutting back on anything,
1213
01:04:37,650 --> 01:04:41,350
about spending less
time doing research.
1214
01:04:41,390 --> 01:04:43,350
It's an integral part
of my personality
1215
01:04:43,400 --> 01:04:46,100
that I'll never quit
something once I've started,
1216
01:04:46,140 --> 01:04:48,530
which is not necessarily
always the greatest trait
1217
01:04:48,580 --> 01:04:50,230
in the real world,
1218
01:04:50,270 --> 01:04:52,490
to be so obsessed with details
1219
01:04:52,540 --> 01:04:56,500
and to lose sight of the
larger point of something
1220
01:04:56,540 --> 01:04:58,590
because you want to
finish it the exact way
1221
01:04:58,630 --> 01:05:00,630
that you want to finish it.
1222
01:05:16,430 --> 01:05:18,480
I was driving by on the BQE,
1223
01:05:18,520 --> 01:05:20,520
that elevated roadway up there,
1224
01:05:20,560 --> 01:05:24,480
and I saw really quick what
looked like a 9/11 mural,
1225
01:05:24,520 --> 01:05:28,750
a new 9/11 mural,
painted up on a building,
1226
01:05:28,790 --> 01:05:31,490
and I'm not trying
to constantly keep up
1227
01:05:31,530 --> 01:05:34,880
with every single new 9/11
memorial that sprouts up,
1228
01:05:34,930 --> 01:05:38,060
but since I saw it
I figured I should,
1229
01:05:38,100 --> 01:05:40,980
when I'm in the neighborhood,
get out and walk by it
1230
01:05:41,020 --> 01:05:42,540
and check it out.
1231
01:05:51,290 --> 01:05:52,510
Standing down here
by the firehouse,
1232
01:05:52,550 --> 01:05:54,600
I can just look down the street,
1233
01:05:54,640 --> 01:05:55,860
and you get a clear view
1234
01:05:55,900 --> 01:05:59,260
of the new One World
Trade Center building.
1235
01:05:59,300 --> 01:06:01,560
People standing on
this spot on 9/11
1236
01:06:01,610 --> 01:06:05,520
would have seen the Twin
Towers crumbling down.
1237
01:06:24,760 --> 01:06:28,460
I think this is a 9/11 memorial.
1238
01:06:29,680 --> 01:06:32,160
"We will never forget,"
fireman kneeling.
1239
01:06:32,200 --> 01:06:36,550
Oh, that's the ruins of
the old World Trade Center.
1240
01:06:48,040 --> 01:06:49,740
When I first started this walk,
1241
01:06:49,780 --> 01:06:53,610
I had seen a number of
9/11 memorials beforehand,
1242
01:06:53,660 --> 01:06:57,840
and I had this idea that I
would just keep my eye out
1243
01:06:57,880 --> 01:06:59,490
for them as I walked.
1244
01:06:59,530 --> 01:07:01,530
I assumed they would all be
like the ones I had noticed,
1245
01:07:01,580 --> 01:07:03,620
which were classical
granite monument
1246
01:07:03,670 --> 01:07:05,800
with names on it maybe,
1247
01:07:07,060 --> 01:07:11,150
but I've been blown away
by the diversity of them.
1248
01:07:11,200 --> 01:07:13,500
I've seen so many
murals like this one.
1249
01:07:13,550 --> 01:07:16,640
I've seen homemade things
in people's front yards,
1250
01:07:16,680 --> 01:07:20,380
photos of victims with
flowers around them.
1251
01:07:24,690 --> 01:07:28,950
There's one that struck
me the hardest, I think.
1252
01:07:29,000 --> 01:07:31,740
It was an old fire call
box mounted on the wall
1253
01:07:31,780 --> 01:07:33,090
of a firehouse,
1254
01:07:34,220 --> 01:07:36,960
and inside, a silhouette
of the Twin Towers
1255
01:07:37,010 --> 01:07:39,920
and just a flame
burning inside it.
1256
01:07:43,840 --> 01:07:45,930
9/11 memorial.
1257
01:07:48,280 --> 01:07:49,500
How you doing?
1258
01:07:53,060 --> 01:07:54,720
That's a new thing.
1259
01:07:54,760 --> 01:07:57,760
I've never seen the Statue
of Liberty crying before.
1260
01:07:57,810 --> 01:08:00,330
Also, Captain America pops in.
1261
01:08:03,950 --> 01:08:05,470
By the time I'm done walking,
1262
01:08:05,510 --> 01:08:07,820
I think I'll probably have
at least 300 memorials
1263
01:08:07,860 --> 01:08:10,260
that I've photographed,
1264
01:08:10,300 --> 01:08:14,520
which is, you know, a
stunning number to think of.
1265
01:08:50,950 --> 01:08:52,340
Rolling.
1266
01:08:53,730 --> 01:08:54,780
Rolling.
1267
01:09:16,800 --> 01:09:17,800
- A wedding.
1268
01:11:05,560 --> 01:11:10,000
So I've walked through
dozens of cemeteries already,
1269
01:11:11,220 --> 01:11:12,960
and to me they're kind of,
1270
01:11:13,000 --> 01:11:15,090
I walk them for the same
reason that I walk a park,
1271
01:11:15,140 --> 01:11:17,960
which is that it's just a
big outdoor public area.
1272
01:11:18,010 --> 01:11:21,010
To me that's just as important
as walking as a street,
1273
01:11:21,050 --> 01:11:23,840
and on top of that, so
many cemeteries in New York
1274
01:11:23,880 --> 01:11:25,230
are just gorgeous.
1275
01:11:25,280 --> 01:11:26,930
Some of the
landscaping is amazing.
1276
01:11:26,970 --> 01:11:28,410
The terrain's amazing.
1277
01:11:28,450 --> 01:11:32,020
There's just a lot of beautiful
statuary in cemeteries,
1278
01:11:32,070 --> 01:11:33,890
a lot of beautiful graves.
1279
01:11:33,940 --> 01:11:36,590
It's a great kind of look
at other people's lives,
1280
01:11:36,640 --> 01:11:38,330
little windows
onto who they were.
1281
01:11:38,380 --> 01:11:42,690
You see sometimes really,
really touching epitaphs,
1282
01:11:43,950 --> 01:11:46,120
just really unusual
way to kind of look
1283
01:11:46,170 --> 01:11:48,910
into a lot of people's
lives, just a little bit.
1284
01:11:54,090 --> 01:11:57,350
This little area here is
called the Soldiers' Lot,
1285
01:11:57,400 --> 01:12:00,880
and it's full of
Civil War veterans,
1286
01:12:00,920 --> 01:12:04,400
most of whom were
killed during the war,
1287
01:12:04,450 --> 01:12:07,540
and up at the top
here is this statue
1288
01:12:09,410 --> 01:12:11,890
that says Our Drummer Boy.
1289
01:12:11,930 --> 01:12:13,850
Clarence D. MacKenzie,
1290
01:12:13,890 --> 01:12:17,110
he was the first soldier
from Brooklyn killed
1291
01:12:17,150 --> 01:12:18,720
in the Civil War,
1292
01:12:18,760 --> 01:12:21,550
and he was 12 years
old at the time,
1293
01:12:21,590 --> 01:12:24,810
and he was killed just
during a training exercise
1294
01:12:24,860 --> 01:12:25,860
by accident.
1295
01:12:40,130 --> 01:12:42,270
This symbol you
see a lot on stones
1296
01:12:42,310 --> 01:12:43,960
in Jewish cemeteries.
1297
01:12:44,010 --> 01:12:46,530
It's kind of hands like this.
1298
01:12:46,580 --> 01:12:49,840
When the Kohanim, which are
the priestly class of Jews,
1299
01:12:49,880 --> 01:12:52,230
bless the congregation,
1300
01:12:52,280 --> 01:12:53,670
they hold their
hands in this shape
1301
01:12:53,710 --> 01:12:55,890
while they're
saying the blessing,
1302
01:12:55,930 --> 01:13:00,810
and this is what inspired the
Vulcan salute in Star Trek
1303
01:13:01,940 --> 01:13:02,680
because Leonard Nimoy
remembered being
1304
01:13:02,720 --> 01:13:04,070
in synagogue as a kid,
1305
01:13:04,110 --> 01:13:05,770
and then many years
later he just pulled this
1306
01:13:05,810 --> 01:13:07,810
out of his memory banks.
1307
01:13:09,160 --> 01:13:13,600
Here is the tombstone of
the great Jackie Robinson.
1308
01:13:13,650 --> 01:13:16,040
My dad grew up in Brooklyn,
1309
01:13:16,080 --> 01:13:19,090
so in addition to his
kind of iconic symbolism
1310
01:13:19,130 --> 01:13:20,570
for all of baseball,
1311
01:13:20,610 --> 01:13:24,920
he also was a great local
player for my dad's team.
1312
01:13:24,960 --> 01:13:27,660
Celia Cruz, the Queen of Salsa.
1313
01:13:31,050 --> 01:13:32,620
Yeah, it is funny to
see this kind of row
1314
01:13:32,660 --> 01:13:34,620
of modest little headstones
1315
01:13:34,670 --> 01:13:38,280
and then to come across
a big, famous artist
1316
01:13:39,630 --> 01:13:41,540
who tragically died.
1317
01:13:41,590 --> 01:13:44,940
In fact, when I visited his
grave for the first time,
1318
01:13:44,980 --> 01:13:47,110
this family was
here, the Russos.
1319
01:13:47,160 --> 01:13:48,640
I think her sister was here,
1320
01:13:48,680 --> 01:13:50,860
and she was saying they
didn't know who this was,
1321
01:13:50,900 --> 01:13:53,250
but then they saw all
these things left here,
1322
01:13:53,290 --> 01:13:54,820
and then they read about him,
1323
01:13:54,860 --> 01:13:58,120
and just a funny
crossing of cultures
1324
01:13:58,170 --> 01:14:00,870
between this older
Italian-American family
1325
01:14:00,910 --> 01:14:03,480
and this young,
kind of punk artist,
1326
01:14:03,520 --> 01:14:08,130
and now they'll spend eternity
right next to each other.
1327
01:14:10,960 --> 01:14:12,970
This is the grave
of Emma Lazarus,
1328
01:14:13,010 --> 01:14:16,800
who wrote a well known poem
called The New Colossus
1329
01:14:16,840 --> 01:14:19,710
that can be found on
the Statue of Liberty.
1330
01:14:19,760 --> 01:14:21,670
"Give me your tired, your poor,
1331
01:14:21,710 --> 01:14:24,370
"your huddled masses
yearning to breathe free,
1332
01:14:24,410 --> 01:14:27,110
"the wretched refuse
of your teeming shore.
1333
01:14:27,150 --> 01:14:30,200
"Send these, the homeless,
tempest tossed to me.
1334
01:14:30,240 --> 01:14:33,640
"I lift my lamp beside
the golden door."
1335
01:14:42,040 --> 01:14:43,260
Harry Houdini.
1336
01:14:51,220 --> 01:14:55,010
I wish I knew some kind
of magic trick to do.
1337
01:14:55,050 --> 01:14:56,400
Seems like the
appropriate place.
1338
01:14:56,440 --> 01:15:00,970
I see playing cards over
there, a lock and key.
1339
01:15:01,010 --> 01:15:03,800
Maybe I'll be
inspired by Houdini.
1340
01:15:17,160 --> 01:15:19,250
You might think that
walking around a cemetery
1341
01:15:19,290 --> 01:15:21,470
is a very morbid thing to do,
1342
01:15:21,510 --> 01:15:23,250
that it's a very
sad place to be,
1343
01:15:23,300 --> 01:15:25,080
but when you spend
enough time there,
1344
01:15:25,120 --> 01:15:27,260
what you realize is
that all these stones
1345
01:15:27,300 --> 01:15:29,220
that you're seeing, of course,
1346
01:15:29,260 --> 01:15:30,960
represent somebody who died,
1347
01:15:31,000 --> 01:15:35,400
but what they are is a
reminder of that person's life.
1348
01:15:38,530 --> 01:15:40,440
You know, they had to die
to be in the cemetery,
1349
01:15:40,490 --> 01:15:42,930
but they had to live
a life to be here too.
1350
01:15:45,840 --> 01:15:48,100
Charles Mile a Minute Murphy.
1351
01:15:49,280 --> 01:15:52,670
The Mile a Minute
part of his nickname,
1352
01:15:52,720 --> 01:15:56,200
he came up with this
idea in like the 1880s
1353
01:15:56,240 --> 01:15:58,030
that it would be possible,
1354
01:15:58,070 --> 01:15:59,810
if he rode behind a train,
1355
01:15:59,860 --> 01:16:02,120
to ride in the
slipstream of the train,
1356
01:16:02,160 --> 01:16:04,120
that he could ride a mile
in less than a minute,
1357
01:16:04,160 --> 01:16:05,690
and in his view,
1358
01:16:05,730 --> 01:16:07,600
he felt like the whole
world was laughing at him,
1359
01:16:07,650 --> 01:16:08,520
mocking him.
1360
01:16:08,560 --> 01:16:09,470
This could never be done.
1361
01:16:09,520 --> 01:16:11,780
He was a fool for thinking this,
1362
01:16:11,820 --> 01:16:14,520
and so he convinced the Long
Island Rail Road to build,
1363
01:16:14,570 --> 01:16:17,180
I think it was like a two
mile section of track,
1364
01:16:17,220 --> 01:16:18,960
and he failed the first time
1365
01:16:19,000 --> 01:16:20,310
or first two times or something,
1366
01:16:20,350 --> 01:16:21,880
and they had like one shot left,
1367
01:16:21,920 --> 01:16:24,360
and then he finally was able
to do it the third time.
1368
01:16:24,400 --> 01:16:27,100
The idea of someone just
having this weird dream
1369
01:16:27,140 --> 01:16:31,230
and just making it happen is
really appealing story to me.
1370
01:16:31,280 --> 01:16:32,710
There are some people out there
1371
01:16:32,760 --> 01:16:36,110
who just do things for
reasons they don't understand,
1372
01:16:36,150 --> 01:16:37,550
that other people
don't quite understand.
1373
01:16:37,590 --> 01:16:40,900
I mean, I don't know
anybody like that.
1374
01:17:08,100 --> 01:17:10,800
When you have this many
miles ahead of you,
1375
01:17:10,840 --> 01:17:13,800
you can't really just think
about how much is left.
1376
01:17:13,840 --> 01:17:15,840
Anyone who has taken
some kind of long journey
1377
01:17:15,890 --> 01:17:18,890
like that I guess kind
of knows that lesson,
1378
01:17:18,930 --> 01:17:22,240
that you just have to
take it one day at a time,
1379
01:17:22,290 --> 01:17:25,290
and if all you're
focused on is finishing,
1380
01:17:25,330 --> 01:17:27,070
then it's that much
easier to get overwhelmed
1381
01:17:27,120 --> 01:17:28,600
by how much is left,
1382
01:17:28,640 --> 01:17:32,770
but the goal of this walk
is not really to finish it.
1383
01:17:32,820 --> 01:17:35,120
The goal is to do
everything that happens
1384
01:17:35,170 --> 01:17:37,390
along the way to finishing it.
1385
01:17:55,970 --> 01:17:58,190
There are lots of coconuts
1386
01:18:00,110 --> 01:18:03,110
in various odd parts of New York
1387
01:18:03,150 --> 01:18:05,940
you find washed up on the shore,
1388
01:18:05,980 --> 01:18:08,370
and I was always kind
of baffled by this,
1389
01:18:09,640 --> 01:18:11,200
but then I read that
coconuts are often part
1390
01:18:11,250 --> 01:18:14,510
of this Hindu tradition that,
1391
01:18:14,560 --> 01:18:16,730
like back in India
people would be making
1392
01:18:16,770 --> 01:18:19,520
these offerings into
the Ganges River.
1393
01:18:19,560 --> 01:18:21,780
So then people
immigrate to New York,
1394
01:18:21,820 --> 01:18:24,610
and they gotta find some
kind of approximation,
1395
01:18:24,650 --> 01:18:26,570
so it makes sense that
if coconuts are thrown
1396
01:18:26,610 --> 01:18:27,790
into the water over here
1397
01:18:27,830 --> 01:18:30,440
that they'd get
washed in over here.
1398
01:18:36,450 --> 01:18:39,280
This rusty little piece of metal
1399
01:18:41,800 --> 01:18:46,280
is a bristle from the brush
of a street cleaning truck.
1400
01:18:47,890 --> 01:18:51,200
They have hundreds of
these that rotate around,
1401
01:18:51,240 --> 01:18:55,420
and that's what kind of sweeps
stuff up off the streets.
1402
01:18:55,470 --> 01:18:57,080
If you were just
to look at my blog
1403
01:18:57,120 --> 01:18:58,340
and see the things
I've been taking photos
1404
01:18:58,380 --> 01:18:59,900
and writing about,
1405
01:18:59,950 --> 01:19:02,650
it probably seems like it's
a random list of stuff.
1406
01:19:02,690 --> 01:19:05,340
It's like, how is this
guy deciding what to do?
1407
01:19:05,390 --> 01:19:07,260
How does this all
fit into something?
1408
01:19:07,300 --> 01:19:09,440
And for me that's not a problem
1409
01:19:09,480 --> 01:19:12,000
because I'm not deciding
to look for anything,
1410
01:19:12,050 --> 01:19:14,350
and I'm not trying to
fit it into anything.
1411
01:19:14,400 --> 01:19:18,440
It fits into what it
ultimately becomes.
1412
01:19:18,490 --> 01:19:20,800
The collection of
all the random things
1413
01:19:20,840 --> 01:19:23,230
that I'm looking at
become the puzzle
1414
01:19:23,280 --> 01:19:24,760
that they are
pieces fitting into.
1415
01:19:24,800 --> 01:19:27,760
I don't have to know what the
puzzle was when I started.
1416
01:19:27,800 --> 01:19:32,370
These dots you see on any
kind of storm sewer inlet,
1417
01:19:32,420 --> 01:19:35,590
they are a mark
left by city workers
1418
01:19:35,640 --> 01:19:37,420
when they come to
treat the sewer
1419
01:19:37,460 --> 01:19:38,680
for West Nile virus,
1420
01:19:38,730 --> 01:19:40,680
so when they come back
by they can verify
1421
01:19:40,730 --> 01:19:42,430
that it had been
previously sprayed
1422
01:19:42,470 --> 01:19:45,040
by seeing if the dots are there.
1423
01:19:46,820 --> 01:19:47,650
Holy shit.
1424
01:19:50,650 --> 01:19:51,480
Damn, man.
1425
01:19:53,570 --> 01:19:55,740
One good example is right here.
1426
01:19:55,790 --> 01:19:59,090
This is the Queens Museum
in Flushing Meadows Park.
1427
01:19:59,140 --> 01:20:00,750
The building that
it's in was built
1428
01:20:00,790 --> 01:20:02,620
for the 1939 World's Fair.
1429
01:20:02,660 --> 01:20:04,880
It was the New
York City Building,
1430
01:20:04,930 --> 01:20:07,190
and I actually
just noticed this.
1431
01:20:07,230 --> 01:20:09,190
Underneath where it
says Queens Museum,
1432
01:20:09,230 --> 01:20:12,370
you can still see this
lettering from the World's Fair,
1433
01:20:12,410 --> 01:20:14,280
where it said The
City Of New York.
1434
01:20:14,330 --> 01:20:15,680
You can just faintly make out
1435
01:20:15,720 --> 01:20:17,590
that lettering
where it used to be.
1436
01:20:17,630 --> 01:20:20,770
There was actually, during
the '64 World's Fair,
1437
01:20:20,810 --> 01:20:22,600
there was a really cool
exhibit built in here.
1438
01:20:22,640 --> 01:20:25,900
It was called the Panorama
of the City of New York,
1439
01:20:25,950 --> 01:20:29,080
just a giant, three dimensional,
physical scale model
1440
01:20:29,120 --> 01:20:30,430
of New York City.
1441
01:20:30,470 --> 01:20:32,650
Huge model of New York,
each building's there.
1442
01:20:32,690 --> 01:20:35,830
There's almost a million individual buildings on this model.
1443
01:20:35,870 --> 01:20:38,090
It's just really mind boggling
1444
01:20:38,130 --> 01:20:41,610
kind of seeing the
scope of the whole city.
1445
01:20:43,660 --> 01:20:44,880
For me, there's a big difference
1446
01:20:44,920 --> 01:20:47,230
between reading about
a place in a book
1447
01:20:47,270 --> 01:20:49,580
and being there in person.
1448
01:20:49,620 --> 01:20:53,280
When I'm actually in the same
physical space as a place,
1449
01:20:53,320 --> 01:20:56,760
all of a sudden it
comes alive to me
1450
01:20:56,800 --> 01:20:59,760
because just being
there next to it,
1451
01:20:59,810 --> 01:21:01,420
just on a very human level,
1452
01:21:01,460 --> 01:21:03,550
gives me this relationship to it
1453
01:21:03,590 --> 01:21:06,380
that I don't have when all
I know about it is facts,
1454
01:21:06,420 --> 01:21:07,640
but when what I know about it
1455
01:21:07,680 --> 01:21:10,950
is what it feels to
stand in front of it,
1456
01:21:10,990 --> 01:21:13,120
what it feels like to touch it,
1457
01:21:13,170 --> 01:21:15,690
or what it feels like to
discover something about it,
1458
01:21:15,740 --> 01:21:17,610
to have found it for myself,
1459
01:21:17,650 --> 01:21:20,180
to have had some
kind of aha moment,
1460
01:21:20,220 --> 01:21:23,220
some kind of like,
oh, look at that.
1461
01:21:31,320 --> 01:21:34,580
This is the Audubon
Ballroom and Theater,
1462
01:21:34,620 --> 01:21:38,760
which is where Malcom X was
shot and killed in 1965.
1463
01:21:40,200 --> 01:21:42,810
You know, there's no
sign up or anything,
1464
01:21:42,850 --> 01:21:45,030
so I just thought this is
a cool looking building,
1465
01:21:45,070 --> 01:21:46,290
so I just took a photo of it,
1466
01:21:46,330 --> 01:21:48,550
and then found out the story.
1467
01:21:49,680 --> 01:21:50,950
Just like a person,
1468
01:21:50,990 --> 01:21:52,510
when you meet a
person you become
1469
01:21:52,560 --> 01:21:54,210
much more interested in them.
1470
01:21:54,250 --> 01:21:56,080
I think it's the same
thing with a city.
1471
01:21:56,120 --> 01:22:00,080
I mean, a city is a
thing built by people
1472
01:22:00,130 --> 01:22:01,520
and full of people,
1473
01:22:01,560 --> 01:22:03,220
and so I think it has a lot
1474
01:22:03,260 --> 01:22:05,570
of those same
characteristics that,
1475
01:22:05,610 --> 01:22:08,400
when you meet a
part of the city,
1476
01:22:08,440 --> 01:22:09,830
all of a sudden you care
about it a lot more,
1477
01:22:09,880 --> 01:22:11,050
and it's come alive to you.
1478
01:22:11,100 --> 01:22:12,580
It's an actual place
were you stood,
1479
01:22:12,620 --> 01:22:14,360
and you felt something there,
1480
01:22:14,400 --> 01:22:16,840
and you have some memory of it.
1481
01:22:18,280 --> 01:22:19,630
How you doing?
1482
01:22:28,110 --> 01:22:30,900
This is a memorial
to Eric Garner.
1483
01:22:32,730 --> 01:22:34,290
When he was being
choked to death,
1484
01:22:34,340 --> 01:22:35,600
he kept saying,
"I can't breathe.
1485
01:22:35,640 --> 01:22:36,380
"I can't breathe.
1486
01:22:36,430 --> 01:22:37,820
"I can't breathe."
1487
01:22:41,690 --> 01:22:44,560
This building, 42 Amboy Street,
1488
01:22:44,610 --> 01:22:48,440
what used to exist here
was 46 Amboy Street,
1489
01:22:48,480 --> 01:22:50,180
which was the
location of the first
1490
01:22:50,220 --> 01:22:52,530
birth control clinic in America.
1491
01:22:52,570 --> 01:22:55,840
It was opened by
Margaret Sanger in 1916.
1492
01:22:57,100 --> 01:22:58,450
I think the way that
I found out about it
1493
01:22:58,490 --> 01:23:00,320
was I was walking
in Brownsville,
1494
01:23:00,360 --> 01:23:02,710
and I had a photo of
something in the area,
1495
01:23:02,760 --> 01:23:04,370
and in reading
about that I somehow
1496
01:23:04,410 --> 01:23:07,020
came across this
birth control clinic.
1497
01:23:07,060 --> 01:23:08,500
You know what used to
be right over here?
1498
01:23:08,540 --> 01:23:10,150
- No.
1499
01:23:10,200 --> 01:23:12,370
- This was the first birth
control clinic in America.
1500
01:23:12,420 --> 01:23:13,680
- What?
1501
01:23:13,720 --> 01:23:14,590
- The first place
where birth control
1502
01:23:14,640 --> 01:23:14,990
was handed out to people.
1503
01:23:15,030 --> 01:23:16,330
- Wow.
1504
01:23:16,380 --> 01:23:18,210
- Yeah, it was only
open for nine days.
1505
01:23:18,250 --> 01:23:19,950
Then the government
shut it down,
1506
01:23:19,990 --> 01:23:22,820
so this, you can see that
same brick work up there.
1507
01:23:22,860 --> 01:23:24,520
This was the birth
control clinic,
1508
01:23:24,560 --> 01:23:26,520
what used to be right there.
1509
01:23:26,560 --> 01:23:28,090
- Wow.
1510
01:23:28,130 --> 01:23:29,000
So yeah, you can see
all these women out there.
1511
01:23:29,040 --> 01:23:29,910
It's been closed.
1512
01:23:29,960 --> 01:23:31,610
That's really interesting--
1513
01:23:31,650 --> 01:23:32,180
You can see that
whole street there, yeah.
1514
01:23:32,220 --> 01:23:32,390
Wow.
1515
01:23:45,840 --> 01:23:48,670
- The plaque on this rock,
1516
01:23:48,710 --> 01:23:50,370
right beside the service road
1517
01:23:50,410 --> 01:23:52,540
to the Long Island Expressway,
1518
01:23:52,590 --> 01:23:56,290
says, "General George
Washington traveled this road
1519
01:23:56,330 --> 01:24:00,120
"on his tour of Long
Island, April 24th, 1790."
1520
01:24:22,620 --> 01:24:23,490
Is that it?
1521
01:24:24,790 --> 01:24:25,580
No.
1522
01:24:37,720 --> 01:24:39,980
We're looking for
the Queens Giant,
1523
01:24:40,030 --> 01:24:44,160
which is the tallest known
tree in New York City,
1524
01:24:47,210 --> 01:24:49,820
and the oldest, ah, there it is,
1525
01:24:51,690 --> 01:24:54,820
the oldest living
thing in the city.
1526
01:24:54,870 --> 01:24:58,480
It's estimated 350
to 450 years old.
1527
01:24:58,520 --> 01:25:00,660
It's not really a
public visiting place
1528
01:25:00,700 --> 01:25:03,440
'cause they're trying
to preserve the tree,
1529
01:25:03,490 --> 01:25:05,490
so there's not
like a clear trail
1530
01:25:05,530 --> 01:25:07,880
or signs to it or anything.
1531
01:25:21,330 --> 01:25:25,330
Whoa, here's the sign,
kind of hidden back here.
1532
01:25:26,770 --> 01:25:29,380
"This tulip tree is the
tallest carefully measured tree
1533
01:25:29,420 --> 01:25:34,040
"in New York City, with
a height of 133.8 feet.
1534
01:25:34,080 --> 01:25:36,210
"It is also probably
the oldest living thing
1535
01:25:36,260 --> 01:25:40,480
"in the city at an estimated
age of 400 years or more.
1536
01:25:40,520 --> 01:25:42,830
"It was standing tall when
General George Washington
1537
01:25:42,870 --> 01:25:46,750
"passed close by in 1790
on a tour of Long Island.
1538
01:25:46,790 --> 01:25:48,880
"It has survived
miraculously from a time
1539
01:25:48,920 --> 01:25:51,880
"when native Matinecock
people trod softly
1540
01:25:51,920 --> 01:25:54,710
"beneath it to an age
when automobiles roar
1541
01:25:54,750 --> 01:25:56,890
"by oblivious to its presence.
1542
01:25:56,930 --> 01:25:58,450
"If we leave it undisturbed,
1543
01:25:58,500 --> 01:26:03,330
"it may live among us for
another hundred years or so."
1544
01:26:04,590 --> 01:26:06,160
There's a big hole
in the tree here,
1545
01:26:06,200 --> 01:26:09,420
and it's kind of the bottom
of the trunk is hollowed out.
1546
01:26:09,460 --> 01:26:11,770
There's a Tupperware
container inside the tree.
1547
01:26:11,810 --> 01:26:15,040
It's got some note
paper and stuff in it.
1548
01:26:22,300 --> 01:26:24,740
Wow, this book is just
filled with poems people
1549
01:26:24,780 --> 01:26:26,740
have written or notes.
1550
01:26:26,790 --> 01:26:29,790
"If trees could only talk.
1551
01:26:29,830 --> 01:26:33,790
"The things it's seen,
the things it's felt.
1552
01:26:33,840 --> 01:26:37,410
"The wisest creatures of
us all can live without us,
1553
01:26:37,450 --> 01:26:39,450
"but we can't without them.
1554
01:26:39,490 --> 01:26:41,500
"Respect life."
1555
01:26:41,540 --> 01:26:43,630
"This is my first visit
to the Queens Giant.
1556
01:26:43,670 --> 01:26:46,370
"She is a wonderful creature
that has seen so much
1557
01:26:46,410 --> 01:26:47,890
"and nourished many lives.
1558
01:26:47,940 --> 01:26:49,110
"Even just meeting her now,
1559
01:26:49,160 --> 01:26:51,770
"it's undeniable that
her spirit shines,
1560
01:26:51,810 --> 01:26:54,120
"and the beat goes on."
1561
01:26:54,160 --> 01:26:56,250
Sounds like a class
came out here.
1562
01:26:56,290 --> 01:26:57,690
"I never knew this
thing was here.
1563
01:26:57,730 --> 01:26:59,340
"This is so awesome
to be able to be here
1564
01:26:59,380 --> 01:27:01,040
"with my friends and teachers.
1565
01:27:01,080 --> 01:27:03,470
"East Side Community
High for forever.
1566
01:27:03,520 --> 01:27:04,690
"Zipporah G."
1567
01:27:06,780 --> 01:27:10,180
Gabriel says, "I salute
this sentinel of life,
1568
01:27:10,220 --> 01:27:12,660
"this tower of what
is natural and good.
1569
01:27:12,700 --> 01:27:14,400
"May our own little
lives be inspired
1570
01:27:14,440 --> 01:27:17,750
"by its breathing
breadth and height."
1571
01:27:17,790 --> 01:27:19,320
"July 18th, 2013.
1572
01:27:21,010 --> 01:27:22,840
"Summertime and
the living's easy.
1573
01:27:22,890 --> 01:27:25,890
"Enjoy your life, every
moment, every memory,
1574
01:27:25,930 --> 01:27:27,630
"before it's over."
1575
01:27:29,410 --> 01:27:31,720
Wow, that's pretty awesome.
1576
01:27:49,830 --> 01:27:51,170
Just thinking about
the Queens Giant
1577
01:27:51,220 --> 01:27:54,050
being 400 years old or whatever
1578
01:27:54,090 --> 01:27:56,350
means that it's
essentially been there
1579
01:27:56,400 --> 01:27:59,880
for the entirety of the
existence of New York City,
1580
01:27:59,920 --> 01:28:02,840
from the earliest
Dutch settlement,
1581
01:28:04,060 --> 01:28:05,800
and so it's kind of mind blowing
1582
01:28:05,840 --> 01:28:07,760
to think that that
tree has been there
1583
01:28:07,800 --> 01:28:12,200
kind of seeing the entire
transformation of New York City
1584
01:28:12,240 --> 01:28:16,290
from a natural area into the
metropolis that it is today,
1585
01:28:16,330 --> 01:28:20,810
and kind of all of those
changes that mankind has wrought
1586
01:28:20,860 --> 01:28:23,210
on this enormous scale here,
1587
01:28:23,250 --> 01:28:27,210
that tree has just been
there through all of it.
1588
01:28:28,780 --> 01:28:31,610
You know, it seems in my
head almost like something
1589
01:28:31,650 --> 01:28:33,870
that exists on a
geologic time scale.
1590
01:28:33,910 --> 01:28:37,220
That it would have just
taken such monumental efforts
1591
01:28:37,260 --> 01:28:40,220
to turn New York City
into what it is today,
1592
01:28:40,270 --> 01:28:42,660
and that that tree has just
been kind of sitting there
1593
01:28:42,700 --> 01:28:44,710
watching the whole time.
1594
01:29:27,180 --> 01:29:29,750
Somewhere in this
last block, I think,
1595
01:29:29,790 --> 01:29:33,280
I just crossed 8,000
total miles for the walk.
1596
01:29:33,320 --> 01:29:36,500
I was just over a mile shy
at the start of the day,
1597
01:29:36,540 --> 01:29:38,980
and when I started the walk,
1598
01:29:39,980 --> 01:29:42,810
8,000 was the number I'd
throw out as, you know,
1599
01:29:42,850 --> 01:29:44,030
how far is it gonna be?
1600
01:29:44,070 --> 01:29:45,940
I don't know, maybe 8,000 miles.
1601
01:29:45,980 --> 01:29:48,730
So in that sense, it seems
like I'm getting pretty close
1602
01:29:48,770 --> 01:29:49,990
to the end,
1603
01:29:50,030 --> 01:29:52,560
but it doesn't feel
like that to me.
1604
01:29:53,690 --> 01:29:55,990
The research and writing
and blogging part
1605
01:29:56,040 --> 01:29:58,690
of this project has
just grown and grown,
1606
01:29:58,740 --> 01:30:03,440
and I have such a huge backlog
of posts left to write,
1607
01:30:03,480 --> 01:30:04,390
and I still have, I don't know,
1608
01:30:04,440 --> 01:30:06,350
maybe another 500 or 1,000 miles
1609
01:30:06,400 --> 01:30:09,140
till I'm actually done,
1610
01:30:09,180 --> 01:30:10,880
so all that combined
makes me feel
1611
01:30:10,920 --> 01:30:12,530
like I'm just somewhere
1612
01:30:12,580 --> 01:30:15,320
in the middle of
the project, really.
1613
01:30:15,360 --> 01:30:17,930
It doesn't feel like
I'm close to the end,
1614
01:30:17,970 --> 01:30:21,150
even though I've hit 8,000.
120892
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