The Newtown Pentacle

Thursday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

McKees Rocks is a borough municipality pretty close to the center of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, and it’s found alongside the Ohio River and to the west of Downtown Pittsburgh and all the sportsball stadiums. It’s a fairly dangerous place, I’m told, and according to the official statistics you’ve got a 1 in 61 chance of becoming a victim of a violent crime hereabouts. In the rest of Pennsylvania that chance is 1 in 357 (which includes… Philadelphia…). McKees Rocks is considered to be safer than just 1% of all U.S. cities, and the violent crime rate here is 16.47%.

The people who live here are stressed economically. McKees Rocks’ has a high real estate vacancy rate of nearly 20%, despite the average rental unit going for about $1,200 a month, and there are a surprising number of its residents who are living alone – nearly 61%. Average per capita income here is lower than in 99.6% of the country, let alone the local Pittsburgh region. 2/3’s of the kids who grow up here will do so in dire poverty.

There is a higher rate of childhood poverty in McKees Rocks than in 98% of all communities in these United States. 7.1% of the population in McKees Rocks speaks Polish exclusively at home, with 88.5% of them speaking English, and there’s a concentrated population of Slavs (Yugoslav and Polish) here. There’s also quite a few Spanish speakers, a growing population of South East Asians hailing from the subcontinent of India, and a sizable African American contingent that resides here as well. Add in the standard northeastern mix of immigrant descendants – Irish, Italians, German, etc. and you’ve got the recipe.

I’ve been meaning to take a ride through here for a while. Sounds like my kind of place. Dire, industrial, dangerous…

– photo by Mitch Waxman

That’s the McKees Rocks bridge, spanning a series of rail tracks, pictured above. It’s the longest span offered by a bridge in Allegheny County, at 7,293 feet and the thing was built in 1931. It overflies the Ohio River, and is currently receiving a good amount of maintenance by road crews. The tracks are CSX’s, which they share with the Pittsburgh and Ohio Central Railroad (one of the railroad ‘white whales’ which I haven’t seen or photographed yet). A lot of that CSX traffic, which I often photograph along the Monongahela River at that brewery I like, originates here.

This section of McKees Rocks is called ‘The Bottoms.’ Historically speaking, this area was about iron and steel and manufacturing locomotives – engines, cars, that whole deal. They’re still doing that here, I’d mention, but on a far smaller scale than formerly. There’s a highly desecrated but notable Native American burial mound nearby, but it’s inaccessible and on private property, and is protected by antiquities law.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Nearby, found on the Ohio River, is a landform called ‘Neville Island.’ I’ve taken a few looks at the place, but it’s definitely something I want to get all granular about in the future. Lots of heavy industry and rail infrastructure on that island. Fascinating place.

As a note: I’m not doing a tour of Pittsburgh’s most challenged neighborhoods currently. You might think so after a few posts from Hazelwood last week, and now a visit to the McKees Rocks Bottoms. Instead, since I’m stuck with taking the car with me everywhere right now due to the ankle recovery deal, I’m trying to hit some areas a little bit further away than I can walk to and others where walking about might incur unexpected consequences.

Back tomorrow with more, at this, your Newtown Pentacle.

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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.