Over the top and down into
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described in yesterday’s transmission, your humble narrator was on a mission. After an intriguing walk – more than month prior – along a path that threads though a valley/ravine which is found in the more or less dead center of Pittsburgh, I wanted to return and explore this ‘zone.’
Problem in the interim was ice and snow, and the sure knowledge that this out of the way industrial focused strip was likely the very last place to have gained the attentions of the plow and salt brigades.
Had to wait for the melt, so I tried to do a little bit of reading on the subject, and this place seems to be another one of Pittsburgh’s historical black holes.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Obviously, I’ve got a lot more experience with the ‘black hole’ thing back home, so let’s use that as an example for what I mean.
The history of NYC is almost entirely written from the perspective of and about Manhattan. There’s also a lot of Brooklyn ‘stuff,’ but it’s a very specific part of the Borough which is well documented. Slavery in NYC during the Dutch vs. British periods, and the financing of the slave trade by insurance underwriters on Wall Street? Crickets. Anti immigrant riots? Mentioned, but mostly crickets, except in the case of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral. NYC’s ethnic neighborhoods being consciously created by Tammany to build ethnic voting blocs? Crickets. Newtown Creek…
The historic record of Pittsburgh is one punctuated by groups of oligarchs deciding to spend some of their moolah on churches, libraries, or schools, and the historic record thereby speaks glowingly about the Mellons or Fricks as being great and generous human beings, as well as public benefactors. Ignore their strike breaking and rapacious income levels.
The ‘record’ generally skips past spots like Skunk Hollow, whose scant mentions (which I’ve been able to find) include that ‘it’s a place where the low people gather to listen to jazz and drink.’ The low people were specifically described as ‘Negroes, Jews, and the Irish.’
My kind of spot, then.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The funny thing about all that, is what’s down here was and is super important, and especially so to the history of 20th century Pittsburgh. Another abandoned home is seen on the hill, behind that massive retaining wall.
For this section of the day, the street I was walking on was called ‘Juniper Street,’ which invisibly transmogrifies into ‘Lorrigan Street,’ then ‘Neville Street,’ and it eventually becomes ‘Sassafras Street’ as it rejoins the local grid at an angle between Lawrenceville and Bloomfield.
For any new readers, I refer to an area which isn’t in one neighborhood or another as existing in the ‘angle’ between them.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking back over my shoulder, and as usual – where is everyone?
I’m currently nurturing a fun delusion that I’m dead, and exist only as a phantom blowing along the empty streets while dissipating into the atmosphere, but that idea’s just Cotarded.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The path began shedding altitude as the Bloomfield Avenue Bridge came into view. The businesses along this route were light and medium industrial.
As you’ve probably discerned, at the top of this hill is an auto mechanic who has a small junkyard worth of spare parts and ‘beaters’ arrayed about their property. Further down the road, there were material handlers, dump trucks, back hoes and other heavy gear parked here and there, so likely some sort of construction and earth moving outfit. Neat.
The ravine started to plunge in altitude, as the plateau which Bloomfield squats upon really came into focus. This is fairly obviously a hydrological valley, but the only water flowing through – which I could observe – was a drainage channel set in along the bottom of that giant hill.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Yet another abandoned home.
Pittsburgh experienced a full on demographic collapse after the steel industry began pulling up stakes here. Many of these abandoned structures are in deleterious condition, as a note.
The theory which I’ve been offered – by local knowledge – is that the house belonged to a parent or grandparent, and the modern day inheritor of the property had long ago left Pittsburgh and hasn’t looked back. The abandoned property likely owes back taxes, or the cost of upkeep for the building is too much, or the modern day owner has just disappeared and there’s no one else to contact about upkeep. I’m told that Pittsburgh has a condemnation procedure which is incredibly bureaucratic, time consuming, and expensive to navigate, so…
Lots of abandoned homes with no line of clear property ownership to pursue for a condemnation.
Back tomorrow.
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Begin it, in Bloomfield
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Your humble narrator is ruled by obeisance to several aphorisms of his own creation, one of which is ‘say what you do and do what you say.’
The first part of that is about being honest and frank when the subject involves personal failings, whereas the latter revolves around getting shit done. Back before all that arctic weather had taken over Pittsburgh for a month – with the ice walls, slush lakes, and treacherous pavement – one had declared that he would return to a certain place for a deeper look, and to explore a secondary lower pathway through the landform.
Last time through this landform, I had followed the upper Gold Way and Melwood Avenue path, which clings to the side of Polish Hill and looks down into a ravine, which I later learned bears the wonderful nomen of ‘Skunk Hollow.’ I said I’d be back, and I do what I say.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This scuttle, which ended up being about ten miles all told, started along Baum Boulevard, in Pittsburgh’s Bloomfield. First stop was called ‘Gross Street,’ and Y’know what? It kind of was.
This point of access to that ravine is blocked off by some sort of secure site, all fenced with cameras and signs and all of the ‘stay out’ sort of stuff. The street grade here would be surprisingly steep anywhere else, but it’s Pittsburgh. It was climatologically lovely out, with temperatures in the high 40’s and a clear sky. Nearly all of the ice and snow had rotted away.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The steel structures pictured are the support piers of the Millvale Avenue bridge, spanning the ravine. It’s a pretty simple truss bridge, carrying local traffic high above. I didn’t see much point in heading all the way down there on this walk, since I was in ‘scouting mode.’
As an aside, it is just so joyous to me that I can actually walk like this again. After the ‘orthopedic incident,’ wherein my left ankle was shattered in an accident at home, it wasn’t entirely certain what my capabilities would be afterwards. It still hurts, all the time, but there we are.
I’ve also got arthritis in the joint now, and that’s also a joy, but at least I know when it’s going to rain.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Abandoned houses… you start not noticing them as there’s so many.
A new Mayor has been elected to lead Pittsburgh, and declarations have been made that the abandoned building problem is a high priority for the new administration, and expensive solutions have been offered. Apparently, it’s all about the budget, as it costs the city about $35k to demolish a house and cart away its remains. Estimates by the new administration state that there are north of 3,000 such properties just within the municipal borders of Pittsburgh, and that ends up being a whole lot of municipal cheddar which they can’t spend on far more sympathetic groups like widows and orphans instead.
I spent a lot of time trying to get the politicians to care about sewers and garbage back in Queens. They’d much rather cut the ribbon on a new park or school, than one on a new sewer plant.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Bloomfield, which I’m told was historically Pittsburgh’s ‘little italy’ section, uses every single inch of space that a property lot defines.
The NYC way of describing the setup out here would say ‘they live ‘cheek by jowl’ with each other.’ The residential setups in this part of Bloomfield are small one and two story private homes, of the type called ‘mill worker’ housing, which you’ll see all over Pittsburgh. These aren’t ‘coal town’ houses, as that’s a different category. Gotta imagine that this neighborhood must have been a fun place to be a kid, and it reminds me a bit of the part of Flatlands/Canarsie where I grew up back in the world’s one ‘true’ place – Brooklyn.
Onwards, ever onwards…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Where Edmond Street meets Juniper Street, that’s where I’d be leaving what passes for a street grid in Pittsburgh’s Bloomfield, and heading down into the Skunk Hollow Ravine for a bit of low core exploring.
As is my habit, I had clicked through the route in advance using Google Maps’ street view function, to know what to expect and to ensure that I wasn’t walking into a ‘cul-de-sac’ with a steep price of exit.
More tomorrow.
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Hey Now! Squared
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
First… the bad news: That brewery along these railroad tracks, which I’ve been haunting since moving to Pittsburgh from NYC, has closed its doors.
It seems that me showing up once every couple of weeks to photograph CSX trains, while drinking the two beers they sold me, wasn’t enough to keep them open. That’s why these shots are from ‘above’ instead of the usual ‘down there.’ The good news is that the brewery immediately changed hands and a new operator for the space is currently moving into the property. Whew!
Your humble narrator was ensconced upon an elevated causeway which forms a bridge over the rail tracks, a trestle structure designed with heavy trucking in mind. This entire area used to be part of a rail yard operated by the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie RR.
The building that the brewery, and this very ramp upon which I was standing is based within, used to serve as an intermodal facility where cargo could be unloaded from rail cars, warehoused, and then loaded onto trucks for local delivery.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s empty offices and residences, mainly, these days. It’s owned and operated by one of the big real estate players from South Brooklyn who have had their hooks in the Bush Terminal along the Gowanus for a long time. Same set of problems here, as they have created there.
The riverfront trail is nearby, along with with Colors Park, but observationally the retail levels of this property are disastrously underutilized, and I barely see anyone coming or going from this structure who isn’t a security guard or maintenance worker. There’s an office of some kind in there, as you’ll notice ‘professional looking’ people exiting the place while wearing lanyards with ID’s on them at about five in the afternoon. Other than that – it’s usually quiet as a tomb. Perfect for me, but not so much for all 3 of their retail tenants.
I’ve been struck, incidentally, after watching a series of documentaries about Pittsburgh which were crafted back in the 1980’s and 90’s by a fellow who works for the local PBS station (WQED) named Rick Sebak.
It’s startling to see ‘that’ Pittsburgh, before the suburban diaspora really kicked in, when the Downtown section was pulsing with life and the ‘Station Square’ area surrounding this ‘Highline’ building was absolutely popping with both daytime and nightlife activity.
These days, it feels like there was a plague…
oh… wait…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
CSX #5381 was hauling some sort of mineral – which looks like coal – but I’m assuming that one there so let’s use ‘mineral.’
That isn’t some sort of political statement, by the way. I’ve caught crap from the local boomers, on social media, about this verbal stand of mine, but they’re the same people who use the word ‘Democrat’ like it’s an accusation.
It may walk like one, and quack like one, but I’ve learned over the years not to pronounce something as being a duck if I don’t know for sure that it is indeed a Duck. Looks like coal, probably coal, I don’t know for sure.
Pronouncing something as being ‘something’ without any sort of proof or knowledge of the subject you’re commenting upon may be enough to get you elected to the Senate as a Republican, but otherwise that’s just how you end up with egg on your face. (that’s a political statement)
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One walked back over to Station Square for a ride back to HQ on the T, and son of gun if Norfolk Southern didn’t make an appearance too.
This was a red letter day for rail, in the end. Admittedly – not a great POV for Norfolk Southern #9813 up there, as it rode along their elevated trackage on a berm set against the foothills of Mount Washington, but beggars and choosers – huh?
The Sebak documentaries are charming, folksy, and betray a real love and appreciation for Pittsburgh and its unique cultures. If you can find them without paying PBS… well… why don’t you just donate to PBS instead?
What struck me while watching these Sebak films is the visualization of the depopulation of the central node of Pittsburgh’s business districts. In the 1980’s, films of ‘Downtown’ reveal a thriving metropolis with thousands of people walking the streets and interacting with retail level shops.
Modern Pittsburgh’s Downtown ain’t like that.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Several times on this short walk, I asked myself ‘where is everyone?’
Not in the sort of areas I’d normally inhabit, where the answer usually is ‘no, and why in the name of hell are you here at a sewer plant or waste transfer station?’ No, I’m talking mid afternoon on a weekday, in the business, political, and administrative center of an American City.
The difficult part about capturing this sequence of photos involved getting the camera’s focus to land on the train, rather than on the web of wires and tree branches surrounding it. Other than that, I was just sitting on a station bench, waiting for a T light rail ride back to HQ.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Tomorrow, we’ll start a much longer walk – an actual adventure of a scuttle, if you’d indulge me. I had a great time at least.
At last… the long threatened return to Skunk Hollow! The things I saw… wonders… wonders…
Back tomorrow – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
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Slideways, then down, not up
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Continuing with photos from a short scuttle in Pittsburgh, on a day I got fairly lucky, were the subject of passing freight trains to come up. Your humble narrator was loathsomely crossing the Allegheny River upon one of the ‘Three Sisters’ bridges. I was busy with the self loathing and all that, so one barely even noticed the weather.
It was a lovely day, with temperatures in the high 50’s and a stiff breeze. The sky was partially overcast, but there was plenty of sunlight. My bad ankle was happy, for once.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Normally, when a municipality hangs a traffic sign on a bridge, it’s telling you what you can’t do. The signage above seems to indicate to drivers that they can do pretty much whatever they want. That kind of fits with how Pittsburgh drivers operate their vehicles, observationally.
I headed over towards a T Light Rail station.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is the scene Downtown, from Liberty Avenue. On a weekday afternoon. It’s like a zombie apocalypse has occurred. Where is everybody?
I pointed my toes towards the T’s Wood Street station, where my chariot would soon arrive and carry me across to the South Side area. For once I didn’t have to worry about which line I was boarding, since I’d be debarking the thing at the first stop on the Monongahela River side.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One descended into the narrow depths, using a moving staircase.
A quick ‘sit down’ ensued, while waiting for the train.
During this interval, I observed the behavioral tics of the humans Yinzers in the same manner as I’d observe zoo animals. ‘Look,’ a dominant male… and over there, that breeding age female must be in estrus, based on the veiled reactions to her from that teenaged male over there… ‘that one’ looks sick, and ‘that one’ is wearing a MAGA hat. A woman over there… she seemed to have two prosthetic legs but was walking without a cane. As it happens, I was midway through my annual listening of Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’ album while waiting, and these were the songs which were playing.
I’m all ‘effed up. Bah!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
‘On the other side’ is at The T’s Station Square stop, and as I was debarking the facility a Pittsburgh bound T unit rumbled into scene.
The final steps of my day were all about greed.
I’d been very lucky all day in terms of syncing up with passing trains, and was thereby desirous of seeing whether or not my luck might hold out. It did, but that’s tomorrow’s post.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A passing Towboat caught my attention while walking along, as it was all framed up by the Panhandle Bridge. Luckily, I can report to you that this was the last of my ‘rinse and repeat’ routed scuttles, wherein I was constrained in movement by ice and snow. The weather has since ‘cured up’ a bit, and all of the paths are once again clear.
I’ve also allowed my ‘lead time’ to evaporate a bit, in terms of how far in advance these posts are scheduled. These photos were captured better than a month ago, on February 13th. These words are being typed on the morning of March 13th, a Friday.
Back tomorrow with Choo-Choo’s, and a ‘Hey Now!’ or two.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Two Hey Now!’s and a bridge
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
‘Hey Now!’ that’s… that’s… that’s the WHITE WHALE. The WHITE WHALE!
It’s actually called Allegheny Valley RR’s #6004. I use the ‘white whale’ as the service is seldom observed, and when it is – usually it’s far away or occluded form the lens by some sort of intervening scenery.
Bah!
Allegheny Commons Park is Pittsburgh’s oldest, and it happens to sport a rail trench running right through the middle of it. This is the view from ‘Ridge Avenue.’ I’ve been wandering around this ‘zone’ quite a bit recently. Easy to get to by mass transit. A fascinating and lovely historic district surrounds the park, as well.
Check out this ‘zone’ in Google Maps, it’s neat.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Believe it or not, I actually managed to run across the street to get this shot! Me, Mr Busted Ankle Boo-Hoo-Hoo guy… running! Running…
The white whale was heading towards the same Merchant Street Bridge tracks which Norfolk Southern #7001 was shown transiting along just yesterday. I felt rather full of myself at this moment, but my day of serendipitous rail photography in Pittsburgh was just getting started.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another Norfolk Southern train was spotted just a few blocks away, riding upon the concretized berm which carries their tracks. There’s a construction project underway, one which sees crews of laborers chipping at and working on that berm, which is no doubt why the train was ‘on hold.’
An expectation that some sort of movement might occur caused me to adopt a linear path under the highway ramps to try and get a decent POV if any action started to occur. I really wanted to get the puff of exhaust when they gunned the engine to break inertia and start moving.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One lingered about, walking block after block and stalking the train like a middle aged cheetah, until I was more or less across the street from the thing but they were just sitting there idling. I’ve instituted a rule for this sort of situation, no more hanging around and waiting for something to happen after about twenty minutes or so.
I headed south, and back into the sunlight. Hiss!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the Rachel Carson bridge, one of the ‘Three Sisters’ bridges over the Allegheny River which connects local traffic to Downtown Pittsburgh and ‘The Strip.’
Gaze…
These are actually great bridges for pedestrians and bikes, I’d mention. Wide side paths, which are completely separated from the vehicle traffic.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The plan from here would involve getting through and out of Downtown Pittsburgh with a minimum of fuss by hopping onto the T light Rail – this area is within the service’s ‘free zone,’ after all – and heading over to more familiar territory on the South Side of the Monongahela River.
The T path was decided upon as I had walked this route multiple times in recent weeks, and didn’t want to ‘spend’ my energy rehashing it.
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.
The Newtown Pentacle 