Posts Tagged ‘Brooklyn’
colossal and protuberant
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There I sat, broken hearted…
Somehow that old Brooklyn Public School aphorism was on my mind as I scuttled along the street ends of Greenpoint. These shots were attained at India Street’s junction with the East River and depict the shield wall of a Shining City as viewed from the collapsing pierages of an ancient and crumbling competitor.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s difficult for us to think of the Boroughs as separate cities… well, it’s hard to imagine Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx as separate while with Staten Island it’s quite easy… but they were. This location upon which I was standing was, until quite recently (from a historical perspective), heavily industrialized. A workshop, this section of Greenpoint is in many ways responsible for the ascendency of Manhattan over not just it’s local competition but the Nation itself.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is another of the zones which the City fathers has designated for whatever they call “urban renewal” these days, and plans are both afoot and underway to convert certain structures to residential use (such as the “Pencil Factory”) or to clear away the existing building stock to make way for new construction.
The good news, or bad depending on your perspective, is that a condition set forward to the real estate interests by the City is that a waterfront pedestrian concourse not unlike the one nearing completion across the Newtown Creek in Long Island City must be built in return for certain laxities of enforcement regarding the zoned height of waterfront development.
At least there’ll still be a place down by the water where the kids in Greenpoint can go and dream of an age when you needn’t have to commute to get to work.
Additionally, the following event will be happening in Greenpoint on May 4th, 2011. I’ve met Shawn Shafner and he’s got a LOT of good stuff to say about some very bad stuff indeed. I’ll be there- at the Temple of Cloacina- how about you, Citizen?
Text from the flyer with links:
Water for Cities: Responding to the Urban Challenge*
Moderated by Shawn Shafner of The People’s Own Organic Power Project www.thePOOPproject.org
Wednesday, May 4th 2011 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm Talks followed by a panel discussion
Visitor Center at Newtown Creek 329 Greenpoint Avenue Brooklyn, New York 11222
The Speakers are: Frederik Pischke Interagency Water Advisor UN-Water, Vyjayanthi Rao Assistant Professor of Anthropology New School for Social Research, New York, Jennifer Farmwald Project Manager Water Supply Infrastructure & Watershed Assessment NYC Environmental Protection.
Visit DEP’s website at www.nyc.gov/dep Follow us at www.facebook.com/nycwater
The Bowie effect
-photo by Mitch Waxman
There are those who like to tell your humble narrator that he is given to hyperbole if not outright fraud, and although I will admit to a weakness for theatrical effect, the odd subjects and situations described in these posts are not contrivances or banal set pieces. When I tell you of the odd polydactyl cats around the Grand Street Bridge or the eyeless things that wriggle in the mud during low tide at Maspeth Creek, rather than smile kindly and nod your head, shudder audibly at the terrible implications arising from their existence- which, if generally known, might herald a turning away from science by a beaten human race gladly retreating into a new dark age.
Here then is one of the curiously heterochromiatic cats found in hoary Greenpoint, which is one of the “you just make this stuff up” sore spots for a humble narrator.
from wikipedia
In anatomy, heterochromia refers to a difference in coloration, usually of the iris but also of hair or skin. Heterochromia is a result of the relative excess or lack of melanin (a pigment). It may be inherited, or caused by genetic mosaicism, disease or injury.
Eye color, specifically the color of the irises, is determined primarily by the concentration and distribution of melanin. The affected eye may be hyperpigmented (hyperchromic) or hypopigmented (hypochromic). In humans, usually, an excess of melanin indicates hyperplasia of the iris tissues, whereas a lack of melanin indicates hypoplasia. Heterochromia of the eye (heterochromia iridis or heterochromia iridum; the common wrong form “heterochromia iridium” is not correct Latin) is of two kinds. In complete heterochromia, one iris is a different color from the other. In partial heterochromia or sectoral heterochromia, part of one iris is a different color from its remainder.
-photo by Mitch Waxman
This was just one member of a colony of cats living on Commercial Street, and the rest scattered before the coloration of their ocular organs could be ascertained. Luckily this stalwart maintained a steady position, and despite the clear annoyance displayed at the horrible scuttling thing waving around a camera before it, stood it’s ground. As a fellow child of infinite Brooklyn, such tenacity did not go unnoticed. Odd eye colored Cats are special, from a symbolic point of view, and have no small amount of mythic significance – even the prized cat of the prophet, called Muezza, was odd eyed.
from wikipedia
The Cat Sìth (Scottish Gaelic: [kʰaht̪ ˈʃiː]) or Cat Sidhe (Irish: [kat̪ˠ ˈʃiː], Cat Sí in new orthography) is a fairy creature from Celtic mythology, said to resemble a large black cat with a white spot on its breast. Legend has it that the spectral cat haunts the Scottish Highlands. Some common folklore suggested that the Cat Sìth was not a fairy, but a transformed witch.
The legends surrounding this creature are more common in Scottish folklore, but a few occur in Irish as well.
-photo by Mitch Waxman
There are many odd things around the Newtown Creek, hidden away beneath the cracked cement and amongst the dripping masonry walls of those long buried and forgotten building foundations which lie just below the facade of modernity. Here you are then, the “Bowie Effect” of the Cats of the Creek is offered. Still working on getting the six toed critters in DUGSBO though…
Who can guess what other anomalous and unwholesome alterations our common urban fauna might have undergone, or are undergoing, in some runaway Darwinian reaction to those environmental stressors they have suffered over the centuries at Newtown Creek?
from wikipedia
In Irish mythology, the aos sí (Irish pronunciation: [iːs ˈʃiː], older form aes sídhe [eːs ˈʃiːə]) are a supernatural race comparable to the fairies or elves. They are said to live underground in the fairy mounds, across the western sea, or in an invisible world that coexists with the world of humans. This world is described in “The Book of Invasions” (recorded in the Book of Leinster) as a parallel universe in which the aos sí walk amongst the living.
In the Irish language, aos sí means “people of the mounds” (the mounds are known in Irish as “the sídhe”). In Irish literature the people of the mounds are also referred to as the daoine sídhe (“deena shee”), and in Scottish Gaelic literature as the daoine sìth or daoine sìdh. They are said to be the ancestors, spirits of nature, or goddesses and gods.
note: The large blue box in the background of these shots seems to have been designed to act as some sort of feral cat shelter rather than a Tardis, and bore a screed proselytizing the curious to visit the website found at neighborhoodcats.org/
delicate individual
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Less than 2 weeks ago, I was wandering around in Greenpoint, heading for the street address of Continental Iron Works- the ship yard where the USS Monitor was laid down at West St. between Calyer and Quay near the Bushwick inlet. It was on Greenpoint Avenue when the shot above was stumbled across, close to where Newell crosses (or perhaps crossed) it. The big attractions in this neighborhood are the Newtown Creek Waste Water Treatment Plant and the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge, of course, but the acquisition of certain geographic knowledge is critical to several of my irksome studies at the moment (and even if the site has been obliterated in modernity), the efficacy of certain… theories of mine… depends on direct observation.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While wandering about, the attention of several itinerant laborers became focused upon me, and although their jocular suggestions about destinations for my camera were titillating, my nervous nature took control over my ambitions for the afternoon and an effort was made to remove myself from their company in the fastest manner possible. The step of a coward is a quick one, but this odd truck trailer was spotted and demanded attention. I’m positive that someone else got this before me, likely Ms. Heather, but for a single moment your humble narrator stood tall to bring you its amusing visage.
…Also, I didn’t know the 7 train ran in Greenpoint…
ruthless conquest
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Terrible in its grandeur, the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant dominates the landscape around Greenpoint’s border with Long Island City. The Nature Walk which skirts part of its shoreline with Newtown Creek affords rare and untrammeled access to the industrial waterway, and provides an interesting vantage point to the traveling photographer.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
All sorts of artistic flourishes adorn the Nature Walk, one of which is pictured above that purports to show the primeval Newtown Creek and the vast meanderings of it’s course. The bottom of the frame represents the East River, and the coiling shape to the left is Dutch Kills. Note that the original course of the waterway was far reaching, and extended far beyond the modern bulkheads. In olden times, this area was referred to as “waste lands” while in modern times we call such territory “coastal wet lands”.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Still under construction, the section of Whale Creek hidden from view is where the sludge handling docks will be. One can expect the enormous sludge tank at the East River on Commercial Street to be demolished when these are done, and opportunities to photograph the City’s fleet of Sludge Boats up close and personal are sure to abound.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Without a hint of irony, this section of the Nature Walk is called the Scent Garden, and it is well stocked with (often indigenous) aromatic plantings. It extends back a few hundred yards, and seems to be the spot where workers at the plant go to on breaks as evinced by cigarette butts and garbage pails full of fast food packaging. Interesting spot, but not so much visually.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Across the Newtown Creek on the Queens side is the “big show”. The mouth of Dutch Kills is occluded by a non functioning swing bridge and a static truss bridge. I’ve been told that should the swing bridge need to be opened, it is accomplished by using Tow Trucks of the sort used for heavy vehicles which winch stout steel cables temporarily attached to the structure. Your humble narrator hasn’t observed this himself, so it is hearsay- albeit from a quite reliable source.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Newtown Creek Dock, once the Night Soil and Offal Dock and later the LIRR Manure dock, is currently under a century long lease to SimsMetal. A global player in the recycling trade, Sims is contracted by the DSNY to receive several of the materials they collect for processing and disposal. They shred paper and plastic, shatter glass, and sunder metal.
I can sit and watch this operation go for hours at a time.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I would be keen to actually visit Sims, but I’ve been told that this is another one of the VERY dangerous places to be on Newtown Creek. That giant pile of metal that is being sorted used to be automobiles, and the tiny toy dump trucks in the background are actually oversized wreckers. Enormous machines moving at industrial speed, with vast tonnages of metal being shredded? Not a place for a civilian, or so I’m told.
Still…
hoary and sinister
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned in prior postings, your humble narrator has been making a dedicated effort to visit and revisit certain sites along the Newtown Creek to which access was restricted during the long and icy winter. This springtime survey is referred to as “walking the beat” around HQ, although it really should be described as “scuttling the beat”. On March 19th, my camera and I found ourselves at the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant‘s Nature Walk.
Click here for more on the Nature Walk
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A surprisingly beautiful space, the Nature Walk is the safest and one of the most accessible vantage points along the infamous industrial waterway. Despite it’s relative remoteness, at the end of Paidge Avenue past the corner of Provost Street, people do find their way here. For some reason, I always find this surprising.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Newtown Creek has several access points, but most are pestilential street ends bordering industrial sites which are defended by dull eyed watchmen and aggressive private security guards. A few of them actually take you to the water’s edge, but you end up standing in contaminated mud amidst the rusting hubris of 150 years of breakneck industrial growth. The nice bit about the NCWWTP Nature Walk is that you are actually fairly safe (well… as safe as you ever are around the Creek…) and that it provides gorgeous wide open panoramas for the journeyman photographer.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The tributary which the sewer plant adjoins is Whale Creek. Once upon a time, this section of Greenpoint was the center of the lamp oil refinery trade, and said lamp oil was sourced from whale oil. Just down the main waterway from here were the shipyards of Neziah Bliss (and others) which supplied, augmented, and repaired the ships of New York’s whaling fleet. Additionally, the African slaves of Greenpoint and Newtown were known to join the crews of these ships, as 19th century whalers didn’t care about what color you were, just how hard you could work and how long you might survive.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The planters you see here are blocking the kayak launch, part of the controversial decision on the part of the City fathers to disallow boats to access the Creek from City property (obviously for liability reasons, in the wake of the Superfund announcement by the Federal Government). That decision has since been countermanded, and the launch is scheduled to reopen at the start of the “season” which greatly enhanced the happiness of those redoubtable kayakers emanating from the Long Island City Boathouse.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Personally, you couldn’t get me to interact with the water here even at gunpoint, but past postings have described the vast physical cowardice which cripples me. I can tell you, from everything I know about the Creek, that the water quality here isn’t “horrible”. It’s a little dirtier than the East River in this section, except after a rain event, which demands an interval of time to allow the bacterial and colorectal dumping of Combined Sewer Outfalls to dissipate. Luckily, radiation from the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself destroys most of these pathogens within a few days, and the focus shifts from bacterial to chemical contamination.
You are insane (or a Viking), though, if you spend much time beyond the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge or in Dutch Kills, Maspeth Creek, and especially English Kills. Lots of people are thusly “insane” however, and hardily survive the experience- so perhaps I’m being over cautious.
Time will tell, and cancer is patient.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Tomorrow, we’ll talk about the rest of the Nature Walk, and some of it’s more interesting features, but while viewing the shield wall of the Shining City with it’s titan blocks hurled at the sky- I noticed one of those small details which often escapes casual notice. Note the fencing in the lower left corner of the shot above, and the white placards affixed to it.
One of my pet peeves about the Newtown Creek watershed can be expanded upon here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Three bits of signage, and I am assured by powers and potentates alike that these are strictly temporary, admonish and inform users of the waterfront access point about the esoteric dangers which one might encounter along the Creek. When an earlier posting at this, your Newtown Pentacle, warned the cadre of boaters docked at the Vernon Avenue Street end that they were placing themselves in “Mortal and Existential danger“- this is the sort of thing I was talking about.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My pet peeve, as it were, is that these signs are difficult to notice and written in English. Observations of who it is that actually fishes in Newtown Creek have revealed that it is mostly Spaniard and Slavic anglers that ply these waters- and the populations which line its Brooklyn banks are demographically disposed toward demonstrating literacy in the Spanish or Polish languages. Logic dictates, therefore, that this would be an excellent place for a multi-lingual bit of municipal signage.
As mentioned, I’ve been informed that such multilingual signage is “in the works”.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The English issue is something that I’m increasingly concerned about as we move into the Superfund era, and one that I’ve raised at the Newtown Creek Alliance meetings. If someone reading this posting is fluent in either Polish or Spanish, and wishes to “get involved”- please contact me here or swing over to the NCA website to find out more about the organization. My particular focus within the group is Queens, of course, but I see the communities surrounding the Creek as being more involved with each other (Long Island City and Greenpoint are ultimately one entity, despite political sophistry. Back in the day, they lived in Greenpoint and worked in LIC) than the neighborhoods surrounding them on the landward side.
Come to think of it, the Eels that this sign cautions against might explain those eyeless wriggling things that I’ve observed in Maspeth Creek- hmm.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Note: The following is a personal viewpoint, and doesn’t reflect the policies of any organization-
The world only makes sense when you force it to do so. Titanic forces and entities are on the move around the Newtown Creek, and the season of tumult and change upon the ancient waterway has begun. Whether the final shape of the place will be determined by outsiders or the community itself is ultimately up to us. The truth of Newtown Creek is that it is still one of the great economic engines of New York City, and one of the few places where someone without a collegiate degree can earn a decent living by the sweat of his brow. Do we want to lose this in the name of providing anchorages for some rich guy from Manhattan to park his yacht? What do you want the Newtown Creek to look like 20 years from now?
Paraphrasing Roger Waters- Are we destined to become a nation of waitresses, and waiters?
The Newtown Pentacle 