Archive for the ‘Photowalks’ Category
pest gulfs
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Not too long ago, I was crossing an intersection in Long Island City, one which is overtly familiar, and I noticed something which has eluded my interests in the past. At Hunters Point Avenue (which is officially 47th avenue in this decadent age) and 27th street, the sewers bear an interesting screed.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There was recently a sizable road repair in this spot, perhaps in 2008 or 09, one which cut away the street surface. Observation revealed that the waters of Dutch Kills flow beneath a sort of concrete deck, which appears to be the foundations of the surface street, a structure which sits upon wooden piles.
It must have been around the time of this project that these grates showed up.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
“Dump no waste, drains to waterways” is the motto embossed on the curb surface. What this means, to me at least, is that snowmelt and rain goes directly (and untreated) into the nearest open water- which would be the Dutch Kills tributary of the fabled Newtown Creek.
Just in case you think that this is not a big deal, this is an enormously well travelled intersection with a UPS depot on the opposite corner and one which provides a “short cut” for trucks employed by the Fresh Direct facility on Borden Avenue (amongst others, of course). That’s two very large fleets of trucks.
Trucks are notoriously “drippy” and their exhaust paints the pavement with diesel petroleum residue, all of which flows into the water.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another drop in the bucket, you might say, as far the Newtown Creek Watershed goes.
Even so, it’s odd that untreated wastewater is allowed to flow directly into this waterway, already a largely anaerobic place where no fish of similar size might survive long.
gangrenous glare
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just a short one today, as your humble narrator has recently been laid low by some unknown virus for the last week, and frankly- all I can manage in this state of epidemic weakness and fatigue is another of the “now and then” posts.
Doubt exists in my mind as to the exact location of the shot below, but there were several improvements made to the elevated line on Queens Blvd. over the years, some of which were due to the lengthening of the platforms to accommodate IND as well as IRT to facilitate system wide access to the World’s Fair at what is now Flushing Meadow Corona Park.
– photo courtesy google books, from: Queens Borough, New York City, 1910-1920: The Borough of Homes and Industry
This very well might be the 46th street station in Sunnyside… but I’ll also point out that the Chrysler Building is missing as well.
Project Firebox 27
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On Ninth Street in Ravenswood lurks this minaret of scarlet assurance, a lonely and stalwart island of municipal succor in an dark and industrial sea of factory and warehouses. Curiously noble, it stands astride 35th Avenue.
omnivorous browsing
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There is quite a colony of indigents to be found beneath the Brooklyn Queens Expressway.
Recently observed, the encampment featured not just bedding but the rudiments of furniture as well. Stuffed into the highway girders were comestibles and other consumables. This population, hidden away in the nooks and crannies of the Newtown Pentacle, has been growing by leaps and bounds in recent months- according to personal observation. Used to be there were folks living in their cars all over the place, but these days, I’ve been seeing shanty towns springing up. I know a couple of spots where multi room shacks have remained established for years.
Welcome to 21st century New York City, lords and ladies.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This particular spot is found in Greenpoint, not far from the Williamsburg border. Academics and politicians might see this as a problem to be solved, but to the calloused eyes of a humble narrator, it’s another case of “not bad, nor good, just is”.
Experience has taught me that these folks are where their actions and choices have led them to, and that what they ultimately desire is to just be left to their own devices. “Do what thou wilt” is the whole of the law, and all that.
Also remember that given the opportunity- these folks would boil you down and sell your parts by the pound as butcher’s scrap.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The duo sleeping beneath the rag piles in the shot above most likely consider each other trusted cohorts, and maintain a loose fraternity with others who share their experience. Imagine what you look like to them, with your clean clothes, credit cards, and bleeding heart. When spare change or a cigarette tumbles out of your pockets, or you leave some castaway clothing item at their camps, how do you think they interpret you?
As a mark, that’s how.
It’s not that the homeless are worse people than you and I, it’s a tribal thing. How would you feel if (metaphorical rich guy) Bloomberg showed up at your house, tsk-tsk’d at your squalor, and dropped you a few bucks to help out?
Wouldn’t you be trying to figure out some way to get his watch?
Old School 2
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There are places where you just don’t want to park in Brooklyn.
This semi was spotted, appearing to have been picked over by a pack of scavenging dogs, in Greenpoint not too long ago. Please feel free to click through to the larger incarnations of this photo at Flickr, and examine the skeletonized husk of this truck. What I find puzzling, actually, is the fact that this rig still has tires and rims. Perhaps, at the end, it will be converted to some sort of horse drawn wagon?
For the first post in what will surely become a regular series click here for “Old School”.
