Liberty, from on high
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another day, another Doctor’s appointment. As mentioned, this is one of the household projects at the moment. When you relocate, one of the things you lose is the network of various medical specialities which you’ve been a customer of. Meeting the new Doctor means that they’re going to want to run some tests to establish a baseline for their arts, and one of the things which Pittsburgh gets a huge recommendation for is the quality and abundance of its healthcare sector.
I should mention, this ain’t nothing like NYC where you gotta wait six months for an appointment or spend two hours on hold to talk to somebody. Things are actually functional here, and the time you spend with the Doc has zero relation to the amount of rent they have to pay some vampire in the Real Estate Industrial Complex.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Don’t get me wrong, the Real Estate people are very much here, they’re just not able to fully immerse their claws and fangs into every little thing the way they do in NYC. Pittsburgh learned the lesson of what happens when you allow one corporate sector to rule the roost and control the discourse. Every Doctor appointment in Pittsburgh, so far, has been fairly relaxed and complete. In fact, they often want to do more for me than I’m comfortable with. One of the docs I met with, a “GP,” was handed an 8 page comic book I drew for the occasion detailing my various physical issues. I told him it was a user’s manual.
The section in today’s post is called Liberty, I’m told. It’s nearby the Universities, but not too close. The people on the streets seemed a bit younger here, and it seemed like a cool neighborhood to live in if you want a more urban vibe. Apartment houses rather than private homes, but as you can see above – there were plenty of those too. This neighborhood hosts what (I guess) used to be called the ‘Western Pennsylvania Hospital’ that’s currently operated by the monolithic UPMC organization.
As a note, those homes are what I’d observationally describe as fairly typical “Pittsburgh houses” with the bricked front porches and tiny front yards. You’ll notice several of them hosting awnings, which aren’t fabric but metal instead, and those are also pretty common features. Saying that, this shot looks directly across the street from a hospital, so those are probably Doctor and Nurse and Med Student dwellings.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On my way back to HQ, there was a traffic accident somewhere in front of me so I ended up cooling my heels on the highway for a while with the car in ‘park.’ I took the opportunity to open the Mobile Oppression Platform’s moon roof and crack out a few of the kind of shots you normally can’t get when you’re hurtling along at .065 of the speed of sound.
The Pennsylvania peeps use the speed limit as a suggested starting point or as a ‘minimum speed’ indication. You’ll be doing 60 in a 40 mph zone and somebody in a Ford 150 will scream past you at 80 or 90.
Back tomorrow, and please remember to share this post on your socials if you dug it.
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North Side, up in the hills
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The section of Pittsburgh which I landed in after moving out of New York is called the South Hills. There’s eighty something different neighborhood/regions which make up the Pittsburgh Metro Area, and I still haven’t been to most of them, which is something I’m trying to rectify. When you say “North Side” it’s generally referring to a largish section that’s north of the Allegheny River, which is actually the former Allegheny City municipal area that Pittsburgh annexed ‘back in the day.’ There’s a small relatively flat area along the river where you’ll find a couple of the stadiums, and other cultural stuff. As you move away from the river, a steep hill begins to rise out of the river valley. The only time I’ve previously spent in this zone was a brief ‘explore’ in a part of the neighborhood that is called the “Mexican War Streets.”
I had made my way up that steep hill leading away from the flat river bank area in pursuit of a public park which promised an overlook. I like finding points of elevation for the camera to enjoy so there you are. Click, click, whirr, whirr. Afterwards, I hopped into the car and drove around a bit to see what else might be up here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Turns out that the neighborhood I was in is either called “Fineview” or “Perry” or both, and it’s a residential area which has definitely experienced a series of challenges. About every fourth structure I passed by was abandoned or boarded up. It seemed quite lovely, as far as the surviving and occupied structures that seemed fairly well maintained, but as in the case pictured above, there were several buildings where two homes shared a wall and one of them was open to the elements with the other being occupied and neat as a pin.
Apparently, this area is a fairly “crimey” one according to the TV News reports and the Police blotters. I generally don’t listen to such sources uncritically until they’re confirmed to me by people who live local and by observation, but this was my first time through and I don’t know anyone from this zone yet.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It is staggering, just how many homes there are in Pittsburgh which stand abandoned. That apartment house pictured above is just a few blocks from the abandoned house in the second shot. So was this one, this one, this one, and this one. Just on the other side of the steep hill this neighborhood sits on, you see wealthy suburbs and semi rural areas in the hills and valleys found along the Ohio River.
Pittsburgh is crazy, yo.
Back tomorrow, and please share this post to your socials if you found it interesting.
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Brentwood and Thomas Jefferson
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of the many, many things I’ve been busy doing since arriving in Pittsburgh has involved taking advantage of the fantastic medical systems they’ve got here. Nothing particularly wrong, except for the hundred physical ailments which you’ve read me complaining about over the years. None of these aches and pains are particularly “treatable” unless they’ve discovered the fountain of youth somewhere, but it’s been a while since I had the folks in the white coats poke and prod and it’s best to let them work their arts periodically. I actually have a series of these appointments this coming week, establishing a base line and a relationship with the new medical peeps.
Our Lady of the Pentacle has also been getting checked up by the Doctors who practice her various specialties, and after a drop off at an appointment in the nearby community of Brentwood, I had about 90 minutes to kill. Luckily, I’m easily entertained and since I hadn’t set foot in this section of the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Area… I decided to set the car tires down and a ride around survey occurred. Nice little suburban style spot, this.
I tooled around in the Mobile Oppression Platform – aka the Toyota – and found myself on a series of somewhat serpentine local roads which wound their way around the hills. There was a golf course/country club, and a couple of cemeteries, which all seemed visually interesting.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This one, and the next shot too, were gathered within the fencelines of a cemetery which I hadn’t had the chance to record the name or location of when I was entering, since I was driving. Grr. A half hour of scouring Google Maps later…
Turns out that this area is called “Pleasant Hills,” and that the cemetery I had blundered into also functioned as a park, and is dubbed “Jefferson Memorial Cemetery.” Here’s a nice and fairly succinct article about the founding and creation of the place in 1929. I literally drove into the cemetery just to get off the road and out of the sort of high speed traffic that’s pretty common here in Pittsburgh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The titular center of the place is the Thomas Jefferson Mausoleum (the 3rd President is buried in Virginia, as a note), which I kind of blundered across just after getting a call from Our Lady informing me that it was time to pick her up from that Doctoral assignation back in Brentwood.
I’ve got a few Doctor appointments myself, coming up, and I plan on taking a better look at this place on foot – after I’ve been poked and irradiated and sampled – at some point in the very near future. Interesting structure with a cool history.
Back tomorrow, and don’t forget to share this post of you like it.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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“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.
South Side part 4
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After spending an afternoon scuttling about on Pittsburgh’s South Side, one had to head back to HQ in nearby Dormont to meet up with Our Lady of the Pentacle and attend some sort of social event. Dread thereby filled my soul, as I worried about whom I might offend and which opinion that I host that might accidentally do that. Nothing like that happened, but it ain’t easy being me.
Pittsburgh has hundreds and hundreds of flights of municipal or public staircases, installed to allow easy passage between the shelf and terrace like streets adorning its steep hills.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
They look kind of daunting, but the stairs offer a ‘good cardio’ opportunity when you’re out for a walk. One negotiated the steps, mentally critiquing their design. Rise is the vertical distance between individual steps, run is the horizontal footboard space you step on. During the Victorian era, one of the ways you were most likely to die at home involved improper ‘rise and run’ installations which caused people to fall down the stairs and crack their heads and necks. This problem was assessed by the industrial age intellectuals of Great Britain, who invented the modern day architectural formula for calculating the proper ratio that you’re likely familiar with. Now you know.
The stairs carried me up to East Carson Street, which is sort of the ‘Via Majorica’ of this area – a primary arterial roadway leading from points east to points west and past intersections leading to bridges or tunnels.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One last look at that cool concrete factory from the slightly higher elevation offered by this path, and I was heading off towards the light rail and my trip home. Luckily, being a Sunday, there was little to no activity going on here, so I felt emboldened to walk into a few empty parking lots along the way and crack out a couple of final shots.
This sort of congestion of infrastructure is just so appealing to one such as myself. I’m all ‘effed up, but I love it so.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A neat POV presented itself along the way, where I was more or less level with the exit from the Panhandle bridge which the T light rail crosses the Monongahela River upon. The train set exits the bridge onto a truss which allows it eventual access to ground level at the nearby Station Square stop.
Having spotted this connect, at eye level, I began stalking it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the one which I felt like I could hand my hat on for the day.
There’s a couple of things I’d do a little different, and I will, the next time I shoot this particular composition. Saying that, happy with the image am I. This is another one I’m going to have to hit at dawn and then dusk.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just before boarding the T for my ride back home, a CSX freight train appeared and I couldn’t resist.
Back next week with more from the Paris of Appalachia.
“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.
South Side part 3
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s a public space along the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh’s South Side which is called ‘Color Park.’ The legend for this place, which officially opened in 2017, attributes its creation to a local artist named Baron Batch. Formerly, this was an industrial wasteland. Color Park encourages graffiti artists to come and paint here, and add their work to an ad hoc public gallery.
The park area is really nice, with waterfront views, and it’s ok to paint on the ground or any of the concrete surfaces within.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This was my first visit, and I headed in the general direction of the Birmingham Bridge. A set of freight rail tracks defines one of the borders of the place, with the river providing another. The park was very well populated with lookie loos, bike riders, artists, and joggers.
One shambled forth, scuttling forward, always an outsider.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Across the river, on a prominence, those high rise buildings are a part of Duquesne University. The yellow bridge is called the South Tenth Street Bridge. My scuttling had resulted in carrying the desolate massing of my mortal frame to a spot which I had seen previously, so a change in direction was instituted and I headed out of the park and up to the local street grid surrounding it.
The neighborhood nearby Color Park, part of the South Side section, hosts a series of interesting late 19th and early 20th century homes and commercial buildings.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The ‘Color Park’ deal continues up on the streets, with several large warehouse buildings painted in primary colors. The prominence in the background is Mount Washington, and that spot where the TV broadcast antenna is visible is about a block away from one of the Inclines. It’s somewhere in the neighborhood of about a 1,000 feet change in elevation from where I was standing to that spot.
Scuttling, always scuttling, I moved forward.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Couldn’t help but crack out a few of the interplay between the primary color walls and the surroundings. One had reached his turnaround point, that moment in any walk where you decide that it’s time to start heading back towards the dwelling. In this case, I had taken the T light rail into town and left the car back at HQ, so I needed to get back to the T station so I could catch the ride which would carry my bloated carcass back to HQ.
More than once on this walk, a peculiar spasticity affected my face. The corners of my mouth cramped upwards, the eyeholes narrowed and brows arched, and the normal grimace reversed itself. A hideous imposture of what others might describe as a ‘smile’ wrote itself onto my visage. I’m glad of the fact that I was alone, and that no one saw me experiencing what might be considered an emotion. I caught a reflection of it in the silvered glass of a truck’s rear view mirror and was startled.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The walk wasn’t over yet, not by a long shot, but I gathered myself back together and reassured myself that this smiling thing was just a symptom of some as of yet undiscovered health condition. I mentally pictured burn victims and kids with cancer, which righted my mental ship back to darkness and dissolution. The spastic condition on my face disappeared and soon I was once again wearing the mask of the depressed and despondent, which is my normal state. A dark cloud on an otherwise sunny day, after all, am I. Just ask anyone, I’m the worst.
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.
The Newtown Pentacle 