North side, Pittsburgh
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As part of a very frustrating afternoon, wherein I had to go fetch a few compositions for this week’s posts while the region is in a deep freeze, one found himself on Pittsburgh’s North Side. The past still seems to be standing tall in this area, nearby the ‘Mexican War Streets’ and ‘Chateau’ historic districts. What you’ll see lining the streets here is pretty much the same as every other historic district you’ll encounter in the northeastern United States, old commercial and light industrial structures repurposed to modern needs, with the streetscape being preserved in atavist fashion.
I’ve been meaning to take a walk around here for a while, although it’s not like this section has escaped my notice since moving out to Pittsburgh from Queens’ Astoria in December of 2022. Of course, I was taking a drive on this particular day rather than a walk, since my shattered left ankle is still reconstituting itself and the ground is cloaked in snow and ice.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of the many odd things about Pittsburgh is that it’s not all that hard to find a place to park, even on weekday in the central business districts, although I prefer leaving the car in a parking lot (about $5-7, depending) to metered street parking. On this particular afternoon, however, it was street parking that I used. My goal for this location involved trains, but Norfolk Southern seemed to be in on the whole ‘let’s not let Mitch see anything he might find interesting’ conspiracy.
It’s not so easy being the main character, sometimes.
When I got out of the car, a local resident who was smoking a cigarette asked me what I was up to. We actually had a pretty nice conversation about the area, photography, and conversation revealed that he was one of the many people who had bought an apartment in one of these renovated historic buildings. The Harvester International Building was that particular structure, right alongside the RR tracks. He said the building’s soundproofing was spectacular.
Saying all that, it was freezing and my ankle hurt, so I headed back to the Mobile Oppression Platform (a Toyota) and turned on the heat within the cabin. I had already decided to just throw my hands up and admit defeat.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s a warren of narrow 19th century streets that you’ll find in this area. Narrow and canyonesque due to the built environment, there’s a lot of interesting details and ‘pregnant’ locations in this zone. When it warms up a bit and I’m fully back on my feet, this place is going to be examined closely.
Pictured is part of the Emmanuel Episcopal Church, an 1886 vintage ‘sacred space’ which I’m definitely going to try and visit at some point in the future, and hopefully get some interior shots of.
Back tomorrow.
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Focal lengths
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve said it a thousand times – you can’t see anything from a vehicle, especially when you’re the driver. It has to be walking, for me, if you want to notice something interesting about a city. The shots in today’s post were gathered from an automobile’s POV, I’d mention, and your humble narrator is frustrated at his need for transportation and wishes that this whole broken ankle business would just end already. I’m done.
Yesterday, one had a few errands to run, which took me about an hour and a half to accomplish. The rest of the day was mine, and the weather had unexpectedly abandoned its ultra cold and snowy character to reveal blue sky and sunlight. I had the camera bag sitting in the passenger seat and the camera securely perched next to the thing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Would have been a great day for a winter walk, if it wasn’t for all of the hard packed ice clinging to the pavement everywhere. Medical opinion is that I’m coming out of this experience with a bit of PTSD related to the injury, so that ice situation filled me with anxiety and dread. My scuttling is careful and hesitant at the moment, with an uneven gait. Balance issues also seem to be a new entry onto my dance card. Wonderful, say I. Nothing like ‘dangling participles’ which you have to deal with long after a traumatic event occurred to remind you about it – constantly, and especially so around descending flights of steps.
Since I had the car with me, for which I had to worry about parking and such, my position kept on changing and I ranged across the city on a day when nothing particularly interesting was happening. Not five minutes after I left this spot – of course – a CSX freight train ran through, which I missed getting a shot of. If I was on foot… if only… bah!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was a pretty frustrating afternoon, actually. One was trying to ‘force it,’ which never works out well. Pittsburgh wasn’t cooperating with my aspirations. The light wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good either. Salt powder is on the wind, lifting up off of all the roadways whenever a car or truck drove by, lending everything a bit of an orange cast as light filters through it.
Saying all that, I’m practically doing this blog live right now, and the pixels are ‘still wet’ on these shots. One two hour walk would provide for serendipity, but that’s way outside of my capability at the moment.
Back tomorrow.
“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.
Coming and going
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey, lookee – that’s one of Pittsburgh’s ‘T’ light rail units on approach to the Red Line’s ‘Potomac Station’ here in the Borough of Dormont. Neat!
Luckily, I was running an errand across the street when the alarms began to sound, and the signal arms came down. I’m really looking forward to riding on this service again, as a note, once I’m able to climb up the steep hill from HQ to the station. This ankle situation is a constant ‘block’ towards me having any fun at all.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The unit pictured above, as in both of the shots, was heading away from Pittsburgh towards a terminal stop in South Hills Village. The T runs at street level, in trenches and on bridges, and even underground as a subway for a few stops. In Dormont, they have a dedicated track and a high platform station, but if you head back towards the city just a couple of T stops, in Beechview, you’ll notice that its rails are set into the asphalt, so the thing runs alongside autos and trucks as a surface vehicle. It’s all very complicated, frankly.
The T operates on a catenary system, which provides it with the motive voltage that it consumes.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another ‘T’ arrived at the intersection where I was standing, this one heading into Pittsburgh. Under normal circumstance, at least once a week I’d find myself riding this service to ‘head into town’ and execute a long walk from its northern terminus nearby the sportsball stadium which provides a home for the Pittsburgh Steelers. I’ve got three routes from that point which have proven productive – photography wise – and also provide for ‘good cardio.’ Ultimately, I’m usually heading back to a T stop along the Monongahela River at the end of the effort for my ride home.
At least that’s what I used to do when my ankle didn’t hurt. I miss doing this sort of thing. Massively.
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.
Coldly driven
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Since your humble narrator is kind of married to his car these days, due to recovering from the injuries associated with a broken ankle, I’ve decided to try and make the best of it. While moving through my day, the camera bag is sitting in the passenger seat with the zippers open and when something catches my eye – and I can do so safely – an exposure is cracked out. In the case of the shot above, I was moving through a Pittsburgh neighborhood called ‘South Side Flats.’
I’ve had to get clever with Google Maps, btw. Its calculations often send you hurtling directly into traffic jams that the program itself creates since it’s telling thousands of other drivers to go the same way as you. Additionally, whereas the route it suggests is often ‘mile for mile’ the shortest one, the software seldom takes into account that trading a mile or so in extra travel time means that you don’t end up in a snarled traffic jam on one of the bridges leading out of the city at Rush Hour.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When I lived in Brooklyn with Mom and Dad, the old man’s health had degenerated to the point where the docs told him that taking the subway to work was a bad idea for him. Couldn’t do the stairs anymore. I should also mention that where I grew up on the Flatlands/Canarsie border, we were equidistant between the 2/5 train terminus at Brooklyn College and the L train terminus at Rockaway Parkway. Either route meant a 30 minute bus ride just to get to the train, followed by an hour long ride into town. It was then decided that Pop was going to drive back and forth.
The old man got handicap plates right around when I was a senior in college, and I abandoned my commute (used to take the Command Bus ‘BM-1’ back and forth) in favor of driving in with Pops to first school and later to an Ad Agency office in Midtown. We’d switch off on driving. He always insisted on the direct approach, literally fighting Flatbush Avenue traffic all the way to the Manhattan Bridge. Me? I’d take us through Crown Heights and along Eastern Parkway, turn right on Nostrand and then left on Flushing and that led to a seldom used ‘side door’ to get on the bridge. When Dad drove, it took at least an hour. I’d get us there in 35 minutes without speeding. Basically, my Dad would have happily gone whichever way Google told him to, whereas I’m convinced that I’m smarter than Google – at least contextually.
I find the maps app very useful, but it does tend to put you on highways and routes you ‘over hill and dale’ when it doesn’t need to. In the case of the particular day these shots were taken, I was specifically avoiding its suggestions in order to drive on streets which I knew wouldn’t be iced over, or ones that offered high prominences to cross which would mean driving down a severe incline on the other side in winter weather.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Back at HQ that night, after dinner, I decided that I wanted to set up the tripod and do a long shot looking back at the snow covered ‘community driveway’/alley behind mi casa. Alleys are given the street nomen ‘Way’ here. The alley itself is specifically referred to by the locals as a ‘paper alley’ which is technically the property of the Postal Service. My postman uses the front door, rather than the back, and whereas he seldom rings the bell it’s only one time, not twice. Yet another parable falls apart.
Back next week with (hopefully) some new stuff. Another snow event is meant to kick off tonight, but I’m literally dying to get out and do some shooting while on foot at this point, and leave the inert car parked while doing so.
One step, albeit a stiff and somewhat painful one, at a time.
“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.
Trafficking
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another day, another Doctor’s appointment. This time around, it was a checkup with my heart guy, which unfortunately was scheduled during what it would turn out to be a snow storm. Pittsburgh has been getting hit, day after day, with lake effect bands of snow that drop an inch or two of the white stuff and air temperatures which have seldom risen out of the 20’s and are hitting single digits at night. Ice, ice, baby.
They do a fairly decent job of plowing and salting hereabouts, but Pittsburgh’s odd terrain – with its steep hills and valleys – has to factor into how you route your journey. Or – it doesn’t, and you slide off of a cliff or a roadway that’s angled at twenty to thirty degrees against the next intersection – some 500 feet in differential altitude from where you started.
Luckily, the Mobile Oppression Platform – a Toyota – offers a transmission setting called ‘Trail’ which activates full ‘all wheel drive’ and reduces the amount of torque going into the wheels, which in turn increases traction. It’s meant for driving on gravel or dirt roads, this mode, but it works fantastically well in ice and snow. I lose a few miles worth of gas mileage in ‘trail’ mode, moving from just above 43 mpg down to about 39 mpg.
It’s worth the spend, if you’d ask me. Nobody does.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This particular appointment necessitated about a 25 minute drive from HQ. I was heading for the neighborhood of Bloomfield, which was founded on a prominence that’s part of a plateau over the Allegheny River. The shot above makes it look like there was a lot of traffic, but we were stacked up at a stop light. Snow was falling pretty steadily.
As mentioned yesterday, due to the weather and factoring in my recovery for the broken ankle, one is being super careful while moving around. I’m literally not myself at the moment. Walking slowly and with a limp, when I encounter a patch of compacted snow or ice it becomes a major obstacle to my continued happiness. Yup, the car and I are married right now.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After arriving in Bloomfield, characteristically far too early for my appointment, one secured a metered parking spot and had a very short walk of about three blocks ‘there and back.’ Given my current ‘state,’ this was exhausting. When I left HQ, one of my goals for the day was to ‘come back with some photos of “something.” I knew I wasn’t going to be ‘making art’ shooting through the windshield of a car, but…
After my long hibernation, any and all ‘lead time’ on photos has been erased and I’m practically doing Pentacle live right now. Normally, I’m at least a couple of weeks ahead of myself, but…
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 