Archive for the ‘Photowalk’ Category
quiet travel
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just a short one today. Something pretty cool is in the pipes, and I’ve been developing a massive batch of shots from a site visit I got to do on Tuesday. Accordingly, a humble narrators eyes are tinged with red and the coffee doth flow freely. These Canada Geese are new neighbors, it seems, having taken up residence on Newtown Creek in Maspeth.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It feels as if one has spent the last few weeks doing nothing but hurtling about the harbor. Next week, it should be mentioned, the Working Harbor Committee 2013 schedule commences with the “Beyond Sandy” series of harbor tours. More information and ticketing can be found at the Working Harbor Blog, which is accomplished by Newtown Pentacle Aide de Camp and far eastern correspondent Armstrong. Check her stuff out here, and get more info on “Beyond Sandy.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I plan on being a fixture on those WHC boat tours, but not on the microphone. I’m the official photographer for the group and will be on board just shooting away. Back tomorrow with a bit more substance for you to sink your teeth into.
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.
slowly onward
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Spotted recently in the wilds of Greenpoint, a Checker Cab. For those of you who came to NYC late in the game, these taxis were as iconic as the Empire State Building or Tugboats “back in the day.” There’s always a few Checkers in Greenpoint, repurposed as hotel limousines by the Box Hotel in DUPBO (Down Under the Pulaski Bridge Onramp). This model appears clad in stickers and vehicle wrap that seems authentic, and the color is spot on. Only thing missing is the smell of vomit.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It has been mentioned in the past that this “future” of ours, life lived in the 21st century, is kind of a let down for me. As a child, I was sold on lots of conceptual technologies (I will admit that we’ve gotten the pocket sized personal computer network consoles) which have never materialized. Moving sidewalks, domed cities, jet packs- that sort of stuff.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Instead, we just seem to have a lot more cars zipping around, carrying people back and forth to a lot of unimaginatively shiny buildings, and a single orange can cost you as much as a dollar in Manhattan. Necessary evil, I suppose, these automobiles of ours. People to see, places to go and all that. One wonders, however…
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.
impassable barrier
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Unhappily, one must report to you that the May 26 Newtown Creek Cruise has been postponed and needs to be rescheduled. Unforeseen circumstance has reared its ugly head, in the form of the NYC DOT announcing a bridge painting project which will preclude the opening of the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge during the time and date of our excursion.
Working Harbor Committee remains committed to the trip, but we need to reschedule it for a more opportune time when the three hour exploration is not in danger of being cut short some 30 minutes in.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After reporting on the bridge maintenance last month, in the posting “tireless and continuing,” your humble narrator contacted the WHC group’s leader- Captain John Doswell- and the two of us began a lengthy debate as to what to do. The NY Water Taxi we use for these Newtown Creek Boat Tours has a shallow draft, but we couldn’t take the chance that a rising tide would trap us in front of or behind the bridge and it was decided to reschedule.
All of you who bought tickets should have already received an email from the Captain, and a refund.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The trip will likely occur in the autumn instead, probably toward the end of September. The silver lining in this is that the Newtown Creek seems to look best in the fall and those of you who are photographers will benefit greatly from the shift of seasons. I will keep you posted as news develops, but for now, apologies are offered for those of you who bought tickets and planned to spend some time with me exploring the Newtown Creek.
The walking tours listed below are offered as a curative.
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.
Project Firebox 70
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Embedded within a cement sidewalk, opposite the fabulous and fossilized remains of the Loose Wiles building of the largely forgotten Degnon Terminal on the Thompson Avenue viaduct stands this soldier of the realm. Unlike many of its brethren in Western Queens, this firebox functions on, awaiting the day it will be needed.
Upcoming tours:
Parks and Petroleum- Sunday, May 12, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
The Insalubrious Valley– Saturday, May 25, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets now on sale.
sacred grove
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Maspeth Creek, at low tide, does not smell like lilacs. A lot of that is due to the natural actions and out gassing of exposed mud flats, but the miasma which plagues the area around it is due to the combined sewer outfall (CSO NC-077, which discharges better than 288 million gallons a year of untreated sewerage into the water). The waterway, severely truncated and canalized, was locked into its current shape and size back in 1914 by the Army Corps of Engineers at the behest of the United States War Department. Nearby was the LIRR Haberman siding, and this was a strategic locale during the early 20th century full of chemical plants and manufacturing companies.
Once, Maspeth Creek ran nearly all the way to Elmhurst, rather than ending in an open sewer.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Descriptions of this area, in particular, tickle the fancy of those who come to Newtown Creek with preconceived notions about the place. Here they find stink and sediment mounds, and witness abandoned cars dissolving slowly into its waters. As early as 1908, reports of the area describe it as a “dismal swamp, distributing evil smells and ugly to the last degree.” Witnesses in the early 20th century detailed the presence of railroad yards, factories, acid running from open pipes into the water, fat boiling in open vessels, oil works and chemical yards.
Nearby were the bone blackers, fat renderers, and every sort of malodorous occupation imaginable.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It is mysterious, to me, that I have been unable to find mention of the place in literature from the so called “muck raker” era whose setting involves this area- the closest you get is in “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.” Accounts of Packing Town in Chicago abound, notably in Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle.” Nellie Bly drew a cogent picture of being institutionalized on Blackwells Island in “10 days in a madhouse” and everyone from Walt Whitman to Horace Greely have left behind accounts of the miseries of Manhattan’s working class communities and the horrible conditions encountered around the factories which lined its riverfront shorelines.
How odd it is that this spot, so close to the geographic center of New York City and with a rich colonial era history, has escaped comment by any other than just a few long dead journalists and a half dead yet humble narrator.
Upcoming tours:
Parks and Petroleum- Sunday, May 12, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
The Insalubrious Valley– Saturday, May 25, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets now on sale.
The Newtown Pentacle 