Archive for January 2023
allegheny cemetery
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While Our Lady of the Pentacle was enjoying herself at an event occurring at the Pittsburgh Convention Center in the “Downtown” area, a humble narrator was busy exploring. One of the places on my list was Allegheny Cemetery, which I’d describe as being “Pittsburgh’s First Calvary,” although it actually predates Calvary’s founding by four years.
I’m glad that I drove there, as a note. The hills and valleys of Pittsburgh are physically daunting. As I’ve said to a few of the locals since arriving – I grew up in places with names like “Flatbush” or “Flatlands.” A walk in NYC is a walk across an alluvial flood plain, and even in hilly areas like Maspeth or Northern Manhattan, there’s nothing like the crazy changes in elevation you’ll encounter in Pittsburgh on just a single block. It’s taking a lot of getting used to, conquering these hills. I find myself having to stop and take a break mid block to allow my heart rate to simmer down.
Just a matter of getting used to it, I suppose. Saying that, the street I live on has a hill which rockets your “beats per minute” heart rate up into territories I normally only experience on the treadmill that my team of Doctors would make me run on during “stress tests.” It’s physical here, yo, but I’m still fat as a house after the COVID years and need the exercise so… win?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Allegheny Cemetery actually hosts a pond at its prominence, which was unfortunately providing a habitat to a pile of those noisome Canada Goose dicks. Nasty animals, the Canada Gooses.
The surrounding neighborhood around Allegheny Cemetery seems to house a large number of youngish people, suggesting to me that college students populate the area in large numbers. The residential housing stock nearby Allegheny Cemetery is reminiscent of Philadelphia, with row houses connected by narrow sidewalk pavement. These row houses are set up along tightly constrained roads that clearly predate motor vehicles, where people park their cars half up on the sidewalk so as not to block traffic. There is a significant commercial/nightlife footprint nearby as well, with large beer breweries and restaurants.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hundreds of people were hiking about in the cemetery, which is truly enormous. I was driving around on the cemetery’s roads, pulling over occasionally to get out of the driver’s seat and wave the camera about, but I’d only consider this first encounter as being a scouting mission.
Of course, the first thing I do is go to a cemetery.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As you’d imagine, there’s several “notables” buried here. Who are they and what did they do to be notable? That’s something I’m planning on figuring out in the spring. My main goal for the last few weeks, other than handling the “have to’s” and making sure that the new digs are outfitted properly, has been to try and learn my way around. As you’re reading this, I’m actively beginning to look for a job.
Most of the phone based navigation software I’ve tried – Google maps, Waze, etc. – fails tragically in the vertical mazes that Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods offer. The software seems determined to put me on highways rather than local streets, and it never misses an opportunity to have me circle through residential areas which can mean climbing and descending a 1,000 feet in altitude for absolutely no reason.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Saying that, I’ve begun to be able to get back home from a few different points without getting lost, and the beginnings of a mental map of “turn here” landmarks has started to form.
In the case of this particular day, however, my pathway was more or less paralleled to the Allegheny River on the north side of the triangular center of Pittsburgh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The burning thermonuclear eye of God itself was dipping down in the sky, and I still had an hour to kill prior to picking up Our Lady of the Pentacle at our designated time and spot. I began making my way back towards the local street grid outside of the cemetery. So much to see.
I will be back to Allegheny Cemetery, however.
“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.
new paradigm
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
So, after dealing with an all day drive in one horrific rain storm on November 30th, we had finally made it out of NYC. Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself had now “officially” picked up stakes, and moved westwards some 400 miles to the pretty City of Pittsburgh. On our first night in the new climes, we decided to head out for a fancy pants celebratory dinner. Pictured above is the Smithfield Street Bridge along the Monongahela River, which I spotted while heading out for the meal.
First up in 2023, let me explain a thing or two – for the last 13 years, whenever I was assigning a title to a post here at Newtown Pentacle (and a lot of people have asked about this over the years, which I’d usually refuse to answer) I’d flip open a book of HP Lovecraft’s short stories and find some random two word phrase on the page and use that for a title. The titles were thereby absolutely random and had zero to do with the rest of the post. As of 2023, that conceit is done, and going forward the titles of the postings here will be representive of what’s going on in the post, and act as an actual “title.” Second thing is that since I no longer have a deep background understanding of what I’m looking at, or writing about, as I did in NYC, you’re invited to come along with me as I discover the wonders of this new place.
Odds are I’m going to get stuff wrong (particularly at the start), or misinterpret something I’m hurriedly researching. If that’s the case, and you know better, I’m begging you to share your knowledge in the comments or by email, and educate not just a humble narrator but everybody else reading this publication.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The fancy pants restaurant we ate at is found in the old “P&LERR” or Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Rail Road building found nearby the Smithfield Street Bridge. This structure is an anchor for a post industrial redevelopment operation they’ve got going on there which is dubbed “Station Square.” The restaurant we ate at was called the “Grand Concourse” and it was a pretty great dinner. The building, and in particular, the restaurant space we were in, has been restored beautifully to its 19th century glory, and is ultra well maintained. A “cathedral of capitalism” indeed.
That’s another thing that’s going to be a bit different moving forward which I’d like to mention. When Newtown Pentacle first appeared, I made sure that links to sources and “primaries” were included in the narrative. Over the years, as I ended up becoming more and more the de facto “authority” on the subject of Newtown Creek (in particular), these posts became a lot more conversational and colloquial and I would just throw down a statement without any backup or external link. There came a point, somewhere around 2015 or 2016 that I just decided you could “take my word for this.” Also, particularly over the last couple of COVID years the posts here have transformed into a sort of journal for whatever I was up to, where I was going, or to explore whatever governmental hi-jinx I was privy to and able to discuss publicly. That’s also over, as far as this being a “journal” type site. I’ve got too much to learn here.
The way I learn things involves photographing, researching, and writing about them. Pittsburgh is largely a mystery to me, and you’re invited along on the journey as I try to figure it out.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
We’ve moved into the Borough of Dormont in Pittsburgh’s South Hills. I truly wish I could explain the complicated governance structure they’ve got here, but I find it truly bewildering at this moment. The “City of Pittsburgh” versus all of the annexed or incorporated municipal entities which are part of it but have their own separate governments, and elected officials, is something I still haven’t wrapped my head around. A good way to understand any municipality, I think, is to look at how they organize their Cops and Fire Departments.
On a related side note to that statement, we got to Dormont just as the Fire Dept.’s of Dormont and its surrounding communities were staging a holiday parade which – of course – I had to go photograph. As you’ll see, there’s lots of local Fire Departments.
Last time I was in town, I started a conversation with a couple of Pennsylvania State Troopers and asked how “Cop things” worked here. I explained to the officers that my lifetime experience was with NYPD, wherein 38,000 Police Officers work under a common command structure, rules, and academy training. The PA cops – after asking me to confirm again that NYPD’s active duty force numbers 38,000 (to which their jaws dropped open) – said that there are several local colleges which offer a curriculum in Law Enforcement. Upon graduation, you’re either recruited by or apply to one of the many City Police, State Police, or Sheriff departments in the area. What’s confusing to me is that whereas there are similarities in uniforms, equipment, and vehicles, I’ve noticed the different flavors of Cop hereabouts do things very differently from each other – operationally speaking. It’s all very confusing, really.
Pictured above is one of the features that made Dormont attractive to us, which is a street car line called the “T.” The vast majority of “getting around” here revolves around automobiles, but the T is fairly well used. I like the concept of not having to drive when I don’t want to.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pictured above is the view from the backyard deck of our new digs in Dormont, where it is quiet and dark at night. The first night we were in the new house – which hosts not just a dishwasher but a washer and drier AND one of those refrigerators you see on TV that does cold water and crushed ice, with a driveway and garage which are all mine – a deer walked into our yard and gave us a once over look before huffing it’s nose and wandering away into the darkness. This is what 4.3 miles from the titular center of the City, and four blocks from that street car line, look likes here.
Our Lady of the Pentacle was anxious to take part in an event going on in that downtown city center mentioned above a couple of days after we arrived, and we packed into the car. I had zero interest in this event, so I dropped her off at the Convention Center where it was being held, and then I headed eastwards along the Allegheny River or “North Side” to explore a bit on my own.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Freight rail regularly transits through Pittsburgh, and by Springtime I plan on having a mental map of where these tracks are, and what travels on them and when. I also have to figure out a “system” as far as shooting photos with a car involved. This is a whole new world for me, not sweating how I’m going to shave a half pound out of my camera bag because I’ll have to carry it on my back for eight miles of walking.
My explorations have been both limited and enhanced by the amount of “have-to’s” involved with setting up housekeeping here. Pittsburgh is full of surprises, and it pays to lift the occasional stone to see what’s crawling around underneath it. While seeking out a Walmart to buy groceries and a few things we needed for the house from, I inadvertently found myself atop “Brown’s Dump” in the community of West Mifflin about 20 minutes from Dormont. Wow.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
An interesting thing I’ve noticed in this post industrial City is that it has a lot of available land. That land might be historically poisonous due to the heaviest industrial footprints you can think of – steel mills, petrochemical and gas manufacturing, all of that – but there’s a lot of it. What that abundance of land means is that there’s virtually no financial imperative to build “up” as you would in the NYC area, and thereby businesses tend to build out horizontally. The Walmart SuperCenter in West Mifflin mentioned above, for instance, could easily house both Kings Plaza and the Queens Center Mall in Elmhurst within its walls. That’s one store, mind you, in a complex of similarly airplane hangar sized buildings purposed towards big box stores, such as the aforementioned Walmart SuperCenter or Sam’s Club and Dick’s Sporting Goods.
I spent the late afternoon trawling about Pittsburgh, looking at stuff, making notes to return to certain locations, and causing concern for various security guards about the weird guy in a filthy black raincoat waving a camera around, while Our Lady did her thing.
More tomorrow 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 