Posts Tagged ‘Flushing Bay Promenade’
dampened brow
Terrifying.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
So, as mentioned in yesterday’s post, the plan for last night involved the Flushing Bay Promenade and a presentation by the NYC Parks Dept. about the World’s Fair Marina, which is a project I’m paying attention to for some reason. My plan and path was fairly simple, take the R line subway to Jackson Heights and transfer to the 7, which would take me to the Citifield Willets stop, and then I’d walk down Seaver Way (sigh), under Northern Blvd. and the Grand Central Parkway elevated ramps and north to the World’s Fair Promenade waterfront.
This is what passed for a pedestrian path, basically the paved shoulder of an Onramp for the Grand Central and a local road turnoff for one of the Park’s parking lots.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Traffic was literally whizzing by no more than a few feet from that waist height guard rail you see. Standing behind a stout light post, while one cracked out a few shots, an attendant for the parking lot was sweeping something up on the other side of that iron fence, and the fellow informed me that the only way to access his side of the fence would be by walking around on to the local street’s exit shoulder. What?
What?
This is officially part of Flushing Meadow Corona Park I’m talking about getting to, a long block away from the Mets, and you have to walk on an unpaved and unshielded shoulder? What? Carcentric much?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Y’know, it takes a special and noteworthy kind of genius to design a human trap like this.
It’s also noteworthy that a guy who wanders around Newtown Creek’s industrial neighborhoods at night can be reduced to absolutely pooping his pants with terror while trying to access a NYC Park. What?
Just for reference’s sake, here’s what it looked like on the other side.
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utterly bewildered
Getting minimalist at Flushing Bay.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I found myself out in Flushing again last week, making good on my threat to return there during the daylight hours. Last time that I was in this neighborhood, it was at night, which really isn’t the best time to scout a location properly. This time around, it was a mid day winter’s afternoon.
Ultimately, where I wanted to get to was Flushing Creek, but more on that in subsequent posts.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Have to admit, it was a little odd just waving the camera around without having to do the whole “set up” needed for the night shot process. Funny how something so normative to me can suddenly become alien, sort of like eating the first real meal after an interval with a stomach virus can seem bizarre.
Light, abundant light that I need to cut down and control? Weird.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s a car tire submerged in the surf which has been turned into a colony nest for shellfish, which is something I found neat. Saw several examples of this sort of thing all around the bay and later on Flushing Creek itself. Just goes to show that the mechanisms of nature, given enough time, can adapt to anything.
Back tomorrow with more, and we’ll be exploring part of Flushing Creek for the next few days at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
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rested uneasily
Flushing Creek at night.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s not Flushing Creek in the shot above, rather it’s part of a largish NYC DOT facility that adjoins it. I’m fairly sure that the elevated roadway to the left is the Whitstone Expressway and that the one on the right is Interstate Highway 678, which is odd since 678 never leaves NY State and actually connects the Bronx and Queens with the Hutchinson, but there’s Robert Moses for you. There’s a tangled cloverleaf of high speed roads here – where East Elmhurst, Willets and College Points, and Flushing combine. As mentioned earlier in the week, I call this the area “where boulevards collide.” It’s all very confusing, and one of the least pedestrian friendly spots in the entire city.
There is a protected bike lane, though, because… priorities…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
An open fence allowed access to the water at Flushing Creek, alternatively known as the Flushing River. This shot looks sort of westward along the industrialized canal. Both Flushing Bay and Creek have all the usual environmental issues – I’m told – involving open sewers and post industrial pollution that are commonly observed along NYC’s inland waterways like the Gowanus or my beloved Newtown Creek.
Again, I’m not overly familiar with this “zone.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I believe that’s Northern Blvd. up there, on the truss bridge over Flushing Creek. This shot is looking towards “Downtown Flushing” and the Main Street area. I intend to get to know this waterway quite a bit better in the coming months, as I’m always looking for something new to point my camera at, and to learn more about the Borough of Queens.
More tomorrow.
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too shapeless
Flushing Bay Promenade.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s part of the World’s Fair Marina at Flushing Bay, looking westwards towards LaGuardia Airport, in the shot above. Having attended a NYC Parks Dept. meeting discussing their plans to reinvest and upgrade the Marina (Parks runs it) a couple weeks back, a mental note to return and explore a bit was overturned last week before the weather got ugly. Off to East Elmhurst’s border with Corona and Flushing went a humble narrator, using the Q19 Bus as my conveyance.
I mean, come on, doesn’t everybody hang around the Queens waterfront at night in January?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was medium cold, as a note, although as the night went on and the wind picked up it did become increasingly uncomfortable. During warmer months, I’m known to be out on one of my little night jaunts for six to seven hours, but this time of year, shorter intervals are required due to the climate. In all actuality, I was ok, but the camera gear was malfunctioning a bit. The camera itself was fine, but my remote release wire was “sticking.” I soon started sticking it into an interior pocket of my sweatshirt to warm it up, which made its malfunction predictable rather than sporadic.
I had longtime Newtown Pentacle curmudgeon and frequent comment offerer Don Cav with me for this one, who met me at the entrance to the park. Don is a World’s Fair(s) enthusiast and never misses an opportunity to visit the place, or to tell me in person that I’m wrong about absolutely everything.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Unfortunately, as Don and I were chatting, I missed wiping my lens down for the shot above. I’m sure that a certain other frequent commenter named George will soon ask why I included it in this post due to the many photographic imperfections created by the dusty lens, to which I will offer – I just kind of like it.
I also get to say “Candela Structures” when describing it, but it might be more accurate to describe this thingamabob as a “Schladermundt Structure.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned above, it wasn’t life threatening cold like it was at the beginning of this week, as we were walking around the promenade, but there was ice floating about in the salty waters of Flushing Bay so… it was cold enough.
The shot above looks eastwards towards the mouth of Flushing Creek.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Across the water “my kind of thing” was visible.
By that I mean large scale industrial properties with interesting utilitarian shapes. I’m not going to get all “granular” about what’s found in this area, as it would be entirely disingenuous for me to present freshly discovered details in a manner indicative of some long familiarity. I can tell you where colonial era farmhouses used to stand in Maspeth, but have no real knowledge of Flushing’s environs. That’s something I plan on addressing this year, another one of my little mental notes.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
More tomorrow, and Flushing Creek at night, at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
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youth’s madness
East Elmhurst.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described yesterday, I uncharacteristically rode a bus from Astoria to East Elmhurst in order to get into the right spot for some “waving the camera around” action, which deposited me a few blocks away from my destination. A scuttling I went, heading eastwards on Astoria Blvd. I was heading for the zone I describe as “where Boulevards collide” or “just so Robert Moses.” It’s where Ditmars, Astoria, and Northern Blvd. all smash together with the Grand Central Parkway and Citifield at the edge of Flushing. You’ll be walking down the sidewalk in certain spots, and all of a sudden find yourself walking onto an off ramp to the highway.
One of the least pedestrian friendly spots in Queens, I tell you, although I’ve only been through here a few times.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On my way, I spotted this tiny domestic survivor from long ago on Astoria Blvd. Itty bitty and wood framed, it had advertisements in its windows advertising a “Cuarto en renta” (room for rent). Something about the propert caught my eye, and instinct told me that “something has happened here.” Can’t tell you what, didn’t do the research on the property, but usually if something catches my eye the way this place did…
I’ll look into it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s one of the entranceways to the Flushing Bay Promenade pictured above, which is actually a pedestrian bridge overflying the Grand Central Parkway with Flushing Bay beyond. LaGuardia Airport is to the west, Flushing Meadows Corona Park to the east. Directly north is Flushing Bay, and as you can discern from the shot above, I arrived right on time just as the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself had ducked behind Manhattan. The night time, it’s the right time, I say.
More tomorrow.
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