Archive for June 10th, 2025
End of the line
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Shlepping through Downtown Pittsburgh, after what ended up being a fairly long walk by my current standards. Started on Rialto Street in Troy Hill way on the other side of the Allegheny River, and here I am scuttling south towards the Monongahela River.
This post is being written and scheduled for publication during the week leading up to my trip back to NYC during the first week of June, so hopefully I didn’t get pushed in front of a subway or suffer an aneurism or something while there.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s funny, people tell me Downtown Pittsburgh is dangerous. Homeless people, drug addicts, the mentally imbalanced – all that. I don’t feel imperiled at all, but definitely maintain a ‘street posture’ in this zone. Junkies are unpredictable. The last time a junkie came at me, it was in LIC and during the pandemic at night. He didn’t like it at all when I jammed my right thumb into his eye, not one bit. Brooklyn, 1980’s, right here.
Saying all that, you’ve seen worse in NYC and elsewhere. I certainly have.
Anyone remember Larry ‘Wild Man’ Hague from Manhattan’s upper west side in the 90’s. I do. That was a dangerous ‘creature of the streets’ if ever there was one. I can attest to the news article’s reporting that he would set fires under parked cars, for fun, on 96th bet Amsterdam and Broadway.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Nearing the Smithfield Street Bridge over the Monongahela River, and for some reason a truck passing by on the highway below (I-376) caught my eye. This road leads to both the Fort Duquesne Bridge and the Fort Pitt Bridge and tunnel, which are sort of the ‘master cylinders’ for traffic in Pittsburgh. A slow down at either span ripples forth and miles outwards in minutes, affecting the entire city’s traffic.
Of course, I was on foot while shooting and at that moment couldn’t have given two shits about traffic problems. I wanted to drink a beer, damnit! Priorities!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After crossing the river, I was making my way to my favorite little brewery when a train appeared on the Norfolk Southern tracks high above. It wasn’t a Norfolk Southern locomotive, and its color way branding could indicate either the white whale Allegheny Valley RR or another seldom spotted local rail outfit. Couldn’t tell.
Life is a bit sweeter with some mystery in it, I always say.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A film crew had blocked my normal path to the beer taps, so a course correction was instituted. That alteration led to a set of city steps, which is somehow fitting since this walk started with another set of steps back on Rialto Street. PTSD was absolutely singing an aria in my head during this moment, and I was grasping at the bannister like my life depended on it.
I will get over this, as it just ‘mishegoss.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Finally, with a glass of cold lager in front of me, I got to sit down and wait for the trains to come to me. The CSX Pittsburgh Subdivision tracks seldom disappoint. My drink was soon finished, the tab paid, and a rideshare car was summoned to return me back to nearby Dormont.
Back tomorrow with something different – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
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