What you do and what you say
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The title of today’s post is from another one of the idiotic aphorisms which swirl about, within the brain box of your humble narrator.
‘Do what you say’ is fairly obvious, but ‘say what you do’ needs a bit of explaining. I think it’s important to – out loud and to the crowd – say when you’ve ‘effed something up, rather than performing some aggrieved martyr act intoning that you are an innocent whom ‘something bad just happened to,’ as a defense mechanism.
There’s a reason I’m starting this post with all of this admonition, Y’see…
I really ‘effed up on this one, and could have gotten seriously hurt.
We’ll explore my stupidity, committed here at the edge of Pittsburgh’s Mount Oliver section, over the next couple of posts. My ‘mea culpas’ need an audience, after all.
Meanwhile… welcome to Mount Oliver.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Despite the usual preparations – for some dumb reason, when I was dropped off by a cab at the start of this walk, I scuttled off in the completely wrong direction.
I had even been gazing at a map that morning, before I left HQ, and considered the path I accidentally ended up on and said ‘no way.’ My rejection was based around a long stretch of high speed road with zero sidewalks which I’d have to navigate.
Of course, that’s exactly the direction which I stupidly headed towards, without realizing it until it was far too late to change my course.
Oh, unhappy act.
This street I was walking along in Mount Oliver is called Mountain Avenue, if you’re curious as to where all this played out.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Steep as the name would imply, when walking on some of Mpuntain Avenue’s rare sidewalks, nearby an intersection, there was some sort of city step action going on. There mostly weren’t any sidewalks, forcing me to just walk on the side of the road, which is actually kind of normal for Western PA. – to be honest.
As a note – Mountain Avenue is a local, and fairly low volume, street. My problems were still ahead of me.
Crap.
It was right about at this point that I had realized my mistake, and the direction that I was heading for. If you were in Pittsburgh and overheard blue language and angry ‘cussin’ in the vicinity of Mountain Avenue and Becks Run Road, on the afternoon of the 13th of April… yeah, that was me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Becks Run is an urban waterway.
As established in the past, Pennsylvania uses the term ‘run’ for flowing but not terribly deep waterways which other municipalities would call a ‘creek’ or a ‘stream.’ It’s fuzzy, the naming convention.
Haven’t been able to discover what differentiates a waterway being called a ‘run’ as opposed to a ‘creek’ or a ‘stream.’ River, yeah, that’s volume and depth based, but ‘run’?
Like nearly all urban waterways in Pittsburgh, Becks Run flows in an engineered manner around a series of residential and business properties, which are found along a roadway named for it. A lot of traffic from the South Hills area gets focused along this particular roadway, as it’s sort of the gateway to get out towards Homestead, where a retail Mecca called ‘The Waterfront’ is extant, and where one of the local Costcos is found.
Big draw, lotsa traffic, the Waterfront.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After turning onto Becks Run Road, a roadside memorial was encountered. Have no idea what sort of tragedy occurred here, but it was likely caused by a pickup truck driver, and it was obviously deadly.
Seriously, the pickup truck guys seem to think that they’re driving in indestructible Batmobiles or something. Drifting along the road at speed, playing games with other vehicles, tail gating…
Somebody tells me ‘a car got hit by a train nearby,’ my first response is going to be ‘did the pickup’s driver survive’?
Anyway, this post is all about my own stupid decisions, not somebody else’s. Bah!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Noticed this dead thing on my way. To me, it looked like an Eagle while ‘in the field,’ but one of my buddies insists that this is likely a dead Hawk of some kind. Any opinions? Here’s a full body shot, and one of its particularly wicked looking foot. Whenever I try to say what kind of a bird that a bird is, I get it wrong.
Leave opinions in the comments, if you’ve got one.
Back tomorrow with more… and… the horror…
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Scuttle’s end
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Swindell Bridge to North Shore, part eight.
This is the last post in this series, which began up in the Perry South section nearby the Swindell Bridge here in Pittsburgh. We then followed Perrysville Avenue to the Federal Street Extension, got some rail shots at Allegheny Commons Park, and here we are – crossing the Allegheny River on the way to ‘the train.’
I’d be heading back to HQ in nearby Dormont, and using the T light Rail to do so.
As you may have noticed, I’m a bit of an enthusiast for the light rail service, which makes me stand out a bit here in Pittsburgh. People would rather spend $25 on a cab to ‘get into and out of town’ than $2.75 on the train. Weird.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Slow Danger!
That’s the worst kind of danger.
My ‘dogs were barking’ by this stage of things, but ‘push, push, push.’ Back and shoulders were a bit sore as well. I was thirsty, and concerned about the future.
All told, this ended up being a 7ish mile long walk. The path got my heart beating quickly a few times, surmounting hills and such, and the goal of ‘hitting the fronts of the thighs and hips’ on downward slopes was accomplished. I’m still regaining strength and endurance – post broken ankle ‘orthopedic incident’ – and ‘downhill’ is currently my jam.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One made it to the ‘other side,’ onto the central peninsula of Pittsburgh.
I would have boarded the T on the North Side if it wasn’t for all of the NFL Draft preparations. Bah!
It was decided that the Gateway Station was likely the closest one to my physical location, and one headed there.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is one of the underground ‘subway’ style stops on the T light Rail. It’s built into an old freight train tunnel.
I used the elevator rather than the stairs, because…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Brutalism meets 1980’s style ‘modern,’ that’s how I’d describe this station’s esthetic. One of the odd things about the T system is that few of the stations look anything like the next one.
Sure… there’s similar stainless steel accents, signage, and primary color plastic panels… but Gateway doesn’t look like Station Square, which doesn’t look like First Avenue, which doesn’t look like South Hills Junction, which doesn’t look like Washington Junction… you get the idea.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Finally, my chariot was arriving, and the ride back to HQ..
Back next week, with something different.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Yinz confuse me, yo
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Swindell Bridge to North Shore, part seven.
That’s the same Norfolk Southern train seen in yesterday’s post, transiting over Pittsburgh’s Merchant Street Bridge, on the city’s North Side. There’s been a decent number of bridges seen during this scuttle, huh?
When these shots were gathered, specifically on the 9th of April, a great tumult had seized Pittsburgh, in advance of the forthcoming NFL Draft event. Workers were everywhere; obliterating graffiti, painting things, filling potholes, etc., and a large number of street closures here on the North Shore, where the Draft would play out, were enacted. Lots and lots of wind blown garbage was collected, from both highways and river fronts/
The powers that be called it ‘the immaculate collection.’
Even we happy pedestrians were ejected from our tenancy over the sidewalks during this interval, on these affected streets, and many detours were introduced.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Now, this pathway which the ‘detour’ signage directed me towards is one that is commonly transited by scores of people, but there are explicit ‘Private Property’ and separate ‘no trespassing’ signboards seen all over the place back here.
In accordance with my normal policy of respecting that sort of thing, I’ve not walked through here once during all of my scuttles. There’s a proper ‘street’ path you can take instead, which is actually a lot more direct, so why trespass if you don’t need to?
This time – though – the government’s signage people were telling me to trespass, so… gotta follow the law, right?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Some members of the Urbex crowd think me timid. That’s ok, but I don’t have a Police record. You?
I’ve got a lot of ‘rules’ based on lived experience.
The ‘youngins’ don’t remember when packs of wild dogs prowled around in Brooklyn, for instance, but I do. Don’t want to mess with the junk yard dogs, and the Mafia isn’t just a thing in the movies. It’s real.
Just the other day, during a scuttle which I’ll be discussing in a few posts from this one, I turned a corner and saw some guy dancing around with a knife in his hand behind a building, and near a waterway that I was interested in grabbing a shot of. ‘Noped’ out of that one, right quick.
When you spend your time in potentially dangerous places, you’ll often meet potentially dangerous people.
Also, yes – the Newtown Pentacle time warp is still in effect – as I’d really been ‘hitting the bricks’ and ranging all over the place in March and April.
As stated above, these shots were gathered on the 9th of April, and the posts are being written on the 27th of that same month. If I’ve got my scheduling right, you’re reading this in early June.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
So… this was the pedestrian detour path.
It’s running through one of the ‘overflow’ parking lots nearby the stadiums. The ramps above are a combination of Route 28 and the various bridge ramps that it feeds into.
The big wall on the left is a rail berm, carrying tracks which lead back to the Merchant Street Bridge, and that rail trench in Allegheny Commons Park, and eventually back to the Conway Rail Yard and beyond. Whew.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This area is regularly transited by street people, which is something I can report from observation. It ‘ain’t so nice’ under these ramps, lots of highway noise, and you can observe little piles of ‘precipitant’ from auto exhaust soot which is lurking everywhere. Blech!
This shot looks back at where I was.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One got to walk through a decent amount of that sooty zone under the highways before sunlight began factoring back in. An Allegheny Valley RR unit was just idling up on the tracks, for a long while. I hung around to see if anything was going to happen and then got bored.
Back tomorrow with the end of this one.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Lake Elizabeth, and 2 Hey Now’s
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Swindell Bridge to North Shore, part six.
After walking down from Federal Street, here in Pittsburgh, and then through a section of the Mexican War Streets neighborhood, your humble narrator soon found himself loathsomely occupying a two cubic meter patch of the space at Allegheny Commons Park.
They’ve got a manmade lake in there, dubbed ‘Lake Elizabeth.’
I was just passing through, on my way to a rail trench which bisects the park. This is a cool location for railfanning, and there’s usually a few guys (it’s always guys, you don’t meet many lady rail fans, or at least I don’t) sticking a lens through the fences here. I’m often one of these guys.
That horrible thing with the camera, over there, too terrible to behold – that’s me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey Now!
Norfolk Southern’s #4309 appeared. It was a train. That’s all I’ve got to say on the matter.
Also, I very nearly fumbled these shots, due to being a clumsy idiot.
I’d spend the rest of the afternoon in a broad ranging self critique after nearly fumbling them, as that’s all it takes to set me off into a spell.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of the ‘things’ which you have to manage, when wandering about American Cities with a camera, are the various straps, pouches, and cases that the ‘gear’ lives in. It’s important to pat down your pockets periodically to ensure that everything – lens caps, etc. – are where you think they are. A little bit of ‘OCD’ is actually helpful.
I was right in the middle of doing all that when this train showed up, which meant that I had to position the camera and set the exposure triangle in just under a second or two to ‘catch the shot.’
Whew!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One moved to another position, on the bridge which carries local streets over these trenched tracks in the park, and another Norfolk Southern train appeared, heading in the opposite direction to the former one.
Hey Now!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Your humble narrator was ‘enroute’ to a light rail station where a ride back to HQ awaited, and given the peculiarities of Pittsburgh’s street layouts and river crossings, the path that brought me here is one which I commonly transit through.
Lucky for me, this train trench turns this ‘zone’ into what I call ‘a feature rich environment.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I still can’t run, but I did ‘quick step’ across the bridge to other side to get a shot of the train’s transit. Black minerals, likely coal or coke.
Back tomorrow with the penultimate steps of this scuttle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Where other people live
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Swindell Bridge to North Shore, part five.
Yet another abandoned residential building, seen on Pittsburgh’s North Side, and captured while mid scuttle on a medium length walk. That blue sticker on the door is what a Pittsburgh condemnation notice looks like.
Much of the building stock in this ‘zone’ miraculously avoided demolition, during two 20th century seismic waves of urban renewal, which ravaged nearby blocks and neighborhoods. The ‘zone’ used to be part of a separate municipality called Allegheny City, which Pittsburgh annexed at the start of the 20th century.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Having written about the Borough of Queens back in NYC, endlessly documenting how the warnings of LIC’s last Mayor – Patrick ‘Battle Axe’ Gleason – that ‘if the Manhattan people ever get a hold of us, the first thing they’ll do is export all their dirty industries to LIC’ – played out.
Looking around LIC, at the Midtown Tunnel, and the LIE, and the train yards that serve Manhattan and not Queens, and the waste transfer stations and the rendering plants and… and… yeah, we can state that Gleason was right in his assessment.
A similar process played out in Pittsburgh. Need a highway? North Side. Prison? North Side.
Now… here’s where some ‘nitty gritty’ that I’m not a hundred percent sure about begins to come into play. I was cutting down what turned out to be Eloise Street. Eloise is a bit more of an alley than it is a street, but what I was wondering was ‘am I in the Mexican War Streets historic district?’ I used to be able to point to the exact border between Astoria and Woodside or Sunnyside, so this sort of pedantry means a lot to me.
According to Google AI:
- The Mexican War Streets in Pittsburgh’s Central Northside is a historic district renowned for its restored 19th-century Victorian row houses and tree-lined streets. Developed in the 1840s, the area features streets named after Mexican-American War battles and figures, including Buena Vista and Monterey. It is a vibrant residential neighborhood, featuring community gardens, the Mattress Factory art museum, and proximity to Allegheny Commons.
- Key Aspects of the District
- Location: Situated in the Central Northside, adjacent to Allegheny Commons, and within walking distance to Downtown.
- Architecture: Characterized by restored late Victorian, Greek Revival, and Italianate row houses, often with unique architectural details.
- History: Originally the “Buena Vista Tract,” the neighborhood was developed for residential use in the mid-19th century and is recognized for its successful urban preservation efforts in the 1970s.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The ‘main drag’ is a block away, and facing Allegheny Commons Park. There’s retail businesses there, and that hospital which you see on the HBO TV show ‘The Pitt.’ Medical offices, retail businesses, one truly great pizza joint. It’s nice.
Me?
I don’t navigate through this section often, as I’m usually moving a lot closer to the river, and I generally tend to avoid residential streets. It’s never good if- the humans notice me slopping along, and pointing a camera at their homes.
Additionally, driving wise, it wouldn’t make sense to interact with these narrow streets unless you had to. One scuttled along, with the eventual goal of connecting to the T Light Rail, for a ride back to HQ at the end of this walk.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Interesting housing stock, have to say. ‘Disturbingly heterogeneous’ is how I’d describe what’s on display. Again – just like Western Queens.
This area is easy walking, as a note. Mostly flat.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s quite few ‘gems’ back in here, and this is quite a desirable neighborhood to live within, if you can afford it. It’s a bit more ‘urban’ than I’d want these days, but when we were moving out here from NYC nearly four years ago, this neighborhood was actually one of the places we considered living.
Thing is, I’ve got a strong desire not to share a wall with anyone anymore.
This is something realized when end stage planning the move from Astoria, and it’s why we ended up in ‘the burbs.’
I don’t have to worry about the old lady/cat hoarder who lived next door to me in Astoria having a fire anymore, or why the common wall we shared with her was always wetly bulging in from her side. Nor am I still concerned about my upstairs neighbor falling asleep while drunk, forgetting that she was deep frying something on the stove (same neighbor once fired up a BBQ – in the house). Nor do I have a bookie pulling up in front of my house at seven in the morning, every day, yelling ‘Mario, where’s my money, Mario,’ anymore.
Haven’t had a roach or a mouse randomly turn up in the house for nearly 40 months, either. That’s a record for this ex-New Yorker.
Yeah, there’s a lot of things I don’t miss…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That one is a beauty, I tell’s ya. Turns out it’s all kinds of historic.
According to Google AI:
The cottages located at the intersection of Resaca Place and Eloise Street (formerly known as Civil Alley) in the Mexican War Streets Historic District are classic examples of the neighborhood’s mid-to-late 19th-century architecture.
- Architectural Features Scale and Material: Most homes in this area are approximately 20 feet wide and two stories high, constructed primarily of brick, though some rare wood-frame structures exist.
- Design Styles: The district showcases a mix of styles, predominantly Italianate and Second Empire, characterized by ornate woodwork, stone or marble fireplaces, and high ceilings.
- Independence: Unlike row houses in other cities that were built as unified blocks, these cottages were often constructed independently, leading to subtle variations in height and detail between neighbors.
- Neighborhood Context Historic Significance: The streets were named by William Robinson Jr. in 1847 to commemorate battles and generals of the Mexican-American War (e.g., Resaca de la Palma).
- Preservation: Saved from demolition in the 1970s by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, many of these cottages have been meticulously restored from a state of disrepair into “refined beauties”.
- Layout: The district is known for its walkable, tree-lined streets and narrow alleyways like Eloise Street, which often house smaller carriage houses or modest cottages originally intended for workers or as auxiliary structures.
Back tomorrow with more.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
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The Newtown Pentacle 