Archive for January 2012
audient void
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Much is made of the various pollution vectors which we lucky few are exposed to daily, here in the Newtown Pentacle. The air is heavy with ash and soot, hopelessly mingled with sewer effluent and automotive exhaust, and smells a little “odd”. The water is ruined, as is the soil itself, and there’s that whole “Creek thing”. What I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, however, is something a bit less tangible.
It’s the noise.
from wikipedia
Noise pollution is excessive, displeasing human, animal or machine-created environmental noise that disrupts the activity or balance of human or animal life. The word noise comes from the Latin word nauseas, meaning seasickness.
The source of most outdoor noise worldwide is mainly construction and transportation systems, including motor vehicle noise, aircraft noise and rail noise. Poor urban planning may give rise to noise pollution, since side-by-side industrial and residential buildings can result in noise pollution in the residential area.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These photos are from the heart of industrial Maspeth- a bleak moonscape of rail siding, oil streaked truck routes, and a maelstrom of construction and demolition- and illustrate prime and obvious offenders. Their usage is a bit disingenuous, because the kind of aural pollution which I’m wondering about is the “hum”.
Not some paranoid’s imagined perception of radio waves, that’s a Taos thing– but simply the aggregate melody of millions of engines, electrical transformers, air conditioners, tires on pavement, etc.
from wikipedia
Environmental noise regulations usually specify a maximum outdoor noise level of 60 to 65 dB(A), while occupational safety organizations recommend that the maximum exposure to noise is 40 hours per week at 85 to 90 dB(A). For every additional 3 dB(A), the maximum exposure time is reduced by a factor 2, e.g. 20 hours per week at 88 dB(A). Sometimes, a factor of two per additional 5 dB(A) is used. However, these occupational regulations are acknowledged by the health literature as inadequate to protect against hearing loss and other health effects.
With regard to indoor noise pollution in residences, the U.S. EPA has not set any restrictions on limits to the level of noise. Rather, it has provided a list of recommended levels in its Model Community Noise Control Ordinance, which was published in 1975. For instance, the recommended noise level for indoor residences is less than or equal to 45 dB. Noise pollution control in residences is not funded by the federal government in part because of the disagreements in establishing causal links between sounds and health risks, since the effect of noise is often psychological and also because it leaves no singular tangible trace of damage on the human body. For instance, hearing loss could be attributed to a variety of factors including age, rather than solely due to excessive exposure to noise. However, a state or local government is able to regulate indoor residential noise, such as when excessive noise from within a home causes disturbances to nearby residences.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A noticeable silence hung heavily around Astoria this past holiday weekend, and much to the delight of second story men, two thirds of the neighborhood disappeared for holiday excursions. For around two days, it was actually fairly quiet. It was January 2nd, at least, before the honking and constant vibrato of traffic resumed it’s omnipresence.
One wonders what the effect is, biologically, of living in such a saturation of sound.
One also wonders what sounds- what music of the spheres- may lie just beyond the dross auditory senses of men…
from wikipedia
The human auditory system is sensitive to frequencies from about 20 Hz to a maximum of around 20,000 Hz, although the upper hearing limit decreases with age. Within this range, the human ear is most sensitive between 2 and 5 kHz, largely due to the resonance of the ear canal and the transfer function of the ossicles of the middle ear.
Equal-loudness contours were first measured by Fletcher and Munson using headphones (1933). In their study, listeners were presented with pure tones at various frequencies and over 10 dB increments in stimulus intensity. For each frequency and intensity, the listener was also presented with a reference tone at 1000 Hz. The reference tone was adjusted until it was perceived to be of the same loudness as the test tone. Loudness, being a psychological quantity, is difficult to measure, so Fletcher and Munson averaged their results over many test subjects to derive reasonable averages. The lowest equal-loudness contour represents the quietest audible tone and is also known as the absolute threshold of hearing.
The highest contour is the threshold of pain.
omnivorous browsing
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There is quite a colony of indigents to be found beneath the Brooklyn Queens Expressway.
Recently observed, the encampment featured not just bedding but the rudiments of furniture as well. Stuffed into the highway girders were comestibles and other consumables. This population, hidden away in the nooks and crannies of the Newtown Pentacle, has been growing by leaps and bounds in recent months- according to personal observation. Used to be there were folks living in their cars all over the place, but these days, I’ve been seeing shanty towns springing up. I know a couple of spots where multi room shacks have remained established for years.
Welcome to 21st century New York City, lords and ladies.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This particular spot is found in Greenpoint, not far from the Williamsburg border. Academics and politicians might see this as a problem to be solved, but to the calloused eyes of a humble narrator, it’s another case of “not bad, nor good, just is”.
Experience has taught me that these folks are where their actions and choices have led them to, and that what they ultimately desire is to just be left to their own devices. “Do what thou wilt” is the whole of the law, and all that.
Also remember that given the opportunity- these folks would boil you down and sell your parts by the pound as butcher’s scrap.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The duo sleeping beneath the rag piles in the shot above most likely consider each other trusted cohorts, and maintain a loose fraternity with others who share their experience. Imagine what you look like to them, with your clean clothes, credit cards, and bleeding heart. When spare change or a cigarette tumbles out of your pockets, or you leave some castaway clothing item at their camps, how do you think they interpret you?
As a mark, that’s how.
It’s not that the homeless are worse people than you and I, it’s a tribal thing. How would you feel if (metaphorical rich guy) Bloomberg showed up at your house, tsk-tsk’d at your squalor, and dropped you a few bucks to help out?
Wouldn’t you be trying to figure out some way to get his watch?
Old School 2
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There are places where you just don’t want to park in Brooklyn.
This semi was spotted, appearing to have been picked over by a pack of scavenging dogs, in Greenpoint not too long ago. Please feel free to click through to the larger incarnations of this photo at Flickr, and examine the skeletonized husk of this truck. What I find puzzling, actually, is the fact that this rig still has tires and rims. Perhaps, at the end, it will be converted to some sort of horse drawn wagon?
For the first post in what will surely become a regular series click here for “Old School”.
high doors
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Let’s get two thing straight at the start of this, ok? Van Alst Avenue and Hunters Point Avenue translates into 21st Century lingo as 21st Street and 49th Avenue- that’s the first. Second, during the four years between 1916 and 1920, this was the absolute center of Long Island City.
Whilst lingering or loitering near 2100 49th Avenue in Long Island City, you may notice that it is the former Paragon Oils and Burners building- a 108,000 square foot, 6 story former factory and manufacturing facility which serves as a document storage warehouse and pedestal for advertising billboards today.
That is, you might notice it, if you aren’t distracted by the busy train tracks and rail station it sits on top of, or the manifest wonder of the skyline of that Shining City of Manhattan which frames the scene.
from wikipedia
Paragon Oil was founded by brothers Henry, Irving, Robert, Benjamin, and Arnold Schwartz. The brothers, and their sister Bess Schwartz Levy, were first-generation Americans, all born between 1896 and 1909 in Brooklyn, New York.
Their parents were Sholem or “Sam” (Chernofski) Schwartz, born circa 1868, and Lena Krakofsky, born circa 1874, who were Jewish immigrants originally from the town of Belaya Tserkov (Bila Tserkva), near Kiev, Ukraine, who had immigrated to the United States around 1895.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Many of the monolithic constructions of the early 20th century abide in this neighborhood, which is largely given over to industrial pursuits, even today.
As is often repeated in these postings- This is where the industrial revolution actually happened, and Long Island City was not just the workshop of New York City, but America itself (!).
This view is from Skillman Avenue, by the way.
also from wikipedia
…the family was poor upon arrival in New York. Sam worked once again as a blacksmith, but now in eastern Brooklyn. When they were young, elder brothers Henry and Irving went door-to-door in Brooklyn carrying around sacks of coal on their backs, peddling it to the nearby homes and residential buildings to earn extra money for their family. At that time, some large commercial buildings had oil-fired furnaces, but residential buildings did not. A combination of factors, including the equipment available at their father’s blacksmith shop and the experience of their relatives back in Ukraine who were involved in the whale oil business, led to the brothers experimenting, designing, and finally building the first oil heaters designed for residential buildings, which eventually earned the family several patents on the design.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of the things which kept on popping up in my research on the place is the name “Queens Subway Building”.
The white structure which seems to be a seventh floor, according to online documentation, is some sort of “cellular telephonic” or other electronics installation.
Paragon Oil is a familiar name to some of you who may be acquainted with the story of that tortured cataract of urban infamy known to most as the Newtown Creek.
from nysdecgreenpoint.com
The former Paragon Oil Terminal property is bordered by Newtown Creek to the north, Meeker Avenue to the east, Bridgewater Street to the south, and the Apollo Street Creek parcels to the west. Beginning in 1886, two companies operated on this property; the Locust Hill Refining Company and Greenpoint Oil Refining. Both of these companies ended operation by 1905. From 1905 to 1921, a portion of the property operated as a cement works company. By 1929, a portion of the property was being operated as a petroleum storage terminal by Supreme Oil, which later became known as the Petroleum Terminal Corporation. The other portion of the property was privately owned until 1928 when it became the Brooklyn Ash Removal Company. In 1934, all operations throughout the entire property were either run by or affiliated with the Paragon Oil Company, which operated the site as petroleum storage terminal. Paragon Oil was purchased by Texaco Oil, now is known as the Chevron/Texaco Corporation, in 1960. The property was sold to Peerless Importers (now known as Empire Merchants) in 1968, which now operates the property as a liquor distribution warehouse. According to a 2005 consent agreement made with the NYSDEC, Texaco is responsible to delineate and remediate the portion of the free product plume underlying the Former Paragon Oil Terminal and control seepage of petroleum into Newtown Creek at this location.
– photo by Mitch Waxman, and HOLY MOLY, don’t miss this photo that nycsubway.org has.
About the “Queens Subway Building” angle-
It seems that Degnon Terminal and Realty, the folks who built the subway tunnels which the Paragon building stands over, and who later went on to build the vast industrial complex which began at Thomson and Skillman Avenues which ran all the way to Newtown Creek (the white building in the shot above is just one of the many gargantuan structures still extant) maintained offices at a “Queens Subway Building” for some period.
Add in the presence of the Borough President of Queens, a fellow named Maurice E. Connolly, who moved his offices to a “Queens Subway Building” in 1916 and there’s a whole lot of power and money all under one roof.
The use of the structure, known as “Queens Subway Building”, by both parties is confirmed by multiple sources. I just haven’t been able to ascertain if the Paragon Oil Burner building was indeed, the aforementioned “Queens Subway Building” also located at Van Alst Avenue and Hunters Point Avenue.
From “The Steinway Tunnels”, at nycsubway.org
At 2100 49th Ave., a 7-story office building was erected over the station during its construction and is known as the “Queens Subway Building” and was the former offices of Queens County & Borough. It is occupied today by the Paragon Oil Co.
Check this nycsubway.org shot out as well– WO! Is that the Paragon building going up?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Children in the streets of Long Island City take no notice of the building. Within it are stored pedantic records of business and law, not the lost ark of the covenant or a magick sword or some wizard’s cloak. Charming, the structure is often noticed by passerby that comment on quirky and quaint calligraphic advertisements which surely harken back to golden times of economic splendor and memory of a clear conscience.
from a 1987 report at nytimes.com
FLOOR after floor, row after row, thousands of cardboard boxes full of business memorabilia sit in the old Paragon Oil building two subway stops away from Manhattan in Long Island City, Queens.
Under fire sprinklers and the watchful eyes of security attendants, millions of documents and records wait for their day of destruction or, perhaps, for retrieval back to an office tower across the East River.
The seven-story building at 2100 Hunters Point Avenue is one of dozens serving as giant file cabinets for Manhattan service-sector industries.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The most detailed information on the place which I can pass on to you, lords and ladies, is the following link. It seems to be a 2005 report or proposal of some kind involving a brownfield remediation scheme, but is fairly well focused, and specific enough to claim veracity.
from aux.zicklin.baruch.cuny.edu, and fast forward to page 54
The Paragon Oils and Burners building was built in 1916 to house its growing petroleum products business. Occupied by Paragon through the 1950’s, it was used for production, warehousing, and distribution of petroleum-based products. Since the early 1960’s the building has been used primarily as a warehouse facility and most recently, a mini-storage company. The owner also generates a sizeable annual rent from exterior signage, which faces the entrance to the Midtown tunnel and the Long Island Railroad.
dense curtain
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The 1.3 billion gallon a day flow of New York City’s sewage really should be defined as a third major river.
That’s 1,300,000,000 gallons a day or 474,500,000,000 gallons of night soil a year.
1.3 billion is approximately the population of China.
Pictured above is the DEP Sludge Vessel M/V Newtown Creek. A veteran, she was was laid down by the Wiley Manufacturing Co. in 1967. Just under 324 foot long, M/V Newtown Creek can carry 102,000 cubic feet of cargo and weighs in at 2,557 gross tons.
from nywea.org
The largest vessels, M/V Newtown Creek and M/V North River, are semiautomated motor vessels with more than twice the capacity of the original sludge vessels. The crew size was reduced to eight in 1980 and reduced again in 1987 to the current size of six. In 1987, MPRSA was amended, and ocean dumping was moved from the 12-mi site to a 106-mi site. As a result, the operation of the M/V was changed to in-harbor work transporting sludge to four newly constructed New York City ocean-going barges for disposal to the 106-mi site.
In 1991, to comply with the Ocean Dumping Ban Act (ODBA), the M/V Newtown Creek, North River and Owls Head began transporting sludge from plants without dewatering facilities or other means of conveyance to plants with dewatering facilities for processing. Since barges were no longer needed, three were retired, and one, the Udalls Cove, was kept as part of the fleet for emergencies.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Forty-four and change years is a long time to be working any job, especially one with the city.
M/V Newtown Creek was cruising along the East River one winter’s afternoon, just before sunset, and your humble narrator was similarly crossing the water- only I was upon the Queensboro Bridge’s pedestrian walkway, en route to the Shining City.
from nyc.gov
Presently, NYC-DEP Marine Section uses these three sludge vessels for the transportation of liquid sludge from wastewater treatment plants without dewatering capabilities.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The DEP people actually refer to these ships as “Honey Boats”, by the way, or at least some of the ones that I’ve interacted with have.
It’s gallows humor, the refined and thickened sludge that these vessels carry does not have the appearance and seeming viscosity of honey, rather it is said to be darkly colored and resemble pea soup.
from wikipedia
The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP) manages the city’s water supply, providing more than 1.1 billion US gallons (4,200,000 m3) of water each day to more than 9 million residents throughout New York State through a complex network of nineteen reservoirs, three controlled lakes and 6,200 miles (10,000 km) of water pipes, tunnels and aqueducts. The DEP is also responsible for managing the city’s combined sewer system, which carries both storm water runoff and sanitary waste, and fourteen wastewater treatment plants located throughout the city. The DEP carries out federal Clean Water Act rules and regulations, handles hazardous materials emergencies and toxic site remediation, oversees asbestos monitoring and removal, enforces the city’s air and noise codes, bills and collects on city water and sewer accounts, and manages citywide water conservation programs.
Emily Lloyd was the commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection until resigning in 2008. On November 30, 2009, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed Caswell F. Holloway to be the new commissioner of NYCDEP. Following Holloway’s appointment as the new NYC Deputy Mayor for Operations, Mayor Bloomberg appointed Carter H. Strickland, Jr. to be the new commissioner of NYCDEP on August 17, 2011.
The Newtown Pentacle 