Archive for the ‘Blissville’ Category
went silently
Sometimes you get what you pay for.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Wandering about in DUKBO recently, specifically western Maspeth (aka Berlin) nearby its border with Blissville, your humble narrator found himself confronted with one of the many conundrums which torment. My Dad was a “working guy,” one whose entire body was thrown into the meat grinder of manual labor during his working life. Routinely exposed to paint, solvents, and all sorts of other chemicals which his trade utilized, the old man eventually succumbed to cancer.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The old man had a list of industrial accidents which he would rattle off to those who asked. The time he fell off a ladder and was blinded for a few months when a pail of lye splashed into his eyes, or a freak accident that somehow opened up his inner arm from wrist to armpit which needed 400 stitches to close, or the long lasting bursitis and arthritic after effects of having worked at an industrial butcher in the freezer room when he was a kid. There were busted toes, bad knees, a gamey hip, bulging vertebrae, broken ribs, a shoulder that made sounds when he moved it, and the scar tissue on his hands had formed into thickened gloves.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Other than insisting that I figure out some way to get a desk job instead of following in his footsteps, the old man had no real regrets other than never having won the lottery nor owned a Cadillac. He did what he had to do and always tried to get the job done right, or at least as half assed as he could get away with. This has been referenced before, and when I see working guys doing what the fellow in the shot above is doing, I cringe a bit and start to think about the old man. The guy in the shot is doing so many things wrong, safety wise, that I was half expecting him to just burst into flame as I walked by.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I spend enough time around the union types that I’ve kind of been infected by their logic. My upstairs neighbor sets out safety cones and a fire extinguisher when he barbecues, but he does something at work which he calls “firewatch” that requires permit and certification. “Even if ya don’t need it Bro, god forbid something happens you can at least say you did everything you could.” Also mentioned, in the past, has been the physical cowardice for which I am famous.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Given to capricious fits of panic and paranoia, your humble narrator attempts full situational awareness at all times, constantly scanning the local vicinity for threats. Those who know me personally will confirm the constant stream of warnings about broken sidewalks, things which drip, or suspicious personages to watch out for that spews forth. Additionally, I advise strangers who are crossing Northern Blvd. to stand behind something while standing at corners and waiting for the light to change. I’m all ‘effed up, but this really isn’t the old mans fault, I was just born weird. One of the things which allows one such as myself nepenthe is the presence of union guys like my pal upstairs, or these poor schmucks on a picket line in front of that dry ice and compressed gas place right at the corner of Laurel Hill and Review. Union labor keeps things nice and safe for the rest of us. You won’t find them sitting on a ladder using a metal grinder to remove paint without wearing glasses or a mask, nor wearing highly flammable synthetic fabrics while doing so.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The old man wasn’t in a union, he had some objection to them- something about the mafia and being Jewish and his older brother- a story which he changed periodically to prove a point or win an argument. I kind of wish he was, at least he would have gotten paid a lot better, and likely wouldn’t have been quite as busted up by the job. This little conundrum of mine, pondered while marching across the concrete devastations of DUKBO, is this: why do I care so much about what happens to strangers, nor mind my own business? Also, if I care so much, what can I do about it?
What would Superman do?
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? Summer 2013 Walking Tours-
Kill Van Kull– Saturday, June 22, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
The Insalubrious Valley– Saturday, June 29, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
Modern Corridor- Saturday, July 13, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets on sale soon.
untold number
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The site walk through which Sims Metal Management offered me was just coming to an end when the car carrier, pictured above, arrived. My tenders offered that we should move to a safe distance and accordingly we circled around to an opportune spot with efficacious lighting.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These cars were compacted and processed by a separate company, and Sims purchases them. Gas tanks and volatile fluids have been removed, as well as other proscribed components. Sims will be sending this off to another one of their facilities to be shredded, which I suspect will located in New Jersey.
If so, this report from videos.nj.com describes the incredible shredding machine which will make short work of these autos, literally reducing them to pellet sized grains of metal in seconds, which is called the Mega Shredder.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Last week, the posting “seething column” offered animated gifs of the action depicted in today’s post. It is hard to describe the sensation of seeing recognizable objects of calculable weight and substance being handled and swung about by the Materials Handler with such seeming ease.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One after another, the autos came off the carrier and were subjected to a little extra dose of compacting. The Materials Handler would rear up and then smash its current charge on to the pile. It was all very exciting.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The device itself utilized the installed claw tool to grasp and tear and crush. It’s a Sennebogen, manufactured by a German corporation which is operated by a single family and was founded by an enigmatic sire, not unlike the fabled deutschland clan called Steinway who left such an indelible stamp on the surrounding communities.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Soon, the truck was emptied and the autos deigned for shredding piled neatly on the dock.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One by one, they were all loaded on to a waiting barge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My visit came to an end soon after, and we headed back toward the front gate. On the way, the damage inflicted by Hurricane Sandy upon the terminal was described as we toured the generator room and some of the other interior spaces at the facility.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Special thanks are offered for allowing one such as myself, and by extension- all of you Lords and Ladies of the Newtown Pentacle- into the Sims Metal Management Queens terminal for a day. Special thanks to Daniel Strechay, Dave, Paul Lawrence, and especially Tom Outerbridge for inviting us in for a visit.
Upcoming tours:
The Insalubrious Valley– Saturday, May 25, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets now on sale.
The Poison Cauldron- Saturday, June 15, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets on sale soon.
Kill Van Kull- Saturday, June 22, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
temperamentally unfitted
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Vast precautions were advised in this section of the Queens Terminal of Sims Metal Management by its employees, as literally tons of twisted scrap metal were arriving every few minutes. Enormous trucks vomited the stuff noisily onto the concrete deck of this industrial pier, found in the Blissville section of Queens alongside the canalized bulkheads of Newtown Creek.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Great powers enjoy mineral wealth, but after thousands of years of continuous civilization, certain metals will become “mined out” and any remaining material in the ground becomes impracticable to access for engineering or economic reasons.
Nations of modernity who have inherited the imperial holdings of the past, such as Turkey and China, suffer from these issues with the former lacking in iron and the latter in copper and aluminum.
Both nations enjoy considerable success in the early 21st century as manufacturing and fabrication centers, and vast and highly profitable organizations like Sims serve to feed them recyclable materials to fashion into new products.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Mountains of the stuff are trucked to the Sims yard daily, where it is sorted by type and composition. An extensive list of rules, and list of materials, governing what the company is buying is available at their web site, found here. They eschew the “peddler” business here, leaving that to smaller players, many of whom are found further east on the Creek.
Peddlers are those whom I have long referred to as the “Crows,” itinerant metal collectors and mendicants who patrol area streets and snap up anything that might be shiny.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The sheer quantity of scrap was intimidating, piled in conical mounds which were perhaps 20-30 feet high. Advice from the employees shepherded me was to stay clear of the vicinity. As with most of the people I’ve met in the waste handling industry, with one or two notable exceptions, these fellows were quite proud of what they were doing for a living and amiable about answering the probably idiotic questions they were being offered.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The metallic abundances are moved from dock to barge via the usage of a device called a “Materials Handler” which is pictured above. This shot is from a different day, of course, and captured at a distance from the Brooklyn side of Newtown Creek. These crane like machines are fitted with a powerful tool, resembling nothing so much than as a metallic claw, which is possessed of prodigious strength. The materials are loaded on to barges.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These barges, which are essentially enormous armored buckets that float, will be picked up and transported to other Sims facilities found across New York harbor via the services of Tugboats. This terminal in Queens operates as a port of entry for recyclables into a vast region wide network which operates in not just New York State, but other municipalities as well.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The thing is, though, that despite all of the wonderful machines and engineered procedures I had witnessed to this point, the big show was about to begin. My inner seven year old began to quiver with delight when a car carrier showed up, and the operator of a nearby materials handler climbed into the cabin and started his engine. The heaviest of all metal was about to play, as Sims received a load of autos.
Upcoming tours:
The Insalubrious Valley– Saturday, May 25, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets now on sale.
The Poison Cauldron- Saturday, June 15, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets on sale soon.
Kill Van Kull- Saturday, June 22, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
stealthy attendants
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Blissville, USA.
Found at the crux of the main body of Newtown Creek and its atavist tributary known simply as “Dutch Kills,” Sims Metal Management Queens Terminal is in deep focus this week at this, your Newtown Pentacle. My visit was prearranged with a friend who is highly placed at the corporation, and I was shepherded throughout site by its chief- Paul Lawrence, and by Daniel Strechay, a communications officer for the company.
Additionally, one of the employees whom I only know as “Dave” came along for the tour.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After the DSNY discharges its curbside recycling program pick ups, employees at Sims move the materials toward an enormous conveyor belt whereupon it is lifted away from the years and toward its traveling container, which is a barge. Joyous usage of the maritime bulkheads distinguishes this facility, which ships its product out using the water. A single barge is carries the equivalent cargo of 30 trucks, and we have enough of those on our streets already.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The conveyor deposits the recyclable material onto a barge, which is outfitted with netting designed to keep the stuff onboard, despite the best efforts of the wind. This is a critical design feature, by the way, meant to keep the waters surrounding the bulkheads from accruing sediment piles composed of plastic and glass.
Last Sunday, the tug Sea Wolf was displayed handling a similar barge of recyclables while motoring down the East River.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s how their municipal contract is handled here, in a nut shell, but as the global corporation’s name implies- Sims Metal Management is really all about metal.
An explanation of which material is destined for what market was offered, and destinations which included Turkey, Korea, and China were mentioned for various forms of scrap.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Feeling a bit overwhelmed at this point by the onslaught of visual stimuli, your humble narrator took a breath and contemplated the global network of shipping, commodity pricing, and man power which this midden of metal was entering into. All of it, beginning here in Blissville, in the humble borough of Queens.
Upcoming tours:
The Insalubrious Valley– Saturday, May 25, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets now on sale.
The Poison Cauldron- Saturday, June 15, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets on sale soon.
Kill Van Kull- Saturday, June 22, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
carefully sheltered
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Deviant gait carried your humble narrator forth from the hillocks of raven eyed Astoria, and I had arrived at an atavist pavement known only as “Railroad Avenue” in the Blissville section of Queens, a forgotten road which runs alongside that lumbering cataract of unintended consequence known as the Newtown Creek. My goal was to accept an invitation to tour the Sims Metal Management facility which might be found at its terminus.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
An industrial lane, Railroad Avenue is well named. Ancient track beds, dating back to the American Civil War, spread squamously across the land. Long ago, passenger service along these tracks created an indelibly unfavorable opinion of Long Island City, as locomotive travel moved past manure depots, rendering plants, acid factories, pickling houses, and yeast distilleries. Today, it is mostly freight, although just a few passenger trains still travel between Hunters Point and Jamaica along these rights of way.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Petroleum industry infrastructure dominates the first section of Railroad Avenue, and upon reaching its terminus, one realizes that he has arrived at the Sims Metal Management Queens Terminal. A waste transfer station, Sims receives municipal recycling materials from DSNY, and is also a large and enthusiastic global player in the metal recycling business.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Like many other industrial sites found along the Newtown Creek, Sims is off limits to the public. There is very good reason for this, as there are enormous machines which dwarf tractor trailer rigs whizzing about, and literally tons and tons of material being sorted and processed. Your humble narrator was asked to arrive with steel toe boots and appropriate clothing. Upon arriving- I was outfitted with hard hat, safety vest and glasses, and instructed by the site supervisor in the mores and habits observed by the corporation and its employees.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Procedurally speaking, Sims welcomes private and public (DSNY) recyclable material, within certain guidelines. Trucks carrying said material are weighed on an enormous scale at the gate, and the attendant creates a manifest describing what is being delivered and dispatches the vehicle to an appropriate spot to tilt and discharge its cargo. Said cargo can be anything from copper and aluminum to iron girders or automobiles.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The equipment at work here is an order of magnitude larger than what I normally witness at construction sites around the city, the rear tires on the earth mover pictured above- for instance- were 3-4 feet in diameter and seemed to be made of solid rubber or composite. Later in the day, I saw a tire change occurring on another unit, which required the presence of a specialized machine to remove tire from its axle.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Of particular interest were the series of white packer trucks arriving and tilting here, carrying the Department of Sanitation’s curbside recycling pickups. Sims enjoys a municipal contract with the City to handle this task, and manage the velocity of such materials back into the plastics and glass ecosystem. A variety of raw materials can be derived from the plastic in soda bottles, for instance, including spinning the synthetic fibers woven into “fleece” sweatshirts and sneakers.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Like every other truck entering and leaving the yard, the DSNY trucks are weighed and presented with a receipt for their drop off, for which Sims will later bill the City in accordance with their contract. It is my understanding that said remittance is built around gross tonnage of materials rather than by individual truckload.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A staggering amount of these recyclables was extant on the day of my visit, but this is just one tuesday morning’s worth of material, and isn’t it even close to the final 24 hour tally. The mound visible in the shot above was likely 20 feet high, and receded back from my vantage 20-40 feet.
Tomorrow, we go deeper into the operation and find out where to get all heavy metal on the Newtown Creek.
Upcoming tours:
The Insalubrious Valley– Saturday, May 25, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets now on sale.
The Poison Cauldron- Saturday, June 15, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets on sale soon.
Kill Van Kull- Saturday, June 22, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
The Newtown Pentacle 