Archive for the ‘Photowalks’ Category
thronged through
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
July 9th saw me briefly escaping the hell of zoom meetings and other obligations which had consumed a couple of my days after the the whole rented car adventure described earlier this week.
I took a “stretch my legs” walk around the neighborhood. As always, Sunnyside Yards never disappoints.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Part of my path carried me through the devastated industrial zone found along Northern Blvd. and 35th and 36th avenues.
What devastated it, you ask? Innovation Queens did. The proposed “Big Real Estate” mega project’s owners have been buying up the properties here and not renewing the leases of the businesses housed therein for about ten years. This allows them to claim that it’s a blighted area, without mentioning that they’re the ones who created the blight.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Headed up by a three headed serpent, Innovation Queens would demolish a triangular section at the southern edge of Astoria which currently provides employment to hundreds, who work at jobs that pay taxes. The replacement is a series of 20 plus story luxury apartment towers, hosting about 3,000 units, which would be tax free to their owners for about 20 years due to having the bare minimum of “affordable” units within them.
The three headed serpent is: Larry Silverstein – self described best friend of Donald Trump and Governor of the Real Estate Board of New York, Bedrock Properties – an entity, whom one of the principals of recently bragged to me, wrote the affordable housing laws in the State of Connecticut (in other news, a fox recently wrote the Connecticut rules governing hen houses), and the Kaufman Astoria Group – who used to be in the movie and TV production business. Grrr.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
They’ve been allowing the properties they’ve acquired to decline, putting out tenants, and looking the other way at illegal dumping in the area. They also have neglected to clean their streets, remove graffiti, or do any of the other things property owners normally do.
The Three Headed Serpent claims that the area is “dark, dangerous, and forbidding.” This section didn’t used to be any of those things, before the three headed serpent slithered into the neighborhood.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These shots were the last ones captured before I fell into the grip of a three day long adventure involving gastro intestinal distress, and a concurrent pinched nerve in my neck which that was the result of too much bad sleep. What made it bad was the GI issues. I had one of those weird 72 hours when you’re sleeping a lot, but never more than two hours at a time.
As always is the case with such matters, you just need to wait it out.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Luckily, by mid week, I was back in fine fettle and moving around the world again. Cannot tell you how many people’s days I’ve ruined since with my presence.
Back tomorrow, with something that matters and proof that somebody cares.
“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.
desolate pitch
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned earlier in the week, a humble narrator was tooling around the greater metropolitan area in a rental car for a couple of days in early July, and on the 6th, Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself had arranged to visit some family out on Long Island. As is our habit, we arrived early and decided to check out the beach in East Islip.
East Islip Marina Park is where we were. The skies were threatening.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Lovely beach and recreation area, this park is. Other than the biting sand based insects who plague, that is.
We hung out for a bit, and I took the opportunity to crack out a few shots at the water’s edge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Bands of thunderstorm were rolling through the over vault, but no rain was falling. This one is looking east along the Great South Bay of Long Island.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I had taken a long walk along a short pier, it seems.
The alarm on my phone went off, and we headed over to my Cousin’s house for a lovely afternoon of catching up while snacking.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Eventually, I had to return to Queens. I dropped Our Lady off at HQ and drove over to LaGuardia Airport to return the rental car.
Afterwards, I summoned a rideshare from the Lyft service to carry my rotting carcass home. Y’know… I’m really curious about the whole “Evacuation Center” signboard you occasionally see on MTA’s buses.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While waiting for my chariot to arrive, I made it a point of grabbing a few shots of the airplanes heading down towards LaGuardia’s runways.
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.
breathing sleep
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The plan for July 6th ultimately involved visiting some family whom I haven’t laid eyes on in at least a decade. This branch of the tree is found on the south shore of Long Island, at roughly the middle point of the land form. As is always the case when Our Lady of the Pentacle and I invest in renting a car and or traveling, we left far earlier than we needed to and tried to make “good use” of the vehicle.
We followed the north shore of Queens, and found ourselves in College Point and then Whitestone. I had pegged a few destinations in where there might be something worth taking a picture of.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is a section of the Borough of Queens which I’m entirely unfamiliar with. It’s “car country” after all. Observationally, the further east we went, the wealthier the community seemed to get.
That’s the Throgs Neck Bridge, I’m told.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There were several cul de sacs and street ends which offered interesting points of view on this peninsular section of the World’s Borough.
Funnily enough, most of my experience – limited at best – with this area comes from observing it from the Bronx side.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The House of Moses, as in Robert Moses, is a term I often use to describe sights like the one above. During the era when Moses ruled the roost, they really seemed to make an effort to add in design flourishes and architectural nicety for inherently ugly infrastructure like highway on ramps.
We would drive for a bit, then I’d jump out of the car and grab a few shots, then move on. This is why I always describe Our Lady of the Pentacle as “long suffering.” In actuality, she was noodling around on her phone and dealing with work stuff.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
We made it all the way to Fort Totten’s parking lot before we needed to start motoring towards our familial destination.
Y’know, I’ve never been here before.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Wonder if I can fit in a day of “explore” at Fort Totten before my expiry in NYC comes up?
Tomorrow, something fairly different, at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“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.
happier than
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Wandering home from a long walk, one pondered. I could have jumped onto a train several times, but chose to just keep on scuttling. Pondering and scuttling go together.
Filthy black raincoat fluttering about, camera in hand, friendless and alone. That’s me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m tired of tilting my lance at windmills. I’m exhausted by the ideological extremes I encounter. I’m tired of people who make personal statements using the pronoun “we.”
I’m at the end of my rope as far as enduring the malignancy and demands of the many narcissists whom I’m forced to interact with in my daily round. Vainglory makes me nauseous.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Everybody wants, but nobody gives. All is frustration, hatred, and envy.
I’ve come to an impasse, lords and ladies. Something definitely needs to give, and you know what? It’s going to be me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Six months from now, and this is a plan that has been in the works for quite a while now, I will no longer be a New Yorker.
Ok, I’ll always be a New Yorker (I’m walking here), but I’m going to be doing that somewhere else where the volume is turned down a bit.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
What does that mean, though? I’m going to be leaving behind all that I ever was, all that I know, and starting over somewhere else in my mid 50’s – that’s what that means. Exciting, no? Terrifying, yes.
It also means that when I start announcing tours of Newtown Creek next month, if you’ve ever wanted to come on one – summer and fall of 2022 will your last chance. I’m not coming back.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Where I’m going, and what I’m going to do next is still forming. I don’t think I want to be “involved” in anything anymore either, due to that sour taste in my mouth which has been developing in the last few years. The Community Board thing is just depressing, and since the primal lesson I’ve gleaned after 15 years on Newtown Creek is that “nothing matters and nobody cares”…
Go west, that’s what they used to say, yeah? Go west. I’m done, so stick a fork in me.
“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.
curious ears
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A bit of personal business found a humble narrator at the zone in Queens where Flushing and College Point wash over each other again. There’s a Department of Motor Vehicles outpost here – which is fairly inaccessible by mass transit (well played DMV) – and I had some paperwork to deal with.
A couple of transfers on the subway and soon was a humble narrator scuttling down the street, heading for the greatest Kafkaesque bureaucracy ever created by anyone other than the crew who used to run the Soviet Union.
What? I’m not going to take pictures along the way?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s a concrete mixing factory and distribution center, based right along the waterfront at Flushing Bay. The street I was walking along leads to the on and off ramps of the Whitestone Expressway.
Not exactly pedestrian friendly, this area. And that’s coming from the Newtown Creek guy.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One is not terribly familiar with this section of Queens. My expertise revolves around the industrial corridors surrounding Newtown Creek, which I refer to as “the study area.” I can speak pretty intelligently about the zone between Woodside Avenue/58th street and the East River (and a similar section of Brooklyn) from Newtown Creek to Bowery Bay, but Flushing and the College Point area are very much their own thing. Broad stroke stuff would be all I can offer and I’d refer you to the Queens Historical Society for a detailed POV on the subject.
It bears mentioning that I find the historical community in Queens increasingly toxic these days, and will actually recoil when I see any of them coming. A lot of this toxicity is due to infighting, and a lack of funding for the various groups interested in the subject. For the one or two of you who are reading this and thinking “is he talking about me?” – go fuck yourself. Show up, do the work, stop being an asshole.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Having accomplished the filing and whatnot that I had come to the DMV to handle, it was decided to take a little walk on my way back to Astoria. My pathway to Flushing saw me depart the 7 train at its Main Street terminal stop, but I was a half hour walk away from the Mets/Citifield stop and it was a really nice early spring day, so…
Why not wave the camera around a bit? I didn’t go all fancy with these, and just cracked out shots of whatever happened to cross in front of me. I had a big “operation” happening a few days after this and didn’t want to go to nuts. This was March 4, btw.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It really is a shame, the way that the Borough of Queens treats the waterfront in areas where it hasn’t gentrified yet. Zero access here, there’s illegal dumping everywhere, and garbage is floating around in the water. I get so annoyed at the government types about this sort of thing, who “yada yada” about environmental issues but do nothing to fix them until the luxury condos projects are announced.
New York City’s government is a lot like your loser sibling who proclaims “this next year I’m going to get my shit together” at Christmas dinner before calling their dealer to deliver “las drogas” to your parent’s house, and who then crashes your dad’s car and tells your Mom that everything they just did is her fault because she served the wrong cranberry sauce.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Something I tell people these days is “that there is no threshold moment in your life when you will declare your shit as being together.” There is only now, so just do it. Whatever it is, just do it. If you’re fucking up, then maybe today you can try to fuck up a little less. Do the laundry.
Pfah.
“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 