Posts Tagged ‘City Steps’
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
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.
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
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.
Toboggan St. to Howard St.
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Serendipity, I tell’s ya, is what makes all the suffering worth it.
As detailed in two prior posts, your humble narrator recently engaged in a long scuttle which carried his cadaverous form down the titanic ‘Rising Main’ city steps, which are found on Pittsburgh’s North Side. Rising Main comes to ground on what looks like an entirely condemned street called Toboggan.
This walk ended up opening up a story for me I was ignorant of, that of Pittsburgh’s ‘East Street Valley.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A highway project was rammed through this section, which ended up seeing massive numbers of residents displaced between 1962 and 1985.
Entire neighborhoods were emptied, the street grid broken, and communities erased. All that really survives from that prior incarnation is a Catholic Church, one which refused to give up its plot of land. You can see the church from the eight lane highway, while you’re driving north at sixty miles per hour.
Conversation with a friend who’s local to Pittsburgh revealed the name of this section as being ‘the East Street Valley,’ and he also mentioned knowing somebody who was displaced by the highway project.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking back up Rising Main from the bottom of the steps, and standing in front of some of the condemned homes.
Some work seemed to be going on in one or two of the buildings here, but the ‘condemned’ blue signage Pittsburgh uses as a legal notice was displayed in the surviving windows. Shame.
There was no life here. Didn’t hear birds or critters ‘effing around in the woods, nothing. All you could hear was the buzzing of car tires on asphalt and the sound of engine inhibitors on semi trucks throttling down, all of which was coming from the direction of I-579.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That car had moss growing on it. Looks like it hasn’t been moved in decades.
Feeding into my Cotard delusion, there were absolutely zero other human beings encountered along this path. Perhaps… I am a phantom floating along in a filthy black raincoat.
Hey… it’s warmed up a bit here, so maybe I’ll finally wash the thing. It’s got mud all over the butt and back section after I… well…
…that’s a story for another post…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Along the wooded slopes, foundation stones and retaining walls can be observed. The atavist masonry I saw everywhere is what made me so curious about what happened here.
I’ve actually had to buy a book, to learn more!
One scuttled past a municipal facility that pumps drinking water, from a resovoir on high at the top of the hill, out to the neighborhoods.
The end of Toboggan Street leads out to a fairly long and largely featureless road called Howard Street. Here’s the intersection on Google Maps if you want to click around and look for yourself (the lone structure is the aforementioned pump house).
I had to follow it out, in a relatively southernly direction. To the east, or left as I was oriented, is a noise abatement wall for the high speed road, and to the west or right – a former neighborhood that was scratched off the earth around 40-50 years ago.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the noise abatement wall, which marks the border with I-579.
There was no sidewalk on the other side of the street for this section of Howard Street, so I opted for a walk in the grass, on the safe side of that guard rail pictured above. The ground was squishy, as it had rained in the last 24 hours, but that was a nice change after walking up Television Hill and then down the Rising Main.
All you can hear is the traffic. I put my headphones in, thereby, and got back to my relisten of the ‘History of Rome’ podcast (which I just discovered is on Spotify, if you roll that way). I’m listening to the episodes discussing Constantine the Great now, so what a wild thousand years it’s been. I’m a big Diocletian fan, so the last few episodes have been a Tetrarchical Joy.
If you’ve got a great history podcast I should be listening to, please drop a link to it in the comments section. I want to know more about everything, all the time.
Back tomorrow with more.
“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.
Rising Main, part 2
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Gargantuan, the Rising Main City Steps on Pittsburgh’s North Side, in today’s post.
These are the fourth longest ‘City Steps’ in the city, and they are in a deleterious state of repair. The ground which their foundations rest within is subsiding, sliding, and pulling the staircase to and fro. I tried to illustrate this a few times by looking back up at where I started, so you can see the almost serpentine footprint of the things.
As longtime readers will tell you, I’ve endlessly talked about this weird mental condition regarding stairs that has taken root in my mind, ever since shattering my ankle on a set of steps at home. I freeze up, grasp for dear life at the bannister, and mistrust both my sense of walking balance and the purely mechanical propensity of walking down stairs.
It’s a kind of PTSD, and I’ve been self medicating for the last year with exposure therapy, forcing myself to seek out and expose the senses to this stimuli. It’s working, in terms of ‘normalizing,’ but still quite present.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My phobic intuitions were tantalized, thereby, by this.
At one point, the bannisters on Rising Main are literally fallen away. Some civic minded person seems to have attempted an impromptu repair, using a garden hose.
I really do wish that this was AI.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There you go. Securely attached.
The Rising Main steps connect the Fineview community at their apex to what used to be a thriving neighborhood at the bottom.
More on that is inbound.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Rising Main path is parallel to what looks like an entirely condemned and abandoned roadway called Toboggan Street, which also has its own set of stairs which seem to be in the process of being reclaimed by nature. Several fairly picturesque abandoned houses were seen along the way.
As mentioned above, it’s going to be a while before – or if – I come back here. These steps were causing me no end of anxiety.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
What a shame.
Now, as mentioned yesterday, my puzzlement over this situation led to me ringing up my pal Tim Fabian, who casually threw out the phrase ‘East Street Valley’ during our conversation about my visit to the area.
I then looked that term up, and as it turns out, it refers to a generational road building project that saw an extension of I-79 (locally – I-579) rammed through this neighborhood. This ‘zone,’ as it turns out, used to be a densely populated section of the City of Pittsburgh.
The highway project played out between 1966 and 1989. Here’s that story. A bit of depth to the East Street Valley project will be offered in a subsequent post this week.
As a point of trivia, when discussing the ‘Interstate System,’ an odd numbered road is north/south whereas an even one is east/west. There’s an exception or two to this rule, in various spots around the country, but otherwise…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Y’know, sights like this abandoned building are just candy for wandering photographers. You could draw us in, trapping shutterbugs like moths attracted to a flame. Get enough of us, you’ve got a baseball team.
Saying all that, the devastation and abandonment witnessed in this section of Pittsburgh is – at it turned out – a feature, not a bug.
Back 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.
Rising Main, part 1
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Eighteen stories, vertically speaking, and then just two tenths of a mile horizontally – that’s the size box you’d need for the Rising Main City Steps, which are waiting for you on Pittsburgh’s North Side.
I plan on never walking these steps again, as a note.
During this, and tomorrow’s, post you’ll see why.
Let’s just say that they are structurally compromised, and that the only thing which Rising Main really has going for it in terms of not collapsing is gravity. All the parts of the steps are just piled up on each other in a currently stable fashion, but the land they are set into is shifting and subsiding.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Abandoned homes surround you here.
Curiosity about this apocalyptic condition forced me into learning something, an unwelcome moment which punctured a carefully curated ignorance.
Suffice to say that many of the things I’ve learned about this area will be discussed in forthcoming posts, but the walk opened so many questions to me that I was actually forced to buy a history book, which I will now be forced to read and learn something from.
Farkin bastiches…
Ok… I admit it… I’ve been doing historic research about Pittsburgh. Damn it all, it’s true… it’s all true.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Now that my secret shame is public, I feel freed.
I’m beginning to understand everything now.
Why things are where they are… Y’know, everybody focuses on the 20th century steel stuff, but not on coal extraction and glass manufacturing – both of which happened first, and steel was a consequence of the supply chain network established for glass manufacture and coal/mineral extraction.
Coal… you wouldn’t believe it… parts of Pittsburgh are 90-95% undermined… it’s like mole hills down there. I’m getting ahead of myself, however… that story is still coming into focus…
Steps… the City Steps… Rising Main…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The record is a bit hazy, but apparently these particular steps were installed in 1945. Don’t know if they replaced an earlier set.
The steps do look octogenarian, really.
The horizontal iron bannisters are just barely attached to the concrete sections of steps. In some places, they’ve corroded away entirely, in others, you reach out for one and it sort of pulls towards you, bending away from its posts. I’m certain that these steps haven’t just been sitting out here since the Second World War without any maintenance, but holy smokes they are in lousy condition. Cracks, spalling, subsidence.
The stairs lead down into a ravine. There’s the remnant of a street down there, dubbed Toboggan Street. Several residential buildings can be observed along the path, condemned and collapsing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
How? That’s the question I kept asking myself, along with ‘why’?
Maybe, it’s the resovoir people? There’s a pumping station on the flat section below which needs the land, maybe? Maybe they’re planning something and need these houses out of the way?
Not so much, as it turned out.
I started looking into the matter, and hit a series of dead ends.
Your humble narrator did learn about the distribution of gangland turf on Pittsburgh’s North Side, during the 80’s and 90’s. ‘Back in the day sitch’ as several veterans of that era described a local milieu when crack was king.
In desperation for some sort of understanding of this scenario, I called my pal Tim, who has lived in Pittsburgh for decades. He worked as a real estate guy for a bit, and thereby has a pretty encyclopedic knowledge of Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods. Tim referred to this area as being the ‘East Street Valley,’ and that injection of terminology unlocked some understanding of the entire area for me.
Still had to buy the book.
Coincidentally, Tim is also an accomplished photographer – who shot the photos featured in the very first book about these City Steps from 2004.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Me? I uttered one of my little aphorisms out loud while shooting this photo – ‘It’s all downhill from here,’ and I continued picking my way down the moss and nitre cloaked concrete of these Rising Main steps.
Back 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.
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