– photo by Mitch Waxman

One of the scuttling paths which I had been ‘saving,’ throughout the broken ankle nightmare and for future ‘stupid fun,’ played out along the ‘Emerald View Trail’ here in Pittsburgh recently.

This walk started off right here (Google Maps link).

Essentially, this is a wooded and natural surface hiking trail, one which proceeds diagonally down the face of Pittsburgh’s very steep Mount Washington. The path I was taking would carry me in a ‘westerly and ‘down’ direction. If I had to rate this one for difficulty or danger, it would be a 3 out of 10. I wouldn’t recommend walking this pathway if it’s rained, at all, in the previous 48 hours, due to mud.

Ain’t a walk across a bedroom carpet, but it wasn’t exactly a stroll through Ypres either, this scuttle.

The landmark for the trailhead is called ‘Point of View Park,’ and you’ll know you found it when you see a monumental bronze sculpture of George Washington staring down a Seneca Chief called Guyasuta.

Via Google – The bronze landmark on Grandview Avenue in Pittsburgh is titled ‘Point of View.’ and was sculpted by James A. West. The art was installed in 2006, a 750-pound artwork which sits at ‘Point of View Park’ on Mount Washington. It depicts George Washington face-to-face with Seneca leader Guyasuta, looking out over the city’s rivers and Point State Park.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

That’s the trailhead, pictured. The elevation at this spot is somewhere’s around 600 feet over the Monongahela River, and its flood plain. In the distance, the waters of the Monongahela are mixing with those of the Allegheny, and forming the headwaters of the Ohio River.

It should be mentioned that the Newtown Pentacle time warp is still in effect, but a bit less severe as I kind of took it easy at the end of July and start of August. The photos were captured on July 14, and these words are being inscribed on August 5. If my scheduling is correct, you’re seeing this at the end of the second week of September.

How’d the near future work out? It looks pretty grim right now…

– photo by Mitch Waxman

As mentioned, one has been ‘saving’ this one for when my busted ankle had fully healed up. It’s a natural surface, albeit one which has been ‘worked’ by grounds crews. The section with the gravel pictured above soon transmogrifies into a packed down and ‘formed’ soil path.

With palpitant heart, one entered the verge…

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Not too bad, huh? It was humid up in there, amongst the trees. Lotsa swarming little bugs buzzing about too.

As I often say: There’s a reason our ancestors paved over everything. Nature wants to digest you.

Problem for me was that at this ‘high summer’ moment which I was walking through here, you couldn’t see much due to all the leafy growth. Time was passed, thereby, shooting pics of the woods while scuttling along.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Here and there, there would be a clearing where a tree went down, and a bit of sunlight would filter through the canopy. There were also a few spots where the trail was at best a couple/three feet across, as it traveled past a steep section of incline, and that was a little worrisome.

Balance issues continue to plague me, a lasting consequence of the ankle situation. Overall, I’m ‘recovered’ at this point, but…

Almost two years out from the injury, I’m still feeling arthritic ‘tightness’ around the joint whenever it’s raining or the sky threatens it, and my ‘proprioception’ of the space that my left foot is physically occupying is almost always ‘off.’ This tends to throw off balance, and is related to the PTSD symptoms I’ve been experiencing around steps and stairs.

From my.clevelandclinic.org

Proprioception is one of your senses. It’s your body’s ability to sense its own position and movements in space. Proprioception is a complex automatic process that you can also fine-tune. Many conditions and injuries can affect it.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Finally, after about twenty minutes of diagonal dirt walking, a break in the trees allowed for a shot or two of the surroundings. There are a few different paths to explore in this section, which branch off of the main trail. Signage rates these alternate paths by difficulty, and apparently I was walking on the sort of path you’d take a child on.

I imagine that the more difficult ones involve climbing or something else that’s sweat inducing. No bueno.

Back next week with more from the Paris of Appalachia – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.

“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle

Buy a book!

“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

This post carries shots from the end of a medium length walk, on a quite warm day, that began in the hills of the Borough of Millvale, then followed the Allegheny River along a waterfront trail, and deposited my stinking pre-corpse onto the ‘Three Rivers Heritage Trail’ here in Pittsburgh.

Loathsome, your humble narrator was. A sweaty mess by this stage of the day, the dripping eidolon of dissolution, as well as a cautionary tale told to the young. Blech!

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Landmark, that’s the 16th street David McCullough Bridge, nearby the former Heinz factory on Pittsburgh’s ‘North Side.’

The horror… ‘swamp ass’ was driving me crazy.

‘Swamp Ass’ is when you’ve been ‘shvitzing’ so heavily that your underclothes start becoming a burden, and bunching up. That’s the road to a blister, buddy!

Upon arriving back at HQ, I discovered that my T-Shirt was thoroughly soaked, and had to weigh about three pounds, with all that absorbed sweat in it. Phlegh!

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Age, and the deprivations to the physical plant which it induces, are very much present with me on these scuttles.

I’ve had to learn to work around my ‘diminishing capacity,’ and especially so after the busted ankle incident. A lot of thought goes to the ‘carry’ inside the camera bag these days, wherein a zoom lens I refer to as ‘the brick’ is often found. The backpack, and I’ve actually gotten on a scale at a doctor’s office with and without it, weighs just under thirty pounds.

Add in the terrified reaction people have when they see me coming.

Old ladies clutch at their purses, children cry, dogs howl, birds fall dead out of the sky, flowers close up their blossoms like it’s night time as I near. I’m also likely the worst person who’s ever been born, just ask anyone, especially those whom I consider friends. They’ll tell you.

Why do I ever leave the house, or try to interact with people? Literally, everybody hates me, on sight.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

That’s the Veterans Bridge, above.

Luckily, I found a shaded spot which offered concrete blocks to sit upon. Since the concrete was shaded, it was endo rather than exothermic, and I planted my horrific form atop it, allowing my body heat to bleed out, through the ass, and into the block.

Use your environment – and your ass – to your advantage!

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Finally, ‘civilization.’

Simple plan from this spot, I’d walk across the river on one of those ‘Three Sisters’ bridges – pictured above – and then it would be less than a half mile’s worth of scuttling to get to a T Light Rail station, which would carry me back home to Moe the Dog and Our Lady of the Pentacle.

They still seem to like me.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

My timing could not have been better… made it home just before that sky pictured above exploded with lightning, and wind, and storm.

Back tomorrow with something different – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.

“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle

Buy a book!

“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

As you might recall from prior posts, your humble narrator was scuttling along the Millvale Riverfront Park frontage at the Allegheny River, and heading west to connect with the larger ‘Three River Heritage Trail,’ on this particular walk – which occurred in early July.

It had been a hot day with high humidity, and quite uncomfortable. A powerful thunderstorm had been forecast to arrive in the late afternoon, a condition which I was very aware of.

The plan was to cross around four to five miles of trail, along the riverfront, and then catch a T light rail to get back to Dormont before the vault of heaven exploded with rain and lightning.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

A strong smell of sewage was in the air. Residential, I’d venture.

After all those years on Newtown Creek, I can tell you by scent alone if it’s commercial or residential. A couple of work trucks from Alcosan – the agency who handles Pittsburgh’s wastewater problems – were parked under one of the bridges, and there were a group of people, in ‘hi-viz’ orange and yellow shirts, engaged in what looked like a serious conversation nearby a pipe.

None of my business, and so I walked on. See, I’ve evolved. Didn’t stick my nose into it the way I would have back along the creek.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

All that steel is part of the system of trusses and ramps connected to the 33rd street rail bridge, which spans the river between Lawrenceville and the north shore of the Allegheny here.

A new ball cap I’ve been wearing isn’t flash orange, rather it’s bright white. Found it on Amazon, and the promise was that this ball cap will ‘wick’ your sweat up and evaporate it using some system of laser cut ventilation holes in the crown, which will in turn cool off your noggin.

The cap kind of did what the manufacturer promised, I’d mention, but Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself has decided that it looks like the sort of hat you’d normally expect to see worn by a someone’s Grandfather on a golf course.

It’s now officially known as the ‘Korean Grandfather’s Golf Cap.’

– photo by Mitch Waxman

My headphones were inserted firmly into the ear holes, and I was listening to a playlist of music so familiar to me that it’s kind of become my theme music over the years. Basically, it’s a mix tape of tunes that used to make me feel things back when I could still feel things. I’m so emotionally numb these days that…

One found himself entering what I often describe as being a ‘vegetation tunnel.’ Enveloped completely by the surrounding verge, with sight lines occluded or blocked by nature’s excess, it’s best to just ‘lean into it’ in areas like this since there’s really not much to see.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

A plaque is set into the walkway, here’s a shot of it, describing the significance and creators of this ramp/bridge in this section of the trail.

Whereas I fairly despise those urban renewal processes which demolished whole neighborhoods in the name of building highways, those same processes also created a fantastic series of waterfront bike and pedestrian ‘rail trails’ all around the edges of Pittsburgh. Dichotomy.

Yes, I can hold and defend two contradictory points of view at the same time. Rules are arbitrary, conflict is normal, everything will work out in the end – one way or another. Don’t ever forget – lots of people might think and pronounce that you’re an ‘icehole’ – but that doesn’t mean that you’re not also right.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The weather was growing warmer as I walked, and the humidity rose. The afternoon storm was nearing, and I needed to ‘burn some shoe leather’ quick if I didn’t want to get caught out in it.

Back tomorrow.

“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle

Buy a book!

“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

How did the humbly narrating chicken cross this road? Carefully.

Millvale, a Borough of Allegheny County which sits opposite Pittsburgh’s Lawrenceville on the opposing shore of the Allegheny River, that’s where I was. The intersection pictured above allows pedestrian and bike traffic the chance to cross a de facto highway interchange which is… an interesting experience… and it requires pedestrians to go pretty far out of their way to simply cross the street.

Saying that, managed it. Carefully.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

To access the riverfront park, you cross over a set of grade level rail tracks and then under a rail bridge which carries another set of them.

These tracks connect to the 33rd street rail bridge, and ultimately over to the north side tracks leading to the Merchant Street Bridge to the west, then to the rail trench in Allegheny Commons Park, the Island Avenue Yard, eventually Conway, and the continent beyond. There’s other rail connections which branch off, of course.

As mentioned yesterday – methodology wise – one chunk at a time.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I did break off of my route for about a half hour and walked under a mile or so down the path pictured above. There’s a neat clearing back there, which offered what would be great views of passing locomotives, but I definitively ‘felt eyes’ on me back there.

Where this path leads is super isolated, and I’m 100% sure that there were encampments populated by people who wouldn’t take too kindly to some stranger with a camera showing up. I turned on my heels and reversed direction, and couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched for a distance. Kept on doing the heel spin thing to see if I was being stalked, but didn’t see anything or anyone. Still…

I’ve learned to listen to instinct, over the years.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Back on the proper trail, and moving westwards through the waterfront park, I headed down towards a boat launch where I hoped to be able to see the water, a viewpoint largely blocked by all of these trees.

Really lives up to the ‘sylvania’ part of this state’s name, I tell’s ya. There were a few other people milling about, riding bikes and that sort of thing.

I headed down to the ramp.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

This is what the scene looked like – all hand held – to the camera.

Part of what I wanted to do in this ‘zone’ revolved around getting to know those new magnetic lens filters mentioned a few posts back. I found a spot where I could put the bag down, get the tripod out, and get busy.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Ten stop ND, with a stacked circular polarizer, for this one.

I’ve been desirous of shooting ‘low and slow’ for a bit now, and this was one of the first chances to do so that’s popped up in a while. There’s no point to the exercise if there isn’t flowing water in the shot, or something else that’s moving which you want to blur away, using this technique.

Back tomorrow with more.

“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle

Buy a book!

“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Pittsburgh’s metro area features a bunch of smaller neighboring communities around its municipal borders, and along the Allegheny River’s shoreline – just north easterly of Troy Hill and west of Etna – is found Millvale.

I’ve been to Millvale before, specifically to the fantastic riverfront trail public space they host, but this time around I decided to start things off up in their hills. A rideshare carried me here from Dormont, in the South Hills region of Pittsburgh, and I was dropped off at a randomly chosen point of prominence with some altitude.

‘Not every walk has to be a marathon, Mitch…’ that’s something I try to remind myself of these days.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

It was a warm and humid July day in Pittsburgh, and your humble narrator was prepared for both shvitz and a slog. I had a deadline ahead of me, driving my steps as it were, since a weather system was meant to be blowing in during the afternoon which would bring thunderstorms and all sorts of airborne chaos to the region.

The following week would be subsumed by a heat wave and wildfire smoke conditions, which would sideline me for several days.

As a note: The Newtown Pentacle Time Warp remains strongly in effect. These shots were gathered on the 7th of July, and the words you’re reading were encoded on the 19th of the same month. If this scheduled post publishes when I believe it will, you’re seeing this on a Monday in early September. Building up the ‘lead time’ for these postings seriously ‘depressurizes’ my life.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Steep, that’s how I’d describe the streets in this part of Millvale.

I was heading, ultimately, downhill and towards the Millvale Riverfront Park. Said park adjoins the larger Three Rivers Heritage Trail, sections of which I’ve walked several times. My normal habit for this area is to use the trails found on Herr’s Island, and then cross back over to ‘the triangle’ via the 40th street Bridge, but this time around I wanted to stick to the northern shoreline and follow the water.

Did I mention how uncomfortable the weather was, on this particular day?

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The TV weather people had described the humidity with the term ‘air you could wear.’ It had to be 80% and rising as I made my way down to the waterfront. The breeze was tepid, or absent. Only thing ‘on my side’ during this one was that the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself was occluded by thick banks of smoke and clouds.

It was the sort of day that required me to dry my hands off before setting up a shot, as sweat was emanating out from the palms and between my fingers. Hot!

As usual, the summertime ‘Mitch suit’ was worn – cargo shorts, a t-shirt, and a white Guayabera as an outer shell. The Carribeans know what they’re doing, as far as dressing during humid weather with evaporative cooling in mind.

The camera bag was full of gear, as one had prepared for a variety of circumstances when filling it. As mentioned a few posts back, I recently had to buy a new pair of shoes, so I was walking all springy and bouncy.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The steep residential street I was walking on, and which all these photos were recorded along, is called Logan Street – if memory serves.

I had randomly picked an intersection at the top of a hill to start this one from, specifically a roadway which intersects with another road that leads westerly back to Troy Hill. Said intersecting road is set in along a ridge line, which promises interesting views. My pet name for that road is ‘next.’

Methodology wise, I like to explore regions and areas in ‘chunks.’ You do one chunk this week, then another the next, and then another…

Over the last three and a half years, with about an eight month interval lost to recovering from a busted ankle, a lot of my scuttling time here in Pittsburgh has been spent walking around and getting to know the fascinating ‘South Side Slopes’ area. It’s an easy reach from HQ, and is also quite convenient as far as transit goes, but novelty wears away.

Over the course of time, you walk one path and then another, and eventually stitch together the ‘where’s’ and ‘when’s,’ and just maybe the ‘why’s’ of a place. The ‘how’s’ are usually carefully hidden behind the ‘what’s.’ At the end of the game, one has hopefully developed some geographic knowledge about a place.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Yes, Millvaliens, I’m not going to discuss ‘the’ church, or its Maxo Vanko murals, for this post. That will be a future endeavor after I manage to talk myself inside, to wave the camera around. No point in talking about something I can’t show, as of yet.

Instead, I’m just scuttling right past it, and towards that underpass which carries Route 28 above the street instead.

Back with more, tomorrow.

“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle

Buy a book!

“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

July 11th was a wicked hot day, with high humidity and temperature. The Union Pacific ‘Big Boy’ locomotive was scheduled to be rolling through Pittsburgh. Wasn’t exactly a secret, and thousands of people lined the Norfolk Southern tracks to get a look.

I headed over to one of my favorite perch’s and got busy. A few Norfolk Southern trains were transiting though in the run up to the Big Boy. While waiting, a crowd showed up.

Hey Now! Norfolk Southern #4251 rolled through.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Hey Now! Norfolk Southern #7651 was next up through the pass.

There were a few dozen people on the pedestrian bridge with me, over the tracks here. They showed up with chairs and food and bottles of wine.

I had a bottle of water and my camera bag with me, and some gum, and ended up standing around up there for close to four hours.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

You knew when Big Boy was on its way, and not just because of the tracker that the Union Pacific people were running on their website. A trio of Cops showed up and shooed all the lookie loos off of the ballast below in advance of the passing.

Part of the reason that I chose this particular elevated spot involved planning on ground level Police activity, as a factor.

Also: I’ve been mentioning the ‘Newtown Pentacle Time Warp’ all summer, wherein I’ve somehow managed to maintain at least a month of ‘lead time’ on these posts, and that’s the causative ‘why’ behind you seeing shots from early July in early September.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Big Boy finally arrived, spewing smoke and steam as it went.

To be honest, it all felt kind of anticlimactic, but… good clean fun.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

My focus was actually on ‘focus.’

Shooting photos through a chain link fence has a high failure rate. As mentioned, I use this spot all the time for rail shots, so am thereby fairly well practiced at getting my shot through that fencing here.

Hey Now?

– photo by Mitch Waxman

A long line of ‘heritage’ locomotives with patriotic paint jobs were attached to Big Boy, as well as a couple of modern diesel powered engines.

My understanding of the nature of this ‘heritage’ steam engine event is that whereas the head of the snake was – indeed – producing steam and smoke, it was actually a diesel engine further back in the chain which was providing motive power to the assemblage.

Back next week with something different – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.

“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle

Buy a book!

“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

A few shots from the end of a short but cool walk in Pittsburgh, and pictured above is the ‘Uptown’ or ‘The Bluff’ zone along the Monongahela River. Picture’s POV is from the pedestrian walkways of the South Tenth Street Bridge.

I decided to head over to the brewery nearby the CSX tracks that I frequent, in the ‘South Side Flats’ section. Hadn’t had a drink in a couple of weeks, and a cold beer sounded fantastic.

About 15 minutes worth of scuttling, and I arrived. Headed inside, inspected the porcelain, purchased my drink, headed for the door leading to the outdoor seating… and just as I was walking outside…

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Hey Now!

CSX #1852, all spiffed up with a July 4th paint job, hurtled through the pass. Funnily enough, the night before this was shot, I had been chatting with a railfan buddy of mine back in NYC, saying ‘I really don’t care about all that July 4 stuff they’re doing, if I were to get a shot or not, I don’t care.’ I also extended that statement to cover the Union Pacific ‘Big Boy’ event too. Pfft.

Of course, I got shots of everything, including Big Boy, which will be published fairly soon. Newtown Pentacle Time Warp reminder again, I’m way ahead of the schedule here – for once. This post is being written during the second week of July, for instance.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Hey Now!

CSX #7505 came through next, heading westerly just like 1852 was. Empty mineral cars behind it.

Finished that first beer right about here, went inside and received a reload. Headed back out to where I was sitting, and…

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Hey Now!

Oddly enough, the sequentially numbered ‘next’ train coming through was CSX #7506, heading easterly.

Finished my second beer, and then paid my tab. Began getting ready to head for the T light rail, and catch a ride back to HQ.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Hey Now!

CSX #3610 was the next one through, which I captured from an elevation. This is from pretty much directly over the spot that I normally shoot from, below at ground level. The train? Heading easterly.

Short walk, and a pretty cool day for a humble narrator.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I keep on saying it to myself – ‘everytime you leave the house with the camera it doesn’t have to be a marathon, icehole.’

Just out of curiosity – if you’re having a mental chat with yourself, talking out loud to that person in the bathroom mirror for instance, how do you address the part of yourself you’re trying to speak to?

Hey ‘Jerkwater,’ ‘Sir,’ ‘youse,’ or do you talk to yourself formally, with a ‘Mister’ or ‘Frau’? I’ll usually unleash a chord of blue language at my doppelgänger, but that’s ok as luckily the other guy – the one in the mirror – finds my invective as funny as I do.

Back tomorrow with something different – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.

“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle

Buy a book!

“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

It was a warm but comfortable day in Pittsburgh, and your humble narrator was scuttling along all peaceful and calm. I had my headphones with me, but wasn’t listening to anything on this walk. Phone was in my pocket, and I don’t ‘check it’ on any sort of regular basis.

I like to maintain situational awareness when out and about in populated areas. Wasn’t worrying about getting ‘jumped’ or anything like that, instead I just enjoy hearing the staccato song of a city. The sound of people joking around, or telling workplace horror stories, just… talking to each other…

Dozens of people were milling about, and all of them had a smart phone held directly in front of them in the manner of a small shield, which held their gaze. Everybody had headphones going, too. Nobody talked to each other, or formed into friendly conversational groups.

The office working smokers, on their smoke breaks, were all smoking solo, while staring at their phones, as they silently smoked.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

One picked his way through the streets, with the fairly inhuman architectural plans of these curbside monoliths positively looming.

My toes began to point towards the Monongahela River shoreline.

There’s a few routes to that waterfront which are possible, on foot, from the position pictured above. Two of them would see me scuttling past a homeless shelter and the city jail, a section where there’s always a large and boisterous crowd on the sidewalks, whereas a different and familiar route could provide me with the desired egress and maintain solitude.

Off I went.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Regular readers of Newtown Pentacle might recall a post, describing a walk around Duquesne University which had published back in July, wherein an antipodal view of the corner above was discussed.

I should mention, again, that the Newtown Pentacle time warp effect has deepened. These photos were captured at the end of June! The words are being typed into existence at the end of the second week of July! If my scheduling is correct, you’re seeing this in early September.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I found myself back at the portal to the Armstrong Tunnel, which was utilized to get to the other side of the Bluff.

One is incredulous at the manner in which the smartphone has completely altered human social interactivity in just under twenty years. Fascinating to me as well that people don’t talk to each other casually anymore, for fear of getting into a conflict about ideological interpretations of the news of the day, and that’s likely what’s wrong with our ‘body politic’ these days.

Luckily, I don’t feel bound by this new etiquette. Old one either.

A good friend of mine once said, before I moved out here to Pittsburgh from Queens, that ‘you don’t have to talk to everyone you see, y’know,’ to which I replied ‘what?… but… yes… yes, I do.’

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Truth be told, I’m absolutely busting with stuff to talk about at all times. It’s always been kind of a problem for me. Always got in trouble in school for talking out of turn. Hell… I started a blog to get some of it out.

The cell phone thing is weird to me. Sometimes I’ll be out, at a bar or restaurant or something, and there’ll be a table of younger people who are apparently all friends but not talking to each other. Instead, they’ve all been focused in on whatever their individual scrolls are feeding them. Sometimes they’ll show each other the screens, and laugh or scowl.

Your humble narrator has long treated online folderol in the same manner that I do television watching. Something to do while you’re bored and ‘alone’ at home, and not appropriate activity when in a social setting. The whole point of going out is to interact in ‘meatspace,’ where there are consequences for your iniquity or rewards for your glamour.

Yeah, I do understand that it’s ‘work’ you’re checking in to on your phone, at 8:50 p.m. on a Saturday night.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The humans are a curious lot.

I’ve witnessed multiple people just striding blindly off the curb and onto busy streets while paying 100% of their attention to that little screen on their phone, ignoring the multi ton vehicles which are whizzing about them. Not even a glance.

For one such as myself, this is astounding.

It’s everything I can do to try and not pay as much attention as possible to every single tiny or semi-hidden detail of a landscape which I’m temporarily inhabiting… as ultimately – you really, really have to watch out for incoming zombies, at the very least.

Only chance you’ve got with a horde of zombies is that you can see them coming, but you’d probably smell them before you saw them, so… Pay attention and be prepared to evacuate. A ‘shelter in place’ during a zombie outbreak is a death sentence.

People are strange, but I’m somehow always stranger.

Back tomorrow.

“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle

Buy a book!

“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Shiny. Your humble narrator found himself wandering about in a quite urban section of Pittsburgh, nearby the brand spanking new 26 story FNB tower. It sits at the foot of the Hill District, and it’s the most easterly of the tall buildings that are considered to be ‘DownTown.’

My interest in the building itself is fairly minor, as it’s just another office building occupied by the financial industry, but the area it squats upon is fascinating to me. There’s an urban highway interchange here called Crosstown Boulevard, which I’ve mentioned in the past.

Interestingly enough, somebody seems to have a plan to deck over the chasm here.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

This zone is another one of Pittsburgh’s horror shows, from a pedestrian point of view. It’s designed for cars and trucks, period.

There’s lights and walk/don’t walk signs found around the occasional crosswalk, mind you, but the setup hereabouts is ‘don’t cross the street here, instead you cross way over there, and then there, and then way over there, and then you can work your way back to the opposite corner from where you started.

Amazing.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The centerpiece of downtown, and the tallest building in the city, is the U.S. Steel Tower. USS maintains a small footprint in the building these days, with the structure’s naming rights – and the vast majority of office space within – being currently occupied by employees of health care giant ‘UPMC.’ University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is a non-profit, incidentally.

Have to say – the legends about Pittsburgh’s health care system being top notch are true, at least in my experience. They did find a cure for Polio out here in Pittsburgh, a couple of generations ago, after all. The health care situation hereabouts was a huge contributor to picking Pittsburgh as our new home base after leaving NYC.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Alternatively – I’d mention that it’s also a challenging and somewhat confusing drive, navigating around this section of Pittsburgh behind the wheel of a car. The various ramps and interchanges overlay each other, and it’s not always clear which direction you’re meant to travel in. As is the case with a lot of things here in Pittsburgh, ‘you need to know which lane you’re going to need to be in’ before you get there.

The signage pictured above indicates traffic routing towards the Liberty Bridge, and the Fort Pitt Bridge, with both spans leading out of the center of Pittsburgh and towards the South Hills region via Crosstown Boulevard.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

That’s where those ramps lead, Crosstown Boulevard itself.

To the left is the Bluff or ‘Uptown’ neighborhood where Duquesne University is found. The traffic lanes pictured above lead south to either the Liberty Bridge and Tunnel, or towards the ‘Boulevard of the Allies,’ which provides automotive traffic opportunity to head eastwards and towards interchange with an interstate.

Great transportation infrastructure here, as far as getting drivers moving quickly away from a congested downtown. Awful transportation infrastructure, as it provides few or any departures to local streets, which causes these highways to have a blighting effect on the communities they run through. Also, sucks to be a pedestrian anywhere near this complex.

As mentioned above, there’s a proposal to build a deck over this traffic pit, one which would support a linear park.

When he was still Astoria’s NYS Assemblymember, I tried to convince Zohran Mamdani that decking over the Grand Central Parkway trench in Astoria, and creating a linear park on top of it, would be the best thing that happened to that side of the neighborhood in generations. Most sure fire thing you can do to send real estate valuation into the stratosphere is build a park nearby existing buildings. Documented, that.

I tried selling the idea to Gianaris too, but they both came back with ‘great idea, but do you know how much that would cost?’

– photo by Mitch Waxman

My plan for the day was fluid. Intentionally, I had left HQ with a fairly vague notion of the where’s and how’s. Wanted to follow my nose for this scuttle, and see where it led me. Come with?

Back tomorrow.

“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle

Buy a book!

“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I spend a lot of my ‘walking around time’ hereabouts at the risible edges of Pittsburgh, so for this day’s scuttle I decided to start things off at more or less the dead bang center of the ‘Golden Triangle’ section, which hosts ‘Downtown.’ Said area is the financial and political center of the city, county, and region.

Big buildings, looks like a city, but actually a very large town, Pittsburgh is.

I found myself standing in front of the ‘St. Benedict the Moor’ Roman Catholic Church, at an ‘angle’ between ‘Downtown,’ and the ‘Hill District’ which is found on – literally – Centre Avenue.

Should I ever manage to actually start my ‘sacred spaces’ photo project, which I’ve been threatening to do for years now, St. Benedict is one of several local churches that I’d love to be able to set the tripod and camera up within.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Purposely, other than the starting point, I didn’t craft any sort of real plan for this scuttle other than to witness things on foot which I’d only seen while hurtling past in an automobile. Opining regarding this subject is an old trope for me, but you really cannot ‘see’ anything when moving at vehicle or bicycle speeds. While walking, all the ‘nitty gritty’ stuff becomes apparent, allowing one to ‘see.’ Wandering, it’s important.

This area is a politically sensitive one, with a history of awful racial stuff mixed in. Once upon a time, this section of Pittsburgh was the local equivalent of (historical) East Harlem back in NYC – a civilizational center point for the region’s working and middle class black community, replete with lots of home grown cultural institutions. August Wilson, Teenie Harris, and a lot of other cool artists, and writers, and musicians, emerged out of the Hill District’s ‘milieu’ – ‘back in the day.’

In 1961, Pittsburgh decided it would rather have a hockey stadium than a functioning black community here. The City ‘urban renewed’ the neighborhood away, built the ‘Civic Arena,’ and then a few decades later they tore that first stadium down, building another just a few blocks away for the Pittsburgh Penguins. That also demolished a bunch of people’s homes to make way for the ‘greater good.’

The footprint of the long gone civic arena is enshrined, by a multi acre plateau of commercial parking lots that serve the newer stadium.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

To the west, the office buildings of ‘DownTown’ Pittsburgh, as seen from one of those parking lots where people used to live and love.

A bit of new construction has recently concluded, which saw an office building for the ‘FNB’ outfit rise from one of these lots. The project had been underway for a while when I arrived in Pittsburgh nearly four years ago, and it’s just in the last year or so that it’s become an occupied and busy building.

Urbanism and modern development projects generally aim to have a positive effect on not just the building lot itself, but the hope is often to promulgate an economic and social halo around large projects. You’re planting a tree, why not do a garden too – and since you’re planting a garden – what about a park instead? Bus shelter?

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Thing is, they really don’t grasp this concept in Pittsburgh.

Paying a hot dog guy to set up his cart at the end of this walkway for a year just might induce might pedestrians and office workers to go take a walk, and the presence of pedestrians just might spur other vendors into some sort of entrepreneurial action. A shop, or even a bench with a bit of shade… ‘something’ to ‘draw’ people this way or that…

It was just unrelenting sunlight, and the tyranny of the real, as I walked towards the de facto sidewalk of an urban highway.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I’ve described Pittsburgh’s office buildings as ‘inhuman in scale’ in the past. That’s a high handed statement, even for me… but…

This style of architecture isn’t consequential of humanity, instead we’re just meant to adapt into, and thereby become consequential, because of ‘it.’ Post WW2 American architecture is ‘effed up.

Buildings in Pittsburgh don’t seem to be required to have ‘set backs,’ so they soar up in straight lines and create ‘perma shadows’ on the streets around them. The office buildings’ ground floors are either occupied by empty lobbies with security desks, or high end ‘white tablecloth’ restaurants with menus designed for a businessman’s three martini lunch rather than ‘grabbing a quick bite.’ Either way, this scheme doesn’t lure ‘life’ towards itself.

You can walk no more than a few blocks in a row in this area until you find yourself having to risk your life by running across a highway onramp at a stop sign or traffic light. Pedestrian concerns were, at best, an afterthought to the generation who governed over this buildout.

Again – they had a Rachel Carson in Pittsburgh, not a Jane Jacobs.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

That’s the new FNB (First National Bank) tower mentioned above.

Shiny.

Glad I brought the polarizer filter with me on this walk.

Back tomorrow with more.

“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle

Buy a book!

“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.