The Newtown Pentacle

Friday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Mountain Avenue to Yard Way part two.

Pittsburgh’s South Side Slopes section, and your humble narrator was pretty close to the top of the world, here in the Paris of Appalachia.

One was heading for the Yard Way City Steps, which can be observed on a Google map here.

Now… realistically… I have zero desire to experience ‘all’ 400 plus sets of Pittsburgh’s City Steps. It’s likely that over the course of time I will… but… the desire to surmount that particular catalog isn’t there at the moment.

My interests at the moment are centered around the dramatic views available from the South Side Slopes, and I’m always game for cutting around a bunch of different places hosting cool City Steps.

Remember ‘Rising Main’? ‘Sunday Street’? The ‘Church Route’ or ‘Lauer Way’? ‘Sterling Street’? Yeah.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

At the apex of the landform, there’s a ball field and an abandoned house which seems to be in mid collapse. These are – what look like – one family homes, with an occasional multi family setup, populating the streets up here. This is very much ‘car country,’ due to the ridiculously steep nature of the streets.

Said public streets are also quite narrow, even though they run as two way streets. Parking density is a serious issue up here, and one needs to consider egress for emergency vehicles when pulling your keys from the ignition. It’s common practice for residents to park their cars with at least one set of wheels up on their sidewalk to preserve access.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Top of the world, ma, top of the world.

As a reminder, the Newtown Pentacle time warp is still in effect.

You’re receiving this in early/mid June, but these words were written back on the 9th of May, and further – the photos were captured in late April. I’ve somehow managed to manufacture a terrific amount of ‘lead time’ again, with posts being scheduled far in advance.

This is a good thing for your humble narrator, but I think it should be explained why you’re looking at shots of early spring in the early summer.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

This is a massive set of City Steps, I’d mention.

Blocks and blocks and blocks of them, descending downwards towards the South Side Flats. Most of this pathway sees you descending through what can be described as a ‘vegetation tunnel.’ Ultimately, the Yard Way steps terminate nearby another set of City Steps which can carry you down towards the ‘flats.’

As is usually the case with walks around this area, I’d offer the observation that you really, really want to reconsider your decision to plant bamboo on Pittsburgh’s hills. It just takes over and crowds out native species of plant and tree, is a breeding ground for rats, and it’s infestations allow feral deer too much in the way of comfort.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Down, down, down.

Along the path, one ran into a group of people from the neighborhood who were performing an organized citywide clean-up that was organized in advance of the NFL Draft which was called ‘The Immaculate Collection.’ Picking up litter from places where it collects, all that. Nice peeps they were. I reminded them to weigh the bags of garbage afterwards, so as to say ‘we collected X number of pounds of trash.’

Back at Newtown Creek in Brooklyn and Queens, we would arrange for an entity like the DEP (who once dropped off a dumpster for us), DSNY, or even a private outfit like Waste Management to cart away the trash afterwards. They’d always let us know a number, as far as weight.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Check out those raised sidewalks, on Yard Way at Baldauf Street.

Back next week with more from the Paris of Appalachia – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.

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