Archive for the ‘Maspeth’ Category
The happy place
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After visiting the Maspeth Avenue Plank Road, my next destination was in Queens, and another one was in Brooklyn a couple of miles away nearby the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge. I had decided to walk one of my familiar routes there, past Maspeth Creek and to the Kosciuszcko Bridge.
It was about 85 humid degrees at ten in the morning, and I was wandering through the section of Maspeth where the term ‘urban heat island effect’ was first described. What ‘urban heat island’ means is that this is an area nearly devoid of greenery and composed almost entirely of concrete, asphalt, and masonry. The latter materials both store and then release ambient heat, causing temperatures in this ‘zone’ to be ten to fifteen degrees hotter than in surrounding areas which are planted with trees and other vegetation – even at night.
It’s why ‘green roofs’ are important in new industrial construction hereabouts.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Department of Sanitation New York (DSNY), maintains a garage nearby the Maspeth Plank Road which causes the pedestrian quite a few problems, navigating obstacles wise. Did I mention that I’m now able to fully smell everything, after losing my environmental adaptations while living far away in Pittsburgh? Did I mention the heat and humidity?
Yikes.
After rounding the corner, and finding a small patch of shade, it was time to readjust the bags and straps hanging off of my torso. Luckily, I was able to leave the secondary bag back at my buddy’s house in Middle Village for this part of the experience, but having that big knapsack on my sweaty back during this kind of heat just sucked.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Maspeth Creek was in the worst condition I’ve seen it in for about ten years. When it’s all emerald colored like it is the shot above, it means that somebody has been dumping nitrogen rich ‘something’ in one of the sewers which ultimately outfall here. Ten years ago, it was a ‘Pollo Viva’ abattoir and slaughterhouse doing it, illegally dumping blood and bird shit into the sewers around a mile from here on the Brooklyn side. Could also be a laundromat, or any number of shoestring operations trying to increase their margins by ‘getting away with something.’
If there’s any value whatsoever to all those years I spent on Newtown Creek it was this sort of observation. Showing up and noticing things, and then passing on documentation of these ‘things’ to relevant authorities for proper investigation and enforcement. There’s a long list of such issues along Newtown Creek, which I’ve discovered thusly.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I have to admit, this leg of the walk was arduous. Direct sun, no cover, heat releasing and radiating out from the sidewalk and masonry warehouse walls… just awful.
Your humble narrator was sweating bullets.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Some street furniture was encountered, cementing Queens’ reputation in my mind for its native art form – illegal dumping.
Yeah, I did think about having a quick sit down on those chairs, but decided that I’d wait until I was in a shadier spot.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Luckily, when you’re in DUKBO, Down Under the Kosciuszcko Bridge Onramp, you can always shelter from sun and rain under the bridge.
Back tomorrow.
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“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
DUGSBO & the plank road gooses
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Welcome to the start of ‘Day three’ on a recent trip ‘back to the old neighborhood’ and my first stop after leaving Hank the Elevator Guy’s crib in Middle Village was DUGSBO – Down Under the Grand Street Bridge Onramp. You have to call a place something, and ‘White’s Dock’ as a place name is historical trivia recognized by maybe two or three living humans, one of whom is likely the webmaster at Forgotten-NY.
Long ago, I decided to just start calling unnamed places ‘something’ and enjoyed the conceit of using the model for ‘DUMBO’ for these otherwise uncommented upon spots. That’s the Grand Street Bridge pictured above.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I scuttled out onto the Grand Street Bridge, and straddled the currently undefended border of Brooklyn and Queens. The NYC Department of Environmental Protection dumps so much untreated sewage into this section of the creek that a judge ordered them to do something about the low oxygen levels therein. Rather than stem or divert the flow of ‘honey’ to their outfalls, the DEP built an aeration system instead. It’s a bit like an enormous aquarium bubble wand, one that also transports bottom sediments to the surface where they can aerosolize. The judge told them oxygenation needs to be solved…
Yeah, it’s all Exxon’s fault, just ask the DEP – they’ll tell you all about Exxon and how everything wrong with Newtown Creek is because of Exxon and the millions of gallons of raw sewage they release here annually isn’t a problem.
Here’s today’s: Bah!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
If failure had an icon, it would involve this aeration system.
One of the problems with the generation coming up is that if a group of governmental employees appeared who called themselves ‘The Good Guys, Girls, and everyone else who’s good too crew,’ it would come as a surprise to most of the youngins when they found out that this outfit were eugenicists or something. Just because it’s government doesn’t mean it’s good, and just because it’s corporate it’s not guaranteed bad. My advice is to be suspicious of everybody and everything until they prove themselves trustworthy. How’s that for ‘thought leading’?
Please, please, please… judge things by what they are rather than what you hope they’ll be. Evidence! Patterns! Do they do what they say they do?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Next stop was the Maspeth Avenue Plank Road, long described as ‘my happy place.’ I sat down for a bit, as it was ludicrously tropical out weather wise. That’s when I started noticing movement all around me.
It was them, one of the menaces which have long bedeviled me around Newtown Creek – in fact for decades now.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of these malfeasants captured my attention when swimming right past me, waggling its tail provocatively while doing so. It maintained eye contact, and so did I. It’s a Dinosaur, sort of.
This was all a deception.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another one of their cohort was circling around and trying to get behind me, so I stood up and shouted ‘NAAAG,’ as I speak a kind of goose.
These Canada Gooses are far and away one of the nastiest sort of Dino-Birds you can meet. I once got into a fist fight with one at Calvary Cemetery, and all these years later I’m still dealing with the blowback. (The Audubon Society people didn’t like my related tale of fighting a goose, as a note, but that ‘icehole’ started it. I finished it. Brooklyn!)
NAAAG!
I packed up my camera bag, bid these objectionable swamp chickens ‘adieu,’ and continued along my way. Very cheeky behavior for critters who don’t seem to have any cheeks, if you ask me…
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
Archives #049
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned the other day, this week’s posts are being written on Friday the 6th of December, and with any luck at all I’ve been out for some sort of limited walk by this point. The broken ankle situation has been traumatic, and I’m exhibiting somewhat phobic behavior towards flights of stairs – particularly during descent. This is natural, I guess, but every rise and run that I cross reminds me vividly of the fall which snapped my ankle in three and condemned your humble narrator to months of painful hell.
2011’s ‘An Oil spill… in Queens’ detailed a location on the Queens side of Newtown Creek from which oil was seeping from the bulkheads into the water. In the years since, containment and a plan for remediation are underway, or so I’m told.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One hopes that ‘overstatement’ isn’t the reaction to that declaration.
This was a dramatically painful and literally crippling injury. Required surgical correction, which itself was painful in the extreme, and the recovery period was marked by two months of constant nerve activity which felt like a burn. It’s expected, I believe, to be a bit apprehensive as you approach the very same physical tasks which ended so badly not too long ago. Gun shy, me. Step shy, actually.
2018’s ‘frenzied letter’ showed off a few night shots gathered around Newtown Creek and summarizes the locations where they were gathered.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Since the surgical cast came off, which was a little over a month ago, your humble narrator has been ‘playing ball’ with the physical therapy operation connected to the Surgeon’s office. Things there have been going very well, and I think that my PT folks are actually a little surprised at how fast my recovery is moving along. ‘A plus-plus’ is how they’ve rated my situation. It’s why I’m wearing shoes again rather than one of the braced walking boots.
I’m walking slowly, however, and with a pronounced limp. Still having problems with the ‘push forward’ part of my gait.
These archive posts are reaching into Newtown Pentacle’s backups, and are pulling posts that went public on this date, in their respective years, going back to 2009. This practice will continue until I’m back on both feet full time, and new photos and stories can be gathered. For anyone who hasn’t heard the news, I broke my left ankle at the end of September.
2022’s ‘ruptured hopes’ was gathered during my last weeks in NYC, after a lifetime tenancy. I wanted to see everything, one last time.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
Archives #044
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described yesterday, medical clearance for a return to whatever it is that I call ‘normal’ is at hand. I’ve still got a long orthopedic road ahead of me, as the busted ankle’s surgical recovery period will still be playing out for several months. It’s sore, and I can feel the various tendons and ligaments growing annoyed while reversing the atrophy which they’ve suffered, during the period when I was adorned with a cast.
In many ways, this is how this particular moment feels to me. I’m back, maybe? Care to step outside?
2009’s ‘Mt Zion 4- A Lurid Shimmering of Pale Light’ was published on this date, part of a series exploring the centuried polyandrion.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve still got another month of ‘PT’ ahead of me. So far, it’s all about stretching and strength training for the affected limb. I’ve had to explain to my trainer that I’m probably the least athletic person he’s ever worked with and that a ‘spasmodic, lurching, flying, and scuttling’ form and posture of locomotion is normal for one such as myself. Christmas week is theoretically when I’m meant to have a sit down with the surgeon who slotted me back together, and that’s when I’m expecting this experience to start to really wind down and recede into a bad memory.
2011’s ‘hewn rudely’ discusses the ‘ancient home of graft’ which is what they used to call LIC before consolidation with the larger city.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m writing this on Thanksgiving Day, so there’s actually a chance that next week (2nd week of December) you might actually see something newly gathered here. No promises, as there’s still weather to contend with, and it’s meant to be snowing in Pittsburgh for the next few days…
These archive posts are reaching into Newtown Pentacle’s backups, and are pulling posts that went public on this date, in their respective years, going back to 2009. This practice will continue until I’m back on both feet full time, and new photos and stories can be gathered. For anyone who hasn’t heard the news, I broke my left ankle at the end of September.
Another cemetery post was published, this time in 2012, in ‘Tales of Calvary 13- The Callahan monument.’ You never know what, or who, you’re going to find at First Calvary.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
Archives #026
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m able to ‘sort of’ walk again as this one publishes, albeit with a ‘walking boot’ sort of brace. Since the cast for my broken ankle came off a couple of weeks ago, every day has seen me doing something that would’ve been impossible just a 48 hours earlier. Still not capable of ‘normal’ activity, but…
These archive posts are reaching into Newtown Pentacle’s backups, and are pulling posts that went public on this date, in their respective years, going back to 2009. This practice will continue until I’m back on both feet full time, and new photos and stories can be gathered. For anyone who hasn’t heard the news, I broke my left ankle at the end of September.
This 2015 posting was titled ‘duplicate and exceed’ and it described a night time walk around the happy place of industrial Maspeth. This is right around when the low light shooting bug got installed in my head.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
What with the agony from the ankle and all, grooming has not been high on the list of ‘have-to’s,’ but that’s also something I can do finally again so I cut my hair and trimmed the beard just yesterday. It’s nice to recognize the guy in the bathroom mirror again, I tell’s ya. I was looking wild, with two months worth of gray wool sticking out of my head.
On November 11 in 2019, a humble narrator was enduring a different injury than the one I’m currently enjoying, as discussed in ‘inherent deficiency.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As a note, it’s Veteran’s Day and I’m going to be missing all of the PA parades this year. Looking forward to waving the camera around again. This walking boot produces a fairly severe limp, due to its static bracing of the ankle and calf, so wherever I end up taking the camera to it’s going to a ‘stand or sit around’ rather than ‘photowalk’ sort of situation.
Finally, this post from 2020 dubbed ‘darkly probable,’ discusses walking a tripod/camera setup around Queens Plaza at night.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
The Newtown Pentacle 