Archive for the ‘Long Island City’ Category
lutes and dancing
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Wandering aimlessly across the pattern that underlies the streets of Long Island City, a logical course whose every obstacle is modern, one day I found myself in the Empty Corridor. Not so empty as it used to be, for the continuing diversion of traffic away from the Borden Avenue Bridge funnels vast numbers of vehicles through these streets- some of which are still clad in only their original Belgian Block cobbles.
from wikipedia
Public property
- It is generally legal to photograph or videotape anything and anyone on any public property, with some exceptions.
- Taking a photograph while on an airplane is banned in many places, and many mass transit systems prohibit taking photographs or videos while on board buses or trains or inside of stations. (It is unknown whether such prohibitions are legal, due to transit systems in the United States often being considered public places.) Photography is against Port Authority rules in New York and New Jersey’s PATH Train system. Photography and videography are also prohibited in the U.S. Capitol, in courthouses, and in government buildings housing classified information. Bringing a camera phone into one of these buildings is not permitted either.
- Photographing or videotaping a tourist attraction, whether publicly or privately owned, is generally considered legal, unless explicitly prohibited by posted signs.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Always on the lookout for intriguing items to photograph, your humble narrator often finds himself in front of scenes such as this one, and possessed by a paradoxical mindset. On one hand, the artwork which adorns this octagonal stop sign is well wrought, and skillfully placed for maximum esthetic value. On the other, this is vandalism- and it creates a dangerous situation regarding the passage of vehicles through a now unmarked intersection.
Further, I’m often at odds with the ideation of taking photos of such displays at all.
from wikipedia
Private property
Photography may be prohibited and/or restricted within an area of property by the property owner. At the same time, a property owner generally cannot restrict the photographing of their property by individuals who are not located within the bounds of the property.
In order to film on someone else’s property, permission must be received from the owner.
Photographing of privately-owned property that is generally open to the public (i.e. retail) is permitted unless explicitly prohibited by posted signs.
Some jurisdictions have laws regarding filming while in a hospital or health care facility. Where permitted, such filming may be useful in gathering evidence in cases of abuse, neglect, or malpractice.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Public art, even when unsigned, is still considered to be the property of the original artist. Technically speaking, I’m not allowed to “publish” this image without the express permission of the artist and despite the fact that I own the copyright on the image, I can’t transfer or sell it without permission.
Were this posting commercial in nature, in fact, a court of law could assign damages and restitution. Art commissioned and owned by “The State” on behalf of the public is a different matter, and a complicated legal ground that’s ever shifting about. Generally, if it’s owned by the U.S. government and produced before the 1970’s it’s probably in the public domain.
Usually, I just leave this sort of thing to the prolific Ms. Heather over at NY Shitty, as she’s much better at finding new and exciting street art than I and is possessed of a curatorial spirit toward her discoveries.
But this one I couldn’t stop from shooting. Click the image for the larger size, as these are very nicely drawn images.
from wikipedia
Copyright is a set of exclusive rights granted by the law of a jurisdiction to the author or creator of an original work, including the right to copy, distribute and adapt the work. Exceptions and limitations to these rights strive to balance the public interest in the wide distribution of the material produced and to encourage creativity. Exceptions include fair dealing and fair use, and such use does not require the permission of the copyright owner. All other uses require permission and copyright owners can license or permanently transfer or assign their exclusive rights to others. Copyright does not protect ideas, only their expression or fixation. In most jurisdictions, copyright arises upon fixation and does not need to be registered. Copyright protection applies for a specific period of time, after which the work is said to enter the public domain.
shocking, unlighted, and fear haunted abysses
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Ennui of a nearly narcotic character has paralyzed your humble narrator for an interval of several weeks, a period which is at an end. Stumbling in the manner of some morphine or hashish addict across the masonry clad streets, my mood has been affected by both growing poverty and certain darker influences. Applications of various substances- derivates of the cocoa or coffee bean- have been ineffective in forcing me into a bright and waken state. Reduced to a quivering and passive “experiencer”, a cancerous nugget of self hatred grows in my heart, and has shocked me back to the waking world. Anger is an energy, as Johnny Rotten pointed out in his seminal “rise” ditty, and I walk amongst you once more.
New perspectives are called for, if the antiquarian mysteries which haunt our communities are ever to be revealed, and I no longer care about the consequences.
Let “them” quiver and tremble, for we are beginning the winter session, Lords and Ladies, at this- your Newtown Pentacle.
from wikipedia
A sett, usually the plural setts and in some places called a Belgian block, often incorrectly called “cobblestone”, is a broadly rectangular quarried stone used originally for paving roads, today a decorative stone paving used in landscape architecture. A sett is distinct from a cobblestone by being quarried or shaped to a regular form, whereas a cobblestone is generally naturally occurring. Streets paved with setts are highlights in several cycling competitions such as the final Champs-Élysées stage of the Tour de France and the Paris–Roubaix road race as riding upon them is technically more challenging than riding on asphalt. Notable roads paved with setts include Vicars’ Close, Wells, much of Edinburgh’s Royal Mile and the set of Coronation Street. In New York City the meat-packing district retains such streets.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Those of you who have been following this periodical recognize the descriptions of these moody moments of navel gazing which a humble narrator is unable to forestall or avoid, and which curiously seem tied to seasonal variance in light and temperature. During these intervals, postings become scarce and difficult to perform, as despite the richness of environment and staccato nature of events- I cannot summon the motivation to write and become as everyone else- ordinary and voiceless. Professional writers describe this vacuity as becoming “written out”, and prescribe a period of reading and research to reignite the hearth. I’ve been following this prescription, and just this morning- the hellish green flame of wonderment has once again been kindled.
As I said: “Back in session”.
from wikipedia
The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) completed construction of the yard in 1910. At that time Sunnyside was the largest coach yard in the world, occupying 192 acres (0.78 km2) and containing 25.7 mi (41.4 km) of track. The yard served as the main train storage and service point for PRR trains serving New York City. It is connected to Pennsylvania Station in Midtown Manhattan by the East River Tunnels. The Sunnyside North Yard initially had 45 tracks with a capacity of 526 cars. The South Yard had 45 tracks with a 552 car capacity.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Presented for your amusement today, this shot is from the Newtown Creek Cruise of October 24th, which ended up being quite well attended.
Bernard Ente (of Working Harbor Committee, Newtown Creek Alliance) and your humble narrator handled the narration. A small coterie of guest speakers (including Jeffrey Kroessler, Tom Outerbridge, and others) allowed us infrequent breaks from the microphone- during one of which I snuck away and captured this image. Fairly close to the Brooklyn coastline of the Newtown Creek, it was nevertheless captured from the water- that’s the Pulaski Bridge dividing the horizon, with Empire State and Chrysler Buildings framing the sky in the manner of some enormous tuning fork.
from wikipedia
Before the nineteenth century urbanization and industrialization of the surrounding neighborhoods, Newtown Creek was a longer and shallower tidal waterway, and wide enough that it contained islands. It drained parts of what are now the neighborhoods of Bushwick, Williamsburg and Greenpoint in Brooklyn; and Maspeth, Ridgewood, Sunnyside and Long Island City in Queens. During the second half of the nineteenth century it became a major industrial waterway, bounded along most of its length by retaining walls, the shipping channel maintained by dredging. The Montauk Branch of the Long Island Rail Road, mainly a freight line, runs along the North bank. A liquid natural gas port is under construction on the South bank, between Kingsland and Greenpoint Avenues, Whale Creek, and the main stream of Newtown Creek.
In 2007, residents of Greenpoint, Brooklyn and the New York State Attorney General’s Office filed lawsuits regarding the Greenpoint Oil Spill that contained more than twice the oil of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
On September 27, 2010, the United States Environmental Protection Agency designated Newtown Creek as a Superfund site, preparing the way for evaluation and environmental remediation of the stream. Environment advocacy groups supported the decision.
2010 New York City Marathon
– photos by Mitch Waxman
Frontrunners from the disabled race, women’s and men’s non disabled, and crowd shots to fill in the experience of “being there”. These were shot in Long Island City.
from some point in space
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Recent travels and travails, which I’ll be describing in some detail in the coming days, have been consuming me. Antiquarian studies, which normally bring joy and excitement to one such as myself, are instead feeding a black dog nipping at my heels. The arrival of seasonally appropriate cold weather shatters the illusion I project of vigor and health, and instead reveals a weakened and tired old man whose ease of movement and comfort is shattered by lower temperatures. A huddled mass of insulating garments, what you perceive as a windblown pile of rag and filth often reveals itself to be me.
I’m all ‘effed up.
from nytimes.com
The Roswell P. Flower estate sold last week to the Borden Realty Company, a subsidiary concern of the Degnon Terminal Improvement Company, 362 lots in the sunken meadows south of Jackson Avenue, in Long Island City, and extending to Dutch Kills Creek and Newtown Creek, at prices ranging, it is said, from $1,000 to $1,500 each.
The Degnon Terminal Company has already invested from $2,500,000 to $3,000,000 in Long Island City meadows and meadows at the head of Flushing Bay, in the towns of Flushing and Newtown.
The meadows are to be filled in with the earth taken from the Belmont tunnel, and the Dutch kills Canal and Flushing Bay are to be dredged.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Recent opportunities and accesses to certain locations normally forbidden to the general public have drawn me out from HQ, however, and that which I have witnessed is the terrible spectacular of those sky flung monoliths and hybrid pestilences which typify the City of Greater New York in these dawning years of the 21st century. Gaze in despair upon the waste meadows of Dutch Kills, from high above.
from trainsarefun.com
Just south of Sunnyside Yards is Degnon Terminal, operated by the Degnon Realty & Terminal Improvement Company. A subsidiary, Degnon Terminal Railroad Corporation operated a switching terminal. It received and delivered cars from and to connections and switched them to the various industries, also the reverse operation. This carrier’s only railroad connection was with the Montauk Cutoff of the Long Island Rail Road at Pearson Street [Hunterspoint Avenue], Long Island City. Degnon constructed its tracks about 1919, although land reclamation and grading began about 1907.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My vantage was from within the cyclopean Degnon Terminal, a once mighty industrial center and railhead which has been transmogrified into a community college. The occasion which brought me here will be explored in later postings, but since the ennui under which your humble narrator currently suffers precludes any notion of positive thought, it was decided to just display these images for your consideration and not engage in some some long winded and depressing monolog about it.
from nydesigns.org
The NYDesigns staff know that summer’s truly over when, after two introspective weeks in a silent fructarian monastery in Appalachia, we spy the godzilla-sized, tomato-red IDCNY sign halfway through the 7-minute walk from the trains at Courthouse Square. We share the building with LaGuardia College CUNY and E. Gluck Corporation, a watch manufacturing company.
In 1908, however, the “Thousand Window Bakery,” a best practice factory showcase for the Loose-Wiles Biscuit company originally of Kansas City was the building’s sole tenant. All 10 stories of the building housed production, sales and management as well as 2500 employees in a Fabian, sun-infused proletarian paradise, complete with a lending library and a clubhouse. Trading under the name Sunshine Biscuits, the cookies were baked in the shape of Popeye, Olive, Swee’pea, Wimpy, etc. and distributed in tin boxes which are now modestly priced collectibles. Animal crackers originated here. Now a subsidiary of Keebler, Sunshine is now best known for producing the Cheez-It brand of snack crackers.
The “Thousand Window Bakery” was one piece within the larger industrial park of Degnon Terminal, the brainchild of Michael Degnon, entrepreneur and railyard contractor for the Sunnyside Yards, which abut the building’s northwestern facade. Degnon Terminal was attractive to companies including the Packard Auto Company, Ever Ready, and Chicle (of Chiclets gum) because of the ease in shipping just-manufactured goods via rail straight to distributors.The Sunnyside rail lines haven’t seen any traffic since 1989 and the industrial occupants have long moved on to more affordable real estate climes. Sunshine left in the mid ’60s.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The water you see in the center of these photographs is the logical end of Dutch Kills, a tributary of the oft maligned Newtown Creek. The first bridge you see is the Hunter’s Point Avenue Bridge, which nears its 100th year of service to the municipality in uncommented anonymity (not if I have anything to say about that), and the large white structure is the Queens Midtown Expressway section of the Long Island Expressway which hurtles high over the empty corridor of long Island City.
Beyond is infinite Brooklyn, with the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Facility just left of center in centuried Greenpoint.
from nyc.gov
Long Island City is comprised of five separate neighborhoods: Ravenswood, Astoria, Steinway, Sunnyside, and Hunter’s Point. Engine Company No. 258 is located on 47th Street in Hunter’s Point, about halfway between Newtown Creek and the Queensboro Bridge. Though someearly nineteenth-century legal documents refer to the area as Long Island Farms or Long Island City, it was not until the 1850s that the current name was widely used. Popularized by a local newspaper, the Long Island Star, when the five villages were incorporated as an independent municipality in 1870, the neighborhood was officially named. Hunter’s Point became the commercial and political center of the new city, served by the Long Island Railroad at 2nd Street, near the East River, and multiple ferries to Manhattan. The seat of Queens County moved here from Jamaica, and two years later, in 1872, the New York Supreme Court Building for Queens County (reconstructed 1904-8, a designated New York City Landmark) was built on Jackson Avenue, now called Court Square. Long Island City grew quickly and the population tripled between 1875 and 1900. Among the various houses built in the area, a fine group survives on 45th Avenue, between 21st and 23rd Streets, in the Hunter’s Point Historic District. Faced in brick, brownstone, and Tuckahoe marble, these Italianate, Second Empire,and Neo-Grec structures, were collectively known as “White Collar Row.” Hunter’s Point had nearly 18,000 residents in 1905, a number that has never been exceeded.
Queens became a borough of Greater New York in 1898 and Long Island City became theseat of the borough president, with offices in the Hackett Building (c. 1885) on Jackson Avenue until 1916. Various transit projects that proved critical to real estate development in Queens were completed during this period, including the opening of the Queensboro Bridge (1909, a designated New York City Landmark), tunnels linking Manhattan with the vast Sunnyside Yards (1910), and the beginning of regular IRT subway service (1915) to Corona, and later, Flushing. Access to the general area was greatly improved, attracting large factories and warehouses that benefited from spur lines that allowed freight cars to travel directly to the loading docks. Various examples can be found in the Degnon Terminal area, along Thomson Avenue, where the Adams Chewing Gum and Loose Wiles Sunshine Biscuit companies located in the 1910s. These improvements, however, had a downside, creating barriers that isolated Hunter’s Point from the rest of the borough, while making it easier for commuters to reach new residential districts to the east, in Sunnyside, Jackson Heights, and other neighborhoods.
The Man Who Could Dodge Bullets
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of the great traditions in the history of fraternal ethnic organizations is the art of storytelling, and a tale often told by those who “belong” is about the Castellamarese War.
It’s an old New York story, full of gun play, revenge, and intrigue. Powerful black sedans with a cadre of Tommy Gun toting racketeers speeding around the streets, innocents getting mowed down, and a cast of legendary characters like Lucky Luciano, Albert Anastasia, Vito Genovese, Meyer Lansky, and Salvatore Maranzano exacting vengeance on their enemies. From the bloody heap, the “commission” was born, a board of directors which governed the various crime families. Nothing new here, you know this story- it was sort of fictionalized in the Godfather movies, and there are any number of books, TV Shows, and movies which describe it in some detail.
At least, they claim to- I don’t believe everything I’m told, and just ask anyone- there’s no such thing as the Mafia.
Anyway, this is First Calvary Cemetery, and pictured above is the grave of Joe Masseria.
from wikipedia
The Five Families are the five major Italian-American Mafia crime families which have dominated organized crime in New York City since the 1930s. Prior to this was the Maranzano Family and the Masseria Family which ended up fighting each other during a period known as the Castellammarese War. The Five Families, under the suggestion of Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky, were responsible for the establishment of The Commission, a council which demarcated territory between the previously warring factions and governs American Mafia activities in the United States. The Five Families in New York remain as the powerhouse of the Italian Mafia in the US.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
What I can affirm is that there were fresh flowers inside the Masseria tomb, on an October morning in 2010.
from wikipedia
On April 15, 1931, Joe Masseria was assassinated at one of his favorite restaurants, Nuova Villa Tammaro in Coney Island, Gangland legend has it that Masseria dined with Charles “Lucky” Luciano before his death. While they played cards, Luciano excused himself to the bathroom, when Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, Vito Genovese, Albert Anastasia and Joe Adonis rushed in and shot Masseria to death, his four bodyguards having mysteriously disappeared. The New York Daily News reported that the boss died “with the ace of spades, the death card, clutched in a bejeweled paw.”
However, both the New York Times and the New York Herald Tribune paint a different picture. Neither newspaper mentions Luciano being present, although Luciano was brought in for questioning by the police. The Herald Tribune reported that Masseria arrived at the restaurant in his armored steel car in the company of three other men shortly before 3pm. Scarpato’s mother-in-law, Anna Tammaro, waited while they played cards. According to two eyewitnesses, two well-dressed young men drove up and parked their car at the curb. They strolled leisurely into the place, and the shooting began immediately. Some 20 shots were fired. Then the two gunmen came out without any visible signs of haste, entered their automobile and drove away. Masseria was hit with four bullets in the back and one in the back of the head, identified as .32 and .38 caliber, and in an alley next to the restaurant, police recovered two revolvers.
Joe Masseria, photo courtesy Wikipedia
The Newtown Pentacle 