Posts Tagged ‘DUKBO’
Up high
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A brief visit to the nest back in NYC occurred, and one of the few photographs I was desirous of capturing was from up high on the Kosciuszcko Bridge.
The K-bridge replacement project was something which I had the pleasure of being quite close to, and one enjoyed an amazing amount of access during the demolition of the old bridge, and design/construction process of the new one. I was ‘on the bridge committee’ and the reason you can stick a lens through the fence on the new bridge is because of me.
They originally wanted to do chain link up here, but I connived the NYS DOT people out of that idea, and instead they installed fencing with vertical slats that offer 90mm apertures between them. Coincidentally that’s just big enough to fit my favorite lens through, but that’s not the point.
Particularly during the pandemic months, this point of view was a regular ‘go-to’ on my ‘every other night’ walks.
Unfortunately, the Manhattan skyline has been absolutely ruined by the rapacious real estate jackals, who have privatized the clean views of the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings from here with soulless condo buildings in the fore, or the abominate Hudson Yards development that’s behind it to the west. Bah!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The pedestrian and bike path on the bridge has become quite well used by communities on both sides, although you wouldn’t know it from the shot above. I didn’t walk over to Brooklyn, instead it was the middle of the span which I was interested in visiting. One of the most unique views in the entire City, if you ask me, and a creek runs through the middle of it.
I’ve been up here during Thunderstorms, Blizzards, heat waves, sunrise, sunset… it’s one of my faves, and I would have suffered some regret had I not paid this spot a visit while I was back in town.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
For years and years, I’ve joked about this area being called DUKBO – Down Under the Kosciuszcko Bridge Onramp. Always got a laugh from the crowd on tours.
Coincidentally, my little joke also created a designation for a section of the Newtown Creek watershed which is otherwise quite anonymous. NYC historical and rail people will respond to ‘Haberman,’ others in the maritime world will say ‘yup’ when they hear ‘Turning Basin,’ but these are ‘cultic’ designations for the section of Newtown Creek’s upland IBZ (Industrial Business Zone) which is found between Greenpoint Avenue on the west and Grand Avenue on the east, not a colloquial one.
Apparently, some of the mouth breathers back in Maspeth take issue with my ‘DUKBO’ conceit, as I discovered when my pal Kevin from Forgotten-NY recently shared one of my shots from up here on Facebook. This really ticked me off from afar. Freaking keyboard warriors… say it to my face, cowards.
I’d be less pissed off about that particular burn, if any single one of those dullards had ever made the time to get involved with the Newtown Creek Superfund process, attended a few meetings with the powers that be, or spoke up for Queens. The only way you could ever activate the Maspeth people was by telling them that the hipsters in Brooklyn were going to get all the superfund money and they’d be left out.
Me? I went to and voiced up during the meetings, advocated for Queens, and at the very least got a fence installed on the new bridge which accommodates the view. What did you do to make things better, or did things just happen around you which you blamed on ‘the hipsters’ or ‘the libtards’? Democracy is a contact sport.
Eat my shorts, say I, and go ‘eff yourselves.
More 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.
At last…
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described in prior posts, a humble narrator was back in NYC for a few days attending to some personal business, and a point was made to get in a visit with my beloved Newtown Creek. All the familiar places…
Also as described, I had driven back out here from Pittsburgh and since a car in NYC creates more problems that it solves, I left it in my buddy’s driveway in Middle Village. A rideshare cab was summoned and I headed over to the Kosciuszcko Bridge, which became a starting point for a short photowalk.
Paraphrasing Duane the Rock Johnson here – At last, the Waxman had returned to DUKBO.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I didn’t enter the grounds of First Calvary Cemetery in Blissville, a place which I’ve spent a lot of time studying and exploring. I’ve often described the place as a history book whose pages are carved into granite monuments. If you are interested in the story of 19th century NYC, Calvary is where you can find the text. I had to cut off that particular set of posts for unexpected reasons.
A few years ago, I received a cease and desist order from the Catholic Church’s lawyers proscribing me from leading a walking tour, writing about, or photographing the place. The order was unenforceable garbage, but it’s also a point of pride for me that the watery eyed prelates of the Brooklyn Archidiocese didn’t want me to poke around their nest. I really didn’t want to get into it with their lawyers, so…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I know a whole lot of things about Calvary which I’ve never publicly stated, but suffice to say that there’s a lot of fishy business which goes on at this polyandrion. When you don’t have to pay taxes, and the subject is one that most people wouldn’t want to talk about or delve too deeply into… Suffice to say that after the State of New York itself, the largest land owner in New York State is the Catholic Church. God’s ambassadors have quite a real estate portfolio, and many buried secrets.
At any rate, my goal for this part of my visit wasn’t to visit with the tomb legions, instead it was to walk over the Kosciuszcko Bridge.
More 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.
split fingernails
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
November 15th also marked the last time I would be visiting DUKBO in Maspeth, an area found along the fabulous Newtown Creek’s Queens side. At the time of these photo’s captures, I thought it would be my second to last visit, but as it turns out…
I set up the tripod, and all the special camera gear and tools which I’ve mentioned to you over the years. It was nice, but there was a melancholy resonance to this, doing what was a very normal thing for me to be doing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This post is being written on Monday the 12th of December, while sitting in my favorite Irish bar in Astoria – also for the last time. By the time you’ve received it, I’ll solidly be living in Pittsburgh.
There’s a pint of Guinness on my right hand, and the iPad is glowing in front of me. This is not an unfamiliar image to my bartender. I’ve always loved sitting down in a bar by myself and doing some writing. Also, since there is no wifi in my old apartment right now as I’ve returned the equipment to the cable people, my only connection other than a cell phone is here… in fact, the movers have just come this morning, and took all my stuff with them to Pittsburgh – so beyond the wifi the apartment is empty – there’s just an inflatable bed and a couple of knapsacks in my crib. I’m leaving in the morning, on Tuesday the 13th. An all day drive awaits.
One has been living out a suitcase for a couple of weeks now, surviving on high fat and overly caloric foods. A regular sleeping schedule is something I can only hope for, right now. It hasn’t been uncommon for me to fall dead asleep as early as 9 p.m. in the last couple of weeks, out of sheer exhaustion.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One way or the other, the part of my life that includes DUPBO, DUGABO, or DUKBO is all over by the time you’re reading this. Hopefully, I’m unpacking on the other side with Our Lady of the Pentacle and can resume some sort of normal life in a day or two before the madness resumes, around a different set of subjects.
Goodbye, DUKBO.
“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 