The Newtown Pentacle

Friday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Down Under the Long Island Expressway, aka the Borden Avenue Street End in Queens’ Long Island City.

This spot was the scene of an traffic accident during the Covid lockdowns which involved three fellows, who drove through this section at an outrageous speed – according to the NYPD – and their car ended up submerged in the waters of Newtown Creek’s Dutch Kills tributary. The experience was fatal for the trio, and the powers that be decided to close off this dead end section of Borden Avenue to traffic. A group of skaters then turned the street into an ad hoc skate park, and a couple of guys I know started to work on reconditioning the street end itself. I should mention that there’s people living in shipping containers which are found on the other side of that fencing under the LIE, as that’s an important fact to know, somehow.

After having walked from Hunters Point to Blissville with a couple of the new people at Newtown Creek Alliance, this was my next stop.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

They’ve been busy.

This used to be a location that you’d need to hold thorny branches back to access, and it was a favorite location for illegal dumping. It’s kind of welcoming, nowadays, and I took the opportunity to enjoy the shade offered by the LIE and chill out for a few minutes.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The tripod was deployed, as was a neutral density filter. I hadn’t gotten ‘artsy fartsy’ yet on this trip, and felt the desire to do a few long exposures of Dutch Kills. Man, I’ve spent a lot of time along this waterway. I always thought that the Brooklyn side of the Creek had lots of people keeping an eye out, whereas Queens only had me. Good to see that new people are taking ownership here. It’s about time, actually.

I hung around a little while. My next meetup wasn’t for a couple of hours, so I had some time to kill and just one more ‘have to’ for this day.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

An emotional journey is what I was on, it should be mentioned.

Memories, recollections, bitter remembrances. I thought about all of my dead friends, and a few of the living ones. I called Our Lady of the Pentacle, who is back in Pittsburgh with Moe the Dog, and caught her up with my where’s and when’s. All the while – click, whirr, click, whirr.

The smell, though. The noise. As mentioned previously, my environmental adaptations have fallen away. I was experiencing NYC, from a sensory point of view, in the manner that an outsider does. Shocking coruscations of sound and smell abounded.

I don’t think I miss New York City all that much.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

My next stop was on the other side of the Hunters Point Avenue Bridge, pictured above. Long time readers will be able to guess what I wanted to see over in that direction. My tree of heaven.

We’ll get there soon enough.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Jesus Christ, you turn a corner and BAM, there it is again. The wall of blue glass erected in the last 20 years. When I met up with the fellows from NCA, one of the first things I mentioned was the stolen sky. LIC used to be ‘big sky’ territory with nary a building over four stories tall. The vault of heaven has been privatized, however, and only the lonely can remember the old days in LIC.

Back next week with more from the fabulous Newtown Creek.

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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.