Posts Tagged ‘City Steps’
Sinking feelings
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Mountain Avenue to Yard Way part three.
Not gonna lie, your humble narrator has been ‘bumming out’ of late. The news isn’t a subject which I like to dwell upon these days, as whether it’s National or Global – it’s all bad. I’ve made it a point of not talking about world events here, in an attempt to provide some bit of diversion that isn’t apocalyptic or horrible.
The future has ended up to just kind of suck.
Somehow, I’m not surprised, but then again – I am – after all, a member of Generation X. We always figured that the Baby Boomers would figure out a way to screw everyone else, during their dotage and on their way out. It’s how they lived, it’s how they’ll die.
One likes to ruminate while out, and scuttling about, which your humble narrator was involved with on this particular day.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Dribbling down the Yard Way steps, in the manner of a greasy liquid one associates with that which might ooze forth from an abattoir, me. My countenance is horrific, with dogs and children shrieking as I pass by. Cats hiss. Blossoms fold as if it was night as I scuttle past. A bird once saw me from above, and dropped out of the air dead, right in front of me. Pestilential.
I’ve been called that, as a point of fact. Pestilential.
Yard Way’s City Steps terminate at Pius Street, where the steps transmogrify into a series of sidewalk ramps. A block or two away from this spot are the Church Route City Steps, upon which I’d continue this scuttle.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking back at where I’d been, above.
As far as the bad mood goes, mental health complaints don’t necessarily refer to me slipping into or feeling ‘batshit crazy,’ but at the time of this writing I would describe myself as suffering from a bit of a ‘psychic cold.’
Low grade, no fever, just your run of the mill stuffy nose, headache, and sore throat kind of thing – that’s the analogy. It’s annoying, being bummed out, but just like when you’ve got a cold – you just have to wait it out, and then go for a walk in the sun when you’re feeling better.
Normally, I’m an ‘effin beacon of positivity, yo.
That’s me, just ask anyone who knows me in real life. I’m all sunshine and lollipops if you meet me in person.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Times like these are when all of those little guiding aphorisms of mine, which I pass off as wisdom, come into play.
‘It’s all downhill from here, and wherever that goes, there you are. Take a picture, it’ll last longer. One foot after the other, other, and soon you’ll be walking out the door. You’ll never win a fight with a woman you love, find a better way. Be early, at least they can’t hold that against you. Nothing matters, and nobody cares.’
The songbook from the musical ‘Annie’ suggests that the sun will indeed come out tomorrow. The Gorilla Biscuits also chide one to ‘Start Today.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My plan had been was to try and catch some Norfolk Southern train traffic along the way, but that neighborhood cleanup mentioned in earlier posts extended down to their tracks, and there were people with hi-viz vests and NS hats on who were talking on walkie talkies while the neighborhood people did their thing on and along the rails.
No bueno.
One decided to ‘try’ for CSX instead, an ideation which would involve a bit more scuttling. There would a possibility of a beer, too.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As far as cheering up, it’s a fairly difficult, intractable, and closed system. Me. Whatever happens behind the eyes and between the ears is sort of tidal in nature. When a storm comes, you just ride it out.
Only thing to do – really – is get out and shoot a bunch of photos, scuttling about, and turning the earth beneath my feet.
Back tomorrow.
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Yard Way City Steps
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Mountain Avenue to Yard Way part two.
Pittsburgh’s South Side Slopes section, and your humble narrator was pretty close to the top of the world, here in the Paris of Appalachia.
One was heading for the Yard Way City Steps, which can be observed on a Google map here.
Now… realistically… I have zero desire to experience ‘all’ 400 plus sets of Pittsburgh’s City Steps. It’s likely that over the course of time I will… but… the desire to surmount that particular catalog isn’t there at the moment.
My interests at the moment are centered around the dramatic views available from the South Side Slopes, and I’m always game for cutting around a bunch of different places hosting cool City Steps.
Remember ‘Rising Main’? ‘Sunday Street’? The ‘Church Route’ or ‘Lauer Way’? ‘Sterling Street’? Yeah.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At the apex of the landform, there’s a ball field and an abandoned house which seems to be in mid collapse. These are – what look like – one family homes, with an occasional multi family setup, populating the streets up here. This is very much ‘car country,’ due to the ridiculously steep nature of the streets.
Said public streets are also quite narrow, even though they run as two way streets. Parking density is a serious issue up here, and one needs to consider egress for emergency vehicles when pulling your keys from the ignition. It’s common practice for residents to park their cars with at least one set of wheels up on their sidewalk to preserve access.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Top of the world, ma, top of the world.
As a reminder, the Newtown Pentacle time warp is still in effect.
You’re receiving this in early/mid June, but these words were written back on the 9th of May, and further – the photos were captured in late April. I’ve somehow managed to manufacture a terrific amount of ‘lead time’ again, with posts being scheduled far in advance.
This is a good thing for your humble narrator, but I think it should be explained why you’re looking at shots of early spring in the early summer.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is a massive set of City Steps, I’d mention.
Blocks and blocks and blocks of them, descending downwards towards the South Side Flats. Most of this pathway sees you descending through what can be described as a ‘vegetation tunnel.’ Ultimately, the Yard Way steps terminate nearby another set of City Steps which can carry you down towards the ‘flats.’
As is usually the case with walks around this area, I’d offer the observation that you really, really want to reconsider your decision to plant bamboo on Pittsburgh’s hills. It just takes over and crowds out native species of plant and tree, is a breeding ground for rats, and it’s infestations allow feral deer too much in the way of comfort.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Down, down, down.
Along the path, one ran into a group of people from the neighborhood who were performing an organized citywide clean-up that was organized in advance of the NFL Draft which was called ‘The Immaculate Collection.’ Picking up litter from places where it collects, all that. Nice peeps they were. I reminded them to weigh the bags of garbage afterwards, so as to say ‘we collected X number of pounds of trash.’
Back at Newtown Creek in Brooklyn and Queens, we would arrange for an entity like the DEP (who once dropped off a dumpster for us), DSNY, or even a private outfit like Waste Management to cart away the trash afterwards. They’d always let us know a number, as far as weight.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Check out those raised sidewalks, on Yard Way at Baldauf Street.
Back next week with more from the Paris of Appalachia – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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This time around, I used my compass
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Mountain Avenue to Yard Way part one.
So… that recent walk where I accidentally headed off in the wrong direction, and ended up scuttling – in terror – along the side of a de facto highway, without sidewalks, because of that mistake?
Also, that I had resolved to head back to the starting point of the walking path which I originally intended to scuttle along?
Ok, I’m not saying that there weren’t any obstacles this time, but your humble narrator didn’t ‘eff this one up,’ and headed in the correct direction. The area and neighborhood designations are a still little hazy for me, but I was on Mountain Avenue in what I’m told is the ‘Mount Oliver’ section, at the starting point for this effort. I started this one right about here.
As the title would imply, I used that little plastic compass which dangles off of my camera bag to vouchsafe my intended direction, this time.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This scene, I would mention, is a little bit over two miles away from the dense urban core of Pittsburgh’s central peninsula. Mind you, it’s semi-difficult to live amongst these hills, particularly during the winter months, and more difficult to build housing into various plots and properties.
The path I had meticulously laid out, and then completely ignored on my initial walk, would carry me away from Mount Oliver towards and over the ridgeline of that massive elevated landform found along the Monongahela River called Mount Washington (Oliver is actually a part of it) and into a neighborhood that’s known as the ‘South Side Slopes.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
First dealie was walking up the hill, and up to the ridge line. This ridge and cliff face wears a street upon it, called Arlington Avenue, which snakes diagonally down the prominence’s city facing side. Once you’ve gotten to Arlington, you’re in the ‘South Side Slopes.’
This ‘zone’ has been absolutely what the doctor ordered, as far as getting past the aftereffects of the ‘orthopedic incident.’ The downward angling of the streets here allowed me to address the muscular atrophy caused by that misery, stretching and strengthening the musculature in the front of the thighs and calves. Of late, I’ve been walking ‘up’ these streets.
The trick to walking around here, while compromised, is to not allow yourself to pick up speed.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Crossing Arlington Avenue allows egress to St. Patrick’s street.
There are few if any sidewalks along this path, but it’s a pretty low volume road, lined with private housing there’s not high traffic counts to fret over. You just stay to the side.
This may strike terror into your heart, but there is no bike lane there.
As you may have noticed, after a couple of months of walking around the ‘North Side’ of Pittsburgh, my curiosities had led me back to an area that’s a bit closer to HQ. As my physical capabilities have been returning to normal, the concept of being adventurous again has crept in.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
St. Patrick’s street feeds into a gully, or ravine, or possibly a ‘hollow.’ Mishegoss.
It, in turn, leads to a short set of City Steps which elevate pedestrians up to the level of the serpentine course of South 18th Street. There’s a grandiose set of City Steps here, which I haven’t experienced yet, that I was heading for.
The landform which is called Mount Washington forms a ridge along the Monongahela River. Mount Oliver and the other ‘named’ hills surrounding it are part of the same geologic shaping. Ultimately, the land summits up to the ridge and then plunges, in the sharp manner of cliffs, towards the flood plain at the river below.
Behind the ridge, to the south, there’s a series of hills and ‘hollows’ which play out for miles and miles, in a region called ‘The South Hills.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
To position myself for the set of City Steps which I was heading for, this example of that sort of infrastructure needed to be surmounted in the ‘up’ direction. I decided to have a quick sit down at the top, and check on my compass again. A quick scan of the ‘make a right, make a left’ directions I had prepared in the notes app on my phone was also accomplished.
I find that ‘sitting down’ should never be any longer than a few minutes, otherwise you lose momentum. The camera, camera bag, and all the crap I need to carry around with me is fairly heavy, so it’s useful to give the lower back a rest, and an ‘uncoil’ every now and then.
Back tomorrow with more, at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Descending to… Hey Now!
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
To start this one off: the peculiarities of the Newtown Pentacle time warp are still in effect, as the shots in today’s post were gathered back on the 29th of March. Just in case you’re wondering why you’re seeing bare trees and all that in mid May.
Your humble narrator had resolved, at the end of the hostile frigid season, to really lean into things when it warmed up and another one of my little aphorisms to simplify life is ‘do what you say, say what you do.’
One found himself, thereby, in the South Side Slopes section of Pittsburgh and scuttling down a steeply graded road called Arlington Avenue. The main goal of this walk was to exercise the big muscle found in the center of my chest, so I was scuttling along at a pretty good clip.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Didn’t have much of a plan, and this walk played out through an area that’s become fairly familiar territory for me. I used the ‘Lauer Way’ City Steps to descend down to the ‘flats,’ rather than following the measured parabola of Arlington Avenue.
The PTSD thing about steps is continuing to recede into an emotional ‘Davy Jones locker’ that I maintain – deep within a section of the brain where I store things away I don’t want to think about anymore. That memory is now neatly tucked away, right between my Dad’s Pancreatic Cancer and my Mom’s end stage Dementia. I’ve got a whole folder of events in there for all the times I’ve been punched in the face, or when I said something stupid or hateful too.
All the fun stuff, it’s found in my box of psychic pain.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I wasn’t so much scuttling here, it was a lot more like shambling. Occasionally, one would turn stiffly at the waist and then gesture the camera at something, while making a sound like ‘urhhhnnnn.’
That’s the South 10th street bridge, over the Monongahela River, pictured above. The location within these hills that I was walking down from would be analogous to Pittsburgh’s South 12th street, if I was standing on the flood plain below where the South Side Flats neighborhood is found.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I was heading for an ‘ole reliable.’
That’s the 12th street pedestrian bridge pictured above, overflying the Norfolk Southern RR trackage which snakes along the side of Mount Washington on the landform’s Monongahela facing side. I’ve come to understand that Norfolk Southern uses the former tracks and right of way of the Pennsylvania Rail Road. I walk by this spot a lot.
I was outfitted with a ‘railfan’ scanner radio for this one, and radio chatter suggested that ‘something’ was coming this way, so I found an opportune spot and then switched lenses over to something that could easily poke through chain link fencing without occlusion.
Specifically, an 85mm f2 prime lens.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey Now!
Norfolk Southern #4600 thundered past, hauling a line of empty mineral cars. An attempt at squirreling out its model typology and build history ended up getting squished by a more historic NS Freight Train that once bore the same number. Again, not a railfan, I just like taking pictures of trains.
Saying that, of course, there I stood with a scanner radio on a Sunday…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The plan was to head a block or two away to the east, after achieving flat ground, and hope for another train sighting, specifically of one coming from the opposite direction. It seems that when a train is observed going one way, it’s likely that another one is coming from the counter direction shortly afterwards. Guess they try and time it out that way to avoid roadway disruptions.
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Concrete Devastations, indeed
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When Howard Street (which is long and fairly featureless) begins allowing you to get close to its intersection with North Avenue, some signs of human life can be discerned, or at least abundant street parking.
As described in posts all week, your humble narrator was enjoying a bit of an ‘explore’ for this scuttle. We started at the Fineview Overlook, walked over Television Hill, then down the Rising Main city steps to Toboggan Street, and then here to Howard Street.
Along the way, we’ve talked about an interstate project called the East Street Valley, and mused out loud about abandoned houses and building foundations or retaining walls jutting out of muddy but wooded slopes.
All caught up.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Closed off city steps were encountered. Wonder where they go?
Pittsburgh ain’t NYC, from a budgetary POV. When New York City has a money problem, they get creative and put a one cent tax on every pound of banana – or something – sold in their domain, and the bosses can pull a million bucks a day ‘out of their ass’ to fund stuff. Ambitious politicians like to spend, they just have to know how to ratchet up a bit more of the tax cheddar out of their flock without starting a revolution.
Pittsburgh doesn’t have that many people to sell bananas to. Nutritionists opine that you should eat one or two bananas a day. Potassium. Fiber. Good for you.
NYC, of course, has an annual budget of (currently) $112.4 billion, whereas Pittsburgh’s annual nut is $721 million.
There’s a vast distance found between the size of Pittsburgh’s population and that of NYC’s to justify those numbers, of course. Saying that, NYC politicians like spending other people’s money.
‘Does the NYPD actually need to maintain multiple aircraft, armored vehicles, and even tanks’ is a question that most New Yorkers don’t ask often themselves, of course. Ever have to take a piss at City Hall? Nice toilets they got, huh? It’s like that back home.
Suffice to say that there’s likely a good reason for Pittsburgh to have those steps closed, and eventually they’ll get back to them when the budget to do so manifests. Meanwhile, Bananas are around a penny cheaper per pound around here and if the Pittsburgh Cops need a tank they borrow it from the State Cops or the National Guard.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Concrete steps, leading to a home or building long gone.
There was a tarp observed here or there, up in the hills. Don’t know if they were from squats, settlements, or encampments. Could have been leave behinds from some construction project… don’t know. Didn’t seem to be currently occupied at any rate.
Wasn’t about to start climbing up there to find out.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another set of City Steps was encountered, and this collection of rises and runs seemed open for business. Not sure which ones they are.
I was happy to see that pair of school shoes hanging off part of the steps, in the upper left corner. Good to know that kids still do that.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Howard Street vomited me forth onto North Avenue.
The highway goes into a trench here, which presents drivers with a series of exits leading towards both the Fort Duquesne and West End Bridges as well as local streets. Whew.
Me? I was ultimately planning on using the light rail to get back to HQ, so there was still a fairly decent amount of walking ahead of me. All relatively flat, though, and mostly through a park so… win.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The remainder of this scuttle would occur in familiar territory, nearby the Allegheny Commons Park, which I often visit for railroad shots.
Hey… wait a minute… railroad shots…
Back next week with more, and a ‘Hey Now’ or two.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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The Newtown Pentacle 