Archive for the ‘Long Island City’ Category
Long Island City Zen 2 -The Empty Corridor
Know this spot?
50th avenue and 25th street – photo by Mitch Waxman
This is 50th avenue and 25th street, and here’s a google map (I suggest hitting street view and exploring an area via the google service, it’s really helpful to get an idea of what’s “there”). Which, in this case is a whole lot of infrastructure. The elevated LIE allows vehicular traffic to hurtle along on a sloping ascent, reaching as high as 106 feet in some places. The fuligin shadow cast by the steel aqueduct falls on an area of Long Island City I like to call “the empty corridor”.
from wikipedia:
The expressway begins at the Queens-Midtown Tunnel in the Murray Hill section of Manhattan. Upon emerging from the tunnel in Queens, it is formally subdivided by name into three sections: the Queens-Midtown Expressway from the tunnel toll plaza to Queens Boulevard, the Horace Harding Expressway from said intersection to the Nassau County line, and the Long Island Expressway in Nassau and Suffolk Counties, though almost all locals and most signage use “the Long Island Expressway” or “the L.I.E.” to refer the entire length of I-495.[3] A mile after entering Queens, the LIE meets Interstate 278 (The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway) at interchange 16. Not long after Queens Boulevard, the LIE meets the Grand Central Parkway, then immediately after, the Van Wyck Expressway (I-678).
stitch panorama, looking southeast – photo by Mitch Waxman
Its an inaccurate pun, of course, as there are gargantuan municipal (New York City Housing Authority – although their front door is on 49th ave.) warehouses, truck yards, and active masonry mills operating all along the pocket street of 50th avenue. Enclosed on one side by 27th street, which follows the course of the nearby Dutch Kills, 50th is also abruptly severed by first the rear entrance, trackbeds, and associated workhouses of the Long Island City station of the 800 pound gorilla, then by the highway complex that feeds traffic to Manhattan via the Midtown Tunnel. It resumes its course to the river near 11th place, but is aborted in its aim by the Gantry Plaza Queenswest development at Center Blvd.
stitch panorama, looking southwest- photo by Mitch Waxman
The train station was destroyed a few times, especially in 1892, when a conflagration broke out at its coal dock on nearby Newtown Creek. The LIRR lost the dock itself and its stored fuel, part of the coal chute, and the locomotive repair shop. Spontaneous combustion in a cotton storage shed was blamed. Another fire in 1902 (there were lots of huge fires around the area in this time period, oddly enough) consumed the rebuilt station and an adjacent office building. It was rebuilt in 1903, electrified in 1910, and has been completely ignored since. It is the end of the (main) line.
A block to the south is Borden Avenue, to the north is 49th avenue.
east – photo by Mitch Waxman
The spire of St. Raphael’s on Greenpoint Avenue, sentinel church to Old Calvary– can be glimpsed through the steel. That is also where the highway returns to earth before beginning the ascent to the Kosciuszko Bridge spanning the Newtown Creek. That’s 27th street where the fences are. Normally, one can reach Borden Avenue and cross the Dutch Kills via this garbage strewn lane, but the Borden Avenue Bridge is still undergoing emergency repairs.
50th and 27th- photo by Mitch Waxman
I find strange things down here, in this place where cobblestones have never known asphalt. Until just a few months ago, a group of men lived in a broken down car on this corner. They had modern conveniences, electrical power generously supplied by serpentine orange extension cords that ran up and into the bushes by the railroad tracks. I observed them over a couple of years, and then found their car burnt, them missing, and this bird in their place. After a month, even the car was gone.
west – photo by Mitch Waxman
The empty corridor (or as I’ve called it in the past- Down under the LIE- DULIE) makes a sound. A constant droning pitch produced by approximately 84,000 quartets of automobile tires a day drawing across the steel and cement at controlled speeds. The sound of racing engines create doppler waves as their sounds ripple against the warehouse buildings. You are surrounded by this sound, enveloped in its chordal structure. All of New York’s bridges and elevated arteries have a distinctive sound, I have noticed. I have failed in my attempts to record these sounds due to wind, street noise, and inappropriate or amateurish equipment.
The folks who are into this sort of sonic thing are onto some revolutionary ideas, human perception wise. Check out these Hearing Perspective kids, and then stop off at wikipedia to learn the deep secrets of harmonic resonances and the hidden existence of Tuned Mass Dampers, and of the only man who ever truly mastered their manipulation mechanically- Nikola Tesla.
Dutch Kills – photo by Mitch Waxman
The elevated LIE spans over the Dutch Kills on its heading eastward, and the structure continues along Borden Avenue until it passes under Greenpoint avenue and returns to grade. As I mentioned earlier, its primary function is carrying city vehicles from the tunnel out to the Long Island highway system.
from nycroads.com, which has a must read post on the building of the tunnel and the politics surrounding it
No sooner had Moses learned that Mayor LaGuardia was considering establishing an authority to build a $58,000,000 Queens-Midtown Tunnel that he began hinting, none too subtly, that he would like to be on it, if not in charge of it.
In 1936, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia created the New York City Tunnel Authority to construct a twin-tube tunnel that had been proposed six years earlier between the East Side of Manhattan and Long Island City, Queens. The East River Tunnel, along with the Hudson River (Lincoln) Tunnel then under construction, was to form a continuous route from Long Island to New Jersey.
Citing the deep divisions between New York City Arterial Coordinator Robert Moses and President Franklin D. Roosevelt (who approved the $58 million Public Works Administration loan for the tunnel), LaGuardia specifically left Moses out of the Tunnel Authority by stating in legislation that “an unsalaried state official shall not be eligible” for appointment. LaGuardia sought engineers outside of Moses’ Triborough Bridge Authority, most notably famed tunnel engineer Ole Singstad, to construct the Queens-Midtown Tunnel. Meanwhile, Moses tried to influence upstate politicians to kill the Authority, but was unsuccessful when Governor Herbert Lehman sided with LaGuardia.
Borden avenue- photo by Mitch Waxman
Technically, this is the Queens Midtown Expressway, but this is a subdivision of the larger expressway.
Dutch Kills has balls
Be sure to check out the large images at flickr for insane amounts of detail in these shots.
In some places- every stitch on a baseball.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I am given to moods, melancholy, and suffer from an abundance of hubris– due to a series of ego related karmic retributions. All ‘effed up, there are days- often sunny ones- when I wake from that dark and torturous dreamland inflicted on me since my wastrel youth– in one of my little moods.
from wikipedia:
The US National Library of Medicine notes that “some people experience a serious mood change when the seasons change. They may sleep too much, have little energy, and crave sweets and starchy foods. They may also feel depressed. Though symptoms can be severe, they usually clear up.” The condition in the summer is often referred to as Reverse Seasonal Affective Disorder, and can also include heightened anxiety.
also from wikipedia:
The name “melancholia” comes from the old medical theory of the four humours: disease or ailment being caused by an imbalance in one or other of the four basic bodily fluids, or humours. Personality types were similarly determined by the dominant humour in a particular person. Melancholia was caused by an excess of black bile; hence the name, which means ‘black bile’ (Ancient Greek μέλας, melas, “black”, + χολή, kholé, “bile”); a person whose constitution tended to have a preponderance of black bile had a melancholic disposition. See also: sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric.
Melancholia was described as a distinct disease with particular mental and physical symptoms in the fifth and fourth centuries BC. Hippocrates, in his Aphorisms, characterized all “fears and despondencies, if they last a long time” as being symptomatic of melancholia.
In the medieval Arab world, the Arab psychologist Ishaq ibn Imran (d. 908), known as “Isaac” in the West, wrote an essay entitled Maqala fi-l-Malikhuliya, in which discovered a type of melancholia: the “cerebral type” or “phrenitis”. He carried out a diagnosis on this mental disorder, describing its varied symptoms. The main clinical features he identified were sudden movement, foolish acts, fear, delusions and hallucinations.[4] In Arabic, he referred to this mood disorder as “malikhuliya”, which Constantine the African translated into Latin as “melancolia”, from which the English term “melancholia” is derived.
Ali ibn Abbas al-Majusi (d. 982) discussed mental illness in his medical encyclopedia, Kitab al-Malaki, which was translated into Latin as Liber pantegni, where he discovered and observed another type of melancholia: clinical lycanthropy, associated with certain personality disorders. He wrote the following on this particular type of melancholia: “Its victim behaves like a rooster and cries like a dog, the patient wanders among the tombs at night, his eyes are dark, his mouth is dry, the patient hardly ever recovers and the disease is hereditary.”
Nasty, and a few seconds out of synchronous function with others, I keep to myself and let hatred boil off of me in bright green sheets. For a few hours or even several sleepless days, there will be a storm in me, and in a tangential and often pedantic manner I will think aloud about existential minutiae to calm my racing thoughts…
…November 15th, 2008, in this case…
Actually Sunnyside yards, but shot on the same day as the other ones- photo by Mitch Waxman
Warm and humid patches of air had permeated the greater New York area for several days, producing the frequent rain and gray fogs which had made the Autumn of 2008 remarkable.
After a severe squall, whose high winds and driving rains obliterated those clouds occluding the Hunter’s Moon during the previous week, and an unusually warm late summer and autumn- a phenomena once referred to as “Indian Summer“- the entirety of the area found itself coated in a grimy patina of storm blown mud and filth- like the garage door which is the photographic subject above and below. There was blown grit on the sidewalk, with wind action the presumed culprit, as the storm picked its pathway through the rain puddles which collect in and garland the broken pavement of the Newtown Pentacle.
from wikipedia:
The DSM-IV-TR, a widely used manual for diagnosing mental disorders, defines Agoraphobia Without a History of Panic Disorder as:
The presence of Agoraphobia related to fear of developing panic-like symptoms (e.g., dizziness or diarrhea):
Anxiety about being in places or situations from which escape might be difficult (or embarrassing) or in which help may not be available in the event of having an unexpected or situationally predisposed Panic Attack or panic-like symptoms. Agoraphobic fears typically involved characteristic clusters of situations that include being outside the home alone; being in a crowd or standing in a line; being on a bridge; and traveling in a bus, train or automobile.
The situations are avoided (e.g., travel is restricted) or else are endured with marked distress or anxiety about having a Panic Attack or panic-like symptoms, or require the presence of a companion.
The anxiety or phobic avoidance is not better accounted for by another mental disorder, such as social phobia (e.g., avoidance limited to social situations because of fear of embarrassment), specific phobia (e.g., avoidance limited to single situation like elevators), Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (e.g., avoidance of dirt in someone with an obsession about contamination), Post-traumatic stress disorder (e.g., avoidance of stimuli associated with a severe stressor), or Separation anxiety disorder (e.g., avoidance of leaving home or relatives).
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The authorities at several meteorological centers warned that the arrival of winter was but a few days off, and we citizens of the megalopolis should make the best of this pleasant weather while it lasted. Just 72 hours later, the temperature would plummet to a hard freeze, and the bone cracking devastation of a metropolitan winter began in earnest. A beautiful day, I headed for joy defined hinterlands of the Newtown Creek.
Following the sun to Long Island City that Saturday, I crossed the neighborhood of Dutch Kills. Geographically distinct from the tributary of the Newtown Creek for which it is named, Dutch Kills is a mixed use neighborhood which is a dichotmous mix of lovely 19th and early 20th century homes, apartment houses, and churches with heavy industry sited incongruously nearby.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Crescent St., which has carried traffic from modern day Queens Plaza to the wildly distant Bowery Bay- located on the distant northern shore of elysian Astoria- since the time of the Dutch- is where I found this enigmatic garage door.
It is odd that I am so fascinated by the world of a century ago, for were a creature of my inner weakness and faults were to appear in amongst the super predators that inhabited that Newtown, I would have quickly been sent off to a nearby madhouse. In 1887, Nellie Bly– the unofficial inspiration for Lois Lane– faked madness for the sake of investigating the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island.
Click here for a link to an absolutely free audiobook of Nellie Bly’s Ten Days in a Madhouse, from Librivox.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I must confess to one of the morbid habits which consumes me, and why I can always be found amongst the lightning crashed trees and storm tossed alleys of Newtown Creek soon after (or sometimes during) a weather event. Out of mercy for the sensibilities of those whose childhood was not spent only in the company of dusty shelves, and they whose actions are not governed by an aesthete’s desire to witness the bizarre and macabre truths of life and death, for the sake of these innocents- I do not show these forbidden photos to anyone. Even the long suffering and effusive Lady of The Pentacle is denied access to these images of broken and shattered life- which I collect after a cleansing storm washes through the Newtown Pentacle.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Detailed, and sharply focused, the bloody patches of cement and the little piles of flystruck meat are the center of a great ecosystem that somehow survives the moonscape hostility of Long Island City. These swollen and torn animals, which present themselves first via olfactory means- to me- are proof of life’s resiliency and provide great hope in their fecund example. You will never see these images.
Satisfy yourself instead with the amusing spectacle of these imprinted sporting goods, tattoo imprints of the actions of adolescent spirit.
meh…
NYC Marathon, 2008
When advised by medical practitioners that I should run, I admonish them. I am from Brooklyn, and without someone or indeed- something- chasing me, I walk at my own pace. Thus, I am fascinated by the NYC marathon, which crosses the ancient heart of the Newtown Pentacle on its course. All of the coverage you see of this event is usually manhattan centric, but it actually rolls through some interesting places.
Pulaski Bridge, NYC Marathon 2009, corner of Jackson ave. and 49th ave. – photo by Mitch Waxman
The Pulaski Bridge is the 13.1 mile point in the New York Marathon, for which it is closed to vehicular traffic annually. Runners exit Greenpoint, speed over the Newtown Creek, and head for the Queensboro bridge. They spend 2.5 miles in Queens.
From wikipedia
The New York City Marathon (ING New York City Marathon for sponsorship reasons) is a major annual marathon (42.195 km (26.219 mi) whose course runs through all five boroughs of New York City. It is one of the largest marathons in the world, with 37,850 finishers in 2006. Along with the Boston Marathon and Chicago Marathon, it is among the pre-eminent long-distance annual running events in the United States and is one of the World Marathon Majors.
Down Under the Queensboro Bridge Onramp- DUQBO- during the 2007 NYC marathon. – photo by Mitch Waxman
When they hit Queensboro, relief for the 2.5 miles of pain that the runners remember as Long Island CIty becomes intellectually closer, and most of the runners redouble their determination and effort. There is a significant Police Dept. muster, in DUQBO, including auxiliary and cadet officers. The cops are involved, from their point of view, in a 25 mile long rerouting of vehicular and pedestrian traffic across multiple municipal and jurisdictional districts. Rerouting the millions of vehicles denied easy access to Manhattan, ensuring that FDNY can move ambulance and fire units seamlessly around the event, mustering and deploying the hundreds of traffic officers- as well as dozens of specialized units ranging from Equestrian to Aviation… This is no marathon, this is a military operation.
Come to think of, so was the story which inspired all future marathons, and lent them its name- in Greece.
from wikipedia
The Battle of Marathon (Greek: Μάχη τοῡ Μαραθῶνος, Māche tou Marathōnos) took place in 490 BC during the first Persian invasion of Greece. It was fought between the citizens of Athens, aided by Plataea, and a Persian force commanded by Datis and Artaphernes. It was the culmination of the first attempt by Persia, under King Darius I, to subjugate Greece. The first Persian invasion was a response to Greek involvement in the Ionian Revolt, when Athens and Eretria had sent a force to support the cities of Ionia in their attempt to overthrow Persian rule. The Athenians and Eretrians had succeeded in capturing and burning Sardis, but was then forced to retreat with heavy losses. In response to this raid, the Persian king Darius I swore to have revenge on Athens and Eretria.
Once the Ionian revolt was finally crushed by the Persian victory at the Battle of Lade, Darius began to plan to subjugate Greece. In 490 BC, he sent a naval task force under Datis and Artaphernes across the Aegean, to subjugate the Cyclades, and then to make punitive attacks on Athens and Eretria. Reaching Euboea in mid-summer after a successful campaign in the Aegean, the Persians proceeded to besiege and capture Eretria. The Persian force then sailed for Attica, landing in the bay near the town of Marathon. The Athenians, joined by a small force from Plataea, marched to Marathon, and succeeded in blocking the two exits from the plain of Marathon. Stalemate ensued for five days, before the Athenians (for reasons that are not completely clear) decided to attack the Persians. Despite the numerical advantage of the Persians, the hoplites proved devastatingly effective against the more lightly armed Persian infantry, routing the wings before turning in on the centre of the Persian line.
The defeat at Marathon marked the end of the first Persian invasion of Greece, and the Persian force retreated to Asia. Darius then began raising a huge new army with which he meant to completely subjugate Greece; however, in 486 BC, his Egyptian subjects revolted, indefinitely postponing any Greek expedition. After Darius died, his son Xerxes I re-started the preparations for a second invasion of Greece, which finally began in 480 BC.
And, yeah, I know- the “in greece” link is the Battle of Thermopylae, and is highly stylized.
Queens Plaza – photo by Mitch Waxman
The interesting part of the marathon, to my eye, is what’s happening around it. Queens Plaza devoid of vehicular traffic, for instance. But NYC has been making great effort and spending big money on Physical Education and Culture since the early days of Progressivism.
from nycgovparks.com (this goes to a really cool page, click this link)
Recreation in Parks
Since the ancient Greeks (or even earlier) there has been a strong link between physical health and general wellbeing. For nearly 100 years, the Parks Department has been at the forefront in supporting a healthy city and putting the “recreation” in “Parks & Recreation.” From the early bathhouses to the anti–obesity programs of today, the Parks Department’s focus on active recreation has supported the goal of a healthy citizenry and positive social and moral conduct…
Near Queens Plaza – photo by Mitch Waxman
Volunteers and well wishers, of both corporate and individual stripe, line the streets. This is actually a dangerous place to be, as at any moment, 200 pounds of human meat may accidentally run into you. Accordingly, NYPD aggressively enforces a margin of safety between runners and crowd, as is their stated mandate and mission- protect and serve.
from wikipedia
The physical culture movement of the 1800s owed its origins to several cultural trends.
As a result of the Industrial Revolution, there arose a perception that members of the middle classes were suffering from various “diseases of affluence” that were partially attributed to their increasingly sedentary lifestyles. In consequence, numerous exercise systems were developed, typically drawing from a range of traditional folk games, dances and sports, military training and medical calisthenics. Many of these systems drew inspiration from the classical Greek and Roman models of athletic training and were organized according to more-or-less scientific methods.
Physical culture programs were promoted through the education system, particularly at military academies, as well as via public and private gymnasiums.
Increasing levels of literacy, the increasing democratization of printing and the relative affluence of the middle classes spurred the growth of a genre of magazines and books detailing these systems of physical culture. Mass production techniques also allowed the manufacture and commercial sale of various items of exercise equipment. During the early and mid-1800s, these printed works and items of apparatus generally addressed exercise as a form of remedial physical therapy.
Certain items of equipment and types of exercise were common to several different physical culture systems, including exercises with Indian clubs, medicine balls, wooden or iron wands and dumbbells. Combat sports such as fencing, boxing and wrestling were also widely practiced in physical culture schools, and were touted as forms of physical culture in their own right.
By the later 19th century, the ethos of physical culture had expanded to include exercise as recreation, education, as preparation for competitive sport and as an adjunct to various political, social, moral and religious causes. The Muscular Christianity movement is an example of the latter approach, advocating a fusion of energetic Christian activism and rigorous physical culture training.
NYC Marathon – photo by Mitch Waxman
A neverending stream of humanity, emblazoned with signage and logotypes, course past. Many are in the final stage of enacting some personal and tragic journey, or running to memorialize the name of a lost loved one, or to celebrate some event. Many have charitable contributions tied to the miles and miles of pavement they cross. Most just run for the human challenge presented by the concrete realities of New York City. At least that’s what the messages were in a series of Nike and Footlocker ads that I worked on for a major metropolitan ad agency just a few years ago.
Like I said at the beginning of this post, I walk (scuttle, actually). These people are nuts.
from wikipedia
The terms to jog and jogging as referring to a form of exercise, originated in England in the mid seventeenth century. This usage became common throughout the British Empire and in his 1884 novel My Run Home the Australian author Rolf Boldrewood wrote “your bedroom curtains were still drawn as I passed on my morning jog”.
In the United States jogging was also called “roadwork” when athletes in training, such as boxers, customarily ran several miles each day as part of their conditioning. In New Zealand during the 1960s or 1970s the word “roadwork” was mostly supplanted by the word “jogging”, promoted by coach Arthur Lydiard, who is crediting with popularizing jogging. The idea of jogging as an organised activity was mooted in a sports page article in the New Zealand Herald in February 1962, which told of a group of former athletes and fitness enthusiasts who would meet once a week to run for “fitness and sociability”.
NYC Marathon – photo by Mitch Waxman
As they progress, cheering crowds villify the thought of surrender, admonish fatigue, and buoy the athletes to further exertion.
from nycmarathon.org
Around the world, the word “marathon” evokes images of New York City. Before the New York race began, marathons were modest events run by a few athletes and followed by a few fans interested in the limits of human endurance. New York Road Runners and marathon co-founder Fred Lebow changed that. Today many marathons are huge media events that take over entire cities around the globe. None is as prominent as the ING New York City Marathon, but all city marathons are modeled on it. Modern marathoning owes its start — and its world-class status — to New York.
The first New York City Marathon, though, was a humble affair. In 1970, 127 runners paid the $1 entry fee to NYRR to participate in a 26.2-mile race that looped several times within Central Park. Fifty-five runners crossed the finish line
NYC Marathon, Dead by Choice band – photo by Mitch Waxman
All along the route, bands were assembled and were allowed to play both amplified music and drums- normally a violation of the city’s strictly enforced Cabaret Law. Entertainers, street performers, and representatives of the local Ethnic Societies all had their spots staked out early.
from nycmarathon.org
Music
More than 100 live bands stationed at regular intervals along the course will motivate and entertain participants and spectators alike. A special stage at Columbus Circle sponsored by Continental Airlines will provide inspiration for the final .2 mile, and there will be live entertainment at the finish line as well.
NYC Marathon, accordion man – photo by Mitch Waxman
Long Island City’s longtime residents always seem to have a good natured chuckle when one of these “City” events rolls through. This gentleman and his wife set up chairs, and he was playing the “toura loura loura” brand of music on his accordion to the runners. He also played an instrumental version of “eleanor rigby“, which was both ironic and funny.
The winners of the 2008 marathon were-
the male champion Brazilian Marílson Gomes dos Santos, who ran the course in 2 hours, 8 minutes and 43 seconds-
and British Paula Radcliffe won the female prize for her 2 hour, 23 minute, and 56 second run.
NYC Marathon – photo by Mitch Waxman
In 2008, the New York City Marathon was only thought to have killed two. Reports were later revised to three.
from wikipedia
The 2008 marathon events were marred by the deaths of three marathon participants:
Carlos Jose Gomes, 58, of Brazil fell unconscious shortly after completing the race in 4:12:15. An autopsy revealed that he had a pre-existing heart condition and died of a heart attack.
Joseph Marotta, 66, of Staten Island, N.Y. succumbed to a heart attack hours after he completed his fourth New York City Marathon. He walked the course in 9:16:46.[
An unidentified 41-year-old man who collapsed at the marathon died on 15 November.
NYC Marathon – photo by Mitch Waxman
The official website for the Marathon is found here. They are currently gearing up for the annual incarnation of the event- scheduled for November 1st, All-Saints Day 2009.
The way other cultures will be celebrating the day are ingenious, and varied. Incidentally, Nov 1st is also called Samhain, by some, but I would be surprised at any bonfires lit in the Newtown Pentacle.
from wikipedia
In Portugal and Spain, ofrendas (offerings) are made on this day. In Spain, the play Don Juan Tenorio is traditionally performed. In Mexico, All Saints coincides with the celebration of “Día de los Inocentes” (Day of the Innocents), the first day of the Day of the Dead(Dia de los Muertos) celebration, honoring deceased children and infants.
In Austria, Belgium, France, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain people bring flowers to the graves of dead relatives.
In Poland, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Finland, Slovenia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Croatia, Austria, Romania, Moldova, Hungary and Catholic parts of Germany, the tradition is to light candles and visit the graves of deceased relatives.
In the Philippines, this day, called “Undas”, “Todos los Santos” (literally “All Saints”), and sometimes “Araw ng mga Namayapa” (approximately “Day of the deceased”) is observed as All Souls’ Day. This day and the one before and one after it is spent visiting the graves of deceased relatives, where prayers and flowers are offered, candles are lit and the graves themselves are cleaned, repaired and repainted.
In English-speaking countries, the festival is traditionally celebrated with the hymn “For All the Saints” by William Walsham How. The most familiar tune for this hymn is Sine Nomine by Ralph Vaughan Williams.
NYC Marathon – photo by Mitch Waxman
November 1st is, incidentally, also the anniversary of the abdication of the last Ottoman Sultan in 1922- Mehmed VI, which was the end of a 25 century struggle between east and west that truly began at The Battle of Marathon. It’s also World Vegan Day.
For the whole marathon series in a slideshow click here. I was down there shooting between 12 and 2, if you’re one of the runners, contact me for access to full resolution shots.
NYC Marathon – photo by Mitch Waxman
Astoria to Calvary 5- the bitter end
Altissima quaeque flumina minimo sono labi
The deepest rivers flow with the least sound
47th avenue – photo by Mitch Waxman
In the first installment of this photowalk–
we scuttled through western Queens – descending from Astoria down to Northern Blvd.
In the second,
we lurked, fearfully, down vestigial 37th avenue – past an anomalous municipal building and fortress church.
In the third,
we marched defiantly into the Sunnyside, and were thunderstruck by the colossus Sunnyside Rail Yard.
In the fourth,
ruminated on the Boulevard of Death, and gazed upon Aviation High School.
Today, we arrive at Calvary, and suddenly connect with several other posts. Witness…
47th avenue Street Sign – photo by Mitch Waxman
Leaving Aviation High School behind you, Newtownicans, continue up the hill that 36th street transverses. Look to your right, where the western end of 47th avenue is blocked by the Sunnyside Yard – and you will collide with an older post here at the Newtown Pentacle- “Dutch Kills- or let the photos do the walking“.
47th Avenue – photo by Mitch Waxman
The nearby corner of 47th st. and Van Dam St., which skirts the shadowed valley of that great hill in which Calvary Cemetery is embedded, is where the New York State Queensboro Correctional Facility is located. Just a few blocks beyond the gaol at 29th street is the Dutch Kills tributary of the Newtown Creek.
A spectacular riot played out here and in many other New York City Jails in 1970, in response to the poor conditions found in the State and City corrections systems of the 1960’s presaging the Attica riot in upstate New York. This event (and other problems he had in Queens) foreshadowed the jaundiced legacy that Mayor John V. Lindsay‘s political career would be remembered by, and the riots were organized and led by the Black Panther Party and Young Lords.
There are many jails here on the Queens side of the Newtown Pentacle, notably Rikers Island, a seething asp caged just off the shoreline of ptolemaic Astoria.
from time.com
The worst jail crisis in the city’s history began at lunchtime four days earlier at the 95-year-old Branch Queens House of Detention for Men. Inmates snatched keys from unarmed guards and made a frantic dash through the halls, unlocking cells all the way. The rioters turned on faucets to flood several floors, set fire to furniture and bedding, heaved debris and an eight-foot wooden bench out of broken cell windows. In a new political twist, they also hung the flag of the black liberation movement from a top-floor window. Over the next three days, more riots flared at other city jails, including the Tombs. In all, more than 2,500 inmates joined the rampage and seized 32 hostages—all for the sake of airing their grievances.
36th street, moving up toward Laurel Hill – photo by Mitch Waxman
The proclivity of the ground will take a sharp upturn here, and one becomes increasingly cognizant of the natural lay of the land- with its boulderized hillocks rising from sand and muddy clay- and its formation by the glacial actions of the Wisconsin Ice Age.
from geo.hunter.cuny.edu– An intriguing description of the strata found in the New York Bight.
from wikipedia
The island’s tallest natural point is Jayne’s Hill near Melville, with an elevation of 400.9 feet (122.2 m) above sea level. Long Island is separated from the mainland by the East River, which is actually not a river, but a tidal strait. Long Island Sound forms the northern boundary of the island.
48th Avenue – photo by Mitch Waxman
48th avenue terminates at 30th street, a block from the Dutch Kills. 36th street is about to end too, when we reach the top of the hill. A forbidding stretch of unlettered warehouses describes 48th avenue as it slopes down the morraine carved declination, barren and treeless.
36th street, Antennae- photo by Mitch Waxman
Between 48th and Hunters Point Avenue- you will find more warehouses, a very impressive broadcast antennae, and a gigantic charismatic church operating out of an altered workhouse.
36th street, St. Raphael on Horizon – photo by Mitch Waxman
At the corner of 48th street, St Raphael’s comes into view. Ahem, sorry but now’s when I reveal a few more of our hidden connections:
Cross 36th street at Hunters Point Avenue and Continue all around Calvary Cemetery in “Walking Widdershins to Calvary“
excerpt from July 31, 2009
-photo by Mitch Waxman
Click here to preview this photowalk in a google map
Hunters Point avenue intersects with the ancient course of Greenpoint Avenue at the degenerate extant of Long Island City. The Queens Midtown Expressway also comes back down to earth here, feeding Manhattan vehicular traffic to all points east. This is a very busy intersection, so be mindful of traffic, as fellow pedestrians are rare.
As with anyplace else in Queens you’d want to see, Forgotten-NY has been through here before. Click here for their page on Blissville and Laurel Hill.
-photo by Mitch Waxman
St. Raphael’s R.C. Church is on Greenpoint Avenue in a neighborhood called (atavistically) Blissville. A wooden frame building was built for St. Raphael’s in 1867, and served as the mortuary chapel for the newly built Calvary Cemetery. The current gothic influenced structure was completed in 1885, and has served both Calvary and the surrounding community since. This is one of the highest points in these parts, and the church steeple often acts as a reference point when negotiating the byzantine tangle of streets around the Newtown Creek. The architect is rumored to have been Patrick Keeley.
Enter Calvary Cemetery in “Calvary Cemetery Walk“
excerpt from August 5, 2009
-photo by Mitch Waxman
Just across the street from the site of the former LIRR Penny Bridge station. Easily accessed via the street, upon crossing the gates of Calvary, one will find a staircase carven into the hill by whose ascent the Newtown acropolis may be obtained. Cresting over the surrounding neighborhoods, and soaring over theNewtown Creek’s former wetlands, Calvary Cemetery keeps its secrets buried in centuried silence. Looking south toward Brooklyn, the Kosciuszko bridge approach of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway looms over its passage, carrying millions of vehicles over and across the necropolis of New York City.
-photo by Mitch Waxman
Phantoms of what could have been haunt Calvary, roaming in soliloquy amongst the avenues of nitredripping marble. The 1918 superflu and an earlier cholera epidemic staffed the ranks here with both the sacred and the profane. St. Patrick’s in Manhattan used this place for the interment of New York’s best and brightest. This is where the ossified remnants of the men who died battling the traitorous slavers of theConfederate South can be found in the Newtown mud. In subterranean vaults of marble and basalt, and within leaden coffins, these gentlemen– the ultimate product of an age of victorian aspirations- lie in putrid splendor, alongside the occasional merchant and immigrant whose life savings were traded to purchase their final resting place.
Pass by Calvary Cemetery and into Maspeth and the Newtown Creek in “Dead Ends, A short walk from Maspeth to Calvary“
excerpt from July 29, 2009
However, we are on the industrial side of town- down by the Newtown Creek- where the sins of our fathers continue to haunt modernity.
This is where we left off on July 16th- at the corner of 56th road, between 48th and 50th streets in Queens. This is an insanely dangerous patch of road running through a literal industrial backwater, so be careful. Last time we walked down the Maspeth Plank Road toward Brooklyn, today we’re going another way- tracing the course of the Newtown Creek on the Queens side for a while.
-photo by Mitch Waxman
From the vantage point above, look to your right, and you’ll see the Kosciuszko bridge. Head in that direction, which is roughly northwest and toward Manhattan. You’ll be walking down 56th rd. for a little while. The sidewalk on the Creek side is fairly non-existent, so cross the street. Watch out for trucks. Why was I here on foot, you ask?
Astoria to Calvary 4… or planes, trains, and automobiles
Just in case you want to refer to a google map
Skillman Avenue Firebox- photo by Mitch Waxman
(forgotten NY has lamp posts- I got Fireboxes- click here)
In the first installment of this photowalk– we began scuttling through western Queens – descending from Astoria into the milieu of 19th century teutonic progressivism- and found a long forgotten relict of the 1920’s gilded age.
In the second, we lurked, fearfully, down vestigial 37th avenue – past anomalous municipal building and fortress church.
In the third, we marched defiantly into the Sunnyside, and were thunderstruck by the colossus Sunnyside Rail Yard.
Skillman Avenue, Sunnyside Yards- “stitch panorama” photo by Mitch Waxman
Not too far from here (around a half mile east) on Skillman Avenue, during a smallpox epidemic in 1899, the city fathers built a large frame wooden building commonly referred to as “the Pest House”. This is a place of unexpected detail and obscured history, with layers upon layers of significance. I’ve read about the Sunnyside Yard, and observed it from its rotting fenceline, but I’m sorry to say that I cannot grasp the place. Its just so immense, such a huge subject. As in accordance with Newtown Pentacle Policy on such subjects- the history of the FDNY for instance, experts must be referenced and deferred to.
from pefagan.com
In 1899 we had a smallpox epidemic in both Queens and Manhattan boroughs, of which Long Island City had its share of victims. In order to take care of those so afflicted a large frame building was erected in the center of what is now known as Skillman Avenue, a few hundred feet west of Old Bowery Bay Road. In Woodside and on the opposite side of Old Bowery Bay Road, Louis Sussdorf occupied a large mansion. He didn’t like the idea of a wagon (not an ambulance) carrying smallpox patients making the turn opposite his gate on its way to the so-called pest house. Mr. Sussdorf went to court and tried to obtain removal of the pest house but was unsuccessful. Shortly after the epidemic ceased, Mr. Sussdorf died and as the funeral cortege passed through the gateway on his premises the pest house burst out into flames and was burned to the ground.
36th street and Skillman Avenue – photo by Mitch Waxman
99 years ago, Skillman Avenue was still farmland.
here’s a NYtimes article from 1910 discussing the nascent development of the area surrounding the Sunnyside Yards
36th street Taxi Depot – photo by Mitch Waxman
36th street, as one moves in a roughly southern perihelion, displays an industrial neighborhood. On your right will be a fascinating multi-story taxi garage festooned with arcing ramps- reminiscent of a plastic toy service station I played with as an innocent. Its curvilinear shapes and utilitarian use of reinforced concrete suggests mid 20th century design and construction.
Curious characters- mohammedans, hindoos, and other representatives of the distant orient mill about- either waiting for a work shift to begin- or just finishing up the hypnagogic 12-16 hours behind the wheel maintained by New York’s fleet of Taxi drivers. Strong coffee and the acrid smell of tobacco hang redolant upon the air, and if one passes at an opportune time- groups of these men can be found kneeling on scraps of carpet as they perform their religious devotions while facing far off Mecca in answer to the call for prayer– heard playing from car stereos. Such adherence to tradition would be remarkable in a an American born Newtownican, and it speaks of a continuity to old world wonders.
36th street Factory – photo by Mitch Waxman
Religion in Long Island City was and is the business of business. 19th and 20th century industrialists with their twin creeds of efficiency and profit built this place. The curious and satisfying esthetics of the area are accidental, a byproduct of utility. A growing but still small number of brave souls decide to live down here in tony condominiums, amongst the effusive whir of city-bound traffic and the hectic and noisome trainyard. For much of the last century, the reverse was true, with vast populations fleeing these neighborhoods for the safety and comforts of Long Island, Westchester, and New Jersey.
36th street looking northwest at 43rd Avenue- photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve coined a phase for the feeling one gets, walking these streets in the off hours when the workers who normally populate the area are enjoying their restful rustications, “a feeling of desolate isolation”. I crave such esoteric intuitions, and the loneliness of wandering a landscape whose very existence is predicated on concentrating large populations into industrial mills and factories. As I’ve mentioned in the past, my headphones are almost always in operation on these long pedestrian ambles, and audiobooks are usually my preferred company. Richard Matheson, Joseph Campbell, and particularly H.P. Lovecraft are often my companions as I walk upon the earth and view the splendors of Newtown. I also bring along a couple of early Black Sabbath albums, and just for kicks- the soundtrack to the Omen movies.
43rd avenue looking southwest – photo by Mitch Waxman
Continuing toward the fungus torn ground of Calvary, due south, the grinding noise of the Boulevard of Death penetrates through my headphones. I won’t remind you to safeguard as you cross the massive arterial thoroughfare, for signage attesting to traffic fatalities (and their number) adorns many of its crosswalks- as do tiny roadside shrines memorializing those not loquacious enough to respect the flow of automobiles moving toward the nearby Queensboro bridge.
36th street and Queens Blvd. – photo by Mitch Waxman
Queens Boulevard is one of those places that New Yorkers just take as a given. A massive structure which carries elevated subway service from Manhattan, and allows vehicular traffic egress to and from the great city to all points east, Queens Blvd. is properly viewed as an engineering marvel and modern day Appian Way.
from wikipedia:
Queens Boulevard was built in the early 20th century to connect the new Queensboro Bridge to central Queens, thereby offering an easy outlet from Manhattan. It was created by linking and expanding already-existing streets, such as Thomson Avenue and Hoffman Boulevard, stubs of which still exist. It was widened along with the digging of the IND Queens Boulevard Line subway tunnels in the 1920s and 1930s, and some speculated the plan was to transform it into a freeway, as was done with the Van Wyck Expressway. The city actually did propose converting it in 1941, but with the onset of World War II, the plan was never completed.
The combination of Queens Boulevard’s immense width, heavy automobile traffic, and thriving commercial scene made it the most dangerous thoroughfare in New York City and earned it citywide notoriety and morbid nicknames such as “The Boulevard of Death” and “The Boulevard of Broken Bones.” From 1993 to 2000, 72 pedestrians were killed trying to cross the street, an average of 10.2 per year, with countless more injuries. Since 2001, at least partially in response to major news coverage of the danger, the city government has taken measures to cut down on such incidents, including posting large signs proclaiming that “A Pedestrian Was Killed Crossing Here” at intersections where fatal accidents have occurred and installing more road-rule enforcement cameras.
from Queens Blvd. – photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve always felt the Roman comparison is apt for this interconnected series of bridges and structures called Queens Blvd., due to the visual impact of the design of the elevated subway tracks- an aqueduct thrusting down the center of the great road, and the manner in which it connects so many disparate communities together as one.
from nycroads.com
HISTORY OF QUEENS BOULEVARD: Originally called Hoffman Boulevard, Queens Boulevard dates back to the early years of the twentieth century, when the road was constructed as a connecting route between the new Queensboro (59th Street) Bridge and central Queens. In 1913, a trolley line was constructed from 59th Street in Manhattan east along the new boulevard.
During the 1920’s and 1930’s, New York City began a program to widen Queens Boulevard. The project, which was conducted in conjunction with the building of the IND Queens Boulevard subway line, widened the boulevard to 12 lanes in some locations, and required a right-of-way of up to 200 feet. Once completed, local and express traffic flows were provided separate carriageways.
EXPRESSWAY PLANS: In 1941, the New York City Planning Department recommended that an expressway be constructed along eight miles of Queens Boulevard (NY 25) from the Queensboro Bridge in Long Island City east to Hillside Avenue in Jamaica. The City’s plan for the highway was as follows:
This highway is the major approach from Queens, Nassau and Suffolk to Manhattan. Its conversion to an express highway could readily be accomplished by the construction of grade separation structures at the more important intersections, and by improved mall treatment to close off access to the express roadways from minor streets.
As part of the project, the express lanes of Queens Boulevard were depressed in the area of Woodhaven Boulevard and Horace Harding Boulevard (later developed as the Long Island Expressway), while the local lanes were kept at grade level.
However, the plan to upgrade Queens Boulevard to an expressway was delayed by the onset of World War II, and ultimately, was never implemented. In the postwar era, Robert Moses, the arterial coordinator for New York City, shifted attention to creating an express route between the Queens-Midtown Tunnel (now under the jurisdiction of his Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority), Queens and Long Island. First proposed as improvements to the Queens-Midtown Highway and Horace Harding Boulevard, the route evolved as the Long Island Expressway (I-495).
According to the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT), Queens Boulevard now carries approximately 50,000 vehicles per day (AADT). In recent years, speeding motorists who exceed the 30 MPH speed limit and jaywalkers have created a lethal mix along densely populated stretches, prompting officials to enact tough measures against both offending groups.
from Queens Blvd. – photo by Mitch Waxman
A major commercial strip as well as a transportation artery, one observes all sorts of colorful chicanery and the craft of advertising at its basest operating along the strip. Many restaurants, gas stations, and bodegas operate along Queens Blvd. I would suggest a stop for supplies, as we’re about to head into another barren industrial moonscape.
Aviation High School – photo by Mitch Waxman
On Queens Blvd.’s southern shore you will observe Aviation High School (this is the 36th street side). I highly suggest that you detour onto 35th street at this point.
context:
Before the second world war, New York City had two classes of secondary education available. School administrators would determine, based on performance in primary school and all too often ethnicity, if one would continue on a scholastic or vocational tract. These often arbitrary and prejudiced reckonings would determine future social class and professional options, damning otherwise sound minds to a lifetime of labor based on an assumption of stereotypical ethnic predestination (the irish cop, black laborer, jewish lawyer, the white doctor, and the female nurse).
The “identity politics charismatic leaders” of the 1950’s and 60’s pointed out the unfairness of this policy and the racial and class stratification it enforced, and the vocational schools joined in the current curricula during the mayorality of John Lindsay. Aviation is a holdout from that era, although it is now listed as “specialized“.
from schools.nyc.gov
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
Our state-endorsed Career and Technical Education program provides students with a world-class education. This unique curriculum prepares students for a New York State Regents Diploma and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification as Aircraft Maintenance Technicians, leading to exciting and lucrative careers in the aerospace industry. Inherent in this, we create an educational culture that instills respect, self-discipline and strong intellectual values in meeting the demands of today’s colleges and universities. Our world-renowned reputation for academic and technical excellence reflects Aviation High School’s tradition, mission and commitment to its students, their future and the future of the aerospace industry.
Aviation High School – photo by Mitch Waxman
The United States military has been very generous to the students at Aviation High School, and the shop yard found on 35th street houses a few things that you don’t expect to find along Queens Blvd. That’s a plane I can’t positively identify- but I think it may be some iteration of the WW2 Japanese Zero. The Revell scale model airplane kits I was obsessed with building and painting in my adolescent years have taught me nothing. Knowledge anyone?
UPDATE 8/29 – A netownican to the rescue, I don’t have permission to identify this person as yet, but it is from a trusted source
…the sharktoothed plane you can’t positively identify is not a Mitsubishi Zero. It’s a North American T-6 Texan, an advanced training aircraft used by the U.S. military during World War II.
You’re not completely off base with your Zero comparisons, though. Know the old movie about Pearl Harbor, “Tora Tora Tora”? All the Zeros in that film are actually modified T-6 Texans, which could be bought as surplus for ludicrously cheap prices when the war ended. Real Zeros are as rare as hens’ teeth, since most of them were either shot down, left to rot on abandoned airstrips or scrapped in Japan.
Aviation High School – photo by Mitch Waxman
This plane, a United States Marines Corps Harrier- donated by the Corps itself- is dedicated in the name of Capt. Manuel Rivera, Jr. – the first American casualty during 1992’s Operation Desert Storm. Capt. Rivera was an alumni of Aviation High School.
AND WRONG AGAIN!!! The same source from above says
The jet aircraft is a Douglas TA-4 Skyhawk, the trainer version of a Vietnam-era attack plane.
Hallen Steel Factory – photo by Mitch Waxman
Hallen Steel is directly across the street from Aviation. This is their website, they seem to be some sort of metal working facility. I just really like the way their front yard looks. They are very prepared for what we here at Newtown Pentacle refer to as a “night of the living dead type situation”. Given my druthers, there’s a scrap yard I know in Greenpoint that would make a better shelter against the massive infestation of flesheaters that New York would surely produce, but Hallen is closer. I also like the guard towers on the George Washington Bridge for similar duty.
We are crossed by “the cemetery belt”, after all.
What, you never thought that one through- zombies in New York? I once did a 64 page BW comic about it, called Deadworld:Necropolis.
47th avenue – photo by Mitch Waxman
Sorry for the sporadic updates last couple of days, late summer delights and professional obligation have kept me offline. Next up, we finish the walk to Calvary…
The Newtown Pentacle 