Posts Tagged ‘Long Island City’
poisoning efforts
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Continuing the night time exploration of the Montauk Cutoff abandoned rail road tracks in Long Island City, this shot focuses in on the Borden Avenue “retractile” bridge. A common sight in Chicago and Pittsburgh, there are only two retractile type bridges in NYC, the other one is found at the Gowanus Canal at Carroll Street. “Retractile” means that the entire roadway is on tracks, and retreats away from its piers to allow maritime traffic to pass through. This is in opposition to the more common form of movable bridge, commonly called a drawbridge, wherein single or double bascules are opened or closed on hinges.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was getting late when my little party and I decided to start making our way back to the Skillman Avenue side of the Montauk Cutoff. Along the way, I was clicking the shutter every few steps, trying to record some of the amazing urban landscape I was seeing. This was hardly the first time I’ve been up on the cutoff, of course, but I rarely go up here at night without company.
In recent months, the streets surrounding the Montauk Cutoff have become somewhat “crimey,” so discretion being the better part of valor I decided to ask a couple of pals to come along and provide me with “back.” Better safe than sorry.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s quite an effort underway at the moment to organize this abandoned series of tracks into a public space. I, for one, can’t wait to be able to bring people up here legally. As far as who owns the place, it’s the MTA.
The MTA is… well, it’s the MTA.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the beginning of the week of Monday, December 14th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates here, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“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.
scuttled across
Wednesday, Montauk Cutoff.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned yesterday, recent adventure found me on the Montauk Cutoff tracks in Long Island City well after sunset. What drew me up there is the renewed effort on behalf of Newtown Creek Alliance to activate these abandoned rail road tracks as public green space. Imagine it, if we could add the roughly four acres of space up here to your portfolio of “places to go” in LIC?
Currently, visiting this spot is considered illegal trespass by the Governmental entity which owns it, specifically the MTA. Consider these photos my confession.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Montauk Cutoff leads to an inactive railroad bridge called Cabin M, which crosses the Dutch Kills tributary of Newtown Creek near its intersection with the main stem of the waterway. Just to the south, and pictured above, is a very active rail road bridge called DB Cabin, which connects the Wheelspur and Blissville Yards of the Long Island Railroad’s Lower Montauk tracks over the water.
As I tell everyone, there’s stupid – risking arrest for trespass on inactive tracks – and then there’s stupid – risking getting squished by a freight train by walking on active tracks. The former falls under the “ya plays ya cards, ya takes ya chances” whereas the latter is just dumb.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking roughly northwards towards the Borden Avenue Bridge and the Long Island Expressway at Dutch Kills, that’s how I would describe this shot to an editor.
I ran a daylight version of this a couple of weeks ago, and made a point of mentioning the huge number of inactive yellow cabs being stored here. The pathway along the Borden Avenue Bridge is one I’ve been positively haunting throughout the pandemic. It feels like I’ve been in this area at least once a week since March.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the beginning of the week of Monday, December 14th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates here, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“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.
writhing subsided
Tuesday in Long Island City’s concrete devastations.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Recent endeavor found one up on the abandoned tracks of the Montauk Cutoff in Long Island City after dark. Given the isolation and a series of recent encounters with potential hooligans and a few wackadoodles in this area, I decided it was an atypically good idea to have some company with me for once, so my pals Gil Lopez and Don Cavaioli came along. The Montauk Cutoff has been described several times here at Newtown Pentacle – notably in this 2015 post, and more recently the streets surrounding it were detailed in a series of posts starting here.
Long story short, an abandoned set of elevated railroad tracks in LIC that stretch from Skillman Avenue at Sunnyside Yards all the way to the Dutch Kills tributary of the fabled Newtown Creek.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s actually quite beautiful up on the tracks, with lots of self seeded vegetation and all sorts of feral critters roaming about. I brought along my tripod and the new camera, and got busy up there. There’s a terrific amount of light to record, but that’s where the challenge comes in, from a photographer POV. It’s very bright, and very dark, all in the same frame.
My pal Gil was listening in to a Zoom meeting about some sort of extinction event, and Don C. seemed blown away by what he was looking at. Once your eyes adjust to the lighting, there’s all sorts of splendor to observe.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
We spent an hour, maybe two, up there. I was busy the whole time, doing whatever the hell it is I do when I’m shooting.
More shots from the Montauk Cutoff tomorrow.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the beginning of the week of Monday, December 14th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates here, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“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.
hitherto veiled
Flippity floopity, it’s Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of the subjects which I found impossible to photograph (at night) with my old camera were gas stations. The problem wasn’t with technique, instead it was the limitations of “dynamic range” involving the camera’s sensor. The new camera captures a LOT more information than the older model does, and that means that I’ve been able to capture these little islands of bright color and light. Why, you might ask, am I finding myself motivated towards such activity?
Have you noticed that all the gas stations are beginning to disappear? Same thing with the supermarkets, or any other large lot business? What’s up with that, you ask? These property lots, occupied by businesses (or businesses like them) which have operated on this land in one form or another since the 1940’s or 50’s, are highly sought out and desired as development sites by the jackals and coprophages of the real estate industrial complex.
It won’t be Donald Trump’s self described best friend Larry Silverstein who buys this gas station, instead it will be somebody significantly further down the food chain who does. Have to keep prices low, which won’t happen if the seller realizes the president of REBNY (Real Estate Board of New York) and owner of the World Trade Center is the buyer.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Ever wonder why it is that the real estate people are such ardent supporters of bike lanes, ride share services, the elimination of street parking, and so on? It ain’t because they’re greenies, I’ll tell you that. It’s because NYC has a Planning Dept. requirement that demands they build space for resident parking in new development. Getting rid of everybody else’s parking makes their new development more valuable. Have to drive to Nassau County to fill up your gas tank? Well, remember the Borough Motto of Queens – Welcome to Queens, now go fuck yourself.
Think that sounds paranoid? Stare into a real estate developer’s eyes, and the only thing staring back at you from the depths of their ocular cavities will be an avaricious hunger. There’s a few ideas moving through the political world right now that are labeled as being “progressive.” Given that most think the word “progressive” means “liberal,” I feel obliged to remind others that Robert Moses referred to himself as a progressive. He “progressed” tens of thousands out of their homes to build his highways. See that gas station above? Wait until it’s “mandatory inclusionary housed” or “affordable housed” out of existence. The fact that it’s literally one block from Newtown Creek does not matter.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Wandering, ever wandering, that’s me. It’s best this way. Alone, in the cold night, scuttling about with a camera. Rattling along the fences of cemeteries and highways, poking the lens through brambles and barbed wire, one has always been and must always remain an Outsider. Reflective surfaces must be avoided at all cost, lest I spy the monster that others run away from.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the beginning of the week of Monday, December 7th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates here, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“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.
doubted greatly
Hey ho, what d’ya know, it’s Monday again.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Lonely, that’s how I like things. Deserted industrial zone streets, at night, are perfect when you want to be alone with your thoughts.
For many years, semi ironically, I’ve stated that what this City needs is a good plague. We’ve got that now. Turns out I was right that it would force people to reassess what’s truly important to them, but unfortunately this particular plague has really been a bit of a buzz kill. I recently watched the George Romero classic “Day of the Dead.” I always thought it was a bit cartoonish and unrealistic – “people don’t act like this during a biological pathogen spawned emergency” I used to say. Turns out Romero was right, and if anything, deliberately understated things.
I now accept that if the living dead were walking up the street, there would be people saying “it’s not real” or “I don’t believe what the bureaucracy wants me to believe” or “I haven’t been bitten, so I’m not worried.” There’s no such thing as zombies, or at least there wasn’t until Nancy Pelosi…
Hear the pipers, hear the drummers…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
According to a startling set of statistics encountered over the weekend, there are now 3,000 COVID related deaths a day in these United States. That’s a daily 9/11. Good work everybody. Before you start in with “those people were already sick anyway with…” – yeah – they were. But they weren’t on their death beds yet. If you have cancer and get squished by a falling safe – it was the safe that killed you, not the cancer.
I’ve been consuming right wing propaganda recently, quite on purpose. Adherents to that fascinating philosophical bent – reminiscent of the “Lord of the Flies” – are very worried about gay amphibians, AOC and socialism, and also having somebody – especially some member of a Mexican Drug Cartel – steal their personal information. You have to work George Soros, Jeffrey Epstein, Bill Gates, and of course Hillary Clinton into your storyline or postulate for it to be credible.
Also, people on the right seem to believe that whereas a Democrat can’t open their mouth without lying… sigh… why would you offer any politician your full trust? Presume they’re lying as it’s part of their job, or at least not telling the whole truth, whatever party they’re from. We used to be a lot better at processing all of this political stuff for what it is just a few years back.
I don’t want to hand blame off solely to the right for current circumstance, by the way, but the current group of charlatans and clowns offered from that side of the aisle really need to learn how to read a room – or listen to doctors. Airplanes work, as do computers and nuclear bombs.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Personally, I find the ultra lefties to be just as hamstrung by ideology and virtue signaling as the ultra righties are. That’s probably because my political odometer is set more or less one notch left of center. I have no problems whatsoever sitting down and dealing with either side, as getting tangible things done is far more important to me than scoring points with bike riding hippies or suv driving corporatists.
All I can really do right now is avoid others, try not to get sick, keep my head above water and my butt housed. Winter is here. Discontent along with it.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the beginning of the week of Monday, December 7th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates here, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“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 