I moved into a downtown high rise recently, AND I am pumped up about living in the “new” DTLA, full of millennials and food trucks. Diversity, new housing, eclectic restaurants, art galleries and the like define DTLA.
But I have discovered much more – that civility and a strong work ethic also abound, at least it does across the street from my building. The source is a man named Damien Cane, who operates a tower crane, as a new apartment project unfolds.
From my balcony I usually look down at life – at the black and white jerseys heading to a Kings hockey game and my neighbors, who long ago ditched their cars, strolling. However, at the close of the day, I look 25 stories up and see a man sprinting down a spiral staircase inside a tower, which supports a crane on the construction site across the way. When he reaches the ground, 10 minutes later, what occurs resembles a ballet in the rough. He shakes hands and talks with his ground crew, who position the loads the crane lifts and lowers. And he high-fives other workers nearby.
What sort of man gives and earns this kind of respect? What kind of man works alone in a small cab, suspended about 500 feet from the ground (nearly one and a half football fields stacked upward), where he guides the crane for 10 to 12 hours a day with the safety of hundreds of construction workers and pedestrians dependent upon his skills?
I soon find out.
He’s 47 years old. A big guy with lots of tattoos. A serious and focused man. An emotional man when it comes to his two young children, one of whom was recently diagnosed with leukemia. A self-made man.
Damien’s childhood was tough, and, for a time, he lived on the streets and was in and out of trouble. Then a reversal. A friend recognized that Damien was “into machines” and guided him into the construction trades.
He learned to tame a crane and drilled down on demanding safety regulations at the Operating Engineers Local 12 training center in Whittier. He slept in his car in the parking lot each night so he would not be late for classes.
He’s now in his 13th year of operating cranes.
“I like the challenges of the job and the comradery of my team,” Damien says. “And, I have the money to support my family.” (With benefits, crane operators bring home well over $100,000 a year).
Damien was mentored many years ago. Now he helps young crane operators starting out and coaches his team on the ground.
“If Damien tells you he will do something, you can have faith that he will come through,” says Rick Rose, his boss. “In this world, a man of his word is a rare thing.”
Damien says he is too busy to be lonely while lifting and lowering 75 to 100 loads of material on a busy day, even though he works the crane solo. No air sickness either, even though he’ll work as high as 40 stories up. No back up, no food or bathroom breaks are taken in the conventional sense, since it takes a crane operator almost an hour to walk down to the ground.
There is a microwave and refrigerator. And a bottle and bucket.
The unexpected happens occasionally happens, whether it be Peregrine falcons perching on the side of the cab or the windows of his cab being shot at when he was working – culprit unknown.
Damien and the crane rise high above the work site at 1120 S. Grand Ave., a project that will contain 536 apartments, retail stores and a small community park. The builders/developers are Aecom and Mack Urban.
I will continue to note that civility and commitment to excellence in the workplace are alive and kicking in DTLA as long as Damien is on the project, which is expected to wrap up in early 2019.
In today’s world of diatribe, disparagement and one-upmanship, there are lessons to be learned from this resilient and inspiring man who rides high in the sky.
Billie Greer is a resident of Downtown Los Angeles.
