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.
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All downhill, buddy boy
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Swindell Bridge to North Shore, part four.
Continuing with an interesting walk, from the Perry Hilltop section down to Pittsburgh’s North Shore along the Allegheny River. See last week’s posts for predicate and other details. This section of the walk was headed down Perrysville Avenue, towards the Federal Street Extension.
My ‘spidey sense’ for danger operates at historically acute levels these days, since I still cannot run due to the ongoing after effects of the orthopedic incident, but given that I was feeling happy and secure with zero worries – I decided to pop the headphones in to the ear holes for this section of the scuttle.
The weather had been uneven here, one day cold and the next hot.
This was a warm but breezy day, and I was wearing shorts with a cotton hoodie sweatshirt up top. A new camera bag that I’ve acquired is working out, although there’s a couple of modifications I need to make.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A few weeks ago, frequent commenter George the Atheist asked if ‘all I do is walk around.’ My answer was no, but what I specifically write about here revolves around my long walks. If the question was ‘do I enjoy doing anything besides walking around thusly,’ my answer would be ‘no.
I’ve hit that stage of life where everything just sucks. Restaurant meal? We could have done better for less at home. I don’t want to sit in a movie theater, attend a live concert, or see a play. I’ve become incapable of playing along with a conversation I’m disinvested in. Particularly so if the topic revolves around some kind of sportsball competition. Patience is not something I do anymore. If you’re boring me, I’m out, and I’m easily bored.
I’m more interested in what Boeing or Raytheon is doing than I am in following news about professional athletes, or anything like that.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I was never a sports kid.
Played a few games with the kids on the block, but soon discovered that ‘I ain’t no athlete.’ Your humble narrator was always a comics and sci-fi nerd instead. Want to talk about Federation’s ‘First Contact’ protocols? How about the macro economics of the Star Wars Galaxy?
If you told twenty year old me what nearly sixty year old me gets up to, I wouldn’t have believed it. That long haired angry kid didn’t make many good decisions, and unfortunately neither does the gray haired and somewhat less angry old man that now wears the same but quite scarred up skinvelope. I like to think that what I get up to now is kind of fun.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This route had quite a few abandoned structures along the way, which were incontrovertibly sitting between occupied residential structures, ones that were obviously maintained with love and attention. So weird.
As mentioned during prior posts about Pittsburgh’s North Side, what I’m seeing here is aftermath. This ‘zone,’ I’m led to understand, used to be territory, fought over by local ‘entrepreneurs’ during the crack era.
Things are a lot quieter and safer up here than they used to be, I’m led to believe.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s a public housing project along this route, so maybe that’s why this area seems to host so many abandoned or shut-up homes due to the blighting effect of reputation. As a former New Yorker, the idea that a house or property could just sit there empty, less than a couple of miles from the center of the city… it’s madness.
For yet another Brooklyn analogy, this part of the street that I was scuttling down might be analogized as being a lot like Pittsburgh’s ‘Nostrand Avenue.’ It almost makes it to the ‘center,’ but not quite.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Federal Street Extension path becomes just plain ‘Federal Street’ where the ground begins to flatten out a bit.
My plan for the day involved breaking off this particular route, as Federal Street’s route ends in about a half mile – and then wandering for a bit – following my nose as it were.
More tomorrow.
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Used to be a plank road…
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Swindell Bridge to North Shore, part three.
Perrysville Avenue, in the ‘Perry Hilltop’ section of the larger Perry South neighborhood in Pittsburgh, is pictured above.
The ‘Perry’ in that ‘naming convention’ is Matthew Calbraith Perry, aka Commodore Perry. He secured the Commodore rank when he was the commanding officer of what we would call the Brooklyn Navy Yard in modernity, back on the East River in NYC.
Famously, Perry fought in the war of 1812, the Mexican-American war in 1845, and ‘opened’ the Ports of Japan to American Mariners, via the usage of ‘gunboat diplomacy.’
Perry’s career would likely be described by members of the Millennial generation as being ‘deeply problematic.’ To others, he’s the epitome of national service and was considered a hero during his lifetime. Perry is also considered to be the ‘father of the steam Navy.’
Anyway, Perry South…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another one of the Pittsburgh neighborhoods that causes no end of apprehension for the locals, this area hosts a fantastic amount of residential architecture predating the 20th century, and is set against a steep hill that leads down to the ‘flat’ flood plain areas surrounding the river which were once the center of an early 20th century annexed municipality called Allegheny City.
In a tale that reminds me a great deal of the one I used to tell about Queens, and Manhattan, and NYC Consolidation, after the annexation things went great for Pittsburgh, but not so great for Allegheny City.
Pittsburgh got historic preservation, and the North Side got urban renewal, and then the highways into Pittsburgh were rammed right through its neighborhoods and cultural centers. Churches, cemeteries, they gotta go, we need highway ramps.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The original path through here is described as having originally been a plank (or Corduroy) road. That’s when you jam cut lumber into the mud, or you create raised timber bridges overflying boggy soils or flowing water. This plank road was barely sufficient for horse drawn wagons, let alone early motor vehicles. After the annexation by Pittsburgh, the plank road was taken out of those private hands which built it – and who also charged a toll – and Pittsburgh ‘normalized’ the route into mapped and ‘macadamized’ streets.
As the road heads up the hill, away from the ‘center’ near Allegheny Commons Park, it is first called ‘Federal Street,’ then ‘Federal Street Extension,’ and it finally transmogrifies into Perrysville Avenue, which then continues on its course to the north and west for a spell.
These shots in today’s post are from the area where ‘Perrysville Avenue’ becomes the ‘Federal Street Extension.’
To continue with my Queens analogy, Jackson Avenue starts in LIC, then becomes Northern Blvd. at Queens Plaza, it continues as such through all of Queens, and then enters Nassau County as Route 25a. It terminates some 73 miles east of the Queens Midtown Tunnel, in Suffolk County. Federal Street/Perrysville Avenue, thereby, is basically a low core Northern Blvd.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There are some absolutely spectacular properties up here. Wow.
There’s also public housing projects and a few apartment buildings with modern stylings. This ‘zone’ has a fierce reputation, as intoned above.
As usual, though, I was the only pedestrian – although a few automobiles and work trucks were observed scooting about, here and there.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Lots and lots of cool old homes up here, including a couple that seemed to have been churches which have been converted over to residences.
Neat.
Have to be haunted, those church ones.
Scuttle, scuttle, scuttle.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The hills get fairly steep as you head south along the Federal Street Extension. Lots of abandoned houses inconvertibly line the street, even here so close to the titular center of the city of Pittsburgh..
The occupied ones seemed to be meticulously cared for, as a note.
My usual measure of a ‘bad’ versus ‘good’ neighborhood involves observation of how people maintain their properties. Overgrown? Boards in a broken window? Junk cars in the yard? ‘Sheiste’ covered in tarps on the porch? All ‘tells’ for a ‘bad’ neighborhood where you should be VERY aware of your surroundings. I saw none of that, at all, on this walk.
Back next week with more.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Swindell Bridge views, Pittsburgh
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Swindell Bridge to North Shore, part two.
Your humble narrator journeyed over to Pittsburgh’s North Side and the neighborhood of Perry Hilltop, in order to access the pedestrian walkways of the 1930 vintage Swindell Bridge.
The span is in pretty bad shape, with both state and city’s inspectors describing its condition as ‘poor.’ Rust, concrete issues, you name it. When you get up close, you can actually see the various flaws, and they’re fairly terrifying if you know what you’re looking at. I kind of do, and it is.
That hill which the interstate (I-579/279) bends around to the right, and right on the other face of the landform, is where the amazing Rising Main city steps, mentioned a few weeks ago are found.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Blighting of urban areas isn’t accomplished simply due to a high speed road’s actual course just on its own. You’ve also got to factor in the service roads, ramps, and uselessly wooded areas which act as sound dampeners… so there’s also lots and lots of additional concrete, tons of vehicle and pedestrian barriers, and few or zero accommodations for humans who are not within motor vehicles.
Given other recent experiences, which will be discussed in forthcoming posts, I guess the walking public should just be grateful for that single sidewalk which is visible on the access road at the far right.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Personally, I drive the route pictured above maybe once or twice a week. I may bitch and moan about these high speed roads, but I do use them as well, so the hypocrisy is fully on display here. As I always said, the only NYC I knew during my time there was the one that Robert Moses left behind…
It’s a very, very easy thing to exceed the speed limit here, follow the flow of traffic and before you know it – you’re going 20mph over. There is little, if any, Police enforcement of speed limitations on Pittsburgh’s highways, unless it’s a holiday weekend and the cops are doing a ticket blitz – of course.
Sated by this early part of my morning, your humble narrator pointed his toes back towards the path he got in here using.
My plan was to shlep about for the rest of the day, following a colonial era pathway which has been turned into a ‘main drag’ street in modernity. Shouldn’t be too ‘physical,’ I said to myself.
It’s all downhill from here, essentially.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
So, I mentioned that this nearly century old bridge is in pretty lousy condition, right? The bus people aren’t allowed to use it anymore due to weight restrictions, and there’s weight limits for cars and trucks as well. In a couple of spots, concrete jersey barriers are placed, reducing the bridge down to one shared lane.
When I got a bit closer to one of the closed sections where the jersey barriers are, I decided to take a closer look. Holy shmigoley!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The expansion joints! A plate of metal was welded against this expansion joint to keep it from further separating. Holy Monroley!
I’ve seen drawbridges over Superfund Sites in Queens with better joins. Sheiste.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I walked back out to Perrysville Avenue, but this time I went under the Maple Street Bridge, where that high tension power cable had sagged down to about shoulder/head level.
What could go wrong there?
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.
Perry Hilltop and the Swindell Bridge
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This missive is the start of another multi-day series of posts.
Welcome to Perry Hilltop, a plateau neighborhood found in the larger Perry South section on the North Side of Pittsburgh.
This walk, and the series of posts which fell out of it, began right about here. Efforts have been underway to explore Pittsburgh’s ‘North Side,’ which is the former ‘Allegheny City,’ a separate municipality that Pittsburgh annexed at the start of the 20th century.
These photos were gathered on the 9th of April.
As is my habit with such matters, I’ve been following ‘street corridors’ which overlay the past. Modern roads are chosen, obviously, whose path more or less mirrors the historic ones which were cut through the woods and cliff faces.
In the case of this walk, it’s Perrysville Avenue and the Federal Street Extension areas (which you’ll be see in over several incoming posts) which were originally set up as a plank road, between the Allegheny/Ohio River shoreline and less settled areas found up in the hills, with the path ultimately leading to some colonial era Military Fort up north.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The start of this series of postings, however, starts with a tiny bridge which leads to a larger one.
I’m told it’s called the ‘Maple Avenue Bridge,’ a 1929 ‘riveted cantilever truss,’ and I didn’t need to look anything up to tell you that it’s in a deleterious state of repair. There’s even an electrical supply cable sagging down over the thing, hovering right about shoulder height, as measured from when I scuttling along on the roadway’s sidewalk below.
This trip started with one of my one way cab rides from Dormont, which dropped me off right across the street from Maple Avenue Bridge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
First thing that happened after getting out of the car, some kid walked up to me and asked me if I had any ‘smoke.’
I said ‘nope,’ don’t have anything on me to smoke, and asked him if he was hoping for a cigarette or something. He clarified ‘smoke’ as ‘weed’ and then made clear that he was seeking to sell me some. This misunderstanding and interaction amused both myself and that local entrepreneur. The kid wandered off, whereas I got busy with the camera.
Capitalism, huh?
The 1930 vintage E.H. Swindell (aka East Street) Bridge awaited.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Swindell Bridge is pretty huge, a little over a thousand feet long and five hundred and forty five feet high. It connects two hilltops, spanning the ‘East Street Valley,’ which the I-579 and I-279 high speed roads run through down below.
The Swindell Bridge is – observably – in a horrible state of repair, and a $27 million rehabilitation project is meant to kick in either at the end of this year (2026), or early 2027, which will seek to address its many issues.
As linked to above, they’re going to try and spruce up the Maple Street Bridge as well, and there’s an areal ‘safe streets’ project which is theoretically going to be implemented concurrently with these other projects.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This one looks down from the Swindell Bridge, at the interstate corridor below. As always, I need to state that I love the parabolas, curves, and massing shapes which are created by highway engineers.
Additionally, I hate the historic storyline that resulted in these visually interesting shapes being created. That tale included the demolition of more than 800 homes, and alienating the thousands of families who used to live down there, in the East Street Valley. Bah!
This view look north, although it kind of bends a little bit to the east too.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking south/west from the Swindell Bridge, Downtown Pittsburgh just kind of appears, peeking out from behind a hill. It should be mentioned that for the last nearly four years, I’ve been saying that ‘I’ve got to walk over that bridge sometime,’ while referring to the Swindell Bridge, while driving on the ‘Parkway North.’
That’s what the Yinzers call this road.
Check! Another one off my list.
Back tomorrow with more.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
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The Newtown Pentacle 