Posts Tagged ‘City Steps’
Rise, run, rise, ride
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One had been positively cooped up for several days while handling the ultramundane – obligation, duty, ‘have to’s.’ Finally, a day I could call my own arrived and it was decided to ‘really hit it.’
By the time this particular scuttle ended, my legs and particularly the knees would be sore for days.
Just a couple of blocks from HQ, a street called ‘Louisiana Avenue’ terminates at a pedestrian bridge that leads to a set of City Steps. On this path, you quietly pass through a municipal border – from the Borough of Dormont to the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Beechview.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Beechview’s terrain is severe. Canton Avenue, the steepest street in North America and possibly the world, is found within its confines. These steps, which don’t have a name (apparently) allow pedestrian egress from the low point of Louisiana Avenue all the way up to Neeld Avenue in Beechview, which is a few footfalls away from Broadway Avenue, which is the street that the T light rail runs on. Street level tracks, they are, and this is one of the sections of the service where the T runs as a streetcar/trolley.
I had to climb up those City Steps first.
Must have been about 2-300 feet of them. It’s actually a good thing, to get your heart racing at the start of a walk. My practice has always been to start off at a bit of sprint and warm up the internally lubricated parts before setting off on a full scale ‘wander.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Good cardio, this.
It’s also obeying my self imposed form of exposure therapy to stairs, shaking the PTSD cobwebs out of the brain which have haunted me since the busted ankle incident last year. The psychological after effects of that experience have been with me on every walk since, and every single time that I walk up or down the stairs at home where my accident occurred.
If you’re curious, I was listening to a favorite audiobook: an unabridged reading of Upton Sinclair’s ‘The Jungle.’
The linked file isn’t the version I was listening to, as a note, but it’s at YouTube so that’s more accessible than something you’d have to sign up for to listen to it. The America which the Jungle describes wasn’t so ‘great’ back then – according to actual history – and it’s an era which so many people opine as having been a better time than our current day. Bah!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After reaching the end of the first set of steps, a hazardous road crossing leads to yet another set of steps, and these ones are solidly in the Beechview section. The plan for the day was loose. My intention involved using the T to get me to a certain midway point, but not to go all the way into town. From there, I’d improvise and follow my nose.
There’s been a construction project underway at the transit tunnel which the T normally routes through. The people who run the service have been routing the light rails instead up and over the landform which that tunnel is bored through, and the route has added an extra and temporary stop at the apex of the prominence, in the Allentown section.
That’s a great spring board, for one such as myself.
The T uses the tracks and wires of a no longer in service light rail line for this task. It adds about ten minutes onto the commute for riders.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Back on regular pavement, but I still had hills to climb. After letting my heart rate drift back from rapid to elevated, I leaned into it. The plan was to walk over to one of the T stops and ride it up to Allentown and then… and then… and then…
That’s a little bridge which the T uses to surmount the valleys and hills. Really, the engineering challenges underlying this service are wild.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After arriving at the stop which I had climbed both stairs and hills to get to, my chariot arrived. I could have walked to a different station via a far less rigorous route, but the point of exercise is ‘exercise,’ not comfort or ease.
The light rail people are nearing the end of their constructive labors on the transit tunnel, and it’s likely been reopened by the time you’re reading this. I wanted to take advantage of the temporary stop at the top in Allentown.
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.
Styling down Sterling St.
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
First off, I had no idea that an event called ‘Steptrek’ was playing out on the particular day I took this walk, but it was.
I’ve been slowly consuming Laura Zurowski’s ‘City Steps of Pittsburgh’ book, and visiting some of the interesting locations discussed by the author, when ‘fancy’ strikes, or I just need a good downhill sort of workout for my still gamey ankle.
In this case, that how I ended up at the Sterling Street Steps, found in the South Side Slopes.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This ‘zone’ is somewhat insane, in terms of building a neighborhood onto terrain this challenging and steep. The City Steps of Pittsburgh allow for pedestrian egress around these hills and valleys. They also provide unbeatable views of the city.
There’s ‘orphan houses’ up here, which are only connected to the outside world via the City Steps. No other street access.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking down at the entrance/top of the Sterling Street Steps, and in the distance is the Birmingham Bridge, over the Monongahela River. On the other side of the river, that’s the neighborhood of ‘Uptown’ squatting on ‘The Bluff.’ Beyond, it’s the ‘Hill District’ for that tree line, and towards the right is Oakland, where the colleges are. It’s all very exciting, really.
It was a perfect day, weather wise, in Pittsburgh. Temperatures in the middle/high 60’s and low humidity. The sky was milky, but clear.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As far as the event I’d inadvertently wandered into, there were lots and lots of people with printed out maps who were wearing athletic clothing and participating in ‘StepTrek.’
Chatted with one bloke from the promotion for a few minutes, on these steps, imparting him with every bit of encouragement I could to dare walking Rialto Street and then trying out the St. Nicholas Church trail. I advised him about how horrific the latter experience is, but opined that you really have to just scratch that one off your list.
Hey, check me out, I actually know something about Pittsburgh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Longtime readers will tell you that I’ve been assiduously working my way around, over, down, and through Pittsburgh’s many corridors since getting the ‘all clear’ from the Orthopedic people in late Spring. At first, my post broken ankle movements were truncated, pained, and difficult. Penguin walking, as I described it.
Throughout the summer and early autumn, gradual improvements in stride and pace have occurred as I’ve fought to build my strength back up.
Nobody is chanting ‘playah’ when I scuttle past, but there you are.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
No matter what happens to you, you need to keep moving.
An unstoppable person is an irresistible force. Get out into the world and see it with your own eyes. Don’t believe half of what you read or any of what you hear until you’ve witnessed it for yourself. All is false and phoney. The only truth out there is what can be seen and touched and smelled. And photographed, of course.
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.
The Newtown Pentacle 