Archive for the ‘Sunnyside Yards’ Category
skillful blows
Random events witnessed and recorded.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While heading for Brooklyn one morning, I noticed these guys screwing up Queens at the Sunnyside Yards. They were part of the army of construction crews working on the East Side Access project, I’d wager.
If you’ll notice, they are literally operating a giant screw housed on that yellow piece of equipment.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Not too sure what they were doing, but one suspects it has to do with the complex hydrology which underlies the yard. When the place was established at the start of the 20th century, all sorts of issues were encountered in the name of conquering the land.
This was once an enormous swamp, found at the foot of a rocky outcrop known in the 19th century as “Long Island City Heights” which was rebranded in the 20th century as “Sunnyside.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Speaking of Sunnyside, I’ve been keenly watching the construction of the new school on 43rd street. This is a BIG project, and the steel for the new building is rocketing up towards the sky. Good to see that the municipality is actually reinvesting in the infrastructure of the neighborhood as the rapacious eye of the Real Estate Industrial Complex bears down on western Queens.
We get a few more hospitals, schools, fire houses, and police stations and there just might be a possibility of us surviving the 21st century in as fine a fettle as we did the 20th.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
sent forth
Lonely, ever so lonely.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Transversing the concrete devastations of Western Queens is best performed by ones own self, I belief, with my only company taking the form of an audiobook or podcast. Saying that, it can get pretty old pretty fast being by myself all the time, as I’m a horrible human being and this solitude offers me the opportunity for nothing but soliloquy and self critique. You can keep your professional therapist, I’d rather just wander around and beat myself up for habitually not rising to to the occasion.
I find that it’s the early hours on the weekends, those intervals marked by crowds of inebriates returning to Queens from a Saturday night bacchanalia in Manhattan, which are the loneliest. Even the Long Island Expressway seems to be a seldom traveled country road at this time of day, instead of the motorized river of steel and glass it normally presents itself as.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s in the early part of the day that puzzles such as this safety taped wall present their questions most clearly to me. Is there a lurking fear that some wandering stranger will not notice a scarlet brick wall rising before them? The logic of Queens demands that there is, in fact, some wickedly good reason for the caution tape to be displayed. Perhaps a runaway nuclear reactor or a hidden cache of toxic waste, but the aforementioned logic of Queens also states that once the tape is up, the problem is solved.
The tape itself will persist until nature takes it, whereupon the wind will sweep it into an area waterway.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One always finds it striking, on these long explorations of both internal and external landscapes, how badly maintained the roads are here in the very navel of New York City. Concrete company trucks routinely slough off the extra or unused product contained in their trucks, creating a lahar of irregular pavement. Cannot describe how many times I or some other pedestrian have tripped over these little mounds of poured stone, or how numerous and abundant they are. Probably all we deserve, anyway, as Skillman Avenue in LIC does not connect to anywhere in Manhattan.
Its ultimately our own fault for being in Queens, I guess.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
ravished sight
Destruction in today’s post.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Spotted recently, on one of my interminably numerous walks to and from Greenpoint to attend another well meaning meeting designed to discuss the infamous Newtown Creek and the nuances of its environmental and legal standing, was this ripped to shreds traffic barrier on 43rd street alongside the titan Sunnyside Yard. The wooden traffic barrier pictured above has been in place for years now, vouchsafing a pedestrian walkway which has long substituted for the sidewalk alongside a construction fence.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The substance of the the thing, a stout and squared off log which was held fast by steel rebar to the pavement, was shredded. This is the sort of damage one witnesses on wooden docks, a manifestation of the physics of weight, inertia, and velocity. This damage would require quite a bit of all three. Likely, a truck or large automobile was hurtling along 43rd when the driver lost control of the vehicle.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The physics of the scene were off putting. The amount of energy required to lift the wood and rebar out of the cement had to be enormous, and the shredding of the woods edge says to me that the vehicle uncontrollably rode along it for a bit. Hopeful wonderings that no humans or dogs were injured in this accidental are embraced, as this is a busy pedestrian pathway connecting Sunnyside with Astoria.
Upcoming Tours
Saturday – October 19, 2013
The Insalubrious Valley of the Newtown Creek with Atlas Obscura- tickets on sale soon.
Sunday- October 20th, 2013
The Poison Cauldron of the Newtown Creek with Brooklyn Brainery- tickets on sale now
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
psychologically sensitive
Another darkling image in today’s post.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned yesterday, an attempt to catch up on my many deadlines is under way, hence a single shot with little commentary is offered.
Upcoming Tours
Saturday- September 28, 2013
Newtown Creek Boat Tour with the Working Harbor Committee- tickets on sale now.
Saturday – October 19, 2013
The Insalubrious Valley of the Newtown Creek with Atlas Obscura- tickets on sale soon.
Sunday- October 20th, 2013
The Poison Cauldron of the Newtown Creek with Brooklyn Brainery- tickets on sale now
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
tightly packed
Just a short one today, got to catch a cab.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
An uncanny valley of off duty cabs, called Skillman Avenue in Queens.
The Newtown Pentacle 