Archive for July 30th, 2013
dromedary men
A ladder to heaven in Hunters Point.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned in the past, the East River ferry is a boon to one such as myself, as it allows for the preclusion of entering the subway system. As much as I enjoy entering a sweltering concrete bunker and being painted with pneumatically driven clouds of dried sewage and powderized rodent dung, a humble narrator will literally find any other possible way of getting around than the using the underground.
Seriously, who can guess- all there is- that might be buried down there?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Arriving in ancient Hunters Point one recent day, I was greeted with the tableau depicted in today’s shots. It would seem that yet another bit of construction equipment is being prepared for duty, this time in front of the LIC Crab House on Borden Avenue at the corner of 2nd street. The new school, which is the gray wall you’ll notice in some of these shots, is nearly complete. The Hunters Point South project, on the other hand, is just getting started, as evinced by the looming construct being assembled.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Personally, I’ve always preferred deeply buried bunkers for their stolidity and dank charm, but it seems to be a deeply ingrained desire of city dwellers to achieve some sort of altitude over the hive. Taken to extremes, this results in twenty and thirty story residential buildings which house hundreds. One is reminded of the dystopia depicted in the “Judge Dredd” comics wherein whole neighborhoods are housed beneath one roof in a building 2-300 stories tall, one of millions of such structures found in “Mega City One.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The crane constructing the crane was enormous, incidentally, towering over the former Miller Hotel (nowadays the LIC Crab House) where Battle Axe Gleason would sit in a barber chair and greet those who debarked from the LIRR ferry. Gleason was the last mayor of Long Island City, a reputed scoundrel, and his private offices were just around the corner.
Just for the sake of pedantry, the self propelled yellow crane is of the “telescopic” variety and the unit being assembled is a tower crane.
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Want to see something cool? Summer 2013 Walking Tours-
Glittering Realms– Saturday, August 3rd, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets now on sale.
Kill Van Kull– Saturday, August 10, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
13 Steps around Dutch Kills– Saturday, August 17, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
The Newtown Pentacle 