Posts Tagged ‘Long Island City’
established categories
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This maritime Sunday, it’s a return to the Newtown Creek, where a tug was witnessed heading out to the East River with two barges of what seems to be metal. Unusual best describes the manner in which the barges are tied to the tug, at least in my limited experience. Most of the tandem tows I’ve witnessed over the last several years orient multiple barges in a line, after the manner of train cars in relationship to locomotive engine.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Although I can report this only from having seen photos, on the Mississippi or other inland waterways, several barges will be lined up in long rows before tugs. Unfortunately, I came upon the Mscene too late to capture any identifying information about this tug, even the identity of its company. Hopefully, our friends at tugster might be generous enough to identify at least the name of the towing corporation based on the “colorway” of the boat for you, gentle readers, in the comments section.
ordered terraces
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The blasted heaths of Western Queens, which the art of engineering have conquered fully, must have once been quite lovely. What exists at the dawn of the second millennia, however, represent obeisance to the motor vehicle and “flow”. Gaze in horror upon the Queens Midtown Expressway section of the Long Island Expressway, a 1939 expression of the seeming ennui felt by Robert Moses for the ancient villages and communities of Long Island City.
Your humble narrator is often struck dumb and blind when doing so.
from wikipedia
Symptoms of acute stress reaction
The symptoms show great variation but typically include an initial state of “daze”, with some constriction of the field of consciousness and narrowing of attention, inability to comprehend stimuli, and disorientation.
This state may be quickly followed by either further withdrawal from the surrounding situation (to the extent of a dissociative stupor), or by agitation and overactivity, anxiety, impaired judgement, confusion, detachment, and depression. Autonomic signs of panic anxiety (tachycardia, sweating, flushing) are also commonly present.
The symptoms usually appear within minutes of the impact of the stressful stimulus or event, and disappear within 2–3 days (often within hours). Partial or complete amnesia for the episode may be present.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At its apex over the Dutch Kills tributary of the languid Newtown Creek, which climbs to some one hundred and six feet over the water, the steel roadway begins a precipitous change in declination which carries vehicular traffic to the subaqueous Queens Midtown Tunnel and into Manhattan. The roadway was elevated to this altitude for no reason other than allow ocean going vessels egress to the turning basin of the Degnon Terminal at the head of Dutch Kills, and the blighting effect it had on Long Island City was quite unintentional. The industrial center became something to be ignored, driven over, forgotten, and quite irrelevant- seemingly by design.
If this is not the case, why are there no entrance or exit ramps between Greenpoint and Vernon Avenues?
from wikipedia
Depersonalization disorder (DPD) is a dissociative disorder (ICD-10 classifies the disorder as an anxiety disorder) in which the sufferer is affected by persistent or recurrent feelings of depersonalization and/or derealization. A diagnosis is made when the dissociation is persistent and interferes with the social and occupational functions necessary for everyday living. Diagnostic criteria include persistent or recurrent experiences of feeling detached from one’s mental processes or body. “Dissociation is defined as a disruption in the usually integrated functions of consciousness, memory, identity and perception, leading to a fragmentation of the coherence, unity and continuity of the sense of self.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The complicated snare of vehicular access to Manhattan as it all compacts in Long Island City has often caused me to fall into a stupor when contemplated. Subway lines, railroads, passenger and freight vehicles- all form a tight fist gripping the heart of this formerly vital center. Storm water flows freely from exhausts onto local streets, causing temporary lagoons of sooty liquids to agglutinate about garbage choked sewers. Many of these sewers bear the screed “no dumping, drains into waterway” embossed directly on the iron grates.
Perhaps one is entangled in some waking nightmare, and all of what may be observed is merely some fevered ideation?
from wikipedia
Oneirophrenia is a hallucinatory, dream-like state caused by several conditions such as prolonged sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation, or drugs (such as ibogaine). From the Greek words “ὄνειρο” (oneiro, “dream”) and “φρενός” (phrenos, “mind”). It has some of the characteristics of simple schizophrenia, such as a confusional state and clouding of consciousness, but without presenting the dissociative symptoms which are typical of this disorder.
Persons affected by oneirophrenia have a feeling of dream-like unreality which, in its extreme form, may progress to delusions and hallucinations. Therefore, it is considered a schizophrenia-like acute form of psychosis which remits in about 60% of cases within a period of two years. It is estimated that 50% or more of schizophrenic patients present oneirophrenia at least once.
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Upcoming boat tours of Newtown Creek
July 22nd, 2012- Working Harbor Committee Newtown Creek Boat Tour
marble and porphyry
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Crazed by heat and a lack of slumber, one nevertheless must continue the never ending walking of the earth and incessant inspection of relict districts, as such activity is nepenthe to one such as myself.
This day, perambulation carried me to the so called “Boulevard of Death”, the Appian Way of Queens- Queens Boulevard itself. Radiant heat rising from the thermally charged pavement, coupled with the blasting emanations streaming down from the thermonuclear eye of god itself, combined to disorient and dehydrate.
Shivering with excitement, one dared to stand still for a moment and record the omnipresent flow of machines, streaming toward the center of the human infestation in Manhattan.
from wikipedia
Ganser syndrome is a rare dissociative disorder previously classified as a factitious disorder. It is characterized by nonsensical or wrong answers to questions or doing things incorrectly, other dissociative symptoms such as fugue, amnesia or conversion disorder, often with visual pseudohallucinations and a decreased state of consciousness. It is also sometimes called nonsense syndrome, balderdash syndrome, syndrome of approximate answers, pseudodementia, hysterical pseudodementia or prison psychosis. This last name, prison psychosis, is sometimes used because the syndrome occurs most frequently in prison inmates, where it may represent an attempt to gain leniency from prison or court officials.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Long imprisoned by such motivations, your humble narrator’s fever crashed mind began to wander, with every thought resolving into some kind of incomprehensible gibberish.
Were your humble narrator truly alive, instead of some partially animated mass of shambling flesh, standing in this traffic cursed spot would have surely caused his blood to run cold. Unfortunately, the black ichors which carry certain vital gases about within me have long since ceased their proper fluctuation, and some unknown motive force keeps my feet moving. Stubborn purpose is all that causes me to pretend to be one of the living, and it is hard to shake the delusion that current experience is not some hallucination being suffered in a temporally displaced hospital bed.
I’m all ‘effed up.
from wikipedia
The Cotard delusion, Cotard’s syndrome, or Walking Corpse Syndrome is a rare mental disorder in which people hold a delusional belief that they are dead (either figuratively or literally), do not exist, are putrefying, or have lost their blood or internal organs. In rare instances, it can include delusions of immortality.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Often have I wondered why I’m drawn to locales of morbidity such as this “Boulevard of Death”, whether they be cemeteries or other places of tragedy. Scuttling across the concrete devastations provides all manner of time for introspection, and time to craft cogent fantasies, some of which are shared with others.
Also, on a completely unrelated note, if one walks directly beneath this barrel vaults of the viaduct (which carries the 7 train) pictured above- beginning at 33rd street- a curious effect might be observed. A parking lot exists beneath the structure, and the high arches above are shaped in such a manor that sound waves travel through the spot in a bizarre manner, forming an echo chamber. Stand in the center of the parking lot at 34th street, and shout or sing, and it will reflect back to you.
One has tried this with the chorus from Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, and the effects are startling.
from wikipedia
Folie à deux (English pronunciation: /fɒˈli ə ˈduː/, from the French for “a madness shared by two”) (or shared psychosis) is a psychiatric syndrome in which symptoms of a delusional belief are transmitted from one individual to another. The same syndrome shared by more than two people may be called folie à trois, folie à quatre, folie en famille or even folie à plusieurs (“madness of many”). Recent psychiatric classifications refer to the syndrome as shared psychotic disorder (DSM-IV) (297.3) and induced delusional disorder (F.24) in the ICD-10, although the research literature largely uses the original name.
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Click for details on Mitch Waxman’s
Upcoming boat tours of Newtown Creek
July 22nd, 2012- Working Harbor Committee Newtown Creek Boat Tour
vaguely articulate
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Passing through the tangle of racing traffic, sky flung steel, and electrical equipment in Queens Plaza the other day, a humble narrator felt incredibly vulnerable. Part of my anxiety was generated by the absolutely stellar idea of siting bike paths on the sidewalk, formerly the only safe place and haven for the pedestrian in this place. The remainder was generated by the sheer sensory overload offered by this intermodal transportation center with its never ending traffic flow.
That is, until I was nearly struck by a bicyclist who was rolling down the sidewalk at a minimum of fifteen miles per hour.
from wikipedia
According to the DSM-IV classification of mental disorders, the injury phobia is a specific phobia of blood/injection/injury type. It is an abnormal, pathological fear of having an injury.
Another name for injury phobia is traumatophobia, from Greek τραῦμα (trauma), “wound, hurt” and φόβος (phobos), “fear”. It is associated with BII (Blood-Injury-Injection) Phobia. Sufferers exhibit irrational or excessive anxiety and a desire to avoid specific feared objects and situations, to the point of avoiding potentially life-saving medical procedures.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It has been mentioned before at this, your Newtown Pentacle, that in the opinion of this citizen- mixing vehicular traffic and pedestrian traffic is a fairly ill considered idea. Sounds logical, right? Bicycles are, in fact, vehicles. Bicycles are, in fact, being directed into pedestrian lanes- commonly called “sidewalks”.
Let us break that down- “side”, as in side of road, “walk”, as in walking.
Not cycling, nor riding, nor whatever the hell it is that those people call Biking these days.
from wikipedia
Agoraphobia is a condition where the sufferer becomes anxious in environments that are unfamiliar or where he or she perceives that they have little control. Triggers for this anxiety may include wide open spaces, crowds (social anxiety), or traveling (even short distances). Agoraphobia is often, but not always, compounded by a fear of social embarrassment, as the agoraphobic fears the onset of a panic attack and appearing distraught in public.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Incidentally, before “those people” (who I’ve stood shoulder to shoulder with several times on various issues involving alternative transportation options) leap at my throat, no condemnation of the biking community at large is at work here. It’s not that fellows fault that he was on the sidewalk, although he was operating his vehicle in a reckless manner given the number of pedestrians on the street, as he was following the layout of the bike lane. Which has been set into the sidewalk with no lane demarcation other than a painted lane, and which terminates in a street cut shared with pedestrians.
No solution is offered, the crowded interweaving of traffic in Queens Plaza is surely well studied, but we’ve got a problem here.
from wikipedia
The fear of being touched (also known as aphephobia, haphephobia, haphophobia, hapnophobia, haptophobia, thixophobia) is a rare specific phobia that involves the fear of touching or of being touched. It is an acute exaggeration of the normal tendencies to protect one’s personal space, expressed as a fear of contamination or of the invasion, and extending even to people whom its sufferers know well.
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Click for details on Mitch Waxman’s
Upcoming boat tours of Newtown Creek
July 22nd, 2012- Working Harbor Committee Newtown Creek Boat Tour
lands adjacent
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Found along Jackson Avenue in Long Island City, in the stretch between 21st Street and Queens Plaza, there are several truncated little blocks. Part of an earlier street grid pre dating the 20th century and the Queensboro Bridge, some host residences while others are partly residential while others are entirely industrial. All of these lanes share one commonality, which is ending where the Sunnyside Yard begins. Dutch Kills Street starts at Jackson Avenue and ends a mere block later at the fenced in rail yard.
from wikipedia
Dutch Kills is an area within Long Island City, in the New York City borough of Queens. It was a hamlet, named for its navigable tributary of Newtown Creek, that occupied what today is centrally Queensboro Plaza. Dutch Kills was an important road hub during the American Revolutionary War, and the site of a British Army garrison from 1776 to 1783. The area supported farms during the 19th Century, and was finally consolidated in 1870 with the villages of Astoria, Ravenswood, Hunters Point and Blissville to form Long Island City.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Perpetual shadow stains the street here, titan masonry is sky flung and the steel of mighty Queensboro’s exit ramps is singing high above the pavement. Tumultuous passings of rail on the other side of an overgrown fence declare themselves loudly, and all around is evidence of poor drainage. A lonely dead end, it is one of the places where the residents of Queens enjoy indulging in the two art forms that the Borough is known for- illegal dumping and graffiti.
from wikipedia
The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) completed construction of the yard in 1910. At that time Sunnyside was the largest coach yard in the world, occupying 192 acres (0.78 km2) and containing 25.7 mi (41.4 km) of track. The yard served as the main train storage and service point for PRR trains serving New York City. It is connected to Pennsylvania Station in Midtown Manhattan by the East River Tunnels. The Sunnyside North Yard initially had 45 tracks with a capacity of 526 cars. The South Yard had 45 tracks with a 552 car capacity.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A lurking menace is sensed here, the surety that one is being watched from cover. A risible smell colors the air, one which betrays the odors of mold and rot and urine. It is odd to be so close to the center of the human infestation, yet so totally alone. It would be very easy to disappear here, and imagined perils spring into the forefront of ones mind. The shining promise of the Degnon Terminal glowers with ambition and thwarted aspiration, providing backdrop and counterpoint.
from nytimes.com
PROGRESS is the watchword of Queens Borough at the present time, especially of the Queensboro Bridge Plaza and the adjacent parts of Long Island City. Never before have there been so many striking object lessons of this forward movement in that long-neglected borough as may be seen today within a few blocks of the spacious approach to the bridge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Some poor soul calls this place their own, living in a makeshift shanty. So many of the “working homeless” are observed around these back alleys and forgotten corners, lonely vagabonds ekeing out a subsistence living while living in squalor, surviving by craft and guile. What strange experiences and odd tales could they relate about what happens in the dark of night, here on Dutch Kills Street?
from wikipedia
Modern homelessness started as a result of economic stresses in society and reductions in the availability of affordable housing such as single room occupancies (SROs) for poorer people. In the United States, in the 1970s, the deinstitutionalisation of patients from state psychiatric hospitals was a precipitating factor which seeded the homeless population, especially in urban areas such as New York City.
The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 was a predisposing factor in setting the stage for homelessness in the United States. Long term psychiatric patients were released from state hospitals into SROs and supposed to be sent to community mental health centers for treatment and follow-up. It never quite worked out properly, the community mental health centers mostly did not materialize, and this population largely was found living in the streets soon thereafter with no sustainable support system.
Also, as real estate prices and neighborhood pressure increased to move these people out of their areas, the SROs diminished in number, putting most of their residents in the streets. Other populations were mixed in later, such as people losing their homes for economic reasons, and those with addictions (although alcoholic hobos had been visible as homeless people since the 1890s, and those stereotypes fueled public perceptions of homeless people in general), the elderly, and others.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Although nothing of the sort was observed on this visit, one often sees candles and small altars to unknown gods in these places. Offerings of coins, foodstuffs, and cigars have often been noted amongst these arrangements. Peasant superstition and magicks are often the recourse of the desperate and desolated, however.
from wikipedia
Beliefs in witchcraft, and resulting witch-hunts, existed in many cultures worldwide and still exist in some today, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa (e.g. in the witch smellers in Bantu culture). Historically these beliefs were notable in Early Modern Europe of the 14th to 18th century, where witchcraft came to be seen as a vast diabolical conspiracy against Christianity, and accusations of witchcraft led to large-scale witch-hunts, especially in Germanic Europe.
The “witch-cult hypothesis”, a controversial theory that European witchcraft was a suppressed pagan religion, was popular in the 19th and 20th centuries. Since the mid-20th century, Witchcraft has become the self-designation of a branch of neopaganism, especially in the Wicca tradition following Gerald Gardner, who claimed a religious tradition of Witchcraft with pre-Christian roots.
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Click for details on Mitch Waxman’s
Upcoming walking and boat tours of Newtown Creek
July 8th, 2012- Atlas Obscura Walking Tour- The Insalubrious Valley
(note: there was just one ticket left for this one when I hit “publish”)
for July 8th tickets, click here for the Atlas Obscura ticketing page
July 22nd, 2012- Working Harbor Committee Newtown Creek Boat Tour
The Newtown Pentacle 