WEBVTT - The Great American Elevator Tragedy | The Mistakes Series 0:00:15.356 --> 0:00:28.156 Pushkin I am. I am proud to say a yimb 0:00:29.396 --> 0:00:32.916 yes in my backyard. I have come to my ymbi 0:00:32.996 --> 0:00:35.036 this recently, so I have all the zeal of the 0:00:35.076 --> 0:00:39.236 recently converted. Yimby stands for building as much housing as 0:00:39.276 --> 0:00:44.116 is humanly possible, performing stupid zoning laws, outdated building codes. 0:00:44.356 --> 0:00:49.196 Yimb hates minimum lot sizes, setback zoning, mandatory parking requirements, 0:00:49.316 --> 0:00:53.476 run control anything that makes building new things more expensive. 0:00:54.316 --> 0:00:57.236 Nimby thinks that when it comes to cities, America peaked 0:00:57.236 --> 0:00:59.756 around nineteen ten and we should just roll back the 0:00:59.836 --> 0:01:02.716 zoning block one hundred years. Yimby walks through one of 0:01:02.756 --> 0:01:06.636 those absurdly picturesque New England villages or some breezy southern 0:01:06.636 --> 0:01:09.956 California beach town, and by the way, Yimby only ever 0:01:09.996 --> 0:01:15.276 walks or maybe cycles. Yimb never drives and asks where 0:01:15.396 --> 0:01:19.916 the multi family apartment buildings. My social media feed is 0:01:19.956 --> 0:01:24.316 basically just other yimbi's shout out to Alicia courtyard urbanists 0:01:24.316 --> 0:01:27.716 from Chicago, who posts something about how building European style 0:01:27.796 --> 0:01:31.396 courtyard apartment buildings will save the American Republic every day, 0:01:32.436 --> 0:01:35.076 and I am so down for every one of those tweets. 0:01:37.436 --> 0:01:41.716 Yimby stands at the intersection of righteous indignation and nerdiness, 0:01:42.036 --> 0:01:45.156 a street corner where I have lived my entire adult life. 0:01:45.956 --> 0:01:46.796 I am Yimby. 0:01:47.596 --> 0:01:48.556 Hear me roar. 0:01:52.316 --> 0:01:55.676 So deep into this ever expanding series on mistakes. I 0:01:55.676 --> 0:01:59.076 asked myself, what would Yimbi's idea of a mistake be? 0:01:59.476 --> 0:02:04.316 What error, what miscalculation would most enrage the universe of Yimby? 0:02:05.236 --> 0:02:10.836 And upon consultations with my Yimbi comrades, I've found a 0:02:10.876 --> 0:02:14.436 single line on a building code proposal filled out by 0:02:14.436 --> 0:02:20.196 a fire inspector in Glendale, Arizona named Gregory A. Victor, 0:02:20.996 --> 0:02:27.036 concerning wait for it, elevators. This is the story of 0:02:27.116 --> 0:02:29.636 the Great American elevator tragedy. 0:02:31.676 --> 0:02:33.796 Yeah, I could not find a high income country that 0:02:33.836 --> 0:02:36.596 had fewer elevators per capita than the United States. 0:02:36.676 --> 0:02:39.076 Meet one of the crown princes of YUMBI my new 0:02:39.076 --> 0:02:42.276 best friend, Stephen Smith, director of the Center for Building 0:02:42.356 --> 0:02:44.916 in North America. He will guide us through the tangled 0:02:44.956 --> 0:02:48.796 history leading up to mister Victor's massive air. 0:02:50.596 --> 0:02:53.316 Greece has about half the elevators that the United States does, 0:02:53.356 --> 0:02:55.636 which is pretty surprising since Greece has a population of 0:02:55.676 --> 0:02:57.476 around ten million in the US. Is I don't know, 0:02:57.516 --> 0:02:59.236 three hundred and forty millions incredible? 0:02:59.436 --> 0:03:00.316 That's incredible. 0:03:00.876 --> 0:03:03.836 Yeah, I mean yeah, I mean a lot of people 0:03:03.836 --> 0:03:06.436 in Greece live in a little, four story, four unit 0:03:06.476 --> 0:03:09.076 apartment building with a tiny, little elevator. 0:03:10.076 --> 0:03:13.356 This is Revision is History, my podcast about things overlooked 0:03:13.396 --> 0:03:17.876 and misunderstood. Some of you may be thinking, I'm not 0:03:17.956 --> 0:03:20.516 seriously going to listen to half an hour on elevators, 0:03:20.556 --> 0:03:23.716 am I? And my answer to you is, oh, yes 0:03:23.836 --> 0:03:26.796 you are. And at the end you will turn to 0:03:26.836 --> 0:03:29.836 your loved ones and you will say, I too, am 0:03:29.876 --> 0:03:42.676 now ymbie hear me, roar What do your friends say 0:03:42.676 --> 0:03:45.076 about your elevators? 0:03:45.356 --> 0:03:48.836 And talk about building codes to friends? It's a good 0:03:48.876 --> 0:03:53.076 way to out of friends. You know, you cannot be serious. 0:03:53.116 --> 0:03:55.876 You don't have long conversations with elevators with your friends. 0:03:55.996 --> 0:03:59.076 Of course I do it drive them nuts about it elevators. 0:03:59.156 --> 0:04:01.796 You know, sometimes they'll ask a question about something and 0:04:01.956 --> 0:04:03.996 I got a little fun fact for them. But it's 0:04:03.996 --> 0:04:06.836 not a good way to keep friends to talk about elevators. 0:04:06.396 --> 0:04:09.396 Till I am ers Stephen, I am that exception. Should 0:04:09.436 --> 0:04:11.356 I ever be at a party with you, Fronds, Should 0:04:11.356 --> 0:04:14.916 I ever be at a party with you, you have you 0:04:15.036 --> 0:04:17.316 have carte blanche to trap me in a corner and 0:04:17.356 --> 0:04:19.436 talk about elevators for two hours. 0:04:19.676 --> 0:04:21.396 I'm going to talk about something way more. We're gonna 0:04:21.396 --> 0:04:24.396 talk about like handrails or windows, or you know, pushing 0:04:24.436 --> 0:04:25.916 it beyond elevators. 0:04:26.436 --> 0:04:32.516 My producer is laughing in the background. The modern elevator 0:04:32.556 --> 0:04:35.996 is an American invention. The earliest elevators were made in 0:04:35.996 --> 0:04:40.076 the mid nineteenth century by Elisha Otis of Vermont, whose 0:04:40.156 --> 0:04:45.476 startup Otis Elevators remains one of the world's largest elevator companies. 0:04:46.316 --> 0:04:50.316 Otis installed the world's first commercial elevator in the Howart 0:04:50.356 --> 0:04:54.316 Building on the corner of Broadway and Broome Street in Manhattan, Soho, 0:04:54.756 --> 0:04:58.196 which still stands. The vertical city in New York that 0:04:58.436 --> 0:05:01.916 grew up around the Hallwart Building was made possible by 0:05:01.956 --> 0:05:06.236 Otis's invention. But at some point between then and now, 0:05:06.796 --> 0:05:11.916 the era of American elevator dominant began to sputter. If 0:05:11.956 --> 0:05:14.676 you were an ordinary working American who lives in a 0:05:14.756 --> 0:05:17.556 split level out in the suburbs and works in an 0:05:17.556 --> 0:05:21.156 office park, maybe you didn't notice, but you know who 0:05:21.156 --> 0:05:27.276 did Ymby noticed, in particular Stephen Smith. This goes back 0:05:27.316 --> 0:05:29.956 a few years just after Smith has started a small 0:05:30.036 --> 0:05:33.796 Ymby think tank center for building in North America. He'd 0:05:33.836 --> 0:05:37.716 been a journalist, then real estate, but his true passion, 0:05:37.756 --> 0:05:41.716 he realized, lay elsewhere building codes. 0:05:42.716 --> 0:05:46.836 I mean, academia doesn't study building codes. The more prestigious 0:05:46.876 --> 0:05:50.076 you are an as an academic architect, you know, the 0:05:50.116 --> 0:05:53.956 more esoteric you're getting, and you know degrowth theory and 0:05:54.276 --> 0:05:56.956 you know things that are kind of divorced from the 0:05:57.356 --> 0:05:59.596 actual practice of putting one brick on another and nail 0:05:59.636 --> 0:06:03.516 and a piece of what. So you know, academia didn't 0:06:03.516 --> 0:06:07.676 cover it. I don't know who else was going to 0:06:07.676 --> 0:06:10.196 get into it, and you know, get into construction because 0:06:10.196 --> 0:06:11.716 you love reading and writing. So there's just not a 0:06:11.716 --> 0:06:15.076 whole lot written about it. So I decided to do 0:06:15.116 --> 0:06:15.556 it myself. 0:06:15.556 --> 0:06:18.676 He raised money, set up shop, and right away something 0:06:18.756 --> 0:06:19.396 caught his eye. 0:06:20.596 --> 0:06:22.796 There was some it was a post on when it 0:06:22.876 --> 0:06:25.036 back when it was called Twitter, it was still good 0:06:25.076 --> 0:06:26.836 for this kind of thing that went viral with some 0:06:27.596 --> 0:06:31.156 developer who had built a little three story, twelve unit 0:06:31.196 --> 0:06:34.356 apartment building in Minneapolis and was sort of bragging about, 0:06:34.396 --> 0:06:36.916 you know, it's pretty affordable, and he was kind of listing. 0:06:38.196 --> 0:06:40.196 He was talking about the simplicity of the project. You know, 0:06:40.236 --> 0:06:43.276 it's like, doesn't have any parking, great, uh, doesn't have 0:06:43.276 --> 0:06:47.196 an elevator. And it kicked up sort of like a 0:06:47.236 --> 0:06:50.876 firestorm on a Twitter. If you elevator, what about disabled? 0:06:50.876 --> 0:06:52.476 You know, I guess disabled people can just go and 0:06:52.516 --> 0:06:55.356 die whatever. And I remember thinking like, well, three story 0:06:55.396 --> 0:06:57.556 building in America, I mean, they never have elevators. That's 0:06:57.596 --> 0:07:01.876 not that unusual. But at the time I happened to 0:07:01.876 --> 0:07:04.316 be in France and I was thinking, well, wait a minute, 0:07:04.436 --> 0:07:07.036 a new three story building in France generally does have 0:07:07.076 --> 0:07:11.836 an elevator, So why is that? And I asked my friend, 0:07:11.796 --> 0:07:13.836 who's the architect, you know, how much does an elevator 0:07:13.876 --> 0:07:15.516 cost in Italy for a three story building? And he 0:07:15.596 --> 0:07:18.196 was like, I don't know, twenty thirty thousand euros. I said, well, 0:07:18.236 --> 0:07:20.076 there must be some missunerstanding. There's no way an elevator 0:07:20.116 --> 0:07:22.956 costs twenty or thirty thousand euros netally doesn't make any sense. 0:07:22.996 --> 0:07:25.236 That's a small fraction, you know, in the US that 0:07:25.236 --> 0:07:27.716 would be I don't know, one hundred and twenty one 0:07:27.756 --> 0:07:28.916 hundred and fifty thousand dollars. 0:07:29.036 --> 0:07:31.756 Why on earth would an elevator be five times the 0:07:31.876 --> 0:07:34.596 cost in America as it is in Europe. He went 0:07:34.636 --> 0:07:38.676 back home, moved apartments, and suddenly the question was all 0:07:38.676 --> 0:07:41.436 he could think about. So you live in Brooklyn. 0:07:42.396 --> 0:07:44.796 I live in Brooklyn. I live in a five story building. 0:07:44.836 --> 0:07:47.236 There are two units on each floor. It's on a 0:07:47.396 --> 0:07:50.756 very small lot. It's on a lot that's roughly the 0:07:50.836 --> 0:07:53.276 footprint of the building is about twelve hundred square feet 0:07:53.316 --> 0:07:56.476 and there are five stories, seven apartments over a very 0:07:56.476 --> 0:07:57.596 popular vintage store. 0:07:58.956 --> 0:08:00.076 What floor you want. 0:08:01.076 --> 0:08:06.956 I'm on the third floor. And in Europe it would 0:08:06.996 --> 0:08:08.636 have been hard to stick an elevator in the building, 0:08:08.636 --> 0:08:10.476 but you could done it. I've seen I've seen floor 0:08:10.516 --> 0:08:13.556 plants from France especially, They're very good at sticking out, 0:08:13.596 --> 0:08:16.556 you know, a little spiral staircase and a very small elevator. 0:08:16.796 --> 0:08:18.756 You could have gotten an elevator in the building. There 0:08:18.836 --> 0:08:20.756 is no way in hell you could have gotten an 0:08:20.756 --> 0:08:25.236 elevator in the building with anything even conceivably close to 0:08:25.276 --> 0:08:27.596 our current rules. But in France they would have done it. 0:08:27.596 --> 0:08:29.036 In France's building would have an elevator. 0:08:29.076 --> 0:08:32.996 I believe, and for Steven this was a problem and 0:08:33.076 --> 0:08:35.516 with the result that when you had a period of 0:08:36.036 --> 0:08:37.996 your life, as I read in an elevator report, where 0:08:38.036 --> 0:08:39.356 you were effectively disabled. 0:08:40.596 --> 0:08:44.196 Yes, I had some mysterious virus in twenty seventeen. Turned 0:08:44.236 --> 0:08:45.916 out to be the sort of long COVID like illness. 0:08:45.916 --> 0:08:49.076 Obviously not from COVID because it was twenty seventeen, And yeah, 0:08:49.116 --> 0:08:52.716 I had I still do have a disease called pots 0:08:52.756 --> 0:08:54.556 where you stand up and your heart rate goes well, 0:08:54.636 --> 0:08:58.116 a lot of fatigue, probably an autoimmune disease that has 0:08:58.116 --> 0:09:02.036 not really been understood very well yet. And yeah, it 0:09:02.116 --> 0:09:06.476 was difficult. You know, there were definitely days where what 0:09:06.556 --> 0:09:09.076 happens is when you exert yourself you pay for it 0:09:09.116 --> 0:09:11.236 physically in kind of intense ways. You get sort of 0:09:11.276 --> 0:09:15.036 brain fog and extreme fatigue. You know, might sleep twelve 0:09:15.116 --> 0:09:20.036 thirteen hours the day, and so yeah, there were days when, 0:09:20.156 --> 0:09:21.676 like I think it would have been nice to go 0:09:21.716 --> 0:09:22.876 for a walk, and I didn't because I was on 0:09:22.916 --> 0:09:23.476 the third floor. 0:09:23.596 --> 0:09:27.836 Yeah, in one of the most desirable neighborhoods in the 0:09:27.836 --> 0:09:31.756 wealthiest city in the premier country in the world, there 0:09:31.796 --> 0:09:35.836 is a brand new apartment building that is effectively off limits, 0:09:35.876 --> 0:09:39.436 segregated from anyone who is not fit enough to walk 0:09:39.516 --> 0:09:43.876 up multiple flights of stairs. And why because the United 0:09:43.916 --> 0:09:47.276 States has somehow given up on the widespread adoption of 0:09:47.276 --> 0:09:50.956 a technology that it invented one hundred and fifty years ago. 0:09:51.556 --> 0:09:56.076 But you're building, no old person could ever move into 0:09:56.076 --> 0:09:56.556 your building. 0:09:57.476 --> 0:09:58.916 I think I'm the oldest person who lives in the 0:09:58.916 --> 0:10:03.676 middle thirty seven. I mean this is I think I'm 0:10:03.676 --> 0:10:04.156 the oldest. 0:10:04.356 --> 0:10:08.636 See, this is the whole this whole thing is just nuts. Yes, 0:10:09.516 --> 0:10:13.076 it is nuts. Smith spent two years trying to answer 0:10:13.156 --> 0:10:15.956 the question of why Americans gave up on the elevator. 0:10:16.676 --> 0:10:21.996 The result, entitled Elevators, is maybe the most comprehensive. And 0:10:22.036 --> 0:10:26.436 I'm not just saying this because I'm yimbi fascinating exploration 0:10:26.756 --> 0:10:29.076 of a topic that I'm guessing few of you have 0:10:29.076 --> 0:10:33.396 ever thought about. One hundred and twenty two pages beginning 0:10:33.476 --> 0:10:36.636 with a sentence right out of some nineteenth century novel. 0:10:37.636 --> 0:10:41.036 In late twenty twenty, tired of my old Brooklyn apartment, 0:10:41.396 --> 0:10:44.996 historic and charming, but loud and full of maintenance hassles, 0:10:45.596 --> 0:10:48.156 I put my co op unit on the market and 0:10:48.316 --> 0:10:59.676 set out to buy a new condo. Some of the 0:10:59.716 --> 0:11:03.836 reasons why American elevators are so expensive are not surprising. 0:11:04.556 --> 0:11:10.156 Chapter four of Smith's magnum Opus is entitled Labor. Labor 0:11:10.236 --> 0:11:12.476 is the elephant in the room of the elevator industry. 0:11:12.516 --> 0:11:16.596 He writes, the workforce that builds and maintains elevators is 0:11:16.676 --> 0:11:21.836 small and specialized and highly unionized. And nowhere are those 0:11:21.876 --> 0:11:25.636 things more true than in the United States. The most 0:11:25.676 --> 0:11:28.756 cost effective way to build an elevator is to assemble 0:11:28.756 --> 0:11:31.436 the whole thing in a factory, then ship it to 0:11:31.476 --> 0:11:34.116 the building site and drop it in with a crane. 0:11:34.836 --> 0:11:37.356 That's what they do in Europe. But in the United 0:11:37.396 --> 0:11:42.556 States the Elevator Union insists on assembling the elevators themselves, 0:11:43.356 --> 0:11:45.996 so everything is assembled in the factory, shipped to the 0:11:45.996 --> 0:11:50.916 building site, then disassembled and put back together in the 0:11:50.916 --> 0:11:55.116 cramped confines of the elevator shaft where. 0:11:54.876 --> 0:11:57.076 It's really bad. As the sort of sister industry of 0:11:57.116 --> 0:12:00.076 the elevators, which is the escalators. I mean an escalator 0:12:00.116 --> 0:12:02.956 truly is almost fully assembled in a factory abroad and 0:12:02.996 --> 0:12:06.876 then craned onto site, and in North America you're taking 0:12:06.876 --> 0:12:09.396 it apart. There was this I found a sort of 0:12:09.396 --> 0:12:11.596 newsletter from the iue C, the you know the North 0:12:11.596 --> 0:12:14.156 American Union, where the guy who runs it, or you know, 0:12:14.196 --> 0:12:16.876 one of the another general president or something is sort 0:12:16.916 --> 0:12:18.796 of bragging to his membership. I mean he's trying to 0:12:18.796 --> 0:12:21.316 promote his leadership and he says, you know, you don't 0:12:21.316 --> 0:12:24.556 know how hard it is to convince an arbitrator that 0:12:24.636 --> 0:12:26.316 you know, you got to take apart this escalator. 0:12:26.356 --> 0:12:28.196 At that point we were interrupted. 0:12:28.996 --> 0:12:34.276 I apologize. Somebody's ringing my door out. Okay, I don't 0:12:34.276 --> 0:12:35.916 know whether that package was for me, but they're going 0:12:35.956 --> 0:12:37.156 to leave in the lobby because I don't have an 0:12:37.156 --> 0:12:37.596 elevator in. 0:12:37.596 --> 0:12:41.036 My builka where were we This is like my kids 0:12:41.036 --> 0:12:45.556 with with their with their with their Magan tiles, their lego. 0:12:45.716 --> 0:12:48.396 Like they at the end of the day they take 0:12:48.436 --> 0:12:50.876 whatever they built and they smush it. Yeah, and then 0:12:50.876 --> 0:12:54.396 they rebuild it the next day. Yes, exactly like my 0:12:54.516 --> 0:12:56.236 kids with their magnetiles. 0:12:57.276 --> 0:12:59.836 There are parts of the elevator I've seen in in 0:13:00.476 --> 0:13:03.916 settlement agreements or lawsuits. You know, most of the stuff 0:13:03.956 --> 0:13:07.996 happens behind closed doors are literally in a tight shaft 0:13:08.236 --> 0:13:10.036 and you don't get a lot of insight into it. 0:13:10.076 --> 0:13:12.396 But you see it in court cases and in settlement 0:13:12.436 --> 0:13:15.836 agreements that should not be posted online but are sometimes. 0:13:16.076 --> 0:13:23.236 And there's this one at an arbitration case or legal case, 0:13:23.236 --> 0:13:26.556 I don't know what it was, where you know they're 0:13:26.556 --> 0:13:29.396 saying something like, you know, it's common practice for us 0:13:29.396 --> 0:13:30.996 to take something apart and put it off together, but 0:13:31.036 --> 0:13:33.076 you need to prove that you took it apart. So otherwise, 0:13:33.156 --> 0:13:34.956 what's to say you didn't just hang out playing on 0:13:34.996 --> 0:13:36.516 your cell phone in the shaft, and so you know, 0:13:36.556 --> 0:13:38.116 the practice is for you to sign your name on 0:13:38.196 --> 0:13:39.756 the part, so if you take it apart, the manager 0:13:39.756 --> 0:13:41.076 can see you really took it apart. 0:13:41.276 --> 0:13:44.556 Now, as crazy as this is, it doesn't really answer 0:13:44.636 --> 0:13:48.116 the question. Yes, the elevator unions are stronger in the 0:13:48.236 --> 0:13:52.516 US than europe. Elevator technicians get paid more. American elevated 0:13:52.556 --> 0:13:56.476 workers insist on doing dumb things like taking apart, already 0:13:56.516 --> 0:14:01.116 build elevators like small children with their magnetiles. But none 0:14:01.116 --> 0:14:04.476 of these things explain why an American elevator would be 0:14:04.836 --> 0:14:08.876 five times more expensive than its European counterpart. There has 0:14:08.916 --> 0:14:12.636 to be an even more important reason. I oh, yes, there. 0:14:12.476 --> 0:14:16.676 Is European cabins are roughly half. For let's say, for 0:14:16.716 --> 0:14:18.756 a new six story apartment building with a couple of 0:14:18.796 --> 0:14:21.916 units per floor, the cabin size in Europe is about 0:14:21.956 --> 0:14:23.596 half the size. Really, the whole rest of the world 0:14:23.756 --> 0:14:25.316 is about half the size that it is in the 0:14:25.396 --> 0:14:28.276 US and Canada. And that's because number one, they don't 0:14:28.316 --> 0:14:35.916 require spaces. I mean, it's for accessibility. But exactly what 0:14:36.036 --> 0:14:38.596 it is it is never really written down, but probably 0:14:38.636 --> 0:14:41.596 something like a turning radius for a wheelchair. The European 0:14:41.596 --> 0:14:43.596 one will accommodate a wheelchair, in fact, that's what it's 0:14:43.636 --> 0:14:46.796 designed for, but you'll probably have to either back in 0:14:47.156 --> 0:14:49.196 or back out one or the other. 0:14:50.756 --> 0:14:54.316 In Europe, Steven Smith's building would have an elevator because 0:14:54.356 --> 0:14:57.716 Europeans are willing to live with pine sized elevators. In 0:14:57.756 --> 0:15:01.356 America we aren't, which seems to make good sense, right 0:15:01.676 --> 0:15:03.876 because what if you had a heart attack and you're 0:15:03.916 --> 0:15:06.876 on a stretcher, you'd want your exit from your fifth 0:15:06.876 --> 0:15:09.956 floor apartment to be a speedy and if a as possible, 0:15:10.876 --> 0:15:14.836 Except that in insisting that elevators be really large for 0:15:14.916 --> 0:15:17.796 those very rare occasions when a large elevator would be 0:15:17.836 --> 0:15:21.556 really convenient, you make the elevator so bulky that it 0:15:21.636 --> 0:15:24.556 can't fit in a lot of smaller buildings, and so 0:15:24.636 --> 0:15:27.916 expensive that no one trying to build affordable housing has 0:15:27.956 --> 0:15:30.756 the means to put an elevator in their building, with 0:15:30.876 --> 0:15:33.596 the result that if you're in a wheelchair, you simply 0:15:33.636 --> 0:15:36.356 can't live in Stephen Smith's building. And if you have 0:15:36.396 --> 0:15:38.676 a heart attack on the fifth floor, the medics are 0:15:38.756 --> 0:15:41.436 going to have to drag you down five flights of stairs. 0:15:42.516 --> 0:15:45.116 Have you ever heard the expression the perfect is the 0:15:45.236 --> 0:15:49.556 enemy of the good. This is American elevator policy. This 0:15:49.676 --> 0:15:52.836 is like saying, too many people are dying in car accidents. 0:15:53.156 --> 0:15:55.316 Let's mandate that everyone has to drive to the store 0:15:55.316 --> 0:16:00.316 in a tank. Problem solved, right, Well, that problem solved, 0:16:00.636 --> 0:16:03.036 But now you have a million other bigger problems like 0:16:03.396 --> 0:16:07.196 massively congested highways, torn up roads, no parking, and most 0:16:07.196 --> 0:16:10.596 of all, since a tank costs fifteen million dollars, only 0:16:10.676 --> 0:16:13.596 super rich people would be able to drive to the store. 0:16:16.716 --> 0:16:19.636 In the spirit of trying to make the world a 0:16:19.676 --> 0:16:23.236 fair place, we've made the world in this one dimension 0:16:24.076 --> 0:16:25.516 and a much less fair place. 0:16:27.636 --> 0:16:32.116 I would say, so, yes, you know, if you're sort 0:16:32.116 --> 0:16:34.436 of elderly, maybe you'll go into cardiac arrest, and it 0:16:34.476 --> 0:16:36.836 would be helpful to have an elevator that can accommodate 0:16:36.876 --> 0:16:39.756 a fully flat stretcher, so you know, someone can continue 0:16:39.756 --> 0:16:41.716 to do chest compressions on you while you go down. 0:16:41.756 --> 0:16:44.716 But you know, most people will never be in that situation, 0:16:44.876 --> 0:16:47.036 or frankly, if they are, they'll die. Anyway, The out 0:16:47.076 --> 0:16:49.716 of hospital cardiac or rest survival rate is very low, 0:16:51.236 --> 0:16:53.516 but you know, pretty much everyone gets to a point 0:16:53.596 --> 0:16:55.236 or at least if you're lucky in life, where you 0:16:55.236 --> 0:16:57.316 can't really use the stairs, but you could, you know, 0:16:57.356 --> 0:17:01.076 stand with a walker in a small elevator. So yeah, 0:17:01.076 --> 0:17:04.596 we really look for these edge cases, try to solve them, 0:17:04.636 --> 0:17:07.916 and then kind of throw our hands up when people 0:17:07.916 --> 0:17:09.756 don't have elevators at all, like, oh, it's just a 0:17:09.796 --> 0:17:12.356 greedy developer or whatever, and just kind of ignored the 0:17:12.436 --> 0:17:14.676 underlying economics of the situation, which was that if you 0:17:14.716 --> 0:17:16.716 make the elevator three to four times expensive, you get 0:17:16.756 --> 0:17:17.916 a lot fewer elevators. 0:17:20.356 --> 0:17:23.116 Trying to get to perfect when good is good enough 0:17:23.316 --> 0:17:26.636 is a mistake, and the road to mega elevators was 0:17:26.676 --> 0:17:29.436 a ligned with one hundred mistakes made over many years, 0:17:29.796 --> 0:17:32.996 but the one that really provoked my mbire was the 0:17:33.036 --> 0:17:38.356 mistake detailed on page fifty of Stephen Smith's Elevators, section 0:17:38.476 --> 0:17:42.316 three dot three dot two, committed in the Heedless Pursuit 0:17:42.396 --> 0:17:47.436 of Perfection by a certain Gregory, a Victor fire inspector 0:17:48.036 --> 0:18:06.036 of Glendale, Arizona. You want to design an apartment building in, 0:18:06.116 --> 0:18:10.116 say to Peka, Kansas. You can't just put the stairs 0:18:10.116 --> 0:18:13.556 and windows and the fire exits wherever you want. You 0:18:13.636 --> 0:18:16.636 have to adhere to a set of common standards. And 0:18:16.676 --> 0:18:19.916 those standards are found in a very big book written 0:18:19.956 --> 0:18:23.676 and maintained and updated by a nonprofit called the International 0:18:23.716 --> 0:18:27.196 Code Council, based in Washington, d C. In one of 0:18:27.196 --> 0:18:30.316 those Bland office buildings not far from the Capitol. 0:18:31.836 --> 0:18:33.796 Anytime you see an international in a word in the 0:18:33.916 --> 0:18:36.476 United States related to construction, it's a lie. It's the 0:18:36.596 --> 0:18:38.916 US Building Code, but it's called the International Building Code, 0:18:38.916 --> 0:18:42.316 the IBC. It has international aspirations. Everywhere in the country. 0:18:42.316 --> 0:18:44.716 You st to have its own building code more or less, 0:18:44.716 --> 0:18:48.076 and then they've sort of become homogenized harmonized over time, 0:18:48.596 --> 0:18:51.476 and so now there's a national code called the International 0:18:51.516 --> 0:18:55.436 Building Code, which forms the basis and really the vast 0:18:55.516 --> 0:18:56.556 vast majority of every code. 0:18:56.716 --> 0:18:58.636 If you walk down a street and hate the way 0:18:58.756 --> 0:19:01.996 modern buildings look, or you don't understand why corridors in 0:19:02.036 --> 0:19:05.236 the hallway of your apartment building are so long, then 0:19:05.356 --> 0:19:09.716 you have a problem with The International Code Council is 0:19:09.756 --> 0:19:11.916 one of those shadowy groups that no one has ever 0:19:11.956 --> 0:19:14.916 heard about that writes the rules of the modern world, 0:19:15.516 --> 0:19:18.436 and the document that they have so grandiosely named, the 0:19:18.476 --> 0:19:24.196 International Building Code is crucially not set in stone. Interested 0:19:24.236 --> 0:19:27.756 parties can propose amendments. Those amendments can be voted on 0:19:27.796 --> 0:19:30.356 by a special Committee or by the general members of 0:19:30.396 --> 0:19:34.116 the ICC. The International Building Code is not like the 0:19:34.116 --> 0:19:37.796 Constitution of the United States, which was last amended in 0:19:37.876 --> 0:19:41.156 nineteen ninety two, based on a proposal first made in 0:19:41.196 --> 0:19:44.636 seventeen eighty nine. You need a war or a couple 0:19:44.636 --> 0:19:48.556 of centuries to change the US Constitution. Not so the 0:19:48.596 --> 0:19:52.796 International Building Code. It is a living document. And one 0:19:52.876 --> 0:19:55.476 of those people who set out to take advantage of 0:19:55.516 --> 0:19:59.756 this fact was Gregory a Victor of the Glendale Fire Department. 0:20:00.836 --> 0:20:05.196 Greg Victor had white blonde hair, a stash aviator glasses. 0:20:05.556 --> 0:20:08.036 He grew up in the Phoenix area, served in the 0:20:08.076 --> 0:20:11.156 Air Force, as an elect trician at Binhoa Air Force 0:20:11.196 --> 0:20:14.476 Base during the Vietnam War, came home and became a 0:20:14.516 --> 0:20:18.596 fire inspector for the Glendale, Arizona Fire Department, retiring as 0:20:18.596 --> 0:20:22.596 the city's fire marshal in two thousand and seven. Quote. 0:20:22.916 --> 0:20:26.236 He was the driving force behind the fire safety codes 0:20:26.476 --> 0:20:30.436 that are used in Glendale today. His obituary reads on 0:20:30.516 --> 0:20:33.996 a national level, he was instrumental in passing fire code 0:20:34.156 --> 0:20:38.556 to assure firefighters safety in Skyscraper's after nine to eleven. 0:20:39.316 --> 0:20:42.316 Let me just say that we of the Ymbie movement 0:20:42.636 --> 0:20:46.396 have no beef with Greig Victor personally. He served his country, 0:20:46.676 --> 0:20:50.596 his community, his profession. I am quite sure he was 0:20:50.636 --> 0:20:55.076 a fine and upstanding man. But he wanted perfection and 0:20:55.116 --> 0:20:58.996 he didn't understand that perfection comes with what is sometimes 0:20:59.236 --> 0:21:06.236 an unbearable cost. So this guy lit's just so we 0:21:06.316 --> 0:21:12.076 have a someone who cares, who is passionate about elevators. 0:21:12.716 --> 0:21:16.676 Yeah, he proposes. He says, you know, at the time, 0:21:17.396 --> 0:21:21.356 elevators were made to accommodate stretchers that are six feet 0:21:21.596 --> 0:21:26.116 four inches long. And he says, well, they're building a 0:21:26.156 --> 0:21:27.316 stadium in my jurisdiction. 0:21:27.396 --> 0:21:30.116 He files an amendment with the International Building Code. 0:21:31.156 --> 0:21:36.356 At the time, I don't believe Glendale had any apartment 0:21:36.356 --> 0:21:38.596 buildings with elevators. Maybe it had one or two, It 0:21:38.636 --> 0:21:40.716 had very few, if any. It still has very few, 0:21:40.716 --> 0:21:43.236 if any. And he said, the elevator is not going 0:21:43.276 --> 0:21:47.556 to accommodate our strutchers. And I don't think. I mean, 0:21:47.716 --> 0:21:50.676 I think that's maybe true in some sense, like when 0:21:50.716 --> 0:21:54.436 it's fully flat and extended. I find it difficult to 0:21:54.596 --> 0:21:57.076 believe that it did not accomodate a structure in any sense. 0:21:57.076 --> 0:21:59.036 I mean, strutchers do sort of prop up a bit. 0:21:59.476 --> 0:22:01.676 Sometimes they're a bit collapsible, But in any case, he 0:22:01.716 --> 0:22:05.236 did not feel it adequately accommodated the stretcher. So he said, 0:22:06.196 --> 0:22:07.956 you know, the code should just say that the elevator 0:22:07.996 --> 0:22:12.516 must accommodate whatever structs. Sure, the jurisdiction's got. And this 0:22:12.636 --> 0:22:15.036 is not in the report. And I want to say, 0:22:15.076 --> 0:22:17.396 don't quote me, but I'm saying it in a public form, 0:22:17.516 --> 0:22:19.476 so whatever, I'll just say it. What I was told 0:22:19.596 --> 0:22:22.916 was at the time, the elevator industry, this was in 0:22:22.996 --> 0:22:27.156 the early two thousands, the elevator industry had their own event, 0:22:27.316 --> 0:22:28.756 and so there weren't a lot of people from the 0:22:28.796 --> 0:22:33.516 elevator industry to push back. So there was some committee, 0:22:33.556 --> 0:22:36.516 some technical committee that's supposed to review this proposal. That's 0:22:36.556 --> 0:22:38.876 I think the most informed people in the process generally, 0:22:39.276 --> 0:22:41.796 and they said, well, there's two things wrong with us. 0:22:41.876 --> 0:22:44.196 Number One, we can't just say it's got to accommodate 0:22:44.196 --> 0:22:46.396 the biggest stretcher you've got. I mean they say this, 0:22:46.436 --> 0:22:48.796 but you know what if someone orders a twenty foot stretcher. 0:22:48.836 --> 0:22:51.556 I mean, the lack of standardization just can drive everyone crazy. 0:22:51.836 --> 0:22:56.276 But secondly, you didn't really prove anything exactly, like, you know, 0:22:56.396 --> 0:23:00.116 what is the harm? You know, can you try away 0:23:00.156 --> 0:23:03.036