Posts Tagged ‘Brooklyn’
things whispered
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
So… this post is the one which I have been dreading, since it means that it’s all really done now. The last Newtown Creek Alliance meeting I would be attending at 520 Kingsland Avenue, situated amongst the concrete devastations of Brooklyn’s Greenpoint section, is when I shot these photos. This is an area one such as myself refers to as “DUGABO.”
There’s the Sewer Plant in Greenpoint, pictured above.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This was the evening of Tuesday the 22nd of November, the same day as the last NYC Ferry ride and photo session on the East River which has been discussed in prior posts this week. My Pal Val had dropped me off in Astoria after the boat, whereupon I then jumped into my own automobile, and zipped off to Greenpoint.
I’m really enjoying this whole mobility thing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
NCA had a board meeting, and we talked about several items and points of NCA business and policy, and at the end I submitted my resignation.
And that’s how the whole Newtown Creek thing ends. For now.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After the meeting ended, I dropped one friend off at the G train, and then took two others back with me to Queens and dropped them off. Upon returning to Astoria, I found a parking spot directly across the street from my house – which alternate side parking rules wouldn’t affect for two whole days – and the third day was Thanksgiving! I thereby exclaimed “ZaZa!”
Everything was coming up Mitchhouse.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Back at HQ, we packed and packed. We edited down our possessions and then discarded more. We were within a few days of our escape plan finally playing out.
But there was still so much to do…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
We made it, in the end, but this was a mountain that was moved.
Things wouldn’t be approaching “settled down” for a couple of weeks, though, and a humble narrator in particular still had a lot of “have-to’s” and “necessary’s” to handle. I’d be back and forth to Pittsburgh twice, for a start…
More next week.
“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.
humming music
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The John J Harvey Fireboat stopped at the dock in Blissville, along Newtown Creek, where we picked up the majority of the people who accompanied me on my last navigation of the waterway. The crowd debarked, although some of us stayed onboard for the ride back to Manhattan’s West Side. The Greenpoint Avenue Bridge had opened again, and allowed us to pass.
The Captain of the Fireboat, Huntley Gill, decided to offer me a salute and fired the water monitors onboard the Harvey for a display.
My pal Scott Wolpow managed to grab some video of that, here it is:
– video by Scott Wolpow
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I managed to get one or two last shots from the water on our way back to the East River, and eventual docking on the Hudson at Manhattan’s Pier 66. That’s the recycling company which I got rid of all my electronic and metallic junk at, dubbed Allocco Recycling, by the way.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Newtown Creek was a masters class in environmentalism, government, and the non profit business world for me. I learned so much, from so many smart people. I stayed honest here, even when I had to compromise, which is something I’m proud to say. Unfortunately, a definitive answer to the only question that truly matters was never arrived at. The question?
Who can guess, all that there is, which might be buried down there – in the sedimentary black mayonnaise – underlying the lugubrious waters of the fabulous Newtown Creek?
“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.
sunlight lies
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Captain Huntley Gill and the crew of the John J Harvey Fireboat navigated their vessel some three miles back from the East River into English Kills, a tributary of Newtown Creek, and executed a turnaround nearby the Metropolitan Avenue Bridge. We started heading westwards then, and back towards the East River.
To say that a humble narrator’s emotional state was complicated would be a bit of an understatement. It’s not always apparent when the cover closes on a chapter of your life.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s really all over, now. Especially right now.
As you’re reading this post, which published at 11 am on November 30th, Our Lady of the Pentacle and I are currently driving to Pittsburgh. Literally – right now – and as of 11 am, I’ve been on the road for about 5 hours. We’ve got a car full of the sort of things that you don’t entrust to a mover – cameras, computers, valuables – with us. Tomorrow morning, we’re taking possession of our new digs and starting the “moving in” process.
This wasn’t – as it turned out – the last time I’d be on the Fireboat, but it was the last time that I’d be taking a group out on Newtown Creek. More on my last trip on the Harvey in a future post.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
To everything there is a season, huh?
More 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.
austere patriarch
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On October 29th, my friends at the John J Harvey Fireboat (1931Fireboat.org) made good on an offer to take me and about 50 friends out for one last Newtown Creek tour. I drove into the City, and boarded the Harvey there. There was a scary moment where one of the electrical systems onboard was malfunctioning, and we almost had to turn back to dock, but the onboard engineers managed to fix it and we arrived at our second passenger pickup point in Long Island City’s Blissville section only a half hour late.
This was my last, and final, time on the waters of Newtown Creek.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I had to arrange with the NYC DOT to open the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge for us, which is always kind of thrilling.
There was a fun and congenial atmosphere onboard. I wasn’t doing a narration for this trip, instead, I was drifting around from group to group and saying my goodbyes. Some people got advice, others were chided, and still others were patted on the back.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
We headed eastwards on the Fireboat. I tried my level best not to be hiding behind the camera during the event, and to be “present.” I wanted to drink it all in, one last time.
…my beloved creek…
“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.
bodily dislodgement
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
October 21st, and I was continuing my exploration of a few spots in College Point and Whitestone which seemed promising. These were located during a session I spent with Google Maps’ street view feature. The 1961 Throgs Neck Bridge is what it depicts. The Google map said I was in a dog park, but it was actually just a parking lot alongside a parkway.
The hour was growing a bit late, and plans to meet Our Lady of the Pentacle back in Astoria were in the offing, so I packed up my troubles in the old kit bag. Yes, I did, indeed, “smile, smile, smile.”
For those of you under the age of 1,000, that’s a jokey reference to this song.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
October 22nd saw me in Flushing, at the Queens Botanical Garden.
There were pumpkins.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
October 25th and I was scheduled to spend a day with one of my closest friends driving around Southern Brooklyn, but it was very foggy when I left the house about 8:30 a.m. My ultimate meetup destination was in Park Slope, and there’s an obvious way to get there by car from Astoria, one which unfortunately involves sitting in a lot of Manhattan bound traffic on a certain expressway that connects Brooklyn and Queens.
I decided to go there via the less obvious but more interesting route, by driving to Ridgewood and then hanging a right and then a left or two in Bushwick and then proceeding through that central part of Brooklyn which nobody ever talks about these days. Along my way to the first right in Ridgewood, I crossed Newtown Creek and couldn’t resist a shot or two of the Grand Street Bridge all cloaked up in mist.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The new car has a moon roof. I don’t know what the actual difference between a sun roof and a moon roof is, but there you are. As I was driving along, whenever I got stuck at a light, I’d shove the camera up through the moon roof and turn the camera’s LED screen to a convenient angle so I could compose and record a quick shot.
That’s Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza, all fogged up.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I did the same thing with the camera and moon roof on my way home. The fog had cleared by the afternoon, and the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself had burst into view. I was driving down Flatbush Avenue, this time headed in the direction of the aforementioned expressway betwixt Brooklyn and Queens.
I’ve been doing this sort of shot a bunch the last couple of weeks, as I’ve been driving a lot since receiving the car. It’s an interesting perspective for me, since the position of the lens to the car’s roof as it stands relative to the ground – if it were “eye level” – would indicate that I’m about six inches taller than I actually am.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
An errand got me off the expressway and into the Woodside and Jackson Heights zone, where I had to weave an automotive path through the various “improvements” to traffic flow offered by the City in recent years. While driving down Roosevelt Avenue, a splotch of pigeon scat landed on the hood of my car, and I decided that it would be good idea to close the moon roof.
Hey, they say that’s lucky, having a pigeon poop on you.
“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 