Archive for the ‘Photowalks’ Category
monstrous implications
It’s National Almond Day, in these United States.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Owing to other obligations and piss poor weather conditions for the last couple of weeks, one hasn’t got anything new to show you for this week. Accordingly, it has been decided to instead present a few archive shots of the various branches of NYC government which make life liveable for us here in “Home Sweet Hell.”
Today, the focus is on the NYC DEP – the astounding New York City Department of Environmental Protection.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m a frequent critic of this agency, due to my knowing WAY too much about their operations because of the whole Newtown Creek thing. Saying that, they are a pretty amazing group. They deliver clean water to our faucets and remove dirty water from our toilets. They’re in charge of policing noise, and chemical spills, and cleaner air. DEP owns a navy, which they humorously refer to as “honey boats.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Deep below the Lower East Side, within a sequestered building that plunges deeply into the ground, there’s a giant pipe into which all the sewage of Manhattan (below 79th street) pours. The other end of this “surge tower” is at the sewer plant in Greenpoint where all of this “yuck” is headed for treatment. The shot above is staring directly down and into the DEP’s maelstrom.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
most conclusive
It’s National “I Want Butterscotch Day,” in these United States.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Owing to other obligations and piss poor weather conditions for the last couple of weeks, one hasn’t got anything new to show you for this week. Accordingly, it has been decided to instead present a few archive shots of the various branches of NYC government which make life liveable for us here in “Home Sweet Hell.”
Today, the focus is on DSNY – the stolid Sanitation Department of New York City.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Spending as much time as I do in meetings with government employees, the habit of pronouncing abbreviations phonetically has crawled into my speech pattern and I’ve found myself calling Sanitation “DSNY” with a spoken pronunciation of “DISNEY.” This confuses the heck out of normal people, as I’ll often refer to “DISNEY” performing street cleaning tasks or picking up garbage or their recycling and mulching programs. They picture Mickey and Goofy.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As essential as police and fire, DSNY is the only reason that NYC doesn’t suffocate under a mountain of trash and garbage everyday. We are a sloppy group, we New Yorkers. My recollection is that these cats collect up something like eleven and change tons of trash a day, which is translocated out of the City in short order.
I’ve asked where all the trash goes, and I’ve been told that they can’t tell me because of “homeland security” reasons.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Of particular interest, given the recent spate of wintry weather, is the DSNY’s snow removal and roadway winter maintenance programs. They salt, and scrape, and plow away the ice so that the rest of us can make it to work. If you want more days off from work, convince the Mayor to reduce DSNY’s funding. Of course, you might die from a preventable disease due to the piles of garbage if you do.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
ominous gossip
It’s International Safer Internet Day.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Recently, one found himself wandering about in legend cloaked and shadows haunted Greenpoint when my footsteps carried me past the beacon like NYPD’s 94th pct. house. The bulls are penned up here, on Meserole, and they like to keep it nice and bright. There’s a real sense of solidity to this building, and it’s somewhat evocative of a fortress. One wishes that the 114th pct. here in Astoria enjoyed such lush and stolid accommodations.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One is preoccupied at the moment, given the recent release of the “Deck over the Sunnyside Yards” feasibility study by the NYC EDC at the behest of our Mayor – the Dope from Park Slope. It’s a massive document, and full of arcane detail to process and respond to.
Its arrival means that Western Queens has arrived at an existential threshold, and that my home is now threatened.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Accordingly, posts such as today’s and yesterday’s are somewhat truncated. One does not have the luxury of wandering around the Greenpoint Historic District and marveling at times gone by and the architectural monuments to earlier times.
The battle for Queens is afoot.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
general credence
It’s National Frozen Yogurt Day, in these United States.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Not too much to tell you today, lords and ladies, other than to describe and share photos from a recent excursion which took me to Flushing for a social event. It’s on evenings like this, when I’m not consciously “working” that my pathologies are most fully on display. One just cannot stop taking pictures, as Queens is just too marvelous for words and nobody believes it until you show them. My journey from “Point A” in Astoria led me to Jackson Heights, where one secured a transfer from the sepulchral depths of the IND lines to the elevated IRT Flushing Line which carried me eastwards.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My arrival in ancient Flushing, at the so called “Main Street” stop, coincided with the local gendarmes performing their duties. My assumption, based on observable behaviors, is that the small statured fellow in the shot above had overly indulged himself with intoxicating beverages. NYPD didn’t seem overly concerned about the situation, treating it with a characteristic world weariness and the laconic mannerisms one normally sees the City’s uniformed security forces display.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At my destination, which was at a fairly new hotel that sits alongside the local precinct house which the fellows in the second shot would call “the office,” there was a rooftop deck – which despite frigidity – was available to visit and explore. The shot above was captured some nine stories up from Northern Blvd. in Flushing, and looks westwards across Queens towards the Shining City of Manhattan. That’s the Queensboro Bridge you see just to the right of center.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
enjoined to
It’s National Tater Tot Day, in these United States.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
For a maritime city, New York doesn’t actually seem to get foggy all that much. Sure there’s mist and murk occasionally, but it’s actually pretty seldom that we get a full on “inversion” and the sky fills with straight up pea soup. Whenever fog conditions do occur, however, one makes sure that the camera is out and about.
Nothing I like more than some atmospheric diffusion.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These shots were gathered on the 21st of January, when just such an atmosphere permeated and propagated across the neighborhood. As I’m wont to remind everyone around Newtown Creek – constantly – if you can smell it, you’re breathing it. On this foggy Saturday in January, we were all breathing New York Harbor for a day.
Speaking of Newtown Creek, check out how the new Kosciuszcko Bridge’s cable stay towers are visible from the corner of 39th street and Skillman Avenue in Sunnyside.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One left HQ relatively late in the day, hoping to catch that particular moment when the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself would angle itself properly to create sculptural lighting for the industrial landscape of LIC. Win!
The shot above looks down 47th avenue, as you travel down off the shallow ridge that Sunnyside and Woodside straddle towards the alluvial flatlands surrounding the Dutch Kills tributary of Newtown Creek, just for the curious.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As part of my “winter strategy,” which allows for taking some sort of transport in one direction to or from “Point A” in Astoria, a short ride on the “7 line” carried me to Queensboro Plaza where I transferred over to the Astoria bound “N line.” Glad that I did so, as the photo above was my “shot of the day” for the fog occluded 21st of January.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
The Newtown Pentacle 