The Newtown Pentacle

Monday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

As you might recall from last week, your humble narrator was scuttling through Pittsburgh’s ‘Chateau’ neighborhood on the city’s North Side.

There’s lots of lovely homes here, many of which are in a sad state of repair. Condemnation signage is common, as are empty building lots.

I just like to follow my nose around this area, and had only a vague directional notion of where I was going. That little compass dangling off my camera bag was consulted a couple of times.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

A sudden rush of research activities, centered around a former Standard Oil cannery (behind me, and discussed in a prior post), which revealed that this was a populous but fairly poor neighborhood back in the 1950’s – with churches, shops, and homes.

In 1963, Pittsburgh decided to ‘fix’ this area under the guise of urban renewal/slum clearance, which took the form of erecting an enormous series of highway viaducts and access ramps in lieu of that former mixed use setup. The project eradicated what used to be here, and used the rubble of that civilization to landfill into the Ohio River.

If your residential or commercial property was on the ‘wrong’ side of the new highway, it’s now zoned for ‘heavy industrial,’ so get the ‘eff out.

A 2006 survey revealed that only 39 people were living in the Chateau neighborhood, which kicked off a fresh round of urban renewal.

Don’t know anything about what the population numbers are right now, but the ‘powers that be’ have just started another of their ‘this will save Pittsburgh’ developments nearby. This time around, there’s going to be a Ferris wheel.

Always have to remind, they had a Rachel Carson here in Pittsburgh, not a Jane Jacobs.

Robert Moses always talked about wielding a ‘meat cleaver’ for his projects, wherein if something was in the way he just chopped and chopped at it with the metaphorical cleaver until it was gone.

They really seem to have embraced that ‘Powerbroker’ philosophy here in Pennsylvania.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

To get an idea of the sort of grandiose buildings lost to these generational cascades of Urban Renewal, look at the surviving blocks of Chateau – where Chateau’s streets merge into the Manchester neighborhood.

Admittedly, this mansion sized home is an outré example, but holy smokes – it looks like Batman grew up there.

Check that out, spooky looking Victorians, yo. Magnificent.

This entire ‘zone’ that I was cutting through was once part of a separate municipality called ‘Allegheny City,’ annexed by Pittsburgh in 1907.

Just like Queens back in NYC, as soon as the annexation/political consolidations we’re finished, the larger city began exporting its dirty industries, chipping away at the lesser entity’s neighborhoods, and began ramming highways and sewer plants through to serve the larger entity.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Street Furniture was spotted.

It was a fairly warm day, but breezy and overcast.

Luckily, I had dressed for ‘high summer,’ with shorts and one of my silly Guayabera shirts (they offer four secure pockets, bro), and an even sillier fishing hat that I had purchased at a Costco for $9.

One had the ‘full’ camera kit onboard, and was carrying it all in a knapsack. Didn’t end up using much from the bag, other than the bottle of water I now carry. Basically did a ‘one lens’ sort of walk, with an ‘all in one’ 24-240mm zoom lens.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

It’s a very convenient lens, but it’s huge and kind of heavy, and has limitations on aperture. I refer to it as ‘the brick.’ Reliable, but heavy.

As far as all the crap in my camera bag – if I didn’t have it with me, I’d desperately need it. I carry a bunch of non-camera related stuff in there too – a basic first aid kit, lengths of para chord in case I pop a shoelace, or if there’s a failure in the straps of the camera, or the bag itself.

There’s also a flashlight, a very loud whistle, gum, a series of tools for field repairs on the gear, a scanner radio set to railroading frequencies, and all sorts of discrete or handy items which I’ve gathered over the years that are useful to have with you, when wandering about with a camera. Everything is filtered according to its weight, of course.

When the bag is full of all this junk, and lenses, and the tripod is attached, it clocks in at about a thirty pound load. When you’ve walked literally tens of thousands of miles over the last twenty years, as I have, you just learn that there’s ‘stuff’ you want to have with you – just in case – and the ‘carry’ is justified.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I got to see Allegheny Valley RR’s #6004, again.

This is the same locomotive that was pictured a few posts back, sitting inert in a rail yard, but this time around it was hauling what looked like a series of empty gondola cars – the sort you’d normally observe black minerals within, likely coke or coal – rolling through the rail trench at Allegheny Commons Park.

Hey Now!

Back tomorrow.

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