Archive for the ‘Queensboro Bridge’ Category
higher order
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
- photo by Mitch Waxman
Happy Monday Newtowniverians, and a healthy one is wished for all the Brooklynites and Queensicans out there.
Today’s post displays a couple of interesting shots I managed to grab before a meeting held at LaGuardia Community College for the Newtown Creek CAG.
This CAG is a sort of advisory/community group which has formed up around the edges of the EPA Superfund project. The CAG is a requirement for EPA, and they periodically convene a meeting to inform us about their activities and overall status of the process.
from epa.gov
A Superfund Community Advisory Group (CAG) is made up of members of the community and is designed to serve as the focal point for the exchange of information among the local community and EPA, the State regulatory agency, and other pertinent Federal agencies involved in cleanup of the Superfund site.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
In this meeting, during which a presentation from the NYC DEP was offered describing a forthcoming dredging project on Newtown Creek, discussion of various issues surrounding the Superfund project between Federal officials and community representatives was offered. Everyone else in the room was a lettered professional or community leader or of high professional caliber, representing every conceivable office, power, and potentate involved in the Newtown Creek story.
Then there’s me, who kept on having his attention drift over to the Sunnyside Yard and the fantastic views of it at rush hour which I wasn’t photographing.
from newtowncreekcag.wordpress.com
Newtown Creek CAG membership is structured on a rolling basis. The Superfund process on Newtown Creek will take many years, and interested stakeholders are encouraged to become CAG members as they learn of and want to fully participate in the process.
The CAG is designed to serve as an ongoing vehicle for information-sharing, discussion, and, where possible, consensus-building regarding decision-making related to the Newtown Creek Superfund Site. Its members represent a diverse cross-section of key stakeholder interests, including affected property owners, concerned residents, local governments, community groups, environmental groups, health experts, the business community, and others as appropriate. Requirements and responsibilities for CAG members are described in the CAG’s Operating Procedures, posted in the Resources tab.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
An odd duck, even after all these years, it is so strange to think that someone like me is even allowed in the building let alone invited to participate and offer both questions for correct answering and contribute direct observations of obscure places being discussed. The folks at EPA have shared some of their early findings, which have greatly excited the scientific minded and fired the imaginations of those who imagine a “greener” city. Check out the CAG site for details.
“out of your depth”- meaning: in water that is so deep that it goes over your head when you are standing: I’m not a strong swimmer so I prefer not to go out of my depth.
learnt tongue
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
- photo by Mitch Waxman
Cruelly downtrodden, your humble narrator suffers from his own company. Often has one been told that he is best taken in limited dosages, but for me there is no escape, and I am forced to live with myself. Like a canine with too much zeal, accordingly, efforts are made to tire myself out on long walks in an effort to save the furniture from being chewed on. Recent endeavor carried me through Long Island City on a particular and brightly lit day.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
Cruelly erected by the scions of the Real Estate Industrial Complex, the glass and steel horrors which loom like Polyphemus over the ancient buildings of the neighborhood nevertheless act as reflectors and illuminate the shadowy warrens of a post industrial landscape. Refraction and specular effects throw arcs of cold light about which change by the minute.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
Cruelly envisioned, the master plan for this part of the universe demands that these towers shall rise to challenge the clouds. Someday, perhaps only a decade away, the sky will be occluded by these oblique residential boxes of glass. When the shadow falls, and a permanent pall overlies the ancient streets of Western Queens, where will one bathe in the light of the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself? What succor will there be found in Long Island City save that of artisanal baked goods and from the purveyors of craft beers?
nerve powder
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
- photo by Mitch Waxman
Suffer, suffer, suffer. That’s the status on the bad back situation, which I am tired of complaining about. The holiday weekend is upon us, and accordingly, you will see rather short postings here for the next couple of days as most of you will be eating and shopping with loved ones in lesser cities and hopefully have little or no time to listen to me. Pictured above is the never ending stream of traffic entering Queens from the great machine called Queensboro, by the way. We’ll have new conversation on Monday, as in my infirmity I’ve been reading quite a bit about both cannibalism and crocodiles.
ghastly marble
- photo by Mitch Waxman
For so long, western Queens has been regarded as the vestibule of Long Island- a convenient place to stamp out boots caked with mud or to leave a wet umbrella. It has been a place one passes through, while on the way to somewhere else. The elites of a certain Shining City lying to the west have formulated a different role for the place in recent years, but there’s no denying that they still regard it as a corridor.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
Those of us who live here see a different place, idiosyncratic and oddly charming, populated by aspirants, immigrants, and often- bad actors. We exist between the factories and rail yards, along the highways and elevated subways, in pretty as you please two and three story homes. “Mind your own business” is the motto, as is “trouble will come anyway, so why seek it out on purpose?”. Most just want to be left alone to BBQ or smoke black market cigarettes.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
Municipal involvement, other than by a dedicated cadre of operatives and opportunists, is slim. Ask any resident of Astoria what reward there is in voting, and you’ll be told that it’s jury duty. All of the time I spend in Brooklyn on creek business strikes a stunning counterpoint to the scene in Queens. In Greenpoint, they may not vote at higher numbers than on the Queens side of the Newtown Creek, but they can summon up a torch bearing mob with stunning rapidity over there.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
For many years, I’ve wondered “what if election day was a national holiday?”. A national “get off of work day”, which would be vetted by a receipt handed out at the polling place and presented to your employer. It wouldn’t indicate who you cast a ballot for, instead merely stating that you voted. The biggest problem we have is low voter participation. It allows marginal groups who vote in blocs great power, sidelines the mainstream, and allows elites to develop amongst elected officials who cater to tiny slices of the population. Perhaps a tax credit instead, knock a hundred bucks off your federal taxes in return for participating in the American form of Government.
still quite submerged
This is a reblog of “quite submerged“, originally posted just over a year ago. The whole illness thing is just about conquered, working on catching up.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
Today, I’m going to be uncharacteristically quiet, it’s all about the pictures. I was dreaming about flying again, in the manner of a super hero, and pulled these shots (some of which you’ve seen in other posts) together.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
Whenever I can attain some altitude, an attempt is made to record it, especially in the low lying areas of western Queens and North Brooklyn. In this shot, it was the Roosevelt Island Tram which elevated my point of view.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
Attempts and entreaties have been made- but so far- nobody in Long Island City has offered me roof or high floor access to shoot from one of the tower buildings. Haven’t asked anyone on Roosevelt Island yet, but the views of Queensboro and the East River must be glorious at night from there.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
I have been to the Ravell Hotel roof, which is in the lower right hand corner of the shot, which offers amazing views of the bridge and whose vantage lines up with the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself for “Manhattanhenge“.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
In Long Island City, the industrial zones are typically low lying in character, with few buildings exceeding 4 stories. Extreme reticence has been exhibited by property owners, when approached with requests of photographic access to their roofs or grounds. Insurance liability is the usual reply.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
The ultimate viewing platform, of course, would be from the Citibank Megalith. Like Odin on his hildskalf, one might observe the entire world from up there, seeing the in the perspective of that thing in its summit which cannot possibly exist and does not think or breathe, yet hungers.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
From up there, the entire soup bowl of New York Harbor is available for viewing. The megalith is visible from many faraway points in the harbor, and if you can see it- it can see you. On a clear day, the thing in its summit (were it to exist) can see the Narrows and Long Island Sound and Jamaica Bay and the Hudson.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
Terrestrial and aquatic vantages have been my only succor in recent months, but an urge to look down from above is upon me, and scry the ancient patterns of life which invisibly govern the present City.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
Probably why I’m dreaming of flying…
