Open Streets Lawrenceville
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Back in late July, Out Lady and I attended the ‘BikePGH’ group’s ‘Open Streets Lawrenceville’ event.
As is usual with such promotions, a multi mile stretch of city streets were blocked off to vehicular traffic, and a festival atmosphere promulgated.
This one played out on ‘Butler Street,’ which is kind of the ‘main drag’ for this area, and these ‘Open Streets’ continued on and into the Strip District, where Smallman Street was similarly closed to non human powered vehicles.
As is usually the case, the people who yell the loudest about motor vehicles on the road ‘harshing their buzz’ are the same ones who ride their bikes about with impunity, and we pedestrians were still largely consigned to sidewalks or the empty parking lanes along the curbs.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Old man yelling at passing cloud, that’s me.
We had a nice time. Our Lady hadn’t explored this section yet, and she was excited about a few things along the route, which she plans on returning to in the future when I’m not there to glower. We had a nice lunch at a restaurant along the route, dubbed ‘Industrial Publick House,’ which I’d guess as wanting to be described as being a ‘gastropub.’
I don’t even know if that’s still a thing, gastropub, but there we are.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was hot, which isn’t surprising given that it was late July. If you’re able to recall the summer despite everything, you may remember that the eastern half of the nation was in the grip of high heat and humidity, which was followed by vast thunderstorm systems transiting through, which ended up barreling across the continent. This was ‘then.’
I’m used to the ‘shvitz,’ given my habit of scuttling through and over and around things in all sorts of climate, but Our Lady was definitely not happy about the weather. One thing about walking down the middle of a street is that there is no tree cover, and the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself is staring right down at the top of your noggin.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Our goal was to use the Light Rail to get back to HQ and Moe the Dog, but we had a couple/three miles to walk – in the sun – and just after having finished a meal. Grin and bear it, mustn’t grumble… Our Lady is British, and absolutely brimming with cheerful aphorisms for tough times.
She doesn’t sing rhyming songs in bars, I’d mention.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
31st street, and I was still married.
Our Lady was reconsidering everything by this point, so I decided not to throw in an ‘it’s all downhill from here’ crack. Luckily, we had both brought water bottles with us.
On and on.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
16th street, and still married.
Eventually, we arrived at a T Light Station about 3/4 of a mile away from this bridge. Air conditioning on the T, and a quick return ride to Dormont saw my relationship status continue to improve.
By the time we got back to Moe, I was ‘in like Flynn’ again, and her hatred of walking the hot summer streets in baking sun had abided.
Back tomorrow.
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Running Dry
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Our Lady of the Pentacle was busy, with a class she’s taking in Pittsburgh’s Bridgeville section, and your humble narrator had an hour or so to kill before having to pick her up and drive her back to Moe the Dog.
An hour isn’t really all that long a time, as far as ‘getting into it’ photography wise, so my plan was to find some flowing water and use those new lens filters and ‘superclamp’ setup recently acquired.
I headed over to the nearby ‘Whiskey Boys trail’ where there’s meant to be a wooden bridge spanning a stream.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I had to walk ‘in’ a bit to get there.
I’ve been here before but on a different pathway, with Moe the Dog.
This is a prepared crushed limestone trail for most of the way, with a nice firmament for hiking. It’s kind of buggy in there, but Pennsylvania is uniformly kind of buggy in the summer. Functioning ecosystem, huh?
The whole state is pretty much upstate New York, but with more woods, and a whole lot more in the way of mountains and streams.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When I got there, it was discovered that this is now a ‘former’ stream.
Here I am standing in the stream bed, and shooting pics of a bridge that spans no water, troubled or otherwise.
Cannot win.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One is looking forward to some sort of autumn this year. I lost two autumns in a row to the broken ankle, and there’s a tiny voice in my head that keeps saying ‘you’re missing out.’
Have to come up with a plan…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The time warp is still deeply in effect here at Newtown Pentacle.
These shots are from the 25th of July, and this post is being written during an early morning in mid August, whereas the publish date for this post is set for late September.
At this rate, you’ll be seeing Halloween stuff for Christmas.
Saying that, I’m still able to offer a daily post, which arrives in your e-mailbox in the manner of a metronome. Enjoy it while it lasts, folks.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This blog will eventually cease publication, as a note.
I do have a date in mind for when that’ll happen, but that’s still years away. It would be unlike me not to make a big deal of something major as it’s approaching, so don’t worry. Nothing is ending anytime soon, and I’ve still got a LOT of stuff I want to see, do, and explore in these postings.
Alternatively, I could have a stroke or get hit by a car tomorrow, so…
Back next week with something different – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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A Hey Now! Triad
Thursday sep 24
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After a medium length walk, one ended up at a familiar spot in the South Side Flats section of Pittsburgh.
What’s now called ‘Burgher’s Brewery,’ formerly the ‘Sly Fox Brewery,’ sits alongside a set of CSX railroad tracks that are fairly busy. Upon my arrival at the brewery, and after a visit to the lavatory, I purchased a pint of ale and got busy.
First up was CSX #1897, which was painted up in ‘heritage’ colors.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
American Railroads offered a quite confusing business map when they were the dominant form of investable industry in this country, and it gets more so when you enter and exit the post Conrail era. The current nationwide companies consolidated, with other survivors of the industry’s early 1970’s apocalypse and nationalization, out of Conrail.
Outfits like Norfolk Southern and CSX were formed from the smoking rubble of the bankrupted freight rail system, dominated by Pennsylvania Railroad and their arch rivals New York Central in the northeast.
This is too long a tale to tell, so I’ll direct you towards Wikipedia for what Conrail was and how all of the modern freight rail companies ‘fell’ out of it.
To understand the ‘world which was,’ let’s just analogize that in the late 19th and early 20th – you didn’t gamble on bitcoin or tech stocks which were promising breakthrough AI services – you bought into railroad stock, and then got out as soon as it paid a return. Rail was pretty much the ‘high tech sector’ back then, but was far more volatile. Let that sink in.
All of the modern freight carriers run ‘heritage units,’ with specialized paint jobs, which signify railroad routes and companies which they have consolidated into the modern operation. Rail fans love this stuff.
‘Monon Railroad’ was one of the many smaller outfits that were combined into CSX. Hear about 1897 direct from the horse’s mouth.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I usually don’t keep shooting after the ‘head of the snake’ has passed out of frame, but there were several ‘DPU’ locomotives in line behind 1897 and a couple of them were interesting to me.
Y’know, even if I was shooting video here, there’s no way I’d be able to convey the absolute landslide of reflected noise which a group of locomotives makes when passing through a narrow brick lined slot like this. Were I able to record it, I wouldn’t be able to play it back at the same volume without the benefit of some movie theater’s sound system – and even then… LOUD.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another interesting locomotive was in line, this one painted up with the branding and color way of the ‘Maryland Midland’ outfit.
Hmm. That’s a new one.
I headed inside the brewery and ordered a ‘reload’ for my ale, and also paid my tab. As mentioned often, two drinks is plenty for me these days.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I started walking towards the Station Square Light Rail station shortly after CSX #5236 up there passed me by. I followed one of the trails, after returning my glass to the bartender. Yep, inspected the porcelain again, then set off. I managed to meet up with the group of people I wanted to see, and got a free hot dog out of it too.
At the end of the game, after arriving back at HQ, I had walked something like nine miles all told. ‘Not every walk has to be the Bataan Death March’ is – as you might recall – a new motto of mine.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While plying the trail towards the T light rail station, yet another CSX train rolled past me. All told, I felt pretty satisfied with the outing’s effort.
My day didn’t suck.
Back tomorrow with something different – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Eliza Trail behind, Flats in front
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After leaving the Eliza Furnace trail on the north shore of the Monongahela River, one then crossed the waterway, via the South Tenth Street Bridge, and your humble narrator had but one goal in mind.
Beer and trains.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s a short walk, but the path passes by a largish number of residential structures and clinics – many of which are involved in the charitable work of housing vagrants, while others are a part of the ‘medical/insurance industrial complex’ whose profits arise from addiction recovery services.
As is usually the case with such areas, a population of folks ‘living rough’ and ‘not in the program’ can be observed nearby. As such, this is one of the parts of Pittsburgh where you want to observe ‘NYC rules.’
Be aware of surroundings, spin around on your heel periodically to see if you’re being followed, don’t allow yourself to be ‘cul-de-sac’d’ on a dead end street, have your headphones not in your ears. I’m not saying it’s dangerous here, it’s really not, I’m just saying it makes sense to have ‘the radar’ turned on when armies of junkies are wandering around.
Maintaining a bit of paranoia is a life skill, for one such as myself.
That’s a particularly spectacular Ukrainian Church, pictured above.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One slapped his feet against the pavement, on Pittsburgh’s Carson Street, which is the ‘via majorica’ of this section of the city.
Mixed use zoning here, including a set of particularly ancient residential structures, and punctuated by the occasional shop or storefront. Most of the commercial addresses seem shuttered, consequential of some long ago urban planner’s decision to turn the ‘local’ Carson Street into a primary arterial roadway, one whose design involves getting drivers through the area at a maximum rate of speed while they’re heading towards several nearby bridges and tunnels which lead to satellite communities.
People earn their money in the city, thereby, and then drive away to a distant suburb to spend it. It’s obvious what the problem is here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My case study for this particular POV remains the Cross Bronx Expressway – and the Long Island Expressway which I know more about – both of which turned into multiple mile long engines of blight generation for NYC, back in the 1960’s and 70’s.
A big part of making it absolutely hellish to drive into Manhattan in modernity, and forcing people to commute by transit instead, is to encourage the populace to drop some of their coin in the central business district. Ever wonder why the real estate types love congestion pricing and bike lanes so much?
The ‘planners’ look down upon our world like it’s a flat paper map, spread out on a mahogany desk in some City Hall office.
They don’t see groups of bored kids, or dog walkers, or imagine any of the small stuff in their plans – like a candy store, found on a corner. In fact, a candy store is usually in the way of what they want to do or have been told to want by the bosses. From an urban planner’s POV, a Trader Joe’s or a Target are much more laudable ‘anchor’ tenants for a project than some nickel and dime locally owned neighborhood candy store.
Growth, it needs to be organic and considered or it becomes cancerous. Oh, the urbanity of it all!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The local Government, here in Pittsburgh, is currently floating a particularly short sighted policy scheme – creating a new tax regime for an area that is successfully growing itself, and then using that tax money to prop up an area that is dying on the vine.
In the case of Pittsburgh, this conceit is dubbed as being a TRID, and the current political regime wishes to direct the tax moneys generated by a successful development environment in one neighborhood (The Strip District) to buoy up the commercial and office sectors of the Downtown area nearby its transit hubs – a program which would play out over a forty year period.
Forty years…
I’d like to point out – as a point of reference – that Ronald Reagan was President some forty years ago – and that multi generational financial schemes such as this seldom work out well or ‘trickle down’ for the tax paying citizens who haven’t actually been born yet.
Gen X here, and I’ve watched this sort of political handout to the past which shortchanges the future before. Savings and Loan crisis, anyone? No bueno.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Bah!
Luckily, I arrived at that brewery by the train tracks just in time.
Inspected the porcelain, ordered a pint, and took up station at the outdoor seating, just as CSX #1897 arrived at the pass.
More on all that tomorrow, which will be a ‘Hey Now!palooza.’
“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.
Say goodbye to Aunt Eliza
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After having scuttled upon the Eliza Furnace Trail on the northern shore of the Monongahela River, your humble narrator reached the spot where he’d break off the trail and reenter the street grid (as it were) so as to cross the water and get over to the southern shore.
My plan was to cross the river via the South Tenth Street Bridge.
The section of the rail trail before me is referred to colloquially as ‘The Jail Trail,’ as it passes directly past the city’s jail, which is also right next door to an enormous homeless shelter. No bueno.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A Towboat was spotted, towing a few barges under the Birmingham Bridge, but it was pretty far away and I can’t tell you much about it. Luckily, zoom lens.
I cut across a parking lot to get to where I needed to be.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This sidewalk led to an intersection with the South Tenth Street Bridge, and coincidentally – the bridge’s intersection with the Armstrong Tunnel.
My goodness, it’s almost as if there’s a method behind all the madness.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Your humble narrator was experiencing a bit of a lull in his energy levels. It had been a nice day climate wise, but the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself had been bobbing about in the sky, and the Eliza Trail offers little or any shade, so I was feeling a bit warm and fatigued.
Sol Invictus indeed.
Ebb and flow. Time for a quick break.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking back at where I’d been, in that nest of ramps feeding to and from the Birmingham Bridge.
Luckily, a shady spot awaited me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Other than a plague of Spotted Lanternfiles who seemed to be reproducing as I watched, this little shady spot gave me a minute to unload the camera bag off of my back, and slurp down some of the water I had been carrying with me in that Nalgene water bottle so recently added to the kit.
I hate the weight of carrying water, yet enjoy its recuperative property. It’s a dichotomy, but I’m just like the kiwi – a fuzzy little fruit with a lot of personality. Man, I do miss having a Bodega on every corner…
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.
