The Newtown Pentacle

Monday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

My latest inquiries into the urban milieu of Pittsburgh involved a roadway path referred to as either ‘South 18th street’ or the ‘South 18th street extension.’ According to the fairly excellent ‘Pittsburgh Streets’ site, this pathway was originally called Meadow Street in its lower section (as of 1869), with the upper section referred to as the ‘Brownsville Plank Road’ until it was renamed as the ‘South 18th street extension’ in 1881.

Me?

As it happened, opportunity saw your humble narrator driving through here about a week ago while avoiding a traffic situation, and it was decided that I’d like to walk through and see what I could see. The virtue that this sort of street offers is its long slope, which allows one to access the otherwise difficult to exercise musculature in the front of the thigh, specifically the large triangular muscles connecting to the hip. It also really works the calf muscles on the sides of the legs, this sort of slope. In both cases, my long recovery from the broken ankle has seen muscular atrophy set in and I needed a workout, even one that’s only a few miles long.

Off we go.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

First stop involved a quick scuttle into St. Michael’s Catholic Cemetery. I’m notoriously a fan of such mortuary polyandrions, but this was the start of what’s currently a long walk for me and I didn’t want to spend my ‘ankle doesn’t hurt right now’ time in this particular pursuit. It’s a fairly large property, and I intend on returning when I’m behind the wheel of the Mobile Oppression Platform, a Toyota.

Saying that… what? I’m in a cemetery and not getting any shots in?

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Yep, there’s a view. I’ll be back sometime soon when time is propitious.

Regardless, one leaned into the scuttle and started down a fairly steep hill, down towards the South Side Flats section which South 18th street leads to.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

A series of sharp turns awaits drivers on South 18th. My problem, however, involved the actual quality of the substrate I was walking on, but that’s why I chose this path. I won’t be regaining any agility or strength by walking on level carpeted floors, it’ll be by walking on pavers, and broken sidewalks, and weirdly angled pedestrian paths which cause my legs to flex in different ways on each step. A real obstacle course is what I was looking for, and I found it.

The terrain here is extremely steep, with hilltops breaking off suddenly and offering sheer cliff faces which drop off 50-100 feet. Recently. I learned that – on average – 28 people a year die in Pittsburgh from falling off cliffs. Whenever I’m marveling at the terrain, the Pittsburgh natives just kind of yawn. I explain that I’m from a place near the ocean, with neighborhoods called ‘Flatbush,’ and ‘Flatlands.’

– photo by Mitch Waxman

For most of this walk, I was the lone pedestrian. Every now and then, you’d spot somebody getting out of a car, or throwing out the trash.

One thing I had to be careful about was not picking up speed while walking down this sharply graded street. Have to keep on reminding myself that I’m not out of the woods yet, nor as capable as I am normally.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I kept on keeping on, heading down hill. Obviously a great deal easier than walking uphill (that’s this summer at the earliest), nevertheless I was ‘feeling the burn’ after just the first mile of my downhill scuttle.

Back tomorrow with more.

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