James, for the most part-many of them are that way. Giving bricks away, taking pictures of demolition, I’m all for it. What demolition contractor doesn’t like to show and explain what they’re doing and why they’re doing it? At the end of the day, we all have the best job that’s out there.
It seems though, at least jobs in our area-vandalization is out of control by this genre. We recently took down an abandoned mental hospital and met with more opposition in taking it down by the UE community, than the surrounding community itself. An excavator of one of our subs was completely destroyed along with a multitude of break-ins into contained areas, which ranged in theft and destruction of the abatement set-ups...and the list goes on.
For us it was trespassing, thanks to how the law is viewed in our state. We were worried not only for the safety of our own personnel due to the violence that was being perpetrated on our site daily but also for these UE’s who knew nothing in regards to the structural integrity of these buildings not to mention the level of asbestos they were inhaling into their pre-pubescent lungs.
We had wonderful police presence and finally picked up a GOOD security company which in and of itself is surprising. All of this was done, we were told over and over again-to slow us down. In the end, if anything, the only ones who benefited was the city and the fines it was able to levy off of over 150 arrests. My
I in no way post this to tarnish the image of the decent UE’s out there. There truly are those who do it for the reason of historical photographic documentation, and they have truly mastered their passion.
But, I guess as a contractor-our first major exposure to them was extremely negative. They made us wish for more scrappers.