We gonna rock down to…
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Circumstance found me in McKeesport, a municipality which neighbors Pittsburgh. Said circumstance carried me into an industrial park, where the demolition of a fairly grand industrial building was underway.
What? I’m not going to take pictures of something like that? Sheesh.
This particular section is called ‘Turtle Creek,’ and named after a waterway which the Westinghouse Corporation’s industrial campus used to be centered around. The road you use to access this complex of manufacturing and assembly plants along the Monongahela and Youghiogheny Riverfronts is called ‘Electric Avenue.’
I cannot help but sing the song when I’m in this area, as I’m a known idiot.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Upon seeing this building, my first thought was that the Kaiju Monster Rodan had flown past and grabbed out a chunk of the structure with its massive talons. You’ll remember Rodan from its attack on NYC in 2004.
Known idiot, remember?
In all seriousness, though, I have no real idea what the purpose or identity of this building was, nor why the time and treasure to demolish it are being expended. I asked a computer to explain it all.
Via Google’s AI:
“The Regional Industrial Development Corporation (RIDC) has a history of revitalizing former industrial sites in the Mon Valley, including those in McKeesport and Turtle Creek
Specifically, the Industrial Center of McKeesport, a 133-acre site that was once home to U.S. Steel and other metal tube and pipe mill companies, has undergone significant remediation and redevelopment by RIDC since 1990.
This has included:
- Environmental remediation
- Selective demolition of some structures
- Sale of scrap materials
- Renovation and conversion of existing buildings
- Construction of new facilities
The site now houses various companies, employing over 200 people.
RIDC also acquired the former Westinghouse campus in Turtle Creek, which is now known as Keystone Commons. This site has been redeveloped into a multi-use industrial facility that houses numerous companies and employs around 1,100 people.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I waved the camera around for a couple of minutes, but didn’t want to get ‘ostentatious’ and draw the attentions of the security people so I just clicked out a few exposures and then beat it the hell out of there.
‘Who is to blame in one country?
Never can get to the one
Dealin’ in multiplication
And they still can’t feed everyone
Oh no, we gonna rock down to Electric Avenue
And then we’ll take it higher
Ho no, we gonna rock down to Electric Avenue
And then we’ll take it higher’
Back next week with something different.
“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 
“The Regional Industrial Development Corporation (RIDC) has a history of revitalizing former industrial sites in the Mon Valley, including those in McKeesport and Turtle Creek“
As if more evidence is needed to prove that that the corporate entity known as “A.I.” will spew as its first sentence of its “answer” of any query this kind of propaganda.
Feed your Large Language Model on the exceedingly long, boring, but absolutely true political and economic analyses of a Mr. Marx, K. and a Mr. Engels, F.; particularly the first’s magnum opus Capital: Critique of Political Economy, Volume 1 and see whether it will tone down its corporate bootlicking in favor of some non-Artificial intelligence.
If that chokes its large language gullet you can start with The Selected Works of Bela Kun and move on from there.
A Félmarxista Magyar
August 15, 2025 at 2:16 pm