Posts Tagged ‘Astoria’
Crows of Queens
Red Crow van spotted – photo by Mitch Waxman
Returning from a trip to Third Calvary Cemetery the other day (searching for Gilman) to my Astoria, I came across this red van with a disturbingly heterogeneous collection of mattresses affixed to it. This red van is a familiar sight around the neighborhood, personal conveyance of a Crow. For clarity and codification lords and ladies, this gentleman shall be referred to as “Red Crow”, here at your Newtown Pentacle.
Red Crow appears – photo by Mitch Waxman
Crows is a nickname given to the refuse and metal collectors who harvest valuable metals from everyday garbage, as assigned to them here in the old village of Astoria. Some are individuals, others are multi man operations, and a variety of vehicles are purposed to the task. If its not nailed down, and copper-steel-iron or gold can be harvested, a Crow will fly in and scoop it up. Furniture and bicycles are highly prized.
Red Crow goes back for more – photo by Mitch Waxman
Usually an hour or two ahead of the Sanitation trucks, the Crows may be observed on DSNY “bulk pickup days”, cruising the streets with the wary aspect of a Police Detective hunting a criminal. Most are specialists, collecting a specific kind of refuse. Almost all of them are metal collectors, no doubt selling the found materials by the pound down at the Newtown Creek.
This is a surmise, incidentally, filling in the dots as it were- as I cannot prove what I’m asserting- i.e. I can’t show you a photo of some lump of metal in Astoria, grabbed by a Crow, and then the same lump transacted for in Greenpoint. I have observed the beginning (this post) and the product of such scavenging at metal dealers in Brooklyn, however.
Red Crow reappears – photo by Mitch Waxman
One of the rules of dumpster diving in the City of Greater New York dictates that mattresses are not a desirable item and are in fact avoided like lepers. If its on the street, there’s either an infestation or somebody died on it, and Bedbugs can jump like Fleas. Essentially valueless as a manufactured good, the general custom is for the merchant that sold and delivered your bedding is to remove and dispose of the old mattress- often at no cost. Nobody really wants a used mattress. What, then, would motivate this incongruously well dressed Crow into such an odd pursuit?
Red Crow hitches – photo by Mitch Waxman
Steel springs, the coil structure within the bedding, are highly prized items for recycling. The reason that its not economical for a commercial enterprise to do so is the cost of removing the deeply embedded metal from its surrounding padding and removal of the metals using electromagnetics. Mattress merchants factor the cost of this process into every new bed sold, by statute in some places.
Red Crow adjusts – photo by Mitch Waxman
Not conforming to OSHA or environmental guidelines, the Crows have a developed a far simpler system to separate the wheat from the chaff. They call it fire.
Red Crow ties – photo by Mitch Waxman
Somewhere, whether it be in the backyard of an isolated house in Flushing or an empty lot along the Newtown Creek in Greenpoint or East Williamsburg, the steel springs will be freed and the charred padding discarded. Elsewhere, plastic insulation will be melted off copper wire and tires will be melted open to reveal their internal steel belting. The Crows will clean up after themselves and no one will be the wiser for the extra tax free bucks that they pick up off the streets.
Red Crow done – photo by Mitch Waxman
This is recycling, manifest, incidentally. A crude layman version of it, but the way that things actually work, one of those “Green Jobs of the Future” the politicians keep going on about.
Red Crow drivers side door doesn’t want to open, uses passenger door – photo by Mitch Waxman
I bring this Crow to your attention simply because the history of our times will be culled from sources that promote an oligarchal viewpoint, and the story that will be told is that of the princes and potentates who stare down at the world from skyscraper windows. Phenomena like these “Crows of Queens” will escape the notice and mention of the future, leaving behind virtually no documentation that they ever existed, like the omnipresent “shmata” men of Manhattan’s Lower East Side a mere 100 years ago.
Red Crow resumes hunt – photo by Mitch Waxman
Revisionist by nature, the urge to focus a historical lens on the machinations of the rich and powerful is strong, and desire to know and emulate the successful is a strong desire. The story of the bosses is not all that’s going on these days.
You have to appreciate this fellow, he looks mid-50’s to me, and here he is in 25 degree weather scavenging the streets and struggling to tie down his load. The rest of us just walked by and saw a pile of junk, he saw opportunity, and was willing to go that extra step and do the job. Know what I see, when I look at these Crows of Queens?
Red Crow, notice PBA stickers and window washer duct tape repair – photo by Mitch Waxman
I see that which made America great, and will do so again.
A walk around Hallet’s Cove
Feel like taking a walk? Bring your camera, and ID…
the grill on the dome light says “the lordship”- photo by Mitch Waxman
Hallet’s Cove is the area surrounding the Noguchi Museum and Socrates Sculpture Garden at the border of Astoria and Ravenswood, although it was once the name for the entire village that became Astoria.
Well known to the residents of modern Queens due to the presence of a warehouse operation called Costco, and to its ancient citizens for the ferries to Blackwells Island and Manhattan- Hallet’s Cove is less well known for its industrial history, and the machinations of real estate interests in the locale are obvious to the knowing eye. The times are a-changing, indeed.
from wikipedia
Beginning in the early 19th century, affluent New Yorkers constructed large residences around 12th and 14th streets, an area that later became known as Astoria Village (now Old Astoria). Hallet’s Cove, founded in 1839 by fur merchant Steven Halsey, was a noted recreational destination and resort for Manhattan’s wealthy.
During the second half of the 1800s, economic and commercial growth brought about increased immigration from German settlers, mostly furniture and cabinet makers. One such settler was Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg, patriarch of the Steinway family who founded the piano company Steinway & Sons in 1853, which today is a worldwide piano company. Afterwards, the Steinways built a sawmill and foundry, as well as a streetcar line. The family eventually established Steinway Village for their workers, a community that provided school instruction in German as well as English.
In 1870, Astoria and several other surrounding villages, including Steinway, were incorporated into Long Island City. Long Island City remained an independent municipality until it was incorporated into New York City in 1898. The area’s farms were turned into housing tracts and street grids to accommodate the growing number of residents.
Socrates Sculpture Park – photo by Mitch Waxman
Socrates Sculpture Park presents the picture that the modern City wants you to believe about these “up and coming” corners of river front property. Middle and upper class citizens improving their minds and bodies in a clean and safe environment of esthetic esteem- the epitome of the physical culture movement’s dreams for the urban environment. Nothing wrong with that, of course, and for sporting pursuits and cookouts- the nearby Rainey Park is available to their coarser neighbors from the Ravenswood or Astoria Houses who might not be interested in Yoga- but the neighborhood is becoming a little too “Ayn Rand” for my tastes. There is another side to this place, of course, off the beaten path.
from wikipedia
Socrates Sculpture Park is an outdoor exhibition space for sculpture. It is located at the intersection of Broadway and Vernon Boulevard in the neighborhood of Long Island City, Queens, New York City, United States, North America. In addition to exhibition space, the park offers an arts education program and job training.
A block away from Socrates Sculpture Park – photo by Mitch Waxman
Aboriginal swamplands were conquered in the late 19th century, as the floods of the Sunswick Creek and the East River were tamed by the enterprise of engineers. The industrial mills and combines of Long Island City and Ravenswood extended all the way to Astoria Point, exploiting the valuable river front. In modernity, this is another corridor of dirty industry being swept aside to make room for an urban population bursting at the seams, with little regard for the past or present. Deemed underutilized, experts have named the area as an industrial relict, better demolished than preserved.
If one leaves the carefully mapped walking paths suggested by city planners, another picture emerges. Generations have quietly made lives here, in noble homes whose architectural influences suggest hints of the nautical culture of eastern Long Island and New England.
from socratessculpturepark.org
Socrates Sculpture Park was an abandoned riverside landfill and illegal dumpsite until 1986 when a coalition of artists and community members, under the leadership of artist Mark di Suvero, transformed it into an open studio and exhibition space for artists and a neighborhood park for local residents. Today it is an internationally renowned outdoor museum and artist residency program that also serves as a vital New York City park offering a wide variety of public services.
This is what the Queens waterfront used to look like, notice the small stature of the buildings, except for the Piano factory, since converted over to Condos.
Horror at Hallet’s Cove- Nelson’s Galvanizing site 2010- photo by Mitch Waxman
Across the Newtown Pentacle, where a speculative real estate bubble has recently burst, empty lots are fenced off from their environs. Unlike the abandoned lots of ground that peppered the landscape of New York in the 1970’s and 80’s before the bubble, these patches of shattered masonry are not abandoned- instead they are being held in reserve for future usage. Rapid demolition of these properties follows the quiet acquisition of said lots, to hasten the building process when economic times are better and to head off environmental or historical concerns about erasing possibly significant structures. In the case of this property, Newtown Pentacle readers may remember an examination of the “Nelson Galvanizing” site- titled “The Horrors of Hallet’s Cove“- and the multiple links to various environmental violations assigned to it by the City and State of New York. This is going to be the home of a future apartment house, incidentally.
photo from the “The Horrors at Hallet’s Cove posting”
Horror at Hallet’s Cove- Nelson’s Galvanizing site 2008 – photo by Mitch Waxman
Vernon Blvd. and Broadway – photo by Mitch Waxman
On the corner of Vernon Blvd. and Broadway, with the aforementioned Sculpture Park at my back, the comical Greenstreets sign on a traffic island- surrounded on all sides by “warehoused” former industrial building sites. Large tracts have been demolished to make way for future construction of multiple story, Manhattan style, apartment houses. Underserved by mass transit as it is, with a sewer system designed in the 1920’s, this is the Hallet’s Cove of 2010.
For the Hallet’s Cove of 1840, click here to check out a map and street necrology from pefagan.com
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Formerly one of the tallest residential buildings in the area, this enigmatic survivor of “the good old days” is dwarfed by the newly built tower rising menacingly some 2 blocks away. Just to make myself clear, I’m not anti anything, and regard such development work as inevitable and completely out of my hands. This angers and frustrates colleagues and friends in the antiquarian community, who view this pragmatism as acknowledging defeat, a tacit surrender to the princes of the city and their claims of oligarchal inevitability. In reality, I’m just trying to see all sides of the story.
Always, I must remain an Outsider.
from nydailynews.com
Undaunted by the floundering housing market, a New Jersey real estate firm is looking to build 2,400 residential units on the Astoria Peninsula, the Daily News has learned.
Lincoln Equities of East Rutherford has a contract to buy five parcels of land once used for manufacturing on First Ave., along the portion of the East River waterfront known as Hallets Cove.
Lincoln plans to bulldoze several warehouses on the land and build five residential buildings, one of which would rise 40 stories, company officials said.
“We don’t know what the market will indicate, but it is our intent to have a blend of rentals and condos,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a prominent Democratic political strategist who has been hired as a spokesman for the project.
The project, known as Hallets Point Development, would require the zoning be changed from manufacturing to residential.
Formal plans, which also could include ground-floor retail space, are expected to be submitted by the end of the year.
The proposal would join a growing list of high-density residential developments under construction or planned for the Long Island City waterfront – a list led by the state’s Queens West megadevelopment in Hunters Point and the city’s proposed Hunters Point South community.
Sheinkopf said 20% of the 2,400 units will be affordable housing, but it was unclear how the prices for the project, which is privately funded, would be determined.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Ultimately, the shocking scale of these new structures dwarf the surrounding neighborhoods- blocking the panoramic views and open skies of a formerly 2 and 3 story cityscape, where a large structure was 5 stories. Philosophically, I tend to regard LeCorbusier style tower parks (and gated communities on the whole) as anti-democratic and very bad for the future of the Republic, as it tends to isolate political centers away from each other and foists an unsustainable population onto local streets and sewers. Like many of these new towers, parking amenities are planned into the structure, but that too brings more traffic onto the local streets which were not designed to handle the increased load. Quality of life in the City of New York is more than just law and order, lords and ladies of Newtown, it’s streets and sewers and electrical infrastructure.
The Hallets, from the Annals of Newtown
William Hallett, their ancestor, was b. in Dorsetshire, Eng., in 1616, and emigrating to New-England, joined in the settlement of Greenwich, Ct., whence he removed to Long Island, and acquired a large estate at Hellgate. (See pp. 29, 63.) In the fall of 1655 the Indians destroyed his house and plantation at Hallett’s Cove, which induced him to take up his residence at Flushing. Here he was appointed sheriff in 1656, but the same year was deposed by Stuyvesant, fined and imprisoned, for entertaining the Rev. Wm. “VVickenden from Rhode Island, allowing him to preach at his house and receiving the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper from his hands. Disgusted at this treatment, Mr. Hallett, on the revolt of Long Island from the Dutch, warmly advocated the claims of Connecticut ; and, being sent as a delegate to the general court of that colony/he was appointed a commissioner or justice of the peace for Flushing. Afterwards he again located at Hellgate, where he lived to the age of about 90 yrs. He had two sons, William- and Samuel,6 between whom, in 1688, he divided his property in Hellgate Neck.
2.. William Hallett, eldest son of William,1 received that portion of his father’s lands which lay south of the road now forming Greenoak, Welling, and Main streets, and Newtown avenue; which road divided his possessions from those of his brother Samuel on the north
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Shot from the Queensboro Bridge, with mighty Triborough and Hells Gate in the background, that’s Big Allis on the left- just for scale. Hallets Cove, where the Sunswick Creek once drained into the East River, is located roughly across the street from the large new building on the right.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The strip of bare shoreline, a rarity along the East River, is the actual sandy beach of Hallets Cove. During the summer, kayaks are launched from here- I believe courtesy of the LIC Boathouse– but I may be incorrect. Looking south, one sees Blackwells- oops- I mean Roosevelt Island, and Manhattan commands the horizon. Interesting to some may be the observation that in New York, up until recent times, when an entrepreneur was building a new venture in an existing community, it was expected that other improvements would follow- whether roads, streets, or schools.
from the Greater Astoria Historical Society
HALSEY, Stephen Alling.
He donated a tract of land, 100 by 200 feet, extending from Academy street to First Avenue, for school purposes. A commodious school house was shortly afterwards erected on this site, which is to-day used by the Fourth Ward school. He invested in other property, in almost every instance showing his progressive spirit by laying out streets, grading them, &c. The ferry (then running to 86th street) was owned by him up to 1860, and he it was who placed the first modern ferryboat on the line.
He was a great lover of horticulture, and in the garden in front of Capt. Monson’s house on Fulton street may be seen some of the largest Magnolia trees on Long Island, 75 feet in height, planted by him. He had a particular admiration for shade trees which he gratuitously gave to parties desirous of planting shade trees in front of their property. The fine Elms on Washington street and Perrot Avenue still stand as specimens of his planting.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Now, I go to a lot of places that most people would consider insane, but the folks at undercity.org have actually been down in the sewers beneath Astoria. Check out their gallery and adventures which truly do answer the question- who can guess what it is, that may be buried down there? – Click here.
The folks from watercourses have been through here as well- check out their Sunswick Creek page, with maps.
also, from the Greater Astoria Historical Society
Sunswick Creek. A drained marsh near the foot of Broadway. Scholars believe it may come from an Indian word “Sunkisq” meaning perhaps “Woman Chief” or “Sachem’s Wife.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Finally- check out this nytimes.com 1914 article, which describes following a “forgotten-ny” style mapping and exploration of the city along a path forged by by Sarah Comstock in 1849. The map she followed was called “12 miles around New York” (map at new york public library, of course- and check out Comstock’s “Old roads from the heart of New York” at archive.org). She starts with a journey on the Astoria Ferry from 86th street in Manhattan to Hallet’s point and continues through the Newtown Pentacle all the way to the ancient town of Flushing, as well as other destinations.
as it turns out, treadsoftly, a blog I like, rolled through here at the beginning of the week. Check it out.
A Great Machine
Queensboro Bridge and associated structures- “The Great Machine” – photo by Mitch Waxman
Queensboro, whose steel has cantilevered the flow of traffic to the shining city from the fabled vastness of the Long Island since 1909, is merely the focal point of a polyglot mechanism whose works spread into the east. The backbone of New York City runs through the marshy hillocks of western Queens.
As I’ve said in the past:
Airports, railroad yards, maritime facilities, petrochemical storage and processing, illegal and legal dumping, sewer plants, waste and recycling facilities, cemeteries. The borders of the Newtown Pentacle’s left ventricle are festooned with heavy industry and the toll taken on the health of both land and population is manifest. A vast national agglutination of technologies and a sprawl of transportation arteries stretching across the continent are all centered on Manhattan- which is powered, fed, and flushed by that which may be found around a shimmering ribbon of abnormality called the Newtown Creek.
Light rail (subway) and vehicle traffic focus toward Queens Plaza, and within a three mile radius of this place can be found- the East River subway tunnels, the Midtown Tunnel, multiple ferry docks, and the titan Sunnyside Rail Yard which connects to the Hells Gate Rail Bridge. This “Great Machine” is the motive engine that allows millions to enter and leave Manhattan on a daily and reliable schedule from North Brooklyn, Queens, Suffolk and Nassau Counties. The great endeavor called “The East Side Access Project” and its associated tunneling is also occurring nearby, which will terminate at a planned LIRR station sited for the corner of Queens Blvd. and Skillman Avenue.
from wikipedia:
The Queensboro Bridge, also known as the 59th Street Bridge, is a cantilever bridge over the East River in New York City that was completed in 1909. It connects the neighborhood of Long Island City in the borough of Queens with Manhattan, passing over Roosevelt Island. It carries New York State Route 25 and once carried NY 24 and NY 25A as well.
The Queensboro Bridge is the westernmost of the four East River spans that carry a route number: NY 25 terminates at the west (Manhattan) side of the bridge. It is commonly called the “59th Street Bridge” because its Manhattan end is located between 59th Street and 60th Streets.
The Queensboro Bridge is flanked directly on its northern side by the freestanding Roosevelt Island Tramway.
Queens Blvd. at Skillman Avenue – photo by Mitch Waxman
Queens Plaza multi level elevated train station – photo by Mitch Waxman
When Queensboro was built, it became the fastest way into town and horse drawn wagons still carried manufactured goods from the mill workshops of Long Island City and agricultural products from points East (hauled into LIC by the LIRR) into Manhattan. The subways tracks were attached to the superstructure of the bridge. Trucks replaced the horse wagons, and eventually made the cargo hauling operation unprofitable for the LIRR’s gantry docks at Hunters Point. The automobile route and light rail options also collapsed the old passenger and cargo ferry industry which sailed from LIC and Astoria (especially Hallets Point). As the population of Queens left its cradle in LIC and along the East River shoreline, moving ever eastward toward the open country of Long Island, the narrow streets of ancient Newtown were given over more and more to industry. The Great Machine reached further toward the dawn, straining to carry the ever increasing load.
note and minutiae: sartorial mention by learned experts has informed me that the myriad colors that the steel in Queens Plaza is painted reflects the particular line or system that it was erected to serve.
Queens plaza complex – photo by Mitch Waxman
Queens Blvd. at 32 pl. – photo by Mitch Waxman
Following the machine past Skillman Avenue, as it carefully skirts the titan Sunnyside Railroad Yards and the cyclopean Degnon Terminal, one finds the auspicious origin of Queens Boulevard. A primary local artery with an elevated subway track directly connected to the Queens Plaza complex, Queens Blvd. is a central viaduct of population movement away from Manhattan toward points east. Sunnyside, Flushing, Roosevelt, Corona exist in their modern incarnation because of this structure- which like many parts of New York City- must be considered from those hidden structures beneath the street in addition to the visible sections.
There are thousands of mechanisms down there, cables and pipes and electrical transformers, steel underpinnings of the road itself. Realize the complexity of designing a street that can carry fully loaded modern trucking without collapse or subsidence, absorb the vibration and crushing weight of active subway tracks, and also carry a subterranean network of sewer and wastewater systems that can handle the storm runoff from so many acres of concrete. Of course, this complexity was designed over generations of dedicated improvements, but it boggles the mind to… think about what it is… that may be… buried down there.
for a thorough history of the neighborhoods which lie along this section of Queens Blvd., complete with historic photography- check out the work of the masters at Forgotten-NY
End of Naked Steel, Queens Blvd. – photo by Mitch Waxman
After diverging from the Queens Plaza complex, the steel is soon observed as clad in artistic cement, and its pleasing appearance mirrors a Roman viaduct. Such architectural analogy, referencing the time before Caesar did away with pretense, was an artifice used extensively in the era of Progress. Look at the majesty of Washington DC, the Tweed courthouse in Manhattan, or Speer’s plans for the New Berlin during the reign of the last antichrist.
from wikipedia:
Queens Boulevard was built in the early 20th century to connect the new Queensboro Bridge to central Queens, thereby offering an easy outlet from Manhattan. It was created by linking and expanding already-existing streets, such as Thomson Avenue and Hoffman Boulevard, stubs of which still exist. It was widened along with the digging of the IND Queens Boulevard Line subway tunnels in the 1920s and 1930s, and in 1941, the city proposed converting it into a freeway, as was done with the Van Wyck Expressway, but with the onset of World War II, the plan was never completed.
Queens Blvd. looking west – photo by Mitch Waxman
This line of rail continues eastward, sending offshoots into extant neighborhoods. Enormous numbers transverse this street, so much so that it generates statistical norms that stand in contrast to surrounding streets only a block or two away. There is a high rate of just about every affliction or situational outcome possible along Queens Blvd., probability is altered by sheer force of numbers. Spikes in auto accidents or criminal activity far out of scale with surrounding neighborhoods has garnered the infamous “Boulevard of Death” nomen and results in scaled up traffic and transit police patrols all along the route. It’s a bit of a misnomer, as the “just passing through” population of any 1 block stretch on Queens Blvd. is easily the size of a small town. Subways, manhattan bound traffic, pedestrians, residents, shoppers, workers- fuhgeddabowdit.
from wikipedia:
This street hosts one of the highest numbers of New York City Subway services in the city. At any one time, six services—the E, F, G, R, V, and the 7—all use significant stretches of the right of way; only Broadway (nine services), Sixth Avenue (seven), and Seventh Avenue (seven) in Manhattan and Fulton Street (eight) and Flatbush Avenue (six) in Brooklyn carry more at any one time. In addition, the Q60 bus travels its entire length.
End of the line out in Corona – photo by Mitch Waxman
39th (Beebe) avenue elevated station – photo by Mitch Waxman
Another branch of the Great Machine slinks out of Queens Plaza along Northern Blvd. and turns at 31st street, carrying the N and soon to be defunct W lines. This structure continues into and provides the only rail link for the extant sections of Astoria found beyond the noble stature of Ditmars Blvd. This stop is the first on the line, serving Dutch Kills, and its nascent hospitality industry. Before long, this stop will be a primary port of embarkation for hordes of tourists returning from Manhattan. What will greet them, currently, is a coffee shop/greasy spoon and a series of auto garages. Most of the private homes along this block have shuttered windows and zero tenancy, undoubtedly being stockpiled for future large scale development.
from wikipedia:
The Astoria Line was originally part of the IRT, as a spur off the IRT Queensboro Line, now part of the IRT Flushing Line (which didn’t open to the north until April 21, 1917). The whole Astoria Line north of Queensboro Plaza opened on February 1, 1917, and was used by trains between 42nd Street–Grand Central and Astoria.
N Train on elevated BMT tracks – photo by Mitch Waxman
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is one of those hotels, a Holiday Inn which was recently completed on 39th Avenue and 29th street. Eccentric in design, it is one of the larger buildings visible in western Queens, but is already being dwarfed by newer construction nearby. Greatest of all, the thing in the Megalith watches from on high, as Queens rises.
The European travel industry is a highly evolved entity, which sells “package holidays” combining lodging and travel into one flat rate. Profit is found by booking airline seats and hotel rooms in bulk, garnering discounts from suppliers, and reselling at a higher price to consumers. Its all very civilized, and results in a very competitive pricing strategy which offers real value. Imagine, a trip to New York, all-inclusive for a flat rate- and staying at a brand new hotel two stops from the Apple Store and Central Park!
Really, I’m not being sarcastic. If you’re going to Europe, buy a ticket for London and then put your trip together there. You’ll end up flying to Italy or Bruges on some crap airline, where the in flight entertainment is a non stop commercial selling duty free booze and you’re surrounded by the recently drunk, but who cares… you’ll save a bundle as compared to the ala carte system. The hotel will be downright crappy too, but you’re only sleeping there- you’re in Europe- go to a museum or something. That’s pretty much how most international tourists think about Hotels, that’s the market- hopefully the Hotel investments at Dutch kills can grab a piece of it. Really, I’m not being sarcastic, Queens needs those jobs, and this conversion is fairly inevitable.
I wish that nothing would ever change, and I’ll miss the quirky edges and small stature of this enigmatic little neighborhood, but nothing is going to stop this transformation. I just hope that artifacts of what once was, like the LIC millstones, can be preserved and experienced by the public.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In Sunnyside, another rhiozome of the Great Machine juts eastward, carrying the 800 pound gorilla to eastern Long Island. This shot is just down the hill from the Queens Boulevard photo above labeled “Queens Blvd. looking west”, a mere 3 city blocks away. These tracks continue for miles, connecting with the brobdingnagian Jamaica Yard, and provide connections to the furthest reaches of Long Island. The tracks are elevated above the streets, and incorporate a series of bridges to span the local streets transversed. A tremendous amount of construction work is underway- as observed by your humble narrator during these endless explorations on foot- to shore up and cosmetically improve the narrow strips of land which surround the trackways. The properties had become overgrown, shoddy, and a favorite location for illicit activity and homeless camps.
from wikipedia:
The Main Line is a rail line owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. It begins in Long Island City and runs directly across the middle of Long Island, terminating in Greenport approximately 95 miles (153 km) from its starting point. Along the way, the Main Line spawns five branches. These branches, in order from west to east, are:
- Port Washington Branch (at Wood Interlocking in Woodside, Queens)
- Hempstead Branch (at Queens Interlocking along the Queens/Nassau County border)
- Oyster Bay Branch (at Nassau Interlocking in Mineola)
- Port Jefferson Branch (at Divide Interlocking in Hicksville)
- Central Branch (at Beth Interlocking at Bethpage)
entrance to the Sunnyside Yards – photo by Mitch Waxman
An entrance to the Sunnyside Yards offers a cutaway view of this Queens Plaza Great Machine complex, with the greenish steel structure bisecting the photo called to your attention. That’s Steinway Street where it becomes the 39th street (or Harold Avenue) bridge, and crosses over the Sunnyside Yard toward Queens Blvd. which is 2 blocks away ultimately terminating at 51st avenue by the BQE, just across the highway from old Calvary Cemetery which abuts the Newtown Creek. The great mills of Queens were once served by direct rail links to the Sunnyside Yard, Standard Motor’s stark industrial building with its no nonsense “daylight factory” windows is the luminous structure in the lower right corner, the Amtrak Acela barn is center, and the construction projects visible are at Queens Plaza. In the distance, Manhattan.
for a fascinating discussion of the legal status and deep history of the bridges over the Sunnyside yards, check out this article at dlapiper.com
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A garland of former industrial supremacy, the aforementioned Standard Building is just one of the enormous mills that once provided untold numbers of jobs to western Queens. Shadows, one of these giants now houses a Welfare office, and many have been converted to self storage facilities. On Northern Blvd., which is sited upon the ancient Jackson Avenue Turnpike, the Great Machine is underground. Subway tracks and other subterranean features reveal the entire surface here to be an artifice. Look at the entrance to the Sunnyside Yard shot above for the true grade of the land. This is the roof a structure, part of the Great Machine.
This Great Machine- an interconnecting system of bridges, roadways, and rail (along with power plants, sewers, and workers)- is the sum total of billions of hours of labor. When the remains of our civilization are scratched out of the sand in some future desert, one would hope that the collective work represented in this series of structures will merit some mention- a footnote next to the story of Manhattan.
from wikipedia:
NY Route 25A begins at its western terminus at Exit 13 (which is the first exit) off Interstate 495 (the Long Island Expressway) at Long Island City in the New York City borough of Queens. Route 25A is known in this area as 21st Street. As you follow 25A, it becomes Jackson Avenue and is a 4-lane road (and remains a 4-lane road well into Nassau County). Just past the intersection with Queens Boulevard (State Route 25), at the foot of the Queensboro Bridge, 25A becomes Northern Boulevard.
Astoria Tumbleweeds
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The tumbling remnants of happier times rolls about the ancient village of Astoria, and can be observed in many windblown places. These urban tumbleweeds are predominantly disposed of, according to custom, before the second week of January. The majority of these shots were taken in the first week of the new year. The vast amount of trash is atypical for this block, as holiday feasting and present opening produce an abundance of urban waste.
from nyc.gov
Collections will take place beginning on Monday, January 4, 2010 through Friday, January 15, 2010 .
Residents are encouraged to put out their discarded trees at curbside as early as possible during the collection period.
DSNY asks residents to remove all tree stands, tinsel, lights, and ornaments from trees before placing them out for collection. DO NOT place trees in plastic bags. Trees will be chipped into mulch that will be distributed to parks, playing fields, and community gardens throughout the city.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As longtime readers of this site know, I’m fascinated by New York’s infrastructure and the scale of endeavor it represents. Constantly amazed not by what the City screws up, but what it actually gets right. The extra tonnage of holiday trash, much of it paper, is just absorbed off the sidewalks without much fanfare.
The xmas trees, however, seem to be the last to be collected, which allows the wind to take them where it wants to go. Just today, during the last week of January, I saw one swirling about on the corner and there were a couple over by the local park (which is a perennial target for dumping of household trash from illegally converted area apartments).
from wikipedia
It was around Christmas 1851 when a farmer in the U.S. state of New York’s Catskill Mountains, Mark Carr, began a journey with two oxen drawn sleds toward New York City with a crop of Christmas trees in tow. When he arrived in New York the first Christmas tree market was born, from which he sold all the trees. Though Christmas trees have been sold commercially in the United States since Carr’s 1851 journey from the Catskills, the first American Christmas tree farm was not established until about 50 years later. Until then, most U.S.Christmas trees were simply harvested from forests.
from nytimes.com- click here for an article from 1880 about Mr. Carr
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Like the tumbleweeds in some stereotypical western movie, the last vestiges of ChristmAstoria just roll along and out of frame. I like to think that there’s a wall somewhere near Flushing Bay that they all pile up against, but probably not. The weather will reduce them to wireframes by Valentines Day.
from ci.nyc.ny.us
Christmas Tree Collection –
Citywide Christmas tree collection is also an important part of the Departmentʼs recycling program. In January 2008, approximately 160,250 discarded Christmas trees were collected by dedicated tree trucks over a 12-work day period, January 3 through 16, 2008. Two (2) primary disposal sites were utilized: Fresh Kills and Wards Island.
All trees delivered to Wards Island were chipped by the Department of Parks and Recreation. This joint agency partnership in processing trees proved to be extremely successful. In Fresh Kills a private company, under contract to the Department, chipped the trees.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The sad specimen above was my own humble tree. Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself often choose the “Charlie Brown” tree for our holiday decorations.
from christmastree.org
MYTH #9: Real Christmas Trees end up in landfills.
BUSTED: Christmas Tree recycling programs are available nationwide, and many are quite creative. A farm-grown Christmas tree is 100% biodegradable, so it can be used for all kinds of things in nature, from mulch to erosion control. Fake trees?….see Myth #4 above. People often lament the sight of Christmas trees at the curb after Christmas…but they don’t realize that many communities have curb-side pick up as part of their recycling program. They’re not “being thrown in the trash” or ending up in landfills. They’re waiting to be put into the recycling program.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Tumbling Tumbleweeds by Sons of the Pioneers- Click here for the song
I’m a roaming cowboy riding all day long,
Tumbleweeds around me sing their lonely song.
Nights underneath the prairie moon,
I ride along and sing this tune.
See them tumbling down
Pledging their love to the ground
Lonely but free I’ll be found
Drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds.
Cares of the past are behind
Nowhere to go but I’ll find
Just where the trail will wind
Drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds.
I know when night has gone
That a new world’s born at dawn.
I’ll keep rolling along
Deep in my heart is a song
Here on the range I belong
Drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds.
Astoria Slice
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Observations and commentary on the ever shifting urban milieu called Pizza:
Pizza is the fruit of choice for the lifelong New Yorker, a greasy elixir that nourishes the soul. A proper slice is an avenue through which salvation may be found- sort of a cheesy eucharist.
There are borough based niceties known to sophisticates- the overloaded and enormous slices of Manhattan and the Bronx, the crunchy crust and sparse cheese found in “the Queens slice”, the perfect ratios and oil dripping sauce of the Brooklyn and… Staten Island slice. There’s also the fancy “wood burning oven” sort offered by places like “John’s” in the village, of course, but that’s a little “fine dining” if you ask me. There are further specific qualities to each borough’s slice, but I won’t bore you.
Careful observation and sampling of the goods over a four decade long study has led to the following observation- As the ethnic tides of immigration into New York have waxed and waned, the character of New York Pizza has picked up influences gathered from other world cuisines, no doubt because of who is actually cooking the stuff. Moving from the characteristic pentateuch of borough based stylings into a generic citywide slice which owes much to the influx of Latin American labor into the formerly southern Italian dominated kitchens, I’ve noticed a shift in flavor and delivered product. Don’t mistake me, not saying its bad or good, just saying that it is.
The pie above is a June 2008 specimen from Gino’s on Broadway here in Astoria, which has since undergone a change in ownership and staff. Shortly after the pizzeria changed hands, the composition of their product changed noticeably, taking on the new citywide standard- which I call Pizzadilla. The pun is based of course on the Mexican fare called Quesadilla, which modern New York Pizza is beginning to resemble.
The Mozzarella (which is pronounced MOOTSARELLAH, not MMAHTSSARELLA by the way) is less fatty than it should be and the sauce has far less olive oil used in in its recipe. A proper slice- according to me- should drip an orange oil and need to be blotted at the apogee of the fold, it should also nearly sunder its crust when folded. Pizza should also NEVER have ham or pineapple… just what the hell is wrong with you people? The new Ginos also offers the single funniest menu item I’ve ever seen on sale in a Pizzeria- the Salad Slice (which is indeed a slice of pizza with a salad piled onto it).
Newtown Pentacle readers who find themselves on Steinway Street between 30th and 31st should direct their attentions to Rizzo’s, which is a prime example of the “Queens Slice”.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Newtown Pentacle 