Posts Tagged ‘DUGABO’
DUGABO 2 Canarsie
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A visit to Newtown Creek Alliance HQ on Kingsland Avenue found me waving the camera about in yet another overly familiar spot.
One of the last times that I actually cared, the NYC DEP had changed the name of that sewer plant up there to the ‘Newtown Creek Wastewater treatment and resource recovery plant.’ Can you imagine being the one who answers the phone here? Sheesh. It’s the largest sewer plant in NYC, drains Manhattan below 79th street, and parts of Brooklyn and a sliver of Queens. The stainless steel eggs are bio-digesters which process the poop.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
From the Green Roof at 520 Kingsland, looking north towards Queens, and that’s a new theatrical production mega structure which has risen from the former FreshDirect location along Borden Avenue. Again – no connection to the railroad or to the industrial canal it neighbors.
For a ‘mega massive’ panorama of the scene above, click here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The camera was waved about, at all the familiar places. Allocco Recycling, SimsMetal, everywhere. There was a weird sense of finality for me while doing so, can’t tell you why.
Going to miss this place.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This was the last Newtown Creek shot for Day 3. I had yet another assignation to accomplish, which would require a bit of a commute.
Luckily, one of my NCA pals has driven to Kingsland Avenue, and offered me a ride to the L train, at Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg.
Brrr… stairs…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of the many food cravings I’ve been having in Pittsburgh has involved Kosher Deli. I mentioned this when talking to one of my cousins, and he suggested that I take the train out to his neck of the woods and we’d go out for a meal. Getting to and from the ‘old neighborhood’ has always been a pain in the butt. Terminal stops at Rockaway Parkway for the L and Brooklyn College for the 2 & 5 are pretty far away from the specific area where I grew up, and where my cousin still dwells.
Luckily, he agreed to pick me up at Rockaway Parkway, terminal stop on the L line subway.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The cars were nicely air conditioned, and I resisted the urge to debark the train at Broadway Junction to get some photos there.
We arrived in Canarsie, where I observed that in the many, many years since this was ‘home,’ that the old population of Jews and Italians seem to entirely left the ‘zone’ and the population of the area seems to have become entirely Caribbean. Cool! If I wasn’t actually heading to dinner at a Jewish Deli, my cousin would have pulled up and found me eating Jerk Chicken out of a paper bag…
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.
DUKBO 2 DUGABO
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My beloved creek…
After visiting the Maspeth Plank Road and Maspeth Creek as well, my next destination involved a walk through Blissville, and then to the Kosciuszcko Bridge’s bike and pedestrian path. If you haven’t figured it out, that’s the view from ‘up there’ in the photo above.
I was heading over to Newtown Creek Alliance HQ, in Greenpoint, to touch base with a few former colleagues and extant friends. Oddly, I was actually experiencing emotions, of the sort which literature has suggested to me that the normal humans might. Odd.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Several mentions at the start of this series of NYC posts have alluded to the fact that this trip was actually a bit of an emotional journey for me.
Possibly the last chapter in the broken ankle story? Hope so.
In many ways, I needed to see what my physical capabilities actually are now, and so I returned to the place where I’ve defined that sort of thing for the last sixteen years – since the last major medical situation I found myself in, when I experienced a heart attack at 39. It was a bad moment for me personally, of course, but the recovery from that incident led to everything I’ve been doing ever since – including this, your Newtown Pentacle.
Needless to say, I was in a heightened emotional state during this four day stint. Remarkable, a couple of times I was actually displaying inner emotions to other people. Normally, my armor is up and other than brief flashes of annoyance or anger, trying to read me is difficult.
Never, ever, let anyone know what you’re actually thinking.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The struggle, during the whole recovery period from the broken ankle, was to ‘remain chipper.’ Getting depressed wouldn’t have helped, at all, and I did the usual great job of suppressing and containerizing my emotional tumult, with the intention of releasing the enclosed pressure at some future point, when expedient.
As I always say: Freak out after the crisis.
A lot of this sort of thinking, I think, is a direct reproach of how my Mom handled the world. She had one reaction to everything, a screaming and sweaty fit of anger aimed at whomsoever caused the agitation. Everything was treated with the same intensity. Russian fighter jet just fell out of the sky, and crushed the family car? Spilling a few coffee grinds on the kitchen counter? Dad has cancer? My hair is wet? Too much salt on her fries at the diner? Same reaction, everytime.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This was Day 3 of the NYC trip, and by this point the ankle was actually pretty sore. Exercise days have been spaced out, with at least a 72 hour recovery period of low activity following a walk. The joint still swells up on me, a situation which the surgeon tells me could last as long as two years after the reconstruction surgery. It was indeed swollen by Day 3, but I was still able to scuttle around pain free. It was the end of Day 4 when it started giving me some trouble, but I was already slouching roughly towards LaGuardia Airport by that point.
Did I mention how hot it was? That’s the end of my Monday morning moaning and self introspection.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Back in Pittsburgh, I laugh and laugh when people describe traffic as being heavy. Even in a slow down ‘rush hour’ scenario, traffic in Pittsburgh is still moving at 10-20 mph. The Brooklyn Queens Expressway at the Meeker Avenue exit, however, was moving at the average speed of vehicle traffic in NYC, which – last time I checked – is estimated to be about 3.2 mph. It was lovely, the way that the sunlight filtered through the shimmering engine exhaust.
The Kosciuszcko Bridge was left behind, and your humble narrator reentered the street grid in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint section. It would be about a 3/4 of a mile scuttle to get to DUGABO (Down Under the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge Onramp) where NCA HQ is found at 520 Kingsland Avenue.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Boy, they just don’t have sewer plants in Pennsylvania like this one, I tell’s ya. We got’s a mammoth series of scary factories out here though, like Brooklyn used to.
After arriving at NCA HQ, I began drinking copious amounts of water, rehydrating after a sweaty few hours on Newtown Creek’s ‘mean streets.’ Several friends actually made a special trip to coincide with my visit, and we had a bit of an NCA reunion going on for a bit. I was faklempt.
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.
DUGABO awaits
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This post begins in DUPBO, or ‘Down Under the Pulaski Bridge Onramp,’ and ends in DUGABO – ‘Down Under the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge.’ I’ve caught a lot of crap from the mouth breather crowd over in Maspeth for these terms over the years, but there you are. ‘Eff’ them. You have to refer to ‘zones’ along the Newtown Creek somehow, with some sort of geographical reference for an otherwise fairly unfamiliar area.
As mentioned in prior posts, I was walking with a couple of the ‘new guys’ at Newtown Creek Alliance, chatting and telling stories. Sometimes histories instead of tales, but I was trying to pass on my legendarily combative view of the Creek situation to them.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the view of the fairly ancient Long Island Railroad yard at Hunters Point, which dates back to 1870. As mentioned in a prior posts, the MTA seems to have found the funding to build a flood wall around the facility. It’s as ugly and ‘anti street’ as they could possibly manage.
This is the part of today’s post where I say ‘Bah!’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Greenpoint Avenue Bridge, at Railroad Avenue and Van Dam Street in Blissville, that’s what the picture above delivers. We walked down to Railroad Avenue, and since leaving NYC I’ve discovered that almost every major city in the United States has a ‘Railroad Avenue.’ Universally, they all suck as far as being dirty and the place where polluting industries like waste transfer stations ot asphalt and concrete factories set up. I mean, this is logical, given that ‘Railroad Avenue’ has rail tracks.
At Newtown Creek, in the Blissville section of Long Island City, only Waste Management regularly uses the rail – everything else here is truck based.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ll be talking about that giant monster of a last mile warehouse facility that’s going up along Dutch Kills in a subsequent post, but I’ve included this shot just to bring home the scale of the structure. Huge!
Is it connected to the industrial canal it sits alongside? Is it connected to the freight tracks which it neighbors? What exactly does the NYC Economic Development Corporation do, other than letting developers run amok with no requirements or ‘buy ins’ so as to not be the worst possible neighbors?
I’m told there’s going to be six active loading bays within the building, with exterior truck parking that can accomodate 118 semis. Y’all do know that semis don’t turn off their engines while waiting for a chance to deliver cargo, right? That at any given moment there will be at least a hundred heavy trucks just sitting there and idling alongside the Long Island Expressway? That there is no way for those trucks to get here without traveling through Sunnyside, Woodside, Astoria, Maspeth, Ridgewood, or Greenpoint? That one maritime barge would carry the equivalent cargo of 38 of those trucks? It isn’t bike lanes that are causing the traffic to increase by about 5% per year.
Ok, twice today – ‘Bah!”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The two fellows from NCA had to head back to HQ, at 520 Kingsland Avenue in Greenpoint, and get back to work saving the world. Me? I had something that I wanted to see, so I headed back into Queens and in the direction of the Dutch Kills tributary of Newtown Creek.
Evening would find me in Woodside meeting up with that crew of knuckleheads whom I call friends, but the afternoon still held a few destinations which I wanted to get shots of.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I wasn’t wearing the NCA hat which was a standard part of my ‘uniform’ all those years. Instead I had on the flash orange ball cap which I’ve taken to wearing in Pennsylvania, as I often find myself walking in woodlands and don’t want to get shot at by hunters. At least, any more than is necessary.
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.
unvisited mountain
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One last batch of photos from my penultimate boat trip down Newtown Creek greets you in today’s post.
The very first time I came back here by boat was back in 2007 or 2008, and it was a tour led by my future friend Bernie Ente with Working Harbor Committee acting as the organizer. Bernie was one of the founders of Newtown Creek Alliance, a great photographer, and he left his family and this world while still far too young in 2011.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Bernie and I had been working together for a while when he passed, doing boat and walking tours, and having adventures. My pal Mai Armstrong started hanging around with us, and we all worked on the NYC Bridge Centennial Commission with Barry and Judith Schneider, Gridlock Sam Shwartz, and the then NYC DOT Commissioner Jeanette Sadik-Khan on the City’s centennial celebrations for the Queensboro, Manhattan, Madison Avenue, and Hunters Point Avenue Bridges. Bernie almost missed the latter one, and he ended up checking himself into a hospital just a few days after it. He never checked out.
Bernie Ente introduced me to a circle of incredible people, all experts on one subject or another, and we collectively referred to ourselves as “Team Bernie” afterwards.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There was John Doswell, and Meg Black. There was John Skelson and Rich Taylor, a guy named John who works for the city and I can’t say his last name out loud in public or he’ll get in trouble with his boss, the self proclaimed “Harbor Wenches,” and Captain Maggie and…
Over at Newtown Creek Alliance, which had recently become a “proper” non profit rather than a community group, there were Katie Schmidt and the new Executive Director Kate Zidar, and my pal Penny Lee from NY City Planning. At the time, I was still on speaking terms with the Greater Astoria and Newtown Historical Societies. Those two’s a tale, I tell’s ya.
The path of education that Bernie started me on was continued by all of these people. My pal Mai Armstrong was by my side through it all.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Boat tours were always my favorite. I love telling the story of Newtown Creek and New York Harbor while bouncing along on the tide. I got to narrate on the Circle Line once with historian Dr. Kenneth Jackson (Encyclopedia of New York) onboard and at no point did he throw a chair at me or anything, so great success.
I’m quite reflective about all these people, many of whom have either retired to their dotage or passed on to their rewards.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It won’t be too long now. I’ll be living somewhere else by Christmas.
I’ve spent my entire life in NYC. Grew up in Brooklyn, lived for a while in Manhattan, and I’ve been in Astoria for just under 20 years now. Newtown Creek has been at the center of my thoughts and actions for nearly 15 years. It’s time for the next generation to pick up their lance and tilt at the windmills along my beloved Creek.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In a first for me, I actually had to sort of leap off the boat and catch a ladder affixed to the shoreline to get back on land in Greenpoint.
One soon found himself scuttling again, across the Pulaski Bridge. As always, the camera was being waved around at the various wonders of the currently undefended border of Brooklyn and Queens.
Tomorrow, more – more – 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.
tenement blocks
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described yesterday, on the 27th of September my friend Carter Craft offered to shuttle me around Newtown Creek onboard his boat. These photos are from that excursion, which is likely my penultimate trip on the Creek. That’s the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge pictured above, and the POV looks westwards along the creek towards LIC. This spot is 1.37 miles from the East River.
The NYC DOT, whose 1987 vintage double bascule drawbridge this is, also refers to the thing as the J.J. Byrne Memorial Bridge. A former saloon singer and later a Commissioner of Public Works for Brooklyn, Byrne became Borough President in 1925, succeeding the previous BP – Joseph A. Guider – who died while in office. As to why the rather unremarkable Byrne ended up in the top spot, look no further than his Brother in Law – John H. McCooey – the political boss of Brooklyn who was known as “their man in Brooklyn, Uncle John” to the Tammany Hall players over in Manhattan. Byrne would also die in office, and just to show you how long the lines of political patronage in NYC government are – Michael Bloomberg is the Mayor who presided over adding the “J.J. Byrne” moniker to the bridge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
We continued eastwards along the Newtown Creek, past the spectacle of the Green Asphalt outfit filling a barge with their product. A single maritime barge carries the equivalent cargo of 38 heavy trucks. The only hope NYC has to survive the next century without filling every single street, all the time, with heavy trucking is maritime in nature. What have we done with our waterfronts, accordingly? Luxury apartment buildings and eradicating ship to shore infrastructure and industrial centers… but, alas… nothing matters and nobody cares.
Green Asphalt, and companies like it, sprung into existence after the 2010 Solid Waste Management Act was rammed into existence by the Bloomberg people. Prior, when a roadway was milled, the asphalt surfacing that was dug up out of the roadbed would be sent to landfills. Green Asphalt receives this material nowadays from the NYC DOT road crews and contractors who maintain our streets. It’s heated up using steam, and a bit of fresh material is introduced into the stuff, which is then sent back out to be reapplied to the roadbed.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
We floated past the Queens side site of the first large scale petroleum refinery in the United States – the remnants of the 1854 vintage “North American Kerosene Gas Light Company” of Abraham Gesner. Later acquired by Charles Pratt (Standard Oil Company of New York), Mobil Oil would inherit the site and operate an industrial lubricant manufacturing plant here until the second half of the 20th century.
One of the petroleum enforcement actions which ExxonMobil has had to oblige on Newtown Creek started one day in 2011 when I was tagging along on one of Riverkeeper’s patrols of Newtown Creek and when I noticed that oil was migrating out of the bulkheads in this area. That’s the day that the story of the “Blissville Seep” began. The Riverkeeper folks shortly got the “official” ball rolling with the regulatory agency – NYS Department of Environmental Conservation. ExxonMobil admitted a modern day culpability for the deeds of their long ago corporate brethren, and deployed their environmental contractors (under the supervision of NYS DEC) who are busily installing all sorts of equipment in these industrial quarters to handle the situation.
This POV is on the water side of Review Avenue, behind the line of factory and warehouse buildings – and the LIRR tracks – opposite First Calvary Cemetery.
Only oil spill I ever got to help discover, at least. This was also the beginning of my whole “Citizen Waxman” shtick.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When the project to replace the Kosciuszcko Bridge suddenly received an Andy Cuomo sized shoe up its keister, I had already been cataloguing the DUKBO section of Newtown Creek for a few years. Anything collected or written about, in this area, received that particular tag. Just as this project was kicking into gear is when what I was doing on Newtown Creek got noticed by a whole big bunch of people, including The NY Times.
That’s when Citizen Waxman was invited to join the Kosciuszcko Bridge Stakeholders Advisory Committee, and that put me right in the center of the whole rebuilding and replacement project. All of a sudden, I was in the same room as Congressmen and City Council people regularly. That’s also right about when I started working for Atlas Obscura and others, doing Newtown Creek walking and vehicle tours nearly every weekend during the summer months for several years.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
For one of these tours, my buddy Joey and I transported a bunch of wooden palettes from his job site at a haulage company to a weed choked mud hole along the creek in Maspeth. We laid the palettes down on top of the Poison Ivy and dodged the clouds of flying insects which we’d disturbed. Formerly, you had to just bust your way through thorns and vines to get down to the water. I’ve always been big on safety for people that came on my walks, so Joey and I created a plank road of palettes at the Maspeth Avenue Plank Road site. Eventually, after talking about its potential endlessly, I managed to “put something on the map.” Today – people actually come here as a destination, and they hang out by the water. Artists, musicians.
To each and every one of my friends, whom I’ve convinced to do utterly illogical and over the top things with me over the years along the creek… thank you. This is why.
The Plank Road has since received historic signage, and Newtown Creek Alliance has undertaken a stewardship program at the place. The ground has received some landscaping as well. It’s a site which will also be preserved through the superfund process, which is another feather I can point to in my cap.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My pal Carter turned the boat into English Kills, which is technically a tributary, but it seems like it’s just the bitter end of Newtown Creek.
This is one of the most environmentally damaged sections of the waterway, as a note. Also – “Kills” is ye olde Dutch for Creek. This spot is about 3 miles back from the East River, and it’s right at the turn out from the main channel. The Grand Street Bridge is nearby, and in accordance with my zone system acronyms – this area is tagged with DUGSBO, or Down Under the Grand Street Bridge Onramp.
More next week, at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“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 