McKees Rocks and the Wind Gap Bridge
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Back in McKees Rocks, a Borough of Allegheny County found directly across the Ohio River from Pittsburgh, today.
Last time that I scuttled about in this general area was a few months back, and it involved a walk over the gargantuan McKees Rocks bridge on the other side of the town. This time, I was in a different ‘corridor,’ and started my efforts nearby the Wind Gap Avenue Bridge.
Over the next few posts, you’ll follow the walk through a nearby industrial zone, see a waterway called Chartier’s Creek, there will be trains – and also – America’s most deadly wild animal.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As a note – the Newtown Pentacle time warp is getting deeper and deeper. These shots are from June 15, and I’m writing this post on the morning of the 4th of July. If my scheduling is correct, you’re seeing this in mid-August. How’s the future? I wonder…
Anywho, it seems that what was likely the oldest building in the Pittsburgh area, a hotel which Washington actually did stay at, was demolished to make way for the modern (1985) version of the ‘Wind Gap Avenue Bridge – CC02.’
As is my habit, a shot of the plaque affixed to the structure can be accessed here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Also, entirely by accident, I started this walk at the exact location of the former ‘Mann’s Hotel,’ which is the one that hosted George Washington.
As it turns out, the intersection I was standing at used to be colloquially known as ‘The Five Points.’ Serendipity, lords and ladies, serendipity.
There’s a great YouTube channel called ‘Time Travel with Tim’ which showcases a lot of historical photos, and ‘tells the tale’ of the Wind Gap Avenue Bridge. I’ve learned a lot from this Tim fellow, I’d mention.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Down under the Wind Gap Avenue Bridge, there’s Chartiers Creek.
This waterway has been popping up here a lot lately. Specifically, there have been a few recent posts about its course in nearby Bridgeville, discussing the consequences of abandoned coal mines regarding flowing water.
Chartiers Creek is a tributary of the Ohio River, flows from Washington County to the south in a north westerly direction towards McKees Rocks, and it carries a whole lot of solute that it picks up along the way. Yucky water, which gets a pretty decent amount of combined sewer input, but it’s still a living waterway. I see people fishing in it all the time.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Given my recent proclivities towards walking in the wrong direction, multiple consultations with the little compass hanging off my camera bag were made. That church pictured above became my polestar for this part of the day, and it would aid my navigation.
I’m of the belief that this building is ‘St. Mary’s Church’ Archangel Gabriel Parish. It appears to be Roman Catholic in terms of religious focus, but when I don’t know something for sure… best not to presume. What it was for me was a landmark which I could walk towards and then away from.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Down below, there’s a smallish industrial area on the flood plains surrounding Chartiers Creek. Corrugated steel walls for the structures, a set of rail tracks, unpaved roads. I hung around for a few minutes in case a train might be coming through, but it was dead quiet.
Onwards and upwards, or really across and down… your humble narrator leaned into the day’s scuttle. Come with?
Back tomorrow with more…
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Scuttling, diagonally
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described yesterday, your humble narrator was out for a short walk.
Not an exodus, nor a crossing of some hostile desert, this time around it was all familiar territory.
One was loathsomely scuttling down the diagonally cantilevered PJ McArdle roadway, here on the face of Pittsburgh’s Mount Washington. I’ve walked this way several times over the last few years.
That’s the Monongahela Incline, pictured. It’s a funicular railway.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Every now and again, one needs to relax a bit, take it easy. Ruminate.
I’ve really been getting around, in the last six months in particular.
A lot of attention has been paid to Pittsburgh’s North Side in the last six months, and to several other ‘zones’ around the city which I have some sort of intellectual interest in. Troy Hill, East Liberty, East Street Valley, Perry Hilltop and the Swindell Bridge, Skunk Hollow, Brighton Heights, lots of new and novel sights for me.
This scuttle was a bit more like visiting a relative’s house, I’d venture.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My day was abbreviated, due to an incoming weather system promising to bring thunderstorms and tornadic warnings to the area. It was quite a nice day at the time I was out and about, climatological wise, otherwise.
Happily, I was wearing a new pair of Merrell hiking boots, after discovering that I had ground my older pair’s soles down to flat.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Speaking of flat, when I got down to Carson Street, the Via Majorica of the South Side Flats section – a wrecker towing a bus was observed. I whipped the camera forward, and the two guys driving the thing saw me and started vamping for the shot. Sweet.
Me? I wanted to go shoot a picture of a train and also drink a beer.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey Now! CSX #3346 shot through the usual spot and satisfied my urge. I had a singular glass of suds, and then walked back towards the T light rail which is about a half mile or so away from this spot.
All told, maybe three miles in total, if we’re stretching it.
Specific ‘leg work’ for the day involved hyperextension of, and stretching the tendons, leading into and out of my ‘bad’ ankle joint while walking downhill. Accomplished mainly via a series of walking postures.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Finally, a ride back to HQ in Dormont on the T light rail, and yet another happy reconciliation with a dog named Moe, and a woman called ‘Our Lady of the Pentacle.’
Back tomorrow with something different.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
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Reigning it in, a bit
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
‘Dude, every time you leave the house it doesn’t need to be the Bataan death march…’ that’s what I said to myself in the bathroom mirror on the morning that I set out for this latest scuttle.
One shlepped up a steep hill to the ‘T’ light rail, and headed into Pittsburgh from Dormont, where HQ is found.
The Newtown Pentacle time warp is still very much in effect, and growing more severe. These shots were gathered on the 9th of June, and these words are being written on June 30th. If my scheduling is correct, this will publish during the second week of August.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The T dropped me at the Station Square stop.
You get a free transfer to one of the incline/funiculars here, so I decided to take advantage of that service to get high up, on Mount Washington. It had been a while since I walked the ‘PJ McArdle roadway’ path, so that was my plan for the afternoon.
For the last few months, I’ve been intentionally pushing my limits, as far as endurance and overall length of walking and photo sessions. Big part of how I’ve managed to maintain a month of lead time here.
The busted ankle is still a background character in this story, and whereas I’ve reversed a great deal of the atrophy to muscularity caused by the injury, I’m still living with it and getting used to the aftermath.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Up top, and the scuttle gets started.
The goal for this day was just to kick a bunch of dirt, and not to explore new or novel places. It was about obliging a certain walking speed and maintaining a slightly above average heart rate. One walked a bit more urgently than normal – not ‘maximum boogie’ speed – but a couple of paces faster than my ‘usual.’ Close to 3 mph, as opposed to my more normal 2.3 – 2.6 mph.
It’s all downhill from here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One remains fascinated by that ‘Colors House’ on Cola Street, in the South Side Slopes. At least one of those other homes sitting on the cantilevers near it is an expensive AirBNB. Fun.
The camera was waved around for a minute or two.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This shot looks along the Monongahela River; with Smithfield Street, Panhandle, Liberty, South Tenth Street, and Birmingham Bridges in view.
In the distance is PITT’s Cathedral of Learning in Oakland, and closer to the POV is the uptown or Bluff neighborhood where Duquesne University is installed. Recent posts have wiggled about in the areas visible in the shot above.
Man… I do get around.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Finally, one reached the pedestrian walkway of the the PJ McArdle roadway itself, a diagonally set double lane street which descends from the prominence of Mount Washington’s ‘Grandview Avenue’ down to the mean streets of the South Side Flats below.
Come with?
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.
‘Effin around on West Liberty
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Is there no one on this planet who can even challenge me?
General Zod said that in the second of the Christopher Reeves Superman movies, and I find myself repeating it periodically.
Every now and again, one of these native born Appalachian people decides they’re trying to get one over on me, thinking that I’m dumb or facile enough to allow it. It’s usually a clerk of some kind.
I have one sentence to offer in response – I’m from Brooklyn, yo, don’t piss on my feet and tell me it’s raining.
A minor business dispute at the customer services desk of my local car mechanic spun wildly out of proportion recently, for instance. Somebody in their employ randomly tried to inflict their will upon me, which caused me to have to ‘react.’
You never, ever, want to see me to start ‘reacting’ to something. There’s a small army of environmental regulators and politicians back in NYC and especially so at Newtown Creek who can tell you that.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Long story short, a minor ‘recall/repair’ was applied to the car a couple of years back. Known issue, manufacturing defect, easy peasy fix if you’ve got the replacement part. Said replacement part began to degrade over time during the last 24 months, and I mentioned my problem with it to the mechanics desk when I came in for an oil change. The person I was talking to got hostile about it, and quick.
This kicked off almost a month of back and forth’s, and a great deal of wasted time for me. These shots were gathered during my most recent encounter in this skirmish, when the car was at the mechanic for appointment number three.
After gathering these shots, since I hadn’t heard from the mechanic since dropping the car off, I decided to call them and ask for a status.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
First, I was accused of trying to defraud Toyota since the clerk didn’t bother looking up my car’s warrantee in her system. Started purposely mangling my name during the conversation – called me ‘Which Maxwell,’ ‘Max Wishman,’ and a few others.
Then she decided to randomly try to charge me $300 just to have a mechanic examine the issue that I had described. Under my breath, I murmured ‘eff off, and she hung up on me.
What this person’s mistake ultimately came down to was in not understanding what it was she was dealing with. I got back to the dealership, collected my keys, and then proceeded over to the side of the facility where they do the office work. I do not back off when I’m in the right. Period. Don’t start a fight, but finish it, that’s me.
Two hours later, and I’m waiting to see the GM of the dealership. Couldn’t see me in person, but we spoke on the phone later on in the day and worked things out.
He chided me for using ‘blue language’ with a woman, to which I responded that ‘I don’t modulate my behavior towards Toyota employees based on their gender or sexual identity,’ and that as a guy from NYC – cussing is a cultural thing for me. He said that ‘here in Pittsburgh, gentlemen speak properly to women.’ I apologized for my cuss, and didn’t go after his sexism, all of which seemed appropriate to do. Sometimes you need to give them a little ground in an argument, before pressing your point.
Pfah.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This whole encounter just pissed me off, mainly because of all my time that was wasted with no mechanical result on the problem I was having with the car.
Suffice to say that I allowed exactly 48 hours from the phone conversation with the dealership’s GM to pass, then left him a message asking if he’d been able to find a resolution to my problem.
Son of a gun if the person who had randomly caused all this derision, and wasted the time of both customer and dealership with three separate maintenance appointments, didn’t cheerfully call me up to schedule an appointment for the dealership to ‘make good’ on the issue. I was also told, happily, that she had found my warrantee in the system, and called me ‘Mister Waxman.’
All General Zod ever wanted was respect, and what was best for his people.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This person at the dealership’s receiving desk was acting towards me like a bully. When I was a little kid, I had to ‘take it’ from this type of person. As an adult, however, this sort of behavior is unsafe at any speed to perpetrate, around me at least. Can’t abide it.
One of my beliefs is that if you are ‘strong,’ psychologically speaking, and you encounter a bully you must knock them back. If they’re trying to do this stuff to you, it’s a guarantee that they’re doing to others who aren’t as capable of standing up to it as you are. You owe it to society.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
They really don’t see it coming, with me deep in the conflagrations of middle age. The gray hair disguises it, I guess. I must look like a pushover.
Heh.
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.
Failure of intent
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Ok, I’ll admit it, I willingly attended a Governmental meeting here in Pittsburgh. I’ve been doing historic research about Pittsburgh, too.
I was talked into it, but there was food laid out for the meeting, so that’s a tax refund – right? It seems that Allegheny County, which is a Governmental layer more or less synonymous with the municipality of Pittsburgh geographically, was publicly releasing an environmental plan that’s been in the works for a few years.
I figured that I’d work a scuttle into the endeavor, and found myself starting said walk at the top of Mount Washington, and specifically use Sycamore Street for the descent. Fun.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This ‘plan’ wasn’t actually much of a plan, it was more of a wishlist visioning document without any mandated deadlines for its recommendations, which didn’t carry a budget along with them. Ambitious plans filled with terminology like ‘decarbonizing’ and ‘human powered’ populated its pages.
A presentation was given, and then attendees were led into a room with the easels and signboards, where people connected to the agency wanted to hear opinions and reactions to the plan. I saw the person who talked me into coming to this event, and made a bee line for her signboard.
I felt that I needed to point out that nobody but nobody is going to replace their gas stove with an electric one without some sort of tax incentive to do so. The expensive nuances of removing a gas system and having an electrician come in to pull new power lines up through the gas pipes isn’t something they thought of, nor is a funded mechanism to handle the tonnages of gas stoves and furnaces which would headed for landfills or recycling.
Also, that when a government says ‘we should do a thing’ without any sort of a timeline included in their statement, that’s just politicians talking about the ‘way things should be,’ and they don’t have any way to pay for this policy position they admire.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey Now! CSX #104 was crossing underneath me while I was crossing the Smithfield Street Bridge, to get to the County building where the meeting would take place. I should mention something here…
I’ve given up. Nothing matters and nobody cares. The only thing which can stop people from pouring battery acid into water reservoirs is the threat of Police enforcement – and even then – not so much. I honestly believe that the best we can do at this point – environmentally speaking – is to try and manage the ‘new normal.’ It’s too late. We missed the window, as a culture, to do anything about the climate problem.
The County’s plan is solid in its logic. Its mandates are unfunded.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The cost of retrofitting the ‘installed base’ of water heaters, furnaces, stoves and so on is massive. Just doing the government’s buildings represents a price that would double taxes for a decade.
The only way to achieve a changeover to devices fueled alternatively to manufactured gas is to either mandate the replacement and create a tax scheme to forgive and absorb the expense, or to just change the zoning laws for new construction and gradually move over to the newer/‘cleaner’ technologies in the fullness of time as housing stock is demolished and rebuilt over the decades. The latter is the sort of approach that NYC is taking.
NYC is also embracing a farcical rooftop solar agenda, but that’s a different tale.
Suffice to say, I’ve seen a lot of environmental plans presented by lots of very smart people, and it’s ultimately always a wish list or a ‘vision’ plan that you’re consuming. Important to do, mind you, but still just a wishlist.
I wish that I was rich, taller, and better looking. That’s my vision plan.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The catering at the event was very political.
They had gluten free, and vegan, and all the other options which you’d need to have for a public ‘do.’ The food was prepared by a non-profit which specializes in providing the first steps for street people towards having a hirable skill set. Everybody I met was super nice, and friendly. I did my best not to talk to anyone, but that didn’t work as I was approached several times, and once they heard the Brooklyn accent…
I actually had to say it several times: ‘Hi, I’m Mitch Waxman…’ sigh…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I found the whole thing slightly depressing, as I often find such gatherings. They are very happy and peppy in public, however, the political people here in Pittsburgh. Genuinely nice in person.
I walked back across the river and caught a T light rail back towards HQ. Hope that this plan gets funded, and that they figure out a great way to sell it to those who will automatically be hostile to it.
Try this:
Hey, Y’see those people over there… whom you don’t like… well, those other people that are standing behind that curtain over there want to take something away from you, and give it to them. Me? I’m the only one who can stop that… even though I’m actually one of those people behind the curtain… I’m the ‘good one’ who cares about you, your kids, your dog, and Veterans – of course. Vote Quimby.
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.
The Newtown Pentacle 