June 17, 2025 11:00 am
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Long Island City. All this has been built out without a single new firehouse, or police station, or sewer plant, or even a single new hospital bed. Great planning, NYC. The amount of new construction that has occurred here just in the last three years is frankly staggering. It’s not like there were just shacks here prior to my departure, but holy smokes.
The building on the left side of the shot above sits on top of a benzene plume, as it was built in the footprint of a former Standard Oil canning factory, as well as a ‘white lead’ factory, and a paint manufacturing outfit.
The source of the benzene surprised the heck out of City Planning and the developer when the State environmental people made an issue of it during the ‘Brownfield Opportunity Areas Remediation’ era. After the third try at remediating the benzene, it was decided to just dig a deep hole and then fill it with stone excavated from the second avenue subway project. Once the stone was in the pit, the tests for benzene came back ‘clean enough,’ so they built the residential tower after excavating all the loose but clean stones. Benzene? Still down there, probably.
History is important, especially so with personally observed narratives.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hunters Point on the left, Greenpoint on the right. Look at that, will ya?
It’s like an invasion of blue glass and steel monoliths has occurred, an incursion that seems to be entirely focused on embedding a dense urban population on and around current (Newtown Creek) and future (East River) superfund sites. Tens of thousands are housed in those giant shiny rhombuses, on land that was once called ‘the workshop of America.’
What could go wrong?
Seriously Mitch, ya bleeding heart NIMBY lib: show me one recent example where the ambitions of the Real Estate industry and their thralls in City Government – regarding the post industrial landscape of the outer Boroughs and specifically the ill advised idea of spurring residential real estate development around Federal Superfund sites – has ever steered the municipal ship wrongly or gone badly. Just one example?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Bah.
A NYC DEP Sludge Boat was exiting Newtown Creek just as the ferry I was riding on passed it by. Largest sewer plant in NYC is about a mile back from the Gold Coast of the east river. It drains Manhattan below 79th street, but don’t pay attention to that, the asphalt plants, or the waste transfer yards.
Amenities. What amenities do the luxury towers offer? Foot buttering?
The sky has been stolen. For comparison, here’s a similar ‘POV’ from 2009.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My usual bad luck held up for this trip. I arrived in NYC just as ‘summertime swamp ass’ season did. It was hot, hazy, and humid the entire time I was in town. When walking around with my full pack on my back during the next few days, your humble narrator was literally dripping with sweat.
Also, ‘bah!’
I had crafted a fairly ambitious schedule for myself. I wanted to see certain people and places, and there was a pretty decent amount of intra urban travel involved in doing that. As described yesterday, this journey started at one in the morning, so I also needed to plan fatigue and diminishing returns in as well. To complicate matters, I was carrying four days worth of clothing in addition to all my camera gear.
That’s the ConEd facility which exploded during Hurricane Sandy, btw.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Ferry turned into the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and that DEP Sludge Boat seen exiting Newtown Creek was now maneuvering under the Williamsburg Bridge, with Manhattan as a backdrop as an FDNY Fire Boat motored by. This is the sort of thing I’ve missed, living in Pittsburgh. There, you have to go looking for ‘it’ and usually wait around a bit. In NYC, it’s a rapid fire and visually rich environment composed of concretized ambition. ‘It’ comes to you. Gotta be quick, head on a swivel.
I’ve also missed bitching about NYC as well, so thanks for indulging me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My Pal Val and I began readying ourselves for the next leg of things, which involved a debate about which ferry to take and where. We were initially going to try for a free transfer to the Rockaway boat, but it’s was seriously crowded and we decided instead to shlep over to the Staten Island Ferry for the best free attraction in NYC.
More on that tomorrow.
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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.
Posted by Mitch Waxman
Categories: East River, Long Island City, newtown creek
Tags: East River, Long Island City, New York City, newtown creek, photowalk
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