The Newtown Pentacle

Monday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

This latest of scuttles began in Pittsburgh’s Bloomfield section, which is aka Little Italy.

One had summoned a rideshare to transport my carcass from Dormont to this spot, in pursuance of executing a medium length constitutional walk. All summer long, I’ve been picking spots along several of the major ‘avenues’ found on Pittsburgh’s ‘Golden Triangle’ and then following where my toes were pointing towards the titular center of things downtown, where that triangle forms it’s acute point.

This scuttle started here, and then proceeded downtown.

It was a lovely August day in Pittsburgh, with temperatures in the low 80’s and a tolerable level of humidity. I stuck to the shady side of the street whenever possible, however. Travel was light, with a single zoom lens on the camera, and a couple of primes in my camera bag.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

That’s the gateway to Bloomfield pictured above, but I was heading in the opposite direction and away from it. Bloomfield is fairly urban in character, with street level shops and small multi unit rental buildings sharing the streets with private homes, medical facilities, and the occasional large apartment building. Its street setup is what I’d describe as ‘Philadelphia style’ with fairly narrow sidewalks flowing past row houses.

This isn’t a dissertation on Bloomfield, by the way, rather it’s a set of surface level observations. I’ve occasionally found myself out here for a doctor’s appointment or something similar, but I don’t know anyone who lives here nor have I spent anytime in the neighborhood socializing.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

One proceeded to take a series of random turns at the corners, heading in the general direction of a street called ‘Penn Avenue.’ That would become my singular path all the way to the downtown area, but sometimes there’s virtue in getting a little bit lost.

Those narrow sidewalks don’t have room for street trees, which was kind of surprising. Notice that the ‘one way’ sign at top left of the shot above is attached to the building rather than being set upon a pole.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

After a few blocks of right/left right/left, my accursed footsteps were striking pavement on the aforementioned Penn Avenue. A firehouse had its door open, so… that’s the Pittsburgh Fire Dept.’s Engine 6 pictured above.

Now, I should mention that this walk was part of a larger plan which I cooked up while sitting in that wheelchair last year, one designed to increase my knowledge of the streets and learn what’s what and where it is.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Lawrenceville. That’s the neighborhood I had just wandered into from Bloomfield. Now… remember when I walked through Lawrenceville earlier in the summer, and then scuttled along one of its ‘way’ streets just a few weeks later… and then there was ‘Bigelow Boulevard’ and then also ‘Polish Hill’?

Bloomfield is a plateau on top of a hill. Lawrenceville is found on the sloping bottom of the hill of that plateau. Polish Hill and Bigelow Boulevard ride along the top of the hill, and in this series of posts – we are moving along the middle of that hill.

Dear lord, it’s all starting to make sense…

– photo by Mitch Waxman

This is the way.

Explore, photograph, research. Go back for more, learn more based on observation. Research, observe, photograph, go deeper, learn more…

Back tomorrow.

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