Archive for May 2025
Homesteading
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Easter Sunday found me lurking in the confines of Homestead, PA.
That’s a meditative labyrinth in the shot above, and I hung around this spot for about twenty minutes until some group of hippies who were walking it had moved on. I had zero hope for a train moving over that bridge, although it’s something I look for whenever I’m in this area.
Circumstance had carried me here, but I wasn’t really ‘feeling it’ as far as walking and shooting goes. There’s great opportunities nearby, but not so much on Easter Sunday. Trains in particular were completely absent, which is saying something amazing for anyone who is familiar with the normal frequency of locomotive traffic in Homestead.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The campus of the former steel mill here has been converted into a sprawling shopping and entertainment complex called ‘The Waterfront,’ which seems to be pretty successful. The actual town of Homestead is up in the hills overlooking the Waterfront. It’s kind of different banana up there, observationally, but I’ve only chatted with a few people that live in this area. One friend hated it, and complained constantly about the train noise. As soon as his lease was up, he moved away seeking quiet.
The longer I live in Pittsburgh, the more that I perceive ‘corridors.’ When people move around in the region, they’ll stick to these corridors. Sometimes the corridor is formed by a high speed or volume road, such as a highway or an interstate, but it could also be a high volume local road that forms the corridor. I began exploring this concept back in Queens, when I would call Northern Blvd. ‘The Carridor’ or talk about Roosevelt Avenue as being the ‘7 train corridor’ and so on.
Homestead seems to be part of a ‘corridor’ which includes nearby Munhall and Duquesne, West Mifflin, Rankin, Swissvale, Braddock, Clairton, which are all connected physically by a series of ‘back roads’ running through the hills, and socially by churches and the diasporic families which attend their services. These back roads were carved out of the landscape by the steel industry, apparently, and residential development just followed the roads.
Fascinating.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I decided to get all fancy for this one, given that without the razzle dazzle of a train moving over the bridge it was otherwise a fairly plain image… so the tripod was set up, and a filter applied to the lens and… well there you are.
Back tomorrow with something different – 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.
Remains of that day
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After a four mile walk, your humble narrator was waving around a wide angle lens, for a last few shots before heading back home to Dormont. I did stop off at the nearby brewery I like, the one alongside the CSX train tracks, and had a recovery lager before summoning a ride back to HQ. The ankle was pissed off.
Pictured above is part of Colors Park, where graffiti and street artists are invited to add their flourished to the place. Great spot this.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another CSX train shot past me, and I’m sorry to say that running over to and climbing on top of a series of concrete jersey barriers to get the shot isn’t in the cards at the moment.
When crossing streets or just moving around the world right now, I have to constantly say ‘Mitch, you can’t run right now’ to myself. You know things are serious when my inner voice addresses me by name.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The end of this scuttle, and the last shot from this particular excursion. At the right is the City’s jail. The Liberty and Panhandle Bridges are in the center, and Downtown Pittsburgh is in the background. That’s the Monongahela River, of course.
Back tomorrow with something different – 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.
Wide angle scuttling
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After scuttling down quite a steep hill, and traipsing across an urban flood plain, your humble narrator finally arrived at the waterfront trail adjoining the Monongahela River here in Pittsburgh. This was the final leg of a constitutional walk, and right around here is where my legs transmogrified from meat into being composed entirely of lead weights.
I will work harder. Push, push, push.
For some quirky reason, I decided this would be a great spot to change lenses, and loaded a 16mm wide angle prime lens onto the camera gizmo.
Gotta have some fun every now and then, ay?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A CSX train appeared on the other side of some verge, but because I had just added the wide angle thingamabob to the equation, there was no zooming in on it or anything. Saying that, I think that’s kind of an interesting shot above, but I don’t know why.
Along I limped. It was getting quite warm out, and as mentioned above: this was the section of the walk where I ran ‘out of gas.’ Fatigue doesn’t exactly sneak up on me in this post broken ankle interval, but when it does arrive, swinging your leg out for the next step becomes a bit of an act of will. My intention for the day was to exercise, and that tends to bring a some soreness into the equation.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The South Tenth street bridge, lurking along the trail, used to be the center of a rather large homeless colony, just last summer. It’s an election year, however, and Pittsburgh’s Mayor (who reminds me a LOT of the Dope from Park Slope, Bill de Blasio) is being primaried. Don’t know enough about Pittsburgh politics to even try and understand or comment on the situation, but it’s interesting to watch how things play out.
Back tomorrow.
“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.
Slopes to flats
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described last week, your humble narrator was engaged in walking a downward sloping section of the milieu here in Pittsburgh, in pursuance of exercising several otherwise hard to hit muscle groups in my atrophied legs.
Said atrophy had been caused by the ‘recovery from the broken ankle situation,’ which I do realize that it seems I never stop mentioning.
Sorry about constantly bringing it up, but it’s been a pretty impactful experience for me and it’s become one of the ‘book end’ events with which I’ll be using to differentiate the various sections of my timeline. Book ends are what I call life changing events – graduate school, first job, marriage, death of your parents, etc. The ankle and it’s aftermath also has become a delimiter to my movements, and thereby omnipresent.
I soon found myself limping down South 18th street, a pathway which I’ve shown y’all before. This scuttle began in the South Side Slopes area, and it was all downhill on the walk until I reached the South Side Flats section which occupies the flood plain of the Monongahela River.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When you get to the Flats area, the first thing you notice is the strict homogeneity of much of the housing stock. I always refer to this kind of row houses as ‘Philadelphia Style,’ with narrow sidewalk pavement and little to no space between buildings. Directly across the street from these houses is a busy railroad trestle which carries Norfolk Southern traffic, and it provides a neat division between ‘slopes’ and ‘flats’ here on the south shore of the Monongahela.
Yeah, I did hang around the tracks for a while, but at the time of day I was passing through – nada – as far as trains. As is usually the case, as soon as you get far enough away from the tracks to make it impossible to photograph the scene, you hear a train coming through. Sigh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I showed y’all a view from the opposite side of this newly cleared parcel of land a few weeks ago, a point of view some three city blocks away. This time around though, the camera was already wearing a lens that could fit through a chain link fence, I’d offer.
Back tomorrow with more.
“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.
All downhill from here
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Every now and then, I’ll be driving somewhere and spot an interesting or oddball situation which I make note of for a future exploration on foot.
To wit, a recent diversion due to street construction forced me into driving down St. Patrick’s Street in the South Side Slopes, here in Pittsburgh, to get from ‘A’ to ‘B.’ While negotiating its steep grade and winding path, a mental note to walk this route was filed and ‘here we are.’
The housing stock you observe in this area is disturbingly heterogeneous. If you encounter two buildings that are from the same plan (as above), write that down and comment on their homogeneity. Part of this lack of a standard typology of design, of course, is due to the terrain and the unique opportunities and challenges of each parcel. Properties here, observably, can display a height differential of as much as twenty to thirty feet from one side of a lot to the other. Retaining walls, and other accommodating infrastructure to combat landslides and gravity, are everywhere you look. It’s wild.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The landform here is part of Mount Washington, which is basically a tall ridge overlooking the Monongahela River. The other side of this prominence slopes away in a comparatively shallow fashion towards a region called the ‘South Hills,’ where HQ in the borough of Dormont can distantly be found. The roads here are narrow, too narrow in fact to require sidewalks for most of the downward course. Urban forest fills in the edges of, and areas between, the real estate parcels.
Speaking of, valuations seem to be all the place in this area, ranging from the mid $100 thousands all the way past the half million mark. There’s also open lots for sale, which is kind of interesting, given the recent popularity of Yurts.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
St. Patrick’s street itself offers a series of switchback curves on the downward path, and it eventually leads towards South 18th street. I’m certain, from the shape of the topology, that water flowed through the interchange area between them, probably still does beneath the asphalt. There’s a shallow angled set of steps which allows egress from one to the other, city infrastructure which I took advantage of.
My legs got the workout I was seeking.
Back next week with more from the south side of the Monongahela River, here in Pittsburgh – 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 