Archive for November 2026
A Long Walk, part 2
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Your narrator continued his shambling scuttle, humbly, along Pittsburgh’s Butler Street in a generally north-westwards direction that followed the serpentine southern shorelines of the Allegheny River.
Observationally, the Allegheny or ‘North Side’ of the peninsular landform which Pittsburgh occupies seems to be a lot more ‘post-industrial,’ and long term residential, than the southern side along the Monongahela River is. Just an observation from a newcomer, there.
Have I mentioned how much I’m enjoying not knowing everything about everything out here? Back home in NYC – and particularly so in North Brooklyn or Western Queens – if you picked up a random stone off the street, I could have probably told you a story about it.
Ice ages and boloids, mammoths and osage oranges… that’s me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The cool thing about this route was that for much of it, I was scuttling along a protected bike and pedestrian space. There were a few street crossings in front of me which would be causes of concern and caution, but there are signal lights and crosswalks so it wasn’t anything crazy.
A former steel mill property on the flood plain has been redeveloped, and there were multiple corrugated steel buildings housing all sorts of light industrial outfits down below. An auto parts warehouse stood out, but amongst the many organizations found at this site is a cool non-profit outfit called Tree Pittsburgh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s what’s known as an ‘albino roof’ in environmentalist circles.
Passive cooling system, using a light colored paint on the roof which rejects a whole lot of solar radiation during the warm months. Kind of surprised it’s not all covered in solar panels, to be honest, as the redevelopment here was done under the auspices of the Governmental ‘URA’ or Urban Redevelopment Authority.
The ankle was holding up just fine, thanks for asking.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
They are really, really big on renaming pre-existing bridges after their politicians in Pittsburgh, which is how the 62nd street bridge ended up being called the ‘Senator Robert D. Fleming’ bridge.
This is a modern trend, and NYC has suffered the same sort of thing with the ‘Ed Koch Queensboro,’ the ‘Robert F. Kennedy Triborough,’ and others.
Oh, the urbanity….
My answer to this urge amongst the electeds to rename bridges for their friends had always been: ‘hey, why dontcha rename the Brooklyn Bridge for Bloomberg? The kids can call it the ‘3B’ then.’
The fancy people were not amused, as Bloomberg wasn’t a member of ‘the club’ which gets preexisting bridges named after them.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One had scuttled out onto the 62nd street Bridge for this shot, and it looks back on where I had been walking in the first shot (above).
The weather was on my side for once, as it was lovely out. The temperature was struggling to get up to 70, there was a breeze, and zero chance of precipitants. For once, I didn’t need to urgently piss.
I was walking to the rythym of the song ‘Sweet Caroline.’ Step, step, drag left foot and bum ankle… pause, step, step, drag left foot and bum ankle, step… step, pause, step, drag left foot and bum ankle… and so on.
Just kidding there, I was walking in tune with the rhythms of the Gorilla Biscuits’ seminal ‘Start Today’ album.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
An enormous fuel transfer facility was encountered, branded with the logos of the Sunoco corporation. I wanted to stand at the fence and photograph this operation in some detail, but my ‘spidey sense’ was alerting and intuiting that I’d certainly get to meet the Cops were I to start doing that.
It was gigantic, this facility, and when you got a bit closer to these tanks – tanker equipped semi-truck toys seemed to be arranged around their bases. These were, of course, not toys, but full sized fuel trucks.
I definitely would have gotten to meet the cops.
Back tomorrow.
“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.
A Long Walk, part 1
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It has been a long twenty five or so months since… at the end of September in 2024… an accident at home saw your humble narrator shattering his left ankle while walking down a flight of steps.
An ambulance ride, and then surgery, came next. An agonizing three months in a wheelchair, followed by six months of extreme pain and physical therapy, and then the doctors ‘released me back into the wild.’
Atrophied, weakened, less than – one nevertheless began setting out on his constitutional walks again. At first, I scuttled at a snail’s pace, with palsied aspect, struggling to get through a mile or two. Forced to swing my hips about in order to stride, one displayed a walking posture reminiscent of the Batman villain Penguin, and resolve to regain my legs emerged.
A year of constant ‘push’ has followed, wherein I regularly hit the streets for a series of ever longer and more strenuous walks around the City of Pittsburgh, and its environs. One mile, three miles, five miles, seven miles.
Rinse, repeat.
The scuttle described today, and in several subsequent posts, is the one where I finally broke through an elusive ‘ten mile’ barrier, and did it without injuring or otherwise crippling myself.
Pictured above is the 1932 vintage Lock and Dam #2, Allegheny River, nearby the Highland Park Bridge. The lock and dam are operated by the United States Army Corps of Engineers.
Here is where the lock and dam are found, on a Google map.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Across the water, on the northern shore of the river, is a fairly wealthy community (by Pittsburgh standard) called Aspinwall. There’s an enormous Veteran’s Administration hospital and long term care facility up in the hills there, as a note.
The primary ‘corridor’ for the day, which I’d be odiously scuttling through, surrounds Pittsburgh’s Butler Street on the southern shore of the River.
This path would carry me into Lawrenceville, where I’d break off of Butler Street and wander about in search of ‘serendipity,’ actually encountered this time around. This corridor is found upon the north side of the central peninsula which Pittsburgh is centered upon, colloquially called the ‘Golden Triangle.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One had prepared well for the day, and was carrying many things I might need, including a water bottle. One packed the camera bag a bit light for this walk, loading an ‘all in one’ zoom lens onto the camera, and only basic essentials were with me. Since I’d be walking through and across several busy traffic intersections, I opted to wear a bright ‘flash orange’ ball cap, one which has replaced my old Newtown Creek Alliance ‘NCA’ hat as the daily ‘go-to.’
Apparently, those are active rail tracks down there, but nothing was doing when I was in this ‘zone.’
A rideshare had dropped me off at a nearby starting point. After straightening out my clothing, and all of the bag and camera straps, it was time to lean into it and I assiduously began kicking the dirt.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It should be mentioned that these traffic barriers seemed to suddenly appear along this route sometime last winter (or at least that’s when I noticed them), and this infrastructure elevated a formerly undesirable walking path into one that drew me all the way out here from the South Hills section of Pittsburgh for a walk.
For all of you transit geniuses and bike yahoos – back in Astoria and LIC – this is what a protected bike lane looks like. ‘This’ is what I was trying to hold out for in Queens Plaza, you jackasses. Why do you think I was always asking DOT about when they were installing concrete planters?
Sheesh. You think those little plastic sticks and green paint on the ground are going to stop a truck?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Butler Street is fairly well elevated over the flood plain of the river in this section, and there were a substantial number of structures down below.
Nearby the 62nd street ‘Senator Robert D. Fleming’ Bridge, Butler Street suddenly offers an overview of what turns out to to have been the campus of the ‘Union Steel Casting Co. (a division of the Blaw-Knox company),’ and more recently, ‘Tippins International Inc.’
Via Google’s AI Gemini:
The Union Steel Casting Company was a major heavy industrial manufacturer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, known for producing locomotive frames, driving wheel centers, and alloy steel castings.
The company specialized in heavy steel castings, including proprietary vanadium steel and “Univan” tough steel alloys used extensively in the locomotive and railway industries.
Corporate Ownership: It later operated as a division of the Blaw-Knox Company, and the plant was subsequently used by Tippins International Inc.
Site Closure and Demolition: The former manufacturing plant closed in 1983. The site was acquired by the Urban Redevelopment Authority in 2007 and fully demolished by 2009.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There seems to be a waste transfer station that handles recyclable materials found down there these days, but you’ll see more of this ‘post industrial’ riverfront scene here in tomorrow’s post.
Come with?
Back tomorrow.
“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.
