Posts Tagged ‘DUGABO’
locks waving
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One last set of shots from the 15th of July, depicting the transit of a Tug called “Daisy Mae” through the raised bascules of the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge, spanning the fabulous Newtown Creek.
Coeymans Marine towing operates the tug.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Once upon a time, a humble narrator spent a lot of hours focusing in on NY Harbor and the many vessels which navigate its gelatinous waters.
In recent years, not so much.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Most of my pals whom I used to chase shipping with have either passed away or have retired to greener pastures.
Also, I’ve become jaded.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ll miss these sort of sights in the coming years, I’m sure.
Saying that, one of the inviolable prerequisites for where I live “next” has involved the statement “there has to be a waterfront.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My beloved Creek.
Everybody I know keeps on saying to me that I can’t leave NYC since I love Newtown Creek so much. It’s time, though. Time for someone else to discover the place and scry its wonders.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Continuity is important to me. It’s one of the few parts of my Jewish upbringing that really “stuck.” If you learn something, write it down for somebody else to use as a starting point.
All in all, it’s all just bricks in the wall.
“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.
heretofore reclusive
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A bit of Newtown Creek business found me at Newtown Creek Alliance HQ in Greenpoint recently, specifically on June 30th. After the meeting concluded, one decided to take advantage of a nice patch of light and air and scuttle back to Queens via the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge.
Greenpoint Avenue Bridge is 1.3 miles from the East River, and connects the Long Island City neighborhood of Blissville to the Greenpoint section of the Eastern District of Brooklyn.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Given that I’d been out of town for a week or so, and I didn’t have any particular plans for the evening, my plan evolved around visiting Newtown Creek’s Dutch Kills tributary in LIC, and then making my way over to Queens Plaza to catch a train back to Astoria.
It was a particularly comfortable night, weather wise.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Over at Dutch Kills in LIC, there’s the former Loose Wiles Bakery building, which serves the community in modernity as “building D” of the LaGuardia Community College campus.
This shot was gathered from the Hunters Point Avenue Bridge. A similar early morning shot back in February saw me walking back home with a case of frostbite in my fingers that bedeviled me and caused numbness for nearly a month. A man for all seasons, that’s me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My eidolon of hope, a lone tree of paradise growing out from under the eave of a factory building along a Federal Superfund site, was in flower.
That tree is the same speciation as the titular focus of Betty Smith’s “A tree grows in Brooklyn,” by the way.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After confirming that the bulkheads on 29th street continue to collapse, unabated by any activity on the behalf of New York City or State, the Thomson Avenue viaduct offered egress over the Sunnyside Yards.
An Amtrak unit had just exited the East River tunnels and was making its way along a set of tracks, rolling past the same LaGuardia Community College building seen from Dutch Kills.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Queens Plaza’s IND station is where I caught a local train heading back towards HQ. Have I mentioned that I love the new OMNY fare control system that MTA installed during the last few years? Not having to sweat how much cash I’d installed on my Metrocard is not something I miss. You tap your phone to the thing and bang, you’re riding.
One less thing to worry about, huh?
“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.
smiling dromedary
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My long walk around a short creek continued, and the Newtown Creek Nature walk allowed me an easy path through Brooklyn’s Greenpoint section. Pictured above is one of the lesser known tributaries of Newtown Creek – Whale Creek – and that’s a NYC DEP “Sludge Boat” docked along it.
Sludge Boats transport the processed/treatment sewer solids from the 12 sewer plants to the 13th one on Randall’s/Wards Island where it’s dewatered in centrifuges.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Kingsland Avenue hugs the fences of the sewer plants, and it’s also where Newtown Creek Alliance HQ is found (520 Kingsland).
It’s a pretty crappy experience on foot, have to say.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Those cylinders are exhaust pipes for the sewer plant, which burn off the methane produced by the treatment process, directly into the atmosphere. That makes the Department of Environmental Protection the single largest and most constant source of greenhouse gases in the entire Borough of Brooklyn.
Remember that when Eric Adams mandates that you need to spend $100,000 to convert your house over to electric from whatever you use to heat and cook in it right now.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Kingsland Avenue carried my carcass to Greenpoint Avenue and it’s eponymous bridge. This shot is looking east along Newtown Creek. Brooklyn is on the right, Queens on the left.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Things were getting pretty surreal, sky wise. Everything was painted in saturated radiates as the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself descended into whatever the hell might be on the other side of New Jersey.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My very productive day wasn’t over yet, I’d mention.
Cannot tell you how many times this exact same route has disappointed. Part of the reason I walk it so often are days like the 12th of April.
Back next week with more wonders, 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.
langorously under
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My long walk on March 14th continued along Newtown Creek, and I visited all of favorite places west of 48th street. Vainglorious thoughts cause me to refer to my circumlocutions of the Newtown Creek as a “patrol.” Irregular in schedule, it seems that about every six weeks or so, I walk the entire shoreline of the waterway, and have done so for nearly fifteen years now.
I really should have gotten into building model airplanes or something.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Dark and lonely is the way I like it. Sure, there are passing cars and trucks, but I’m the only pedestrian usually. It’s actually a bit surreal, truth be told. Moving about in the veritable geographic center of NYC, and more often than not – complete and utter solitude.
It’s been a panacea during the pandemic, I tell’s ya.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I grew up without siblings, so being alone is normal for me. Unfortunately, what’s going through my mind during these long walks is a non stop review of all of my failings. I really work myself over psychologically during these long walks. Why? Well, even if your Jewish mother is dead, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do to yourself what she used to do and rake yourself over the coals for every mistake you’ve ever made dating back to potty training.
A particular quirk of mine involves the way my memory works. I don’t remember anything good that I’ve done or said, instead the milestones in my psychological roadmap revolve around failure.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Sleights or arguments – those stick around. Complimentary relationships or personal victories are soon forgotten. I’ve gotten better about this stuff as I’ve gotten older, but in my late 20’s and early 30’s it was crippling to exist behind these eyes and between the ears. On this particular walk, I was processing painful memories retained from when I was in Junior High School. Pedantic, huh?
For the curious – I remember being embarrassed, and hoping that nobody who has ever met me as an adult would find out about that time in 7th grade when I decided to wear a pair of “Tale Lord” jeans to school and was roundly mocked for months about it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Recently, I was reminded by a cousin of the great esteem one used to espouse for the band “U2,” in my senior year of high school. Given that I barely listen to that outfit anymore, but still stand behind the statement that the albums “Boy” and “War” were pretty great, I grew embarrassed about that too. Working myself over about all of the stupid things I’ve said and thought over the years…
Part of this thought process revolves around the aging process. We are all different people at different times in our lives, and the trick is to accept that as the years stack up that you’ve evolved – hopefully. That trick eludes me as – since mentioned – my focus and lattice of memories are built on a foundation of professional and personal mistakes, and saying exactly the wrong thing at exactly the right time. My internal Jewish Mother will never let me forget about failures.
You’re supposed to succeed, what do you want, a medal? Mr. Big Shot, remember the time you shit your pants when you were at cousin Nancy’s first wedding in Washington when you were 4? Your father was so embarrassed he had indigestion for the entire Carter administration. What about the time you…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Saying all that, I positively feed upon all of this ennui. Wouldn’t do it to myself if it didn’t have some positive effect, right? Maybe it’s why I work so hard and so often. Why I strive to try and not be a Dick.
Tomorrow – something completely different, 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.
consistency partook
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Scuttling, forever scuttling, camera in hand. Filthy black raincoat flapping about in the poison wind, dodging trucks and following railroad tracks down darkened alleys… sometimes you get lucky.
As mentioned last week, a particularly long walk found me in Long Island City’s Blissville section just after sunset, and one was nearby the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge just as a set of railroad signal arms began to chime and flash. It was the garbage train!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That reddish gizmo you see above is colloquially referred to as a “critter,” I’m told, but it’s officially a Nordco Shuttlewagon model NVX6030. This particular ride can move between 38,000 and 85,000 pounds of rail car all on its own.
The crew operating it were moving rail cars with the green garbage boxes on them to and from a Waste Management facility found to the east of the LIRR’s Blissville Yard for temporary storage. The garbage train is built one rail car at a time, after all.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Waste Management handles transfer operations for the Department of Sanitation of New York. DSNY does curbside collection in their familiar white trucks all over Queens, and then bring their putrescent cargo over to WM’s waste transfer station in Blissville, along the fabulous Newtown Creek.
The black bag or “putrescent” garbage is then complied into those green boxes, which are then loaded onto the rail cars. After a full train of them is assembled, with the Shuttlewagon doing the assembly, a proper locomotive engine will arrive and shackle itself to the garbage train. You’ll notice the garbage train leaving Queens if you hang around the Hell Gate Bridge, where it crosses the East River and heads over to the Bronx. From the Bronx, it goes north and eventually crosses the Hudson River and then travels out onto the continent, leaving our archipelago behind.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When the critter went into the Blissville Yard, the signal arms rose, and a humble narrator scuttled across the road – answering that age old question of “why does mitch cross the road” with “to see what it looks like from the other side.”
After a short wait, the signal arms began to chime and flash again and the Shuttlewagon returned from the darkened environ of the Blissville Yard.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The crew were hauling empty green cargo boxes back towards Waste Management. A couple of years ago, or maybe a couple of years before Covid (I have no sense of time anymore regarding the last few years), I was told that Waste Management’s Review Avenue Waste Transfer Station handles 950 tons of black bag garbage a day.
There’s another waste transfer station here along Railroad Avenue, a recycling outfit called SimsMetal, which I’ve often profiled here in the past. Just search for “SimsMetal” in the Newtown Pentacle search bar at top right. There’s literally dozens of instances you can read about them, going all the way back to 2009.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Exhausted by my efforts and overwhelmed with joy, one decided to lay down on the sidewalk after the train passed, where an interval of introspective sobbing was enjoyed. One crawled on his hands and knees back up to Greenpoint Avenue before righting himself and resuming a brachiated striding posture before continuing on.
This walk wasn’t over yet, and there was still plenty to run and hide from.
The Newtown Creekathon returns!
On April 10th, the all day death march around Newtown Creek awakens from its pandemic slumber.
DOOM! DOOM! Fully narrated by Mitch Waxman and Will Elkins of Newtown Creek Alliance, this one starts in LIC at the East River, heads through Blissville, the happy place of Industrial Maspeth, dips a toe in Ridgewood and then plunges desperately into Brooklyn. East Williamsburgh and then Greenpoint are visited and a desperate trek to the East River in Brooklyn commences. DOOM! Click here for more information and to reserve a spot – but seriously – what’s wrong with you that you’re actually considering doing this? DOOM!
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
The Newtown Creekathon returns!
On April 10th, the all day death march around Newtown Creek awakens from its pandemic slumber.
DOOM! DOOM! Fully narrated by Mitch Waxman and Will Elkins of Newtown Creek Alliance, this one starts in LIC at the East River, heads through Blissville, the happy place of Industrial Maspeth, dips a toe in Ridgewood and then plunges desperately into Brooklyn. East Williamsburgh and then Greenpoint are visited and a desperate trek to the East River in Brooklyn commences. DOOM! Click here for more information and to reserve a spot – but seriously – what’s wrong with you that you’re actually considering doing this? DOOM!
“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 