Posts Tagged ‘newtown creek’
laugh or frown
My beloved Creek, in today’s post.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Yesterday, the Newtown Creek Alliance held an event over on the North Henry Street side of DUGABO (Down Under the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge Onramp) in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint section. The point of the gathering was to imagine the future of a small inlet canal which NCA has been referring to as “No Name Canal,” but I defer to NOAA and the Coast Guard who call it “Unnamed Canal.” There’s an fairly abandoned DSNY Marine Transfer Station there, and your humble narrator entertained himself with a bit of illegal trespass. Of course, since this is City owned property, and I’m a citizen of said City, it’s mine (and yours) and therefore I was actually exploring my own property.
Our uniformed employees in the offices of lower Manhattan always seem to forget that they are – in fact – servants, and that this land is ours – not theirs – so I like to remind them of this fact periodically. This makes me fantastically popular on Chambers Street, btw.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Oddly enough, there was a tremendous midden of animal bones on the dock. May of them were clearly sun bleached chicken leg bones, and some had butcher cuts. The quantity was striking, and some specimens were clearly mammal bones – seemingly from large cats or small dogs.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One cannot even begin to speculate about the origins of this ossuary pile found on Municipal land in Greenpoint, along the languid Newtown Creek.
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Upcoming Tours –
May 3, 2015 –
DUBPO, Down Under the Pulaski Bridge Onramp
with Newtown Creek Alliance Historian Mitch Waxman, a free tour offered as part of Janeswalk 2015, click here for tickets.
May 31, 2015 –
Newtown Creek Boat Tour
with Working Harbor Committee and Newtown Creek Alliance Historian Mitch Waxman, click here for tickets.
#SUPERFUN on May 31
Welcome to Newtown Creek.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As promised – the big Monday Announcement!!! On May 31, I’ll be narrating on a boat tour of Newtown Creek for the Working Harbor Committee. WHC is offering a special $30 ticket price, discounted to $25 for seniors. It’s a two hour tour which will leave from Pier 11 in Manhattan at 11 a.m. I’m anticipating having a couple of other guest speakers onboard, but I’m still firming that up.
For tix’s to WHC’s morning tour with NCA Historian Mitch Waxman, on Newtown Creek. For group rates, or questions – contact Working Harbor Committee at workingharbor@aol.com
– photo by Mitch Waxman
So what could be more fun than visiting a superfund site? Visiting two, of course.
A separate and distinct excursion will leave from Pier 11 at 1:10 p.m., as Working Harbor Committee’s afternoon trip to the Gowanus Canal embarks. Last I heard, it’s the same deal as Newtown Creek for pricing and tix, and it’s a two hour tour as well.
Click here for tix to WHC’s afternoon tour of the Gowanus Canal.
Newtown Creek is better, of course, because it’s mine.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
pastures and meadows
Back in the saddle again.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On April 18th, a Saturday, I’ll be leading my first public Newtown Creek walk of 2015 for Newtown Creek Alliance. It’s all about celebrating Earth Day (which is actually the 20th) and we’ll be taking a short walk down a long creek. This is also a 100% free tour, and we’ll be meeting a few interesting people along the way.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Newtown Creek Alliance’s motto is “restore, reveal, revitalize” and my role in the group is designated by that second word – “reveal.” Recently, my tour partner Mai and I counted up all the folks who have come out with me to Newtown Creek over the last few years – whether by bus, van, boat, or on foot – and were staggered to realize that we’ve guided a bit more than two thousand people around the place.
Holy Moley, I guess we must be doing something right.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This tour will start in LIC, visits a few spots along the East River, will proceed to DUPBO (Down Under the Pulaski Bridge Onramp) on both sides of my beloved Creek. We’re going to head over to the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant Nature Walk at the end of the thing. The only thing physically challenging, in the least, that you will encounter are several flights of steps on the Pulaski Bridge. Regardless, closed toe shoes are highly recommended.
Come with, on April 18th, 2015 for a free walking tour of Newtown Creek in LIC and Greenpoint with Newtown Creek Alliance? Click here for your free tix and registration.
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very confines
Over in DUGABO…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Last Saturday, whilst wandering about in between snow storms, this outfall was spotted pouring into Newtown Creek. This is the terminus of Greenpoint Avenue alongside the Bridge, a lane which was coincidentally the path of an earlier Greenpoint Avenue Bridge – one that allowed rail to cross over from the LIRR tracks in Queens – which is today a fairly abandoned spot. The water is snow melt, incidentally.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s street drains all over the place which bear the screed “drains directly into waterways” and this is what it looks like when they do. The drain in question is actually visible, as is the melting snow pack which is feeding it. Along with the melt water, it’s carrying road salt and as well as all the litter and junk which line the curbs. The frustrating part of this scene is that the brand spanking new Newtown Creek Waste Water Treatment plant is just a block away and that this drain isn’t connected to it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Amongst the many interesting people I’ve met along the Newtown Creek, some of them work for the so called “potentially responsible parties” named as being responsible for the cleanup in the Superfund agreement. Over and over, these folks have pointed out that the ongoing “point source” situation that these outfalls maintained by the City DEP present makes their court mandated mission a fools errand. You can remove the Black Mayonnaise, which is the colloquial term for the historic pollution that forms the sediment bed of the Creek, but without addressing the antiquated sewer system it won’t be twenty years before the Newtown Creek is again lined with toxic junk.
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sorry planet
Something else that’s kind of odd.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Dutch Kills is currently a giant block of toxic ice, and I think the EPA is missing a big opportunity to just lift the water up and scrape away the black mayonnaise while the getting is good. That’s just a crazy idea, not the odd thing, however. This shot is looking south towards the estimable Long Island Expressway truss bridge over Dutch Kills, with the infinity of Brooklyn found just beyond the lugubrious Newtown Creek.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking in the opposite direction, towards the Dutch Kills turning basin and the Degnon Terminal. This is a familiar view, of course, and one of my favorite points of view along the entire Newtown Creek. As you can see, there was a fresh layer of snow recently deposited. That’s where the odd thing comes in.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Tracks were observed in the fresh snow, some of which were easy to classify. These were clearly left by a web footed bird, likely a Canada Goose due to their size and indication of gait. Also could have been a large gull. That’s still not the odd part.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These tracks in the snow covering Dutch Kills, this is what was odd. Some of these repeating shapes can easily be chalked up to garbage rolling along the surface of the snow, driven about by the cold wind. As a fairly obvious note, I shot these differently than the photos at the top of the post, intentionally under exposing them and desaturating the color so as to capture the detail and render the textures of the snow.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I can explain away most of these oddly mechanical looking impressions in the snow. That curving series of parallels – that’s a shoebox sized box. One cannot, however, reconcile the series of circular impressions. The circular impressions – that’s what was really odd. Also, it was odd that I was out at all as it was something like ten degrees Fahrenheit outside.
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The Newtown Pentacle 