Archive for June 2013
Project Firebox 75
An ongoing catalog of New York’s endangered Fireboxes.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On 31st street at 21st avenue in almond eyed Astoria, stands another sentinel of the public good, guarding its turf against accident and incursion as it has for decades. Shine on, fire-bro.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? June 2013 Walking Tours-
The Poison Cauldron– TODAY, Saturday, June 15, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets now on sale.
Kill Van Kull– Saturday, June 22, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
The Insalubrious Valley– Saturday, June 29, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
rather discouraging
Today’s post points out that you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
You may have noticed that I’ve not been posting too much about my beloved Newtown Creek of late, which is of course, the titular focus of this blog. Haven’t been ignoring the old girl at all, she’s still very much in the cross hairs, instead I’ve been attempting to cut down a bit on my exposure to it and explore the railed tendrils and vehicular paths which snake out and around the waterway on their way eastwards into Brooklyn and Queens.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is a difficult thing to do, of course- but as I don’t live next door to Newtown Creek, I enjoy the luxury of allowing its hazards to eke out of my system periodically. Personally, I thrive in its post apocalyptic miasma, but prudence demands that one take a break every now and then. This is a luxury, as mentioned, one not enjoyed by entire communities in North Brooklyn.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Meetings of Newtown Creek Alliance, Newtown Creek Monitoring Committee and other groups regularly draw me into the insalubrious valley, an industrial and remote spot known for mephitic vapors and unwholesome sights, and whenever I get the chance to just hang around the slightly less toxic neighborhood I live in- I grasp, and gasp, at it.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? June 2013 Walking Tours-
The Poison Cauldron– Saturday, June 15, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets now on sale.
Kill Van Kull– Saturday, June 22, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
The Insalubrious Valley– Saturday, June 29, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
argued absence
Today’s post straddles the currently undefended border of Brooklyn and Queens at Newtown Creek.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Standing astride Brooklyn and Queens, your humble narrator is endlessly fascinated by the machinery adorning a concrete plant. Passing through and upon the Grand Street Bridge, a pause for reflection of the East Branch of the Newtown Creek was enjoyed. I like to wander up to spots on the Creek these days and try to remember everything I know about it, as a sort of test. While there, I look for anomalous or malign indications of everything that there might be, which is buried down there.
I also try to figure out how many security cameras might be recording me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Paranoid tendencies are just one of the many flaws which I have been accused of displaying, but as I am the terrible sort of person whom you would avoid if you could, they remain one of my better traits. Funny thing is that there are those who hope for my destruction, but they display an alarming lack of competency. “Judge a man by the company he keeps” isn’t my rubric, I judge you by your enemies.
My enemies are generally clowns, so what does that say about me?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
What is a man? What has he got? If not himself, then he has not? Thats what I think some song I once heard says.
In the case of this poor specimen, all I’ve got are a couple of spots on a superfund site in the middle of New York City where I can reliably expect to find and or produce Cormorants. Sometimes. Do you suppose that they’re the same Cormorants? Have they been following me around? I’m probably just being paranoid.
Its not like the government secretly records all my phone calls or anything.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? June 2013 Walking Tours-
The Poison Cauldron– Saturday, June 15, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets now on sale.
Kill Van Kull– Saturday, June 22, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
The Insalubrious Valley– Saturday, June 29, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
carnivorous organisms
Today’s post visits DUKBO, Down Under the Kosciuszko Bridge Onramp.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
An angle between neighborhoods, this spot is in Maspeth and Sunnyside and Blissville and Laurel Hill all at the same time. It’s alongside the Brooklyn Queens Expressway and the Queens leg of the 1.1 mile long Kosciuszko Bridge Complex and the Long Island Expressway. To the west lies Calvary Cemetery and its tomb legions, and it is known to all simply and aptly as Laurel Hill Blvd.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of the spots where Europeans originally settled in Queens, as early as the 1680’s there were farms and houses here, it is nevertheless a forgotten and desolate place seldom traveled to but rather through. In actuality, if you were to count all the humans who travelled by on any given day, the number would suggest one of the most crowded spots on the planet.
Luckily, local artisans have inscribed the spot.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Vast graffiti has been installed, decrying the clarion call of the outer boroughs upon the titan masonry of the bridge’s approach ramp. Epic wit emblazoned with such panache surely indicates the presence of a latter day bard here in this angle between neighborhoods.
Pithy expression, and the freedom to pursue it, indeed.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Happily, everything in Queens faces Manhattan these days, and on a clear day one might be able to discern this delicate missive from the Shining City if atmospheric and lighting conditions are just right. Also, the thought paid by the artist to those visiting the interred at Calvary must be heeded.
Imagine the joy of describing to your grandchild what the word “Scumbag” means as he stands in front of a loved ones grave.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? June 2013 Walking Tours-
The Poison Cauldron– Saturday, June 15, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets now on sale.
Kill Van Kull– Saturday, June 22, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
The Insalubrious Valley– Saturday, June 29, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
necrophagous feelers
Today’s post walks around in the dark.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As you may remember, South Street Seaport and the surrounding area in Manhattan experienced a bit of trouble last year during the storm. What’s surprising is that so little of the area has recovered by now. I’m led to believe that electrical systems in particular still haven’t been restored, and based on the number of shuttered store fronts, inclination to accept this theorem is found.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A few of the bars and restaurants are open, but the streets are dark and an area, which is observed normally as having a moderate pedestrian population moving about in the evenings, was a ghost town when transversed recently. Hopefully it was just the weather.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It is odd that basic services are taking so long to reassert, in this place so close to the center of political and corporatist power.
Heading up to the train and pondering this dilemma, one noted that the truly important things have been seen to with due alacrity by the powers that be, for ultimately- one must have an interesting project to mention at cocktail parties and fundraisers.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? June 2013 Walking Tours-
The Poison Cauldron– Saturday, June 15, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets now on sale.
Kill Van Kull– Saturday, June 22, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
The Insalubrious Valley– Saturday, June 29, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
The Newtown Pentacle 