scintillant semicircle
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
What you’re looking at above took place on 29th street in Long Island City on the 15th of July, at the Dutch Kills tributary of the Newtown Creek. It’s not the end of the story, it’s just the latest chapter in a tale that I began telling you all about in September of 2018.
For two and change years, the shorelines of the Dutch Kills tributary of Newtown Creek have been actively crumbling, dissecting, and collapsing. The situation has caused 29th street itself to become undermined, and subsequent bulkhead collapse continues.
2020’s “Unaltered Bone,” 2022’s “wide scattering,” “expiring orb,” “harmless stupidity,” “plumbed descent,” “yellow rays,” “crawl proudly,” “nemesis mirror,” “ugly trifles,” “torture of,” “verdant valleys,” “budding branches,” “crystal coldness” all tracked and followed the collapse.
The theme offered in all of these posts was “nothing matters and nobody cares.” I also offered that in the end I would make “them” care. Luckily, my pal Will Elkins – Newtown Creek Alliance’s Executive Director and the guy with the megaphone – managed to marshal the political world around 29th street. The moment in time in this post is his doing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Newtown Creek Alliance cares, and as it turns out – so do City Council Member Julie Won, the presumptive next NYS Assemblyman for LIC Juan Ardila, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, Democratic District Leaders Emilia Decaudin and Nick Berkowitz, the executive committee of Queens Community Board 2, the President of LaGuardia Community College, and about fifty to sixty of the local business stakeholders.
This matters, and now everybody cares. I felt like this. Told y’all we’d ultimately make them all care.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
29th street is my last dragon to slay on Newtown Creek. After this, it’s all about moving out of New York City, and rebooting into a different life elsewhere. For the first time, I’m feeling like everything I’ve been working on and for in the last fifteen years is in good hands, and that there’s another generation ready and willing to take the wheel.
My beloved Creek is going to be just fine without me, with stewards like Will Elkins and the amazing staff he’s surrounded himself with at Newtown Creek Alliance fighting the good fight.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My Pal Val attended the presser, and after the event was done, she wanted to check out the Gaseteria/NYS Marshalls impound lot which was described to you at the beginning of this week.
We jumped in her car and went over to Greenpoint, and the English Kills tributary of Newtown Creek.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s a scrap metal operation located on English Kills, but their entrance is on Grand Street. All that material is brought in by truck, but shipped out via maritime barge. Just one of those barges carries the equivalent cargo of 38 heavy trucks.
It’s insane how little used this sort of hauling is utilized in the archipelago City of Greater New York.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Back next week with something 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.
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.
nervous overstrain
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On July 5th, I had rented a car from the Avis outfit for a couple of days in pursuance of visiting people and places well outside of the normal study area. During the daylight hours, I was driving around the neighborhoods that made me in Brooklyn, with Our Lady of the Pentacle and my pal Armstrong along. When the sun began to set, a brief interval of rain began, but I wasn’t willing to just let a rental car sit in front of HQ. I packed up the camera and drove over to the fabulous Newtown Creek.
My plan for the night involved visiting a few of the less pedestrian friendly areas which I normally skip when on foot for various reasons. Distance, cul de sacs, danger… lots of reasons. All of that is negated by having a set of wheels to scoot about with.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s a long dead end street on the Brooklyn side of Newtown Creek called Maspeth Avenue. Industrial in nature, it’s found directly opposite the Maspeth Plank Road site on the Queens side. Maspeth Avenue follows the course of the English Kills tributary of Newtown Creek along the hazy border between Greenpoint, Bushwick, and East Williamsburgh.
For many years, the spot I had driven over to and was shooting in was known as “Gaseteria,” which was a fuel depot hosting gasoline tanks. Secretly owned by mobsters and operated at the behest of a Capo Regime named Michael Franzese, Gaseteria went out of business when the FBI found out about their diversion of millions or possibly billions of dollars of NYS taxes into the pockets of the Colombo Family. Franzese has given up “the life” and now works the evangelical circuit as a speaker and author. He’s got a YouTube channel where he discusses his misadventures and eventual (self claimed) redemption.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Gaseteria site became the address of the NYS Marshall’s Office for a while, and this is where they would tow your car to if NYS was the entity impounding it. One of the most absolutely hilarious things NYS and NYC do is siting and or establishing tow yards or impound lots in remote places that you can’t get to without a car. To wit – here’s where this spot is on a Google map.
The car I was in – with its roof – came in handy, as it had started to rain. I set up my tripod on the passenger seat and rolled down the window on that side. Cannot tell you how suspicious I must have looked.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I never cross a fenceline while on foot if I can help it. If you get into trouble while on foot, you’re just plain screwed. Given that I was behind the wheel of a rental car for a change… also, it was raining, and NYC never looks as good as it does when it’s raining. Thereby, forward!
That large tank in the background is one of the two Liquefied Natural Gas holders which the National Grid people maintain on their enormous properties in Brooklyn. This site in Greenpoint used to belong to the Brooklyn Union Gas Company, which manufactured gas there for nearly a century (creating an environmental nightmare in the process which poisoned both land and water), and is the former home of the “Maspeth Holders” which were imploded in 2001. The LNG contained within the modern system is held at cryogenic temperatures. I should mention that whereas the other energy companies along the Newtown Creek are generally pretty open about what they do and make regular attempts at “public relations” with the surrounding communities, National Grid is a “black box” and they don’t want you to even notice them.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I had been driving more or less constantly since about 8:30 in the morning. I was in parts of Brooklyn and Queens which I haven’t visited since the Reagan Administration, and my energy was waning. I made one last stop on my way back to Astoria, at Apollo Street in Greenpoint.
Apollo Street used to be part of the Standard Oil/Mobil operation in Greenpoint. It was the dividing line between two operational petroleum refining units – Locust Hill and Sone & Fleming. These days, it’s an abandoned street end where a lot of illegal dumping takes place. After grabbing the shot above, I rigged the camera back over to “hand held” mode and packed up my gear. The camera was sitting on the passenger seat.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On my way home, while waiting for traffic lights to change, I couldn’t help but pop out one or two more.
Luckily, just as I arrived back at HQ, a spot opened up directly in front of the place. I headed up stairs, set the camera battery to charge, and got ready for my 6-7 hours of unconscious hallucinations. The 6th was going to be another fun day, during which I’d be driving a lot and visiting places normally inaccessible to the dedicated pedestrian.
“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 