The Newtown Pentacle

Wednesday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Well hello there, my ribbon of municipal neglect, my undefended border of Brooklyn and Queens, my beloved creek. That’s some of the many ways I refer to Newtown Creek, by the way.

Sometimes, a wizard has to return to his place of power.

I met up with a couple of the ‘new guys’ at Newtown Creek Alliance, who were hired after I headed out of New York to Pittsburgh. Hart and Gus, they were named. Nice guys, very young. We were going to take a walk for a couple of hours along the Creek, but first up I wanted to get a look at the new Hunters Point Boat House.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

This was an unnecessarily contentious project, I’d mention, with a lot of Queens, and waterfront, politics involved. Newtown Creek Alliance teamed up with the Hunters Point Park Conservancy for a bid, which ended up succeeding, to run this space. Another group, whom I was quite friendly with, had been attempting to gain control of this spot for a long while and NCA’s decision to gain the space put me in a tight spot.

At the time, I was on the board of NCA, but was also quite intimate with the strategies of the other group. Conflict of interest? Yessir.

I followed the practice of the community boards regarding such conflicts, which is ‘disclose, discuss, don’t vote.’ Thereby I had a conversation with each and everyone involved in the process, explained my conflict of interest, and let them know that when this topic came up I’d leave the room. This was uncomfortable for all involved, but that’s officially the ‘right thing’ to do from a ‘Robert’s Rules of Order’ POV.

I’m sure that some members of that other group, whose goals and programming are both worthy and admirable, are likely reading this. It would be appreciated if mention of this situation didn’t result in a resumption of anonymized trolling, across the internet and wherever I might post a photo or a comment.

Again.

If ‘you’ are reading this, yeah, I know that it was you. I can tell, as anonymizer sites can’t disguise that deadly skill you have behind the keyboard when writing.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

As part of a fairly recent buildout, at what used to the Budweiser distributorship and Daily News Printing Plant property in Hunters Point, which was later used as a hub by the ‘God’s Love We Deliver’ outfit, is now a luxury condo building, with a waterfront area called ‘Brewer’s Park.’ It’s the standard concrete with planters design you see all across the modern waterfronts of NYC.

Used to have to crash through bushes and climb fences in this area…

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The Pulaski Bridge is backed up by one of the new and truly massive structures rising along Borden Avenue.

Remember – years ago – when I told you that the NYC Dept. of City Planning had begun using the term ‘Borden Avenue Corridor’? Whenever City Planning starts using the term ‘corridor,’ you should begin to worry about what’s coming next. When I moved away, they were just starting to float the term ‘Northern Blvd. Corridor,’ regarding the stretch between Woodside and Queens Plaza.

My understanding is that the large structure pictured above is some sort of theatrical production facility, with large sound stages contained within. For reference, this building sits in the former footprint of Fresh Direct.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I couldn’t help but visit the LIRR Wheelspur Yard since I was in the neighborhood, here in DUPBO (Down Under the Pulaski Bridge Onramp).

The homeless colony under the bridge has now taken the form of parked ‘RV’s’ which are permanently sitting there. A little wrinkle of NYC’s parking laws is that if your vehicle has commercial plates (RV’s are classified as trucks or buses, so commercial plates) you can park indefinitely in an ‘M1’ manufacturing zone. Zero enforcement. There are thereby colonies of RV’s all around the Creeklands, which is something that really got started during the COVID lockdowns.

Unless you’ve pissed off Bob Holden or Julie Won or Lincoln Restler, odds are you’ll never see a cop writing a parking ticket around the creek.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

A last stop in DUPBO involved a portrait shot of an old friend, the LIRR engine that’s always running in case of an emergency at the nearby Sunnyside Yards or along the LIRR Main Line. If a train breaks down, this unit will go take over and move the affected train set to a side tracks so as not to block Sunnyside Yards Harold Interlocking – the busiest train junction in the United States.

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.