Archive for March 2020
dominant figure
What can I complain about next?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One wishes that the Mayor would hang “suggestion boxes” around the City. A new division of the municipal hive called the “Complaint Department” could be formed. This would be the thing that caused me to actually work for the City, as I’d want to be the Commissioner of Complaining. In many ways, this would be a dream come true, and everything my Mother warned me against being like would finally pay some dividends. My pal, Special Ed, once opined that he’d like to start a consulting business offering “freelance unsolicited criticism.” His business model would involve walking into a bank, for instance, and letting the manager know that the velvet ropes were arranged incorrectly, for which Ed would submit a bill.
What makes Ed so “special”? Once he moved into the wrong apartment building, and he still stores his clothing in the refrigerator. We used to live in the same building on the upper west side of Manhattan and he was my “Kramer.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Recent endeavor found one scuttling towards the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge on an evening constitutional. A few times along the way one was overcome by ennui, and found himself crying while down on his knees and shaking his fist in the general direction of Lower Manhattan. I’m fairly happy, actually, about the complete overreaction by the Dept. of Buildings regarding that poor woman who was struck by a chunk of falling masonry over in Manhattan which has taken the form of erecting scaffolding around City owned structures to vouchsafe against liability, since I like taking pictures of scaffolded corridors. Also, they provide me with shelter from rain, sun, and a variety of sky based biblical plagues (the falling frogs, in particular). I get involved with a lot of biblical plagues during my rounds.
I didn’t have a particular path in mind for this walk, incidentally, other than trying to avoid using any of my normal “routes.” It’s very simple for a creature of habit like me to find himself continually using the same pathway, but since everybody secretly or not so secretly hates me, I need to worry about assassins exploiting my predictability.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Look at that will ya? The deserted streets, the loneliness, vulnerability… nepenthe.
I for one welcome the Corona Virus, since it means that there will be fewer humans hereabouts. For decades one has opined that what this City needs is a good plague to force everyone to straighten up and fly right. I’ve also advocated for armed conflict with New Jersey, an internecine war of attrition between Brooklyn and Queens, and that the best solution for Heroin Addiction is to give addicts as much Heroin as they want since it would get them to the obvious conclusion of their hobby quicker.
One is not a terribly nice man. I pretend and aspire to be better than my nature, but there’s only so much subterfuge I can offer. Recently, I realized that I dress like Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars. If only I could shoot that purple lightning from my fingertips…
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“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.
pencilled notes
To distraction, it drives me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of the dodges often offered by the governmental crowd is the avoidance of specifics when they’re trying to sell you the latest flavor of kool aid they’ve been cooking up in City Hall. To wit, the Green Infrastructure/bioswale/rain garden story which the NYC DEP “sells and tells” is scientifically valid, but they refuse to prove it so by using numbers. In short – the various wastewater treatment plants which NYC owns and operates, there are 14 of them, have a set engineered capacity for how many gallons of wastewater that they can handle. Given that it rains more than it used to, and there’s also a lot more toilets flushing than there used to be, one option for handling the design capacity overage would be to finance and build a series of additional sewer plants. That particular choice would be expensive, both fiscally and politically. Another option is to increase the amount of open soil in the drainage area serviced by the existing 14 so that instead of going into a sewer, rainfall and other precipitation soaks into the ground and soil. Problem there is that the ground in NYC is largely coated in cement and concrete. What’s the answer then? Rain Gardens, right?
You open up some of the soil, as in thousands of acres citywide, and you’ve extended the design capacity and service life of your 14 sewer plants for another couple of decades. Those thousands of acres would be aggregate, of course, tap holes of small size, scattered around the various neighborhoods in strategic spots which would drink up “x” number of gallons of rain.
You add the open spots up, you’ve achieved the vast acreages. Simple, right?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
According to the building guides used by architects who want to construct things in the megalopolis, a square acre of land in NYC can be expected to accumulate (if memory serves) 22.7 inches of rain per year. Don’t expect one such as myself to accurately calculate the number of gallons that represents, but the idea here is that there is actually a calculable number which can be arrived at. Rain Gardens, which in their current form are about a yard (or meter) long on the short side and about three meters (or yards) on the long side, are engineered structures which Government employees are designing and installing. Government employees – and in particular Civil Engineers – do not “guess” when they’re spending your tax money. There is a calculation somewhere which dictates that “x” number of bioswale/rain gardens equate to “y” number of gallons being diverted from the sewers. DEP has instead constantly told me that they are essentially crossing their fingers and hoping for the best with their “Green Infrastructure” initiative. Even in private meetings, they say this.
That’s when I opine that they are lying to my face, that engineers do not cross their fingers and hope for the best, and I ask them why they are treating this like a state secret. Funnily, I believe that the Green Infrastructure program is fantastic, and represents the sort of lateral thinking which I espouse. Gordian Knot, anyone?
A bit of quick Google fu indicates that a single inch of water covering a square acre would represent roughly 27,154 gallons, and multiplying that amount by 23 gives you roughly 624,548 gallons per square acre. I suck at math, so this is probably off, but “State secret,” right?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Other than wanting to run the shots that were captured during last Friday’s rain storm, the thing that set me off on this topic was actually where I was going on Friday night. The CB1 Astoria Community Board Environmental Committee – which I’m a member of – invited representatives of an outfit called “Solar One” to come and discuss the requirements and nuances of a new series of local laws that address climate change and carbon emissions here in NYC. When queried about how many theoretical acres of NYC rooftop which the new law required for conversion to solar, and what number of kilowatt hours that acreage would result in as far as harvesting power from passive collection, the answer was “it depends” and that “we haven’t calculated that.” Sound familiar?
Why treat it like a state secret? I’m certainly “for this,” and being evasive with answers is not how you create allies who will help sell this plan to their neighbors.
“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.
dampened brow
Terrifying.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
So, as mentioned in yesterday’s post, the plan for last night involved the Flushing Bay Promenade and a presentation by the NYC Parks Dept. about the World’s Fair Marina, which is a project I’m paying attention to for some reason. My plan and path was fairly simple, take the R line subway to Jackson Heights and transfer to the 7, which would take me to the Citifield Willets stop, and then I’d walk down Seaver Way (sigh), under Northern Blvd. and the Grand Central Parkway elevated ramps and north to the World’s Fair Promenade waterfront.
This is what passed for a pedestrian path, basically the paved shoulder of an Onramp for the Grand Central and a local road turnoff for one of the Park’s parking lots.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Traffic was literally whizzing by no more than a few feet from that waist height guard rail you see. Standing behind a stout light post, while one cracked out a few shots, an attendant for the parking lot was sweeping something up on the other side of that iron fence, and the fellow informed me that the only way to access his side of the fence would be by walking around on to the local street’s exit shoulder. What?
What?
This is officially part of Flushing Meadow Corona Park I’m talking about getting to, a long block away from the Mets, and you have to walk on an unpaved and unshielded shoulder? What? Carcentric much?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Y’know, it takes a special and noteworthy kind of genius to design a human trap like this.
It’s also noteworthy that a guy who wanders around Newtown Creek’s industrial neighborhoods at night can be reduced to absolutely pooping his pants with terror while trying to access a NYC Park. What?
Just for reference’s sake, here’s what it looked like on the other side.
“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.
current crimes
There’s always the 7 train.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Owing to the sudden departure of my mac, and the associated digital tumult, these shots are a few weeks old, so apologies. This seems to be the way my life operates – just when I managed to get a healthy rhythm going after the smashed toe drama ended, another disaster occurs. One should be out and about this evening, recording the sort of amazing landscape which Western Queens offers, but as far as right now and today goes – it’s a few archive shots of the 7 train coming and going in LIC.
Above, a Manhattan bound train is descending into the Hunters Point Avenue station off of the steel causeway that carries it over the Sunnyside Yards and the MTA’s Arch Street train maintenance facility.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Also at the Hunters Point 7 station, this IRT Flushing line train is Queens bound, and was the one which a humble narrator boarded on his way to Queensboro Plaza. Let’s face it, there’s a lot of “math” we New Yorkers do when using the MTA system. The particular equation one such as myself often calculates, which should simply be about the fastest way home, factors in “pain in the ass” variables. I will avoid a transfer at Herald Square at all costs, for instance, as the station sits on a hellmount. That’s why it’s always so hot there.
On this particular afternoon, sometime last month as I recall, I had just conducted a walking tour of Skillman Avenue for a group of Sunnyside Yards Deck opponents. It was fairly chilly out, and the 7 would carry me to Queensboro Plaza where I could transfer to an N line train which would turn up 31st street and deposit me on Broadway. A short walk would then find me walking in the door to HQ. I could have ridden the 7 out to Jackson Heights, and transferred at Roosevelt Avenue to an R train which would stop a few blocks closer to HQ, but that could have ended up being a “pain in the ass.” Especially so on the weekends.
Remember, the “A” in MTA is for “adventure.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Beside the “pain” factor, one of my absolute favorite shots in the entire subway system is that of the 7 pulling into Queensboro Plaza with the Silvercup Bakeries sign behind it. What’s a ten block walk as compared to a two block walk when there’s a photo worth taking involved with the former?
Pfagh.
“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.
minuscule message
Ughhh… Manhattan.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One has experienced a trying few days. To start, I had to go to Manhattan over the weekend to attend a lecture involving maps and Newtown Creek, so… had to go into the City. For those of you reading this new to the area, most of us who grew up in NYC will refer to Manhattan as “The City.” Secondly, I made my way over to Sunnyside on Sunday to photograph the St. Pat’s Day for All parade, since I had many acquaintances and friends who march in it. Lastly, while developing Sunday’s parade shots, and Saturday’s City photos, my computer up and died on me mid edit.
Not sure yet if the device is recoverable, as it’s about ten years out of manufacture date. This began a significantly annoying process for me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Freelancing out of the office here at HQ, one has seldom encountered problems with the Mac, but they have happened on occasion. Accordingly, a humble narrator is fairly adept at solving and fixing both the bugbears and the kernel panics when they appear. Unfortunately, what’s going on at the moment seems to be a hardware issue, and as mentioned, this is a fairly old computer. It’s in tip top shape, otherwise, and has been working like a champ for years and years.
Luckily, a fairly modern laptop is available to me most of the day, and a quickly arrived at install of the Adobe Creative Cloud software is now on it. I’m trying to recreate the highly specific photo developing environment found on my Mac tower, but this hasn’t been the easiest task so far. My old tower ran a comparatively archaic form of Photoshop, so the new app offers a bit of a learning curve, and the work flow can resume albeit a bit slower. The only good news in all this is I’ve finally got an updated series of lens correction profiles in photoshop.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
If things look a bit odd for the next couple of days, it’s because I’m moving these images through unfamiliar digital terrain. This entire situation is categorically one I did not need, and is akin to an auto accident. Ideally, I’d love to get the old machine up and running again, and I’m going to try a few other fairly esoteric methods to access and repair it. Thing is, if it’s hardware – as in a failed component…
I’d have to bring the damn thing into the City to get it fixed, which is a “maybe.”
“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 