– photo by Mitch Waxman

Topsburgh to Bottomsburgh part four:

One managed to safely cross that gnarly intersection mentioned yesterday, an act whose execution caused me no end of existential anxiety, and soon the camera was positioned onto the McKees Rocks Bridge.

I’ve only walked this bridge a single time, and have been desirous of a return, as I think it’s fantastic.

This particular scuttle, which ended up being just a bit under ten miles horizontally, also saw me descending better than a thousand feet in elevation from ‘Observatory Hill’ in the Perry South area, nearby the Davis Avenue Pedestrian Bridge, moved through the neighborhoods of Brighton Heights and then Marshall Shadeland, crossing this bridge, and then heading down to the flood plains of the Ohio River in ‘McKees Rocks’s ‘Bottoms’ section on the other side of this bridge.

I get ahead of myself, however, and we are at the ‘crossing the bridge’ part of all that.

Just in case you’ve been wondering what the ‘Topsburgh and Bottomsburgh’ thing is about.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

McKees Rocks bridge is the longest span in Allegheny County, and it overlooks the massive Alcosan wastewater treatment plant found on the Ohio River on its northern approaches.

Pictured are – what looks to me – like aeration tanks, which wastewater professionals use to separate solid materials out of the ‘flow.’ Basically, the aeration causes solids to drop to the bottom for later collection. Solids can be anything from a matchbox car that some kid flushed down the toilet, to the rocks and stones and other detritus carried into the sewer grates during rainstorms.

My pals at the Sewer Plant in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint once told me that they had a bowling ball shoot out of one of the incoming pipes during a storm, which entered the plant in the manner of a cannonball. It caused all sorts of damage. The question of how a bowling ball ended up in NYC’s sewer system remains unanswered.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Looking across the Ohio River in a more or less southern direction for this one. I enjoy this bridge for a number of reasons, but primarily it’s an absolute ‘cat seat’ in terms of altitude and POV over the waterway, and the views are just fantastic.

Also, I like pointing the camera at industrial stuff, and there’s plenty of that visible from up here.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Saying that, I ended up spending close to an hour moving over the bridge as everytime I started walking, something caught my eye and I had to stop to get a shot. That’s the Fort Pitt Bridge in the far distance, catching a bit of light while standing in a cloud of rising mists.

As mentioned in my recent telling of the ‘slipped on ice and fell flat on my ass’ story, it had been fiendishly cold the night before, and the weather on this particular day saw temperatures in the high 50’s and low 60’s. That meant that a whole lot of misty weirdness was rising out of the hollows, crevasses, and ravines of Pittsburgh.

Lighting conditions were changing several times a minute, and things got photographically complex.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Me? I had a literal mile and a half of bridge to walk.

Pretty much loitering at this point. Waiting for a subject to pop into view, and scanning around for activity worth taking a picture of.

These moments are great tests for me, as a man who exhibits zero evidence of patience, and believes that the universe only shows him things that ‘need seeing’ when he randomly walks by them and that ‘you can’t force something to happen.’ One must compel himself to linger.

I remind myself of another personal aphorism – ‘it’s like fishing’ – and that you need to wait for a bite as you can’t order the fish onto your hook.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

You may notice how these shots continually look back towards that set of railroad tracks. One of the things I was looking for was rail activity.

I stuck the headphones into the ear holes, and started listening to that good old ‘History of Rome’ podcast again. I think I was on an episode numbered somewhere in the high 90’s, around the time of the Tetrarchy, but this walk was perpetrated on the 24th of March and today is the sixth of May, so… late in the game Italy based Rome, basically.

I find that ‘spoken word,’ as in podcast or audiobook, doesn’t lodge into my brain the way that the written word does. I need to listen to an audiobook at least a couple of times for it to ‘stick’ into my brain, whereas I can usually read a printed book, and then be able to quote it directly for a long bit afterwards.

Different parts of the language center in the brain, I guess.

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

Topsburgh to Bottomsburgh part three:

After visiting the Davis Avenue Bridge, accessed via the Perry Hilltop ‘zone,’ your humble narrator began loathsomely forcing the rotting pre-corpse through and along the hazy borders of the Marshall Shadeland and Brighton Heights neighborhoods.

Man, what a ‘zone’! The housing stock here is exquisite.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

This church seemed to have constructed atop a giant outcropping of rock, and I couldn’t stop myself from getting a photo of it.

This section of my day is best analogized by an old aphorism of mine from Queens, which is that ‘you pretty much have to walk through Sunnsyide to get to Newtown Creek from Astoria, so just get used to it.’ Also, Queens’ 43rd street used to be ‘the Shell Road,’ so you’re walking through Dutch colonial era NYC history by going that way. Connected the Rycken (Rikers) properties on the north all the way to Newtown Creek on the south. Just saying.

To get where I was going, I needed to scuttle through a couple of residential neighborhoods.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Disturbingly heterogenous, that’s how I’d describe the residential architecture encountered along this route. There were a few row houses, and many examples of ‘Pittsburgh style’ brick home, which features an enormous front porch.

While scuttling along, I saw a curtain drawn back as a shadowy figure observed my passage. I hissed in that direction, in the manner of a stray cat. The curtain fell back to a resting position.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Finally, the end of the world was reached.

At least, it’s the end of this part of the world. It put me right where I hoped to be, but there was a decidedly dodgy street crossing ahead. I was actually a bit anxious about this crossing, which can be difficult to navigate – in a car.

Fear… Fear is the mind killer.

Loping along like some crippled chimpanzee, with my stiffened shoulder and neck due to that slip and fall annoying me, and a perfect mud tattoo of the butt on the back of his filthy black raincoat, your humble narrator nevertheless strove on… and on…

Really, what choice did I have? If you stop moving, you stop moving.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The world – or at least the legal borders of ‘Pittsburgh’ – more or less ends at that fence, which then leads you down to a short set of stairs. Those stairs place pedestrians at a spot never meant for them, despite there being crosswalks and walk/don’t walk signals which were an obvious ‘add-on.’

On the other side of that fence is found Ohio River Blvd./Route 65, a de facto four lane highway masquerading as a local street. Historically speaking, it’s meant to be the deadliest of Pittsburgh’s high speed roads, due to its conditions in the 1960’s and 70’s.

Sounds nice, no?

– photo by Mitch Waxman

That’s the intersection which I was worried about, which theoretically allows pedestrians to cross Ohio River Blvd. and access the walkway to the McKees Rocks Bridge.

You see Junkies with signs here begging for handouts, but this ain’t exactly a safe spot – street crossing wise. Heavy traffic flow from three sides, lots of big trucks, angry pickup truck drivers who had to endure an entire two or three minutes of traffic congestion… brrr…

One survived the crossing, obviously, as these shots were captured at the end of March and here I am still rattling on about them in May. Besides, as I had already hurt myself during that fall, the safety odds were now on my side.

Right? Right? That’s the way the world works, right?

Back tomorrow.

“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle

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– photo by Mitch Waxman

Topsburgh to Bottomsburgh part two:

As one may recall, last week your humble narrator had pulsed out the door of HQ and set out upon one of his longish scuttles through Pittsburgh. In accordance with recent interests – the Steel City’s North Side, and in particular – the ‘Perry Hilltop’ neighborhood is where this one started.

A construction project forced me to reroute my steps to get the newest bridge (2025) in Pittsburgh, a pedestrian and bike connector called ‘The Davis Avenue Bridge.’ Along the way, I slipped on a patch of ice and came pretty close to an injury, but managed to walk away just a little stiff.

The reroute put me in front of that baby deer pictured above, so I guess everything was meant to be.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

One broke off of the original path at a narrow and steep road called ‘Rodney,’ which carried me away from the descending road to an ascending one. Really narrow road, with no sidewalks. No bueno. Very Pittsburgh.

Saying that, this was only the equivalent of a city block. When a vehicle did pass me by, I just stood to the side and let them transit through.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

At the top of Rodney Road is another abandoned home. This is a huge problem in Pittsburgh, and that’s something which always jumps out at me while moving around the area. So many.

The good news is that you can see the Davis Avenue Bridge directly behind the abandoned house, which means that I had gotten to the top of this particularly steep road and closer to ‘stop 1’ on my scuttle.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Well, there you are.

Yep, I felt a little non-plussed, or ‘non-trussed’ if you would…

Saying all that, getting this bridge ‘modernized’ and replacing the earlier iteration of the span here, which was in danger of collapse, seems to have been a generational project for the folks in the neighborhood across it from the park – which is dubbed as ‘Brighton Heights.’

– photo by Mitch Waxman

One waved the camera around a bit up here, but the only POV’s on hand were looking back down at the same homes I had just walked past – and where that patch of ice lurked.

That slip and fall did have an effect on me, just not an orthopedic one.

I smacked down onto the pavement with a decent amount of energy, and accordingly my shoulders and neck were a bit sore afterwards.

Hilariously, the bad ankle was just fine even though it was directly involved in the slip and fall, due to my heel striking on that fairly invisible patch of ice.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Accomplished, and I can scratch another Pittsburgh bridge off the list.

Thing is, I wanted a ‘bridge,’ not some mere high flying truss.

Turning my heels and pointing the toes in a direction where more massive infrastructural interests lie, and then scuttling through another set of the neighborhoods which causes the Yinzer jaw to literally drop open when I say I’m ’going there for a walk.’ I’d be heading in a mostly westerly direction, thereby.

Seriously… Fear is the mind killer.

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

My latest scuttle started pretty close to the highest point of elevation that is found within the confines of Pittsburgh (said to be some 1,370 feet up from the MLW or Mean Low Water point as defined by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and ‘officialdom’ at large), and began atop upon a landform which I’m led to believe was once colloquially known as ‘Knob Hill’ but which is referred to in modernity as either ‘Observatory Hill’ or ‘Perry Hilltop.’ The ‘Perry’ in that naming was meant to honor the memory, and commemorate the military service, of Commodore Perry.

One has been exploring the various neighborhoods of Pittsburgh’s ‘North Side,’ on foot, for the last few weeks, with this walk the latest excursion.

As is my habit, a thorough Google Maps examination of the route was obliged in advance, but construction and other obstacles you might encounter along the way are things you just have to deal with ‘on the day,’ and you really need to be able to adapt. Think on your feet. All that.

Also habitual, I started at the high elevation point and then walked downhill, as I’m fairly old now. Feeble too. A scuttling fossil, really.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Interesting homes lined this particular roadway, which in this case was a steeply graded course called ‘Mairdale.’ This one would then lead me to that one, where I’d make a left…, and then…, and then…, you get the idea.

This is one of the neighborhoods that the news people on the TV will encourage one to avoid, with lurid tales of savage crime and anarchic adolescents.

This neighborhood reminds me a great deal of the Bushwick Avenue corridor, back in Brooklyn, prior to around 1990 when the gentrification hammers began to fall. Economically driven tidal forces smashed that homegrown community into diaspora, in order to make room for wealthier strangers and their coffee shops.

That doesn’t seem to have happened up here, yet, but it’s coming. I can just feel it coming, in the same manner as when you say ‘I think I’m getting sick.’ You’re not ill, quite yet, but…

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Mairdale Avenue transmogrifies into ‘Woods Run Avenue’ somewhere along this route. To my right were really nice and well kept homes and neighborhoods which climbed up slopes and over hills, and to my left was a fairly large city park, one with a celestial observatory at its apex. The shot above looks back at where I’d just been.

My decided upon plan had involved moving into and through that facility, which is dubbed as ‘Riverview Park,’ but I encountered a pretty big construction project along the way which occluded and blocked the entrance, and I had to ‘rekajigger’ my path accordingly.

What drew me in this direction, for this section of the scuttle at least, was the presence of Pittsburgh’s newest bridge – a high flying pedestrian and bike connector which overflies the valley that Mairdale Street rides through, and connects the Brighton Heights neighborhood on the next elevation with the park.

That’s the sort of thing which I always want to take a look at.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Your humble narrator was feeling pretty good.

Striding along, enjoying the sights and the sounds of morning bird song. The weather was great, low 60’s with zero humidity. For once I was out in the early part of the morning, I guess it was about 9-9:30 a.m. The usual secure pocket rich ‘Mitch suit’ was arrayed about my rotting form, including the filthy black raincoat – sans lining as it was warmish.

Camera wise, it was a 24-240mm zoom lens, and in the bag I had a couple of primes – a 16mm and a 50mm.

It was mentioned, a couple of weeks back, that my filthy black raincoat needed a wash due to there being a big splodge of mud on it, in the butt region. Everybody suggested just washing it. My butt, I mean.

I promised that I’d tell that mud butt story when I got to it, so…

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Right after that construction sign, the sidewalk – as it turned out – was covered in an incredibly thin and completely invisible layer of clear ice. It had been below freezing the night before, atmospheric temperature wise, but…

As I stepped on that invisible tenth of a millimeter layer of ice at full walking speed, one suddenly found himself hanging in the air for a good half second – body fully horizontal to the ground. I basically pivoted ninety degrees at about belt height, and then dropped to the cement like a bucket of rotting pig guts. My shoulders hit first.

Wham!

It looked dramatic enough that somebody who was driving past pulled over to the curb to ask me a few times if I needed assistance.

I laughed and said ‘nope, landed mainly on my butt.’ I did actually come close to cracking my head on the sidewalk, but that enveloping Mitch suit of mine (springtime variant) includes a thick cotton ‘hoodie’ style sweatshirt, and the gathered up fabric padded the impact for my head and neck region. I did clack my teeth together though, when my chin hit my chest.

While mid fall, I grew concerned about the teeth clacking thing and managed to get ahead of really hurting myself.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

One fell like a photographer, actually, protecting the camera and camera bag as I went. A lens cap popped off one of the lenses, that’s all that happened to the gear.

It’s funny, the way that the brain works. This entire slip and fall tale had to play out in less than a second or a second and a half, but I went into ‘slow motion’ mode, and managed to wiggle myself into a safer pose while hanging in mid air. Felt like I was floating there for thirty seconds. I have a similar memory of the fall which busted my ankle. Perception of time alters, everything slows down. During that one, I managed to get my hands behind my neck and protected the spine while falling.

Must be what it’s like to be a squirrel.

I did end up with a lovely portrait of my butt cheeks and part of my belt, rendered in mud, on the black raincoat though. Had to walk through ‘the hood’ with that on my butt, so win. My shoulders and neck were a bit stiff afterwards, but I had just cracked the back of my noggin when smacking into the ground. Didn’t crack my teeth!

Can’t win.

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

A few random shots from the end of a satisfying scuttle. I swear, the working guys have no idea how esthetically pleasing I find these sorts of arrangements they leave behind. They’re artists, and don’t even know it.

I was moving through the area surrounding Allegheny Commons Park, which has a trench running through it for the railroads.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Norfolk Southern #1832 came through, heading north/west. It was hauling short blue cargo boxes, of the type which sewer solids are shipped within. Likely heading towards the sewer plant nearby the McKees Rocks Bridge, or Ohio. A lot of things nobody else wants end up in Ohio. I’ve been there, and really – they pretty much sent their best to Washington in Vance.

Stay out of Ohio, you’re not ready for what you might see there.

Regardless, one haughtily scuttled on.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

This truck caught my eye. I was intrigued by those Doberman silhouettes silk screened on the thing. Also, that’s one crazy truck, yo.

My steps carried me into the ‘ceremonial center’ section of the Coty of Pittsburgh, where the Stadiums are found, and where there’s coincidental opportunities to board the T light rail service and ‘get out of dodge.’

– photo by Mitch Waxman

See that mound on the right side of the shot? Coal mine’s historical entrance, as it turns out.

As I mentioned a few posts ago, this coal thing suddenly brings everything into a place where it makes sense. I’m not ‘smart enough’ to really delve into the topic here yet, but I’ve started reading up on the Pittsburgh Coal Company Trust, and others.

Heck of a story there. Eventually, I’ll know enough of it to point y’all at primary sources on the subject.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The T station came into sight, just as one of the light rail units rose out of the tunnel that it travels under downtown within, and climbed up the truss to the terminal stop opposite Acrisure Stadium.

Most of the Yinzers I meet ‘poo-poo’ the T, but I ride it all the time.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

My chariot arrived, and as soon as those doors opened, I was ensconced in a seat. This was about a six or seven mile walk, all told. I had a nice time, and nobody threw any rotting fruit at me, for a change.

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

After passing through the California Kirkbride neighborhood and visting the Sunday Street City Steps, one made his way towards a rail yard. This one belongs to Norfolk Southern, and I’m told that it’s called the ‘Island Avenue Yard.’

Historicpittsburgh.org offers this text describing the place as ‘one of the primary junctions of the Norfolk Southern Railroad. It connects lines west into Ohio, south into West Virginia and Maryland, north into Erie, and east towards Philadelphia and New York.’

– photo by Mitch Waxman

From ‘up top’ on that vehicular bridge spanning the tracks which is pictured above, I spotted what looked like a great POV for photographing passing trains ‘down here’ and then made my way over to this spot. I had to crash through some brush and agglutinated litter, but I managed to get to that fenceline just in time.

Hey Now!

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I’d end up seeing Norfolk Southern #7001 a couple of times over the next hour or so. I tried looking up its ‘specs,’ but it seems that 7001 has been rebuilt – at least once – and it used to part of an entirely different locomotive outfit and everything was super confusing. It made my neck hurt, so – thereby – look, it’s a train!

A fun conversation was struck up with some local who was walking an absolutely gorgeous pit bull. The local was tickled pink that I was taking shots of trains, and shared some neighborhood stories with me.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

NS #7001 was moving on, and then so did I. It’s a ‘walk,’ not a ‘stand’ after all.

I soon wandered into another neighborhood, called Manchester.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

My path involved getting over to the T light rail, a vector which carried me along a series of industrial streets with the occasional residential block mixed amongst them. Ultimately, this area sort of ‘cul de sacs’ nearby Allegheny Commons Park and the West End Bridge.

The park is where that rail trench that I often point the camera at is found.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Son of a gun if I didn’t run into #7001 there again, but this time around they had shed themselves of the cargo which they were formerly hauling. Just the locomotive.

I’ve been noticing, particularly in the last few weeks, that the rail guys are closely visually examining the tracks as the locomotive chugs along, as in the shot above. Any of you rail fan types have an inkling of what they’re likely up to? I’m kind of curious.

Back tomorrow with more.

“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle

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– photo by Mitch Waxman

This post visits the ‘Sunday Street’ City Steps in Pittsburgh’s California Kirkbride section, which were installed here in 1946.

The section of ‘sidewalk steps’ on the intersecting Maravista Street (which was described yesterday) offers pedestrians some 54 ‘sidewalk’ or ramp style steps, whereas the Sunday Street section offers a longer course of 90 steps whose proportions are more in tune with common stairs.

When I’m planning out a scuttle, I like to have a ‘goal’ location somewhere along the course. This one was met early in my day.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

There’s an amazingly well preserved and kept Victorian era home on the corner of Sunday and Maravista. I was torn by my personal prohibition against taking pictures focused in on people’s houses – as that’s creepy – and my absolute need to get this building in frame for the next few shots as it’s gorgeous.

Fantastic, that. I’m jealous.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

One set of steps continues down from Maravista Street to the flatlands of the neighborhood below, and both it and the Sunday Street steps branch off from the common intersection.

I spun around to the right, and got on with things.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Again, not in great shape, these steps but neither am I, so fair.

Same concrete issues as elsewhere, also same bannister problems, but other than a few spots where you wanted to be fairly careful as far as where you stepped down… they’re in passable shape. Won’t win any good government awards, but also not ‘hazardous to human life.’

One proceeded along, with the stair based PTSD singing in my head. Luckily, that Big Special music I was listening to drowned out most of my invasive thoughts.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

From the bottom of the stairs, which were fairly steep – in retrospect.

‘Steep’ has an entirely different meaning in Pittsburgh than anywhere else except – possibly – all of Scotland. Coincidentally, back in the ancient time before the bacteria which rots vegetatation had evolved, Appalachia and Scotland were part of the same forested and moist land mass.

Plate tectonics, yo, it affects us all. The bacteria? Well, there’s a reason that Coal and Oil are found deep underground. Rotting bogs and forests and dead oceans lie down there, and that’s where we draw our petrochemical happiness from.

My recent fascination with coal has led me to read some geological ‘stuff’ which clued me in about the ‘Pittsburgh Coal Seam.’

They didn’t teach this in high school history class back in Brooklyn. At Newtown Creek I learned all about the maritime, sewage, rendering, acid manufacturing, waste handling, swill milk, oil, and gas businesses there. I’m learning about all this coal stuff now.

The history of the Appalachia’s is the history of life, and death, itself.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Ok, goal hit, I got this particular shot which I wanted. It’s sort of a ‘known composition’ as in a lot of people take a photo from somewhere nearby. It’s on the cover of a book, but that’s a far better shot than mine. That photographer either got super lucky, or they had observed the scene in different seasons during different times of day.

Now it was time to wander again, somewhat aimlessly.

My plan for the remains of the day was to eventually get back to a T light rail station, and I intended to get there inefficiently. Wander about, follow my nose, hope for serendipity to strike.

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

Last week, I brought y’all along on a scuttle in the California Kirkbride section of Pittsburgh, and my toes were pointed squarely in the direction of the ‘Sunday Street’ City Steps. Nowhere near as grandiose as the Rising Main, or as enigmatic and picturesque as the City Steps in the South Side Slopes section, this public byway was nevertheless something which I wanted to experience.

As it turns out, that section of California Kirkbride, along Brighton Road, is on a bit of a plateau. The approach to Sunday Street has a set of steps – which are more of a stepped sidewalk ramp than they are proper stairs.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

A lesser section of the Union Dale cemetery was on the other side of that fence. Some sort of industrial outfit was across the street, and somebody who worked there was moving panel trucks around from one bay to the other. A couple of old timers were walking their dogs.

I jabbered along like some obscene mockery of a man, encased within a swirling maelstrom of black sack cloth, gesticulating towards odd things with a camera. Loathsomeness incarnate, horrible to behold, avoidance demanding… that’s me. Everybody hates this guy, so just ask around and they’ll tell you why. Fruit spoils when I near, dogs bark, children cry.

That fearful monstrosity which I see in the mirror, I have discovered, is myself.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The City Steps here were in a condition which I’ve discovered as being concordant with the mores of Pittsburgh’s maintenance schedules. Spalling concrete, loose or detached bannisters, cracked pavement and lots of vegetative intrusion into the masonry. Looks like these steps haven’t been meaningfully touched by laborers in decades. Feh!

Right about here is when the realization that Brighton Road behind me sits on some sort of plateau occurred, incidentally.

In the distance, and for some context as to where these shots were gathered in relation to places I’ve talked about frequently in the past, you can see the gold arch of the West End Bridge over the Ohio River, poking up at the top right of the shot above and the ridge that it’s in front of is Mount Washington.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Looking over my shoulder and back at where I’d just walked, an old habit held over from Brooklyn’s past.

Normally, this activity revolves around seeing if anyone is following me. Given that by this point of the morning – other than seeing people driving by in their cars – I had seen not more than ten humans blundering around the neighborhood, and half of those were following their leashed up dogs around.

Right around here was when I decided to use my headphones again, as the bird song had dropped off when I moved away from the main fields of the cemetery. I was listening to a newish British band called Big Special.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

There’s the intersection with the set of City Steps I wanted to see, which I’ll be showing all of y’all tomorrow. This is an interesting spot, as three sets of Steps merge into one path here.

There were a couple of youngish guys walking on the steps too, but other than that the place seemed deserted.

I thought to myself that the area ‘looked like Salem’s Lot, but during the day when all the vampires are asleep.’

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I should also mention that I’ve been keeping busy for the last few weeks, and am way ahead of schedule again. These shots were captured on the 15th of March, and the posts written during the first week of April. If I’ve got my scheduling right, you’re seeing this during the last week of April.

Given how chaotic the world is at the moment, if it seems like I’m ‘out of touch’ with whatever the latest calamity is, that’s why.

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

As opined yesterday, your humble narrator was feeling pretty good on this particular outing. The weather was on my side… if anything it was too ‘nice’ out… clear and bright.

I was scuttling along, in a loathsome manner, alongside the colossal masonry retaining walls of the Union Dale Cemetery in Pittsburgh’s California Kirkbride section. All caught up.

The structure and ‘halo’ of the high speed roads leading to and from Downtown Pittsburgh are such that entire neighborhoods have been overlooked or forgotten. This is one of the several ‘north side’ neighborhoods which you drive past, at speed, on your way to somewhere else. Expressways, highways, interstates – all have limited exits and lead to extant locales. Money once spent in the city will instead be spent in a distant suburb. The area surrounding the roads loses value, due to pollution and noise.

As seen across the world, when an urban area touches the start of a high speed road, it tends to wither away over time. This observation will be a lot more apparent by the end of this walk, than it is at the start. NYC examples: Astoria Blvd. between 31 and 48th streets especially, but really the entirety of the Grand Central Parkway. Borden Avenue from the Queens Midtown Tunnel to Maspeth comes to mind, and there’s always the BQE, and Cross Bronx, and the Interboro and… and… and…

– photo by Mitch Waxman

‘That’s one heck of a school building,’ thought your humble narrator.

It turns out that it’s the Pittsburgh Oliver High School campus pictured above, and a quick web search suggests that this building is used as office space for the local school bureaucracy in modernity.

Shrinking population, less students, I guess.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The interim goal for my morning was to check out a nearby set of City Steps. Nothing quite as gargantuan as that last North Side set of stairs which I walked at Rising Main, mind you, but I’m working my way through a sort of list right now. It’s not actually written down, this list of mine, but there’s things I want to see and experience this year.

This was fairly easy walking by Pittsburgh standards. Hills, yes, but not crazy steep ones. No abysses, either.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I find the esthetics of the building stock here quite satisfying.

My path was a bit complicated – walk a block make a right, another and you make a left – that sort of thing. I’ve started a text document which I’m encoding all these directions into, so if anyone reading this is planning a trip to Pittsburgh or if you’re already here – if you want to check any of these places out for yourself, leave a comment below and I’ll send you the directions so you can go check things out.

It’s easy… you put one foot in front of the other, and soon you’re walking out the door…

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Promises are offered that I won’t regularly be running shots of street signs here, but I’d also like to re-mention yesterday’s statement that I have finally found a practical usage for AI. If you want to know where you were on a walk, as in which neighborhood or whatever, providing the machine with the intersection info on signage solves the problem.

I’ll be talking about using AI to help plan an out of state day trip in a few weeks, and let me tell you – it was both disastrous and time wasting.

It’s like asking a blind man to describe what a parrot looks like, when an AI is considering answers to ‘meatspace’ questions. The technology is great at parsing numerical and spreadsheet information… but the real world is… not… it’s generally not as it’s described on paper.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Going to break off this week before getting to the first destination on this scutttle, which will continue next week when you get to see the Sunday Street Steps in Pittsburgh’s California Kirkbride.

Back next week with more – 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

For this scuttle, one used a rideshare cab to drop my pre-corpse off across the street from Pittsburgh’s Union Dale Cemetery, a polyandrion which is itself ‘on my list,’ but tapophilia wasn’t on the menu for this particular day. This area is in the ‘north side’ of the city.

The section which I’d be scuttling through during this effort is dubbed ‘California Kirkbride.’ While moving along the cemetery’s fenceline, a mausoleum demanded my attentions from the other side of a fence.

‘That’s something,’ said a humble narrator. Serendipity, indeed.

George Elsworth Smith died fairly young, but boy oh boy did he live.

Smith was a professional gambler, horses were his thing, and he made his living betting on them. He died young at 42, after having amassed a fortune of more than three million dollars – in 1905 – a sum which would be worth more than one hundred million dollars, in today’s money.

Another professional gambler assigned Smith the nickname ‘Pittsburgh Phil,’ in order to distinguish him from a crowd of other people in their orbit named George Smith.

Apparently, Smith designed his own mausolea, which cost him $30K, and it was ready for him some seven years before he died of tuberculosis. The portrait statue of him on the roof was commissioned by his grieving mother, and added posthumously. The piece of paper clutched in the statue’s hand is a betting slip from a racetrack.

Pittsburgh Phil.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

An effort is underway to visit sections of Pittsburgh which haven’t been considered quite yet, or at least that I haven’t experienced while out on foot. I’ve done a lot of auto based scouting, yes, but as I always say – you can’t see anything from a car because you’re moving too fast. I’ve resumed an old habit, by the way, which is to start recording the street intersection signage while moving around. I often need these ‘bookmarks’ afterwards, to make sense of all the shots and remember exactly where it was that I shot them. Good news is that a non contrived usage for AI has actually appeared, wherein I ask Google’s machine what neighborhood a particular intersection is found within. This is handy, for one such as myself.

California-Kirkbride, which is where the intersection of Brighton Rd. and Ingham Street is found, is another one of those ‘North Side’ Pittsburgh neighborhoods which has a ferocious reputation. ‘Don’t go there, ‘they’ll’ shoot you dead.’ My answer to that last one has become ‘who are ‘they’?,’ ‘what are their names?,’ ‘can we call them?’

Funny thing – wasn’t scary at all – just another residential neighborhood and kind of a lovely one at that.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

See any ‘beater’ cars covered in tarps in the driveway or front yard? Garbage and furniture on the lawn? Old tires? Wooden panels filling the street facing windows? Nope? You’re in an ok section of town then. Relax.

Brighton Road is kind of the ‘main drag’ through here, and it snakes along the masonry retaining walls of that cemetery. Across the street is housing stock that’s quite typical of the sort that Pittsburgh’s post WW2 automobile enabled suburbanization process installed.

‘Dis ain’t no suburb, Mitch, you dumb.’ Actually, if you read up on the history of Astoria, Queens you’ll find out that Astoria was considered a suburb ‘back in the day.’ You’ve got Levittown on your mind when you hear that ‘suburb’ word…

If you’re interested in the history of this sort of residential architecture, and the stories behind its development, check out this 1994 vintage Rick Sebak documentary, from the local PBS outfit (pbs login required).

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I’m really going to have to take a hard look at this cemetery sometime…

Pittsburgh Phil was just a lucky find, but I didn’t come all the way over here to just stand around and admire the statuary. One leaned into it, and scuttle scuttle scuttle did I do.

As usual, I had figured out a walking route prior to leaving HQ, as it’s pretty easy to ‘cul de sac’ yourself on Pittsburgh’s hills.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

It was pleasant out, weather wise, with temperatures in the middle 50’s and a steady breeze. One had zipped the insulating liner out of his filthy black raincoat, and thereby felt quite ‘bon vivant.’

I was carrying the standard ‘kit’ in my camera bag, wearing the standard ‘Mitch suit,’ and had omitted usage of the headphones as your humble narrator was enjoying all of the bird’s singing and whistling.

You gotta drink up the little stuff, yo.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Yeah, I’ll definitely and really have to take a walk inside of this cemetery sometime…

Meanwhile, I still had miles and miles of scuttle ahead of me. Come with?

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.