The Newtown Pentacle

Wednesday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

This section of a recent scuttle played out in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, and walked a path around – and through – parts of the campuses of Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Pittsburgh – aka PITT. This made three university campus visits for me on this walk.

It’s pretty much what you’d think Ivy League school campuses would look like, around these parts. Lots of hustle and bustle, crowds of impossibly young people rushing about… all that.

I recently learned that a single semester’s worth of matriculation at CMU – for a freshman – costs in excess of $70,000. Wow.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

As mentioned during prior recent walks through this zone, it’s a nice and a quite familiar feeling to me, having tall structures to use as navigational aids.

The bridge overflies a ravine which is colloquially referred to as ‘Panther Hollow,’ but which I’m told is technically ‘Junction Hollow’ instead.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

There’s train tracks, a big steam boiler facility, and all sorts of ‘stuff’ down there. On my list for future scuttles, this path.

I’ve walked around and through a more southeasterly section of Panther Hollow just once, shortly after moving to Pittsburgh back in 2024, but didn’t scuttle through to this particular spot.

One continued along. It was late in the afternoon and the evening ‘rush hour’ was setting up in Oakland.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Oakland is the de facto daytime population center of Pittsburgh.

Multiple large hospitals, university buildings, offices of every kind can be found there. One of the few places where you’ll encounter what a New Yorker would describe as ‘traffic.’ My path followed one of the ‘main drags,’ called Forbes Avenue, where buses line up to accept and cart away the crowds of commuters who work in the area.

As mentioned several times, Newtown Pentacle is so far ahead of schedule right now that we’re existing in a time warp together, lords and ladies. These shots are from early May, the words from early June, and you’re receiving this in mid July. I mention this, as that fellow in the shot above is wearing a jacket, despite how warm and humid the afternoon was when this shot was gathered.

By the time you’re reading this, a humble narrator declares, I will have ridden upon a Pittsburgh bus and explored at least one of the busways. I’ve been threatening to do that for a while now and ‘do what you say, say what you do’ applies.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The walk gets ‘hinky’ at the foot of Forbes, where it transmogrifies out of a highway off ramp. Pedestrian and bike concerns are an afterthought in this area, and there’s an extremely risky street crossing at the end of it.

No Bueno.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

That’s the crossing, which I’ve mentioned before. Vehicles emerge on that off-ramp from I-376 moving at highway speeds, and they don’t have a stop or yield sign either. There is a painted crosswalk, however, so it’s a ‘legit’ crossing. I’ll just say it again – No Bueno.

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.

Friday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Oakland to the Monongahela River

Hey, that’s PITT’s Cathedral of Learning pictured above. Lookit that.

As described in a prior post, your humble narrator attended a walking tour of Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood, conducted by the ‘bikePGH’ outfit – who are the local incarnation of the ‘bicycle people.’

In general, they’re a lot nicer in person than the analogue group you’ll encounter in NYC, the ones who styled themselves as ‘Transportation Alternatives.’ With a few exceptions, I always found the TA people to be blowhard keyboard warriors, and ideologues. They would show up looking for a fight, and would start one if they didn’t encounter opposition towards their goals. They fund raise on hostility.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Saying that, one of the TA ideologues in Queens is who the inspiration for my Toyota’s name comes from – the ‘Mobile Oppression Platform.’ Same person once described a driver sticking a key in the ignition of a motor vehicle as then ‘existing in a state of pre-murder.’

Honestly, they’re so good at this sort of deceptive and inflammatory political language that they should consider joining the Republican Party. Bah!

While heading for the river via Forbes Avenue, and ruminating, an unnecessarily Brutalist academic building was encountered. Whenever I see this sort of architecture, my first thought goes to ‘Conquest of the Planet of the Apes’ for some reason. Yuck.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

There are quite a few places in Pittsburgh where taking a walk can mean a street crossing can likely end your life. To wit, this is the ‘ass end’ of Forbes Avenue, where it just sort of terminates at a highway off ramp.

Another one of the routes that I commonly drive through, that’s I-376 down there, an east/west high speed road which leads to the Squirrel Hill Tunnel on one side (it continues on, and on, after the tunnel) and to the Fort Pitt Tunnel on the other.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Saying all that, the TA people back home are – in fact – right about certain things. So are their analogues here in Pittsburgh.

I’ve mentioned a few times that driving the roads out here in Pittsburgh are kind of like the Wild West, with little, or no enforcement of traffic law by the local gendarmerie. It’s common for people to travel along at 80 mph, on a highway with a posted limit of 40, thereby. When drivers come to an off ramp/exit, and enter the local streets, their vehicles are often doing so at highway speeds. It’s madness.

So… notice the cross walk paint on that off ramp? Yup.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I still can’t run for any protracted distance, but I do have my ‘burst’ speed back, post ‘orthopedic incident.’ See? Haven’t mentioned it in weeks.

The ankle still hurts, all the time. It’s a dull ache sort of thing, and while out for long walks a few distinct annoyances pop up. A cramp, or some part of the affected foot will start announcing itself to my nervous system, soreness, and every now and then a clicking sensation as a tendon pulls itself over the surgically inserted metallic hardware I now own down there. When I get back to HQ and doff my shoes, that’s when it gets fun.

Saying all that, I can walk pretty long distances again.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Man… me and mine always railed on about the way that the FDR drive cut New Yorkers off from their waterfront back home. Look at this… these highways and their ramps are the Theodosian Walls of cutting off any sort of access to the river. Sheesh.

Saying that, love taking pics of this sort of thing. Massing shapes and geometries…

Back next week 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.