Posts Tagged ‘Lawrenceville’
Corridors, oh the urbanity
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Continuing with a scuttle down Penn Avenue from Pittsburgh’s Bloomfield, and then Lawrenceville, towards the Strip District and then ‘downtown.’ Along the way, I noticed a colorful bit of architecture and it turns out that it’s the Pittsburgh Midwife Center. Neat.
I was pulled in by the artwork on a mural they have installed.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s just lovely, thought a humble narrator. Nice.
The section I was walking through seems to have escaped the gentrification hammers so far. At least the old building stock, and some of the businesses which occupy them, seem to still be extant.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Signage occasionally catches my eye. My guess is that this is a late 1980’s vintage painted sign. It’s mainly the design sense that says ‘1980’s’ to me.
Good news is that the shop’s window has an ‘open to the public’ sign in the window, meaning I now know where to go shopping for commercial grade cooking equipment. This replaces that joint on 43rd and Northern I used to buy pots and pans from, back in Astoria.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Strip District, where you can express your love of all things Pittsburgh by buying souvenirs and gewgaws. There’s also a bunch of multi generational businesses which offer specialty meats and cheeses, candy and treats, and all the Steelers and/or Pirates gear you can afford. Very popular area.
The streets there are positively infested with humans.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Exiting the Strip and approaching the last leg of the day’s effort. This ‘zone’ used to be involved in the commercial level of food distribution. In NYC, this area would be referred to as a ‘terminal market.’ Essentially, produce and meats would arrive by boat and train from extant locations and then were sold to market and shop owners wholesale. The latter would then stock their retail shelves in whatever section of the city they served. The Heinz factory was just on the other side of the river from here, btw.
It was time for a quick sit down, incidentally, as the humidity had been growing all day and your humble narrator needed a break from the sun.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I sat down on the steps of a church, and within a couple of minutes, the Pastor came outside and asked if I needed a drink of water or wanted to come and sit inside to partake of their air conditioning. This was extremely nice of the fellow, thought I. Very Christian.
I introduced myself, and mentioned my nascent desires to get the ‘sacred spaces’ project going. We exchanged business cards. Hopefully, I’ll get an invite to come inside and photograph the place sometime.
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Cool cars: old fire truck edition
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Apparently, there’s a museum dedicated to baseball player Roberto Clemente in an old firehouse on Penn Avenue, and they park an old fire truck outside of it – which must be a lure to bring in passing lookie loos. Here’s their link, btw.
Caught my attention, I’ll tell’s ya. Love me a cool car.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I grew up idolizing comic book artists and film directors, so the cult surrounding athletes is one I’m not a part of.
Want to talk Jack Kirby? I’m down. Want to discuss an athlete? I get quiet and listen but don’t participate in the conversation as I don’t have anything to offer on the subject. Did Roberto Clemente create the Fantastic Four, or the Avengers? Pfft.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a complete curmudgeon, I’ll go to a baseball or hockey game if you like. Won’t watch one on TV, although I will listen to a baseball game on the radio (the natural broadcast medium for baseball is AM radio) occasionally.
Couldn’t care less about football or basketball, me.
Saying that, sports means the world to a lot of people. Clemente is remembered by Pittsburgh in several conspicuous places. There’s a bridge named for him, as well as a street. A statue of the man greets entrants to PNC Park, where the Pirates compete.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Couldn’t help but pop out a few shots of the thing. My allocation of time for the walk was running down and I needed to keep moving.
Twirling, always twirling towards freedom, that’s me.
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.
Penn Avenue and the Doughboy
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
For some reason, Pittsburgh has started showing me ‘cool cars’ on my walks, although in this case it was a fire engine red scooter. Must have been hard to find a color matching helmet. Also, speaking as an ex-New Yorker – you just leave your helmet outside on the bike?
Really, people leave their cars and homes unlocked out here. Sometimes, you’ll encounter a car in a lot, with a running engine and the driver’s side door either ajar or wide open, just sitting there ready for stealing. I’m from Brooklyn – and often – my challenge in Pittsburgh is not doing any of the Brooklyn things – even if it’s just to ‘teach you a lesson.’
This is Pittsburgh’s ‘Sixth Ward,’ incidentally.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This ‘sixth ward scuttle’ of mine was steadily moving down Pittsburgh’s Penn Avenue, and I was specifically in the Lawrenceville section at this stage. One of the landmarks along the route is a memorial to the 3,100 soldiers from the sixth ward who were lost during WW1.
They call this ‘Doughboy Park.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This statuary is found at 34th street and Penn Avenue. It’s used as a landmark by the locals, I’m told. A ‘meet me at…’ sort of thing.
I enjoyed a quick sit down, and then rose back up to complete the day’s constitutional. Now that I can reliably walk again, I just can’t get enough of the activity.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking to the north, there’s that industrial zone in which we took a walk back in April, with this shot offering a nearly opposite view from the perspectives offered above. Notice that rail trestle against the tree line, that’s right about where I was walking in this post.
It’s time for an ankle talk – It seems that I’ve overcome the pronounced limping which saw me walking around like the Batman villain Penguin for a while. Striding is back. Things still get weird when steps are on the menu, and my biggest ‘ankle hangover’ problem at the moment involves small and discrete movements of the foot during locomotion. For instance: stepping on a raised sidewalk seam and having my foot rotate forward, or back, can often turn into a bit of an ordeal. Heavily sloped surfaces moving upwards and away from me remains an issue as well.
It’s been a year.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s part of the 33rd street rail bridge which that school bus is passing under. This is one of those transitional zones, what I used to describe as the ‘angle between neighborhoods’ back in NYC. On the other side of the bridge, it’s the start of the ‘Strip District.’
I was going all the way downtown, so this was basically the middle point of the walk, about 2 and change miles in. These days, I shoot for five or six miles at a pop. Hopefully, by the time it gets well and truly cold I’ll be averaging seven to eight miles rather than five to six. Given where things were for me at the start of 2025, I’m just glad to be able to do whatever the hell I want to do, whenever the hell I want to do it again.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the 31st street Bridge, and here’s another view of it from Rialto Street, and another one from a walk over the thing.
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.
Don’t touch
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Continuing with a scuttle between Pittsburgh’s Lawrenceville and the Downtown area in today’s post. Scroll down to past posts from last week, for prior ruminations on robotics and AI, and see where this walk started.
As mentioned in those posts, wherever it was possible, your humble narrator’s path stuck to the ‘way’ or alley streets for this scuttle. Just happens that there’s rail tracks along this particular way, but my fever dream of catching a train moving around back here didn’t come true this time. Again.
The gentrification fires burn brightly in both east and west directions from this industrial area, like book ends. It’s all a part of the ongoing recovery from the regional collapse of the steel industry in Pittsburgh over the last 40 years. Nowadays, they’re building autonomous vehicles and battlefield robots here, whereas just a few blocks distant it’s ‘affordable housing’ and ‘YIMBY’ sentiment.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This trestle is part of the 33rd street rail bridge, which spans the Allegheny River and connects to the northern shore nearby Etna and Millvale.
For those of you keeping score, this walk started at Pittsburgh’s 50th street, so 17 blocks in with a few tessellation’s north or south, while underway. The reliable measure in NYC was always ‘20 blocks are a mile,’ but that’s based on a predictable grid. There is no such organizing principle here. Pittsburgh was a boom town, and if an industrial entity wanted a large campus that broke a grid, they’d get it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After passing under the rail bridge, I was walking into somewhat familiar territory, so decided to mix that up a bit. As mentioned, I was trying to stick – as much as possible – to the alleys.
This is where one such as myself belongs, amongst the abandoned rails, and the cast away possessions of the human infestation.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As is my habit, I was busy beating myself up psychologically while walking along, but that’s something I’m trying to stop doing so I plugged the headphones into my ear holes and keyed up some music. This time around it was the band ‘Gorillaz.’
Have to download a few albums from the Mountain Goats before my next walk. Love that band.
I listen to this 20 year old song from the Mountain Goats a lot these days, and especially so when all the ankle drama was going on. I will survive this year, if it kills me.
Mountain Goats wrote and performed one of my absolute favorite ‘Newtown Creek theme songs’ with ‘Lovecraft in Brooklyn’ as well. Recommended listening.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I was forced off my alleys path for a bit due to a huge construction project. Remember when I mentioned the Gentrification Furnaces glowing brightly? There’s an invisible line somewhere around this set of warehouses where Lawrenceville ends, and the Strip District begins, but I’m ignorant of its actual location. Ask a realtor.
Ok, I mentioned the ankle situation above. Everything was cool on this walk – no pain, swelling, or clicking. Fingers crossed, this experience might be a bad memory at this juncture and ‘fade into black.’
Again: I will survive this year, if it kills me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The 31st street bridge was in now front of me. I still had a couple/three miles to go before meeting Our Lady downtown. Lots of alleys coming up.
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.
Walking a line
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The industrial building pictured above, as seen from the streets of Pittsburgh’s Lawrenceville section, is the home of Carnegie Robotics. The end of the world is probably being invented in there right now.
There’s an air of dread floating about in my mind when I see industries working in this direction. Developing technology in this direction will lead us out of the current ‘Robocop 3’ reality show we’re all living in, go right through Terminator, and end up being the back story for Dune.
Butlerian Jihad, anyone?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s a big ‘H’ on the wall of the Carnegie Robotics property. It signifies the former owner of the site, the Heppenstall Company. Luckily for me, Pittsburgh City Paper’s Chris Potter did a piece on the Heppenstall outfit back in 2006, so I didn’t have to hit the books and do my own detective work.
One kept on walking. Forward, ever forward.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My obeyance to the conceit of following the ‘way’ or alley streets continued, and in this case, I ended up walking along the ballast rock path alongside a set of Allegheny Valley Railroad tracks. I would have been thrilled, were the white whale to have appeared, to capture a photo of one of their train sets.
It’s getting stupid at this point. I’ve learned to predict the movements of two of the four railroads that commonly operate here, and am beginning to figure out those of a third. The fourth – AVRR – is like a phantom.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the 40th street bridge pictured above, a colossal vehicle span connecting the north shore nearby Rialto Street and Route 28 to Lawrenceville.
I had to walk through a company’s parking lot directly after this.
One of the cool things about Pittsburgh is how few shits anyone gives about that sort of thing. Unless you’re messing around and trying to break into the cars in the lot or something, it’s completely uncommented upon and ‘ok.’ What a difference compared to all the yentas who would bug me back in NYC with the ‘what are you taking pictures of’ and ‘who are you with’ comments before telling me that taking photos was a crime and they were going to call the cops on me. I’d laugh when a car of Cops, particularly on the Queens side of the Creek, would pull up and say ‘Hi, Mitch.’
I once had a mob of old Greek ladies chase me down the block, over by St. Irene’s in Astoria, and they were yelling ‘it’s Al Quaeda’ at the top of their lungs after seeing my camera. Yikes!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just as a point of fact, there are no actual laws in the United States forbidding photography – with just a few exceptions – mainly focused within the confines of Military Bases and around Judicial Courts. The ‘rule’ is that if you are in a public space – street, sidewalk, park – whatever – you have no ‘expectation of privacy.’ This is the very ‘right’ that the cops exploit that allows them to put security, red light, or bike lane cameras up wherever they want to. Good for the goose, all that.
I didn’t see any AVRR activity, but I did see a bunch of their rolling stock being stored on this siding.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking back where I’d been, and this ended up being my favorite shot of the day for some reason. Everything went right with the exposure and I barely had to ‘touch’ it when doing the developing phase in Adobe Camera Raw. Process wise; the shots comes off the camera, are converted to a format native to Adobe’s software family, they get a basic set of settings governing this, that, and the other thing, are cropped, edited a final time, and then published. I go out of my way not to alter photos in any way other than basic adjusts to contrast and that sort of thing. When I employ a ‘trick,’ like exposure or focus stacking, I usually describe what I did under the photo here. I aspire to journalistic ideals.
Everything you see here is part of the tyranny of the real.
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.
