Posts Tagged ‘newtown creek’
nighted secrets
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This has been one crazily busy few days for your humble narrator, and frankly- I’m a nervous wreck.
Tonight, the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance will be hosting the “Heroes of the Harbor” soiree at Pier 61 on the Hudson River at 6 p.m.- that’s Chelsea Piers for those unfamiliar with the demarcation of Manhattan’s surviving docks.
The MWA will be presenting the “Parade of Boats” at sunset, which will include (amongst others) the FDNY’s bon vivant “Three Forty Three” Fireboat. I’ll be there attempting to photograph the show.
Additionally, I remind you of the announcement made late Friday afternoon about the Working Harbor Committee and Newtown Creek Alliance produced boat tours of Newtown Creek on October 23rd which I will also be participating in. Tickets sales are flying, so order yours today.
“Join me on two Newtown Creek boat tours, both on October 23rd, 2011. I’ll be your tour guide, narrating humbly.
These tours are the co production of the Working Harbor Committee and the Newtown Creek Alliance made possible by funding from the NYCEF Newtown Creek Fund of the Hudson River Foundation. Accordingly, the tours will be heavily discounted, and tickets will cost only $10.
Made possible by funding from the NYCEF Newtown Creek Fund of the Hudson River Foundation”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Inadvertently, your humble narrator caused some confusion with that aforementioned post from Friday afternoon when a draft version was published which listed the wrong date and time for the two tours, and apologies are offered. Thanks are offered to the many sharp eyed readers of this, your Newtown Pentacle, who immediately let me know that an error had been published.
I long for the days of winter at this point, when solitary communion with my beloved Creeklands can be embraced again.
Oh, to fly with the night gaunts over the concrete desolations and haunt the rolling hillocks of Newtown once more …
So speaks the contemplative mood experienced by your humble narrator today…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
For those of you new to my little world- here’s how this whole thing got started:
Several years ago, after a serious illness brought on by a slothful and overly indulgent lifestyle, my staff of doctors had prescribed exercise and wholesome activity as a curative. They told me to run, but having grown up in Brooklyn- I only run when someone of something is chasing me- so I began to walk. A shabby and defeated man in a filthy black raincoat, camera in hand, reduced to walking the earth in the manner of a mendicant. Vastly inferior to others, and perhaps the worst of men, I am an unpleasant fellow given to tidal fluctuations of mood and temperament which cause me to display an uncompromising face to all. Accordingly, the world had crumpled me up and thrown me away like so much refuse. I put away childish things, and disappeared into the wastelands of western Queens.
Like every other discarded piece of wind strewn trash casually thrown away in the city of New York, I eventually turned up at the Newtown Creek. The emerald devastations of Calvary, the mysteries of a forgotten world of industrial supremacy, the wonders of a deeply hidden world had been awaiting me. The hellish green flame of revelation soon presented itself here, at the Creek, and before I knew it- my various researches, photographs, and activities were noticed by both the historical community and political establishment of Queens.
Before long, I found myself standing alongside respected scholars and scientific pillars, advocating for the Creek in public, and telling its story to boat loads of eager enthusiasts. This is something which I am still getting used to.
A few aphorisms and truisms have emerged in the preceding years- “make no assumptions”, “it’s not good, it’s not bad, it just is”, “next time I go down English Kills in a rowboat, I’m wearing a respirator”, and “if it can happen, it happened here, and if it happened here it was ten times worse than anywhere else”. When the Open House NY walks on the 15th and 16th are done, and the boat tours are finished in October, my plan is to resume solitary wanderings and delve into deeper waters at the Creek which the general public need not visit. As always, I’ll be sharing my pedantic adventures with you, my lords and ladies of the Pentacle.
The Second… Welcome to Newtown Creek…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Join me on two Newtown Creek boat tours, both on October 23rd, 2011. I’ll be your tour guide, narrating humbly.
These tours are the co production of the Working Harbor Committee and the Newtown Creek Alliance made possible by funding from the NYCEF Newtown Creek Fund of the Hudson River Foundation. Accordingly, the tours will be heavily discounted, and tickets will cost only $10.
Made possible by funding from the NYCEF Newtown Creek Fund of the Hudson River Foundation
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Two tours are scheduled, both are two hours in length. The first will leave LIC at 10am sharp (returns at noon), the second is at 1pm (returns at 3). A constellation of speakers will be onboard, including your humble narrator, who will be serving as Tour Chairman and MC. We will be onboard vessels provided by NY Water Taxi, which are comfortable and climate controlled boats with great sound systems.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Our anticipated itinerary will carry you from Hunters Point, and visit nearly all the communities of the Newtown Creek Watershed as we proceed east through Greenpoint, LIC, Blissville, Maspeth, Ridgewood, and finally East Williamsburg when we proceed all the way back to the Metropolitan Avenue Bridge.
Literally a once in a lifetime opportunity, you are invited to come and experience Newtown Creek (for an insubstantial fee- only ten bucks) and I’m hoping to see you onboard.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As you’d imagine, tickets are going to sell out fast at this price, so please order your tickets expeditiously. An incredible amount of planning has gone into this endeavor, and your ticket price includes a free 8 page booklet describing certain facts and facets of what you will be experiencing onboard. Newtown Creek, from the water, is one of the most incredible sights in New York City and you have never seen anything like it.
the First Big Announcement
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Your humble narrator will be conducting a walking tour in Long Island City as part of the Open House NY Weekend on October 15 and 16. The tour will be approximately two hours in length, starts at 11 am, and will visit several of the amazing industrial landmarks which distinguish the Queens side of the Newtown Creek Watershed. Much of the walk will follow the Dutch Kills tributary of Newtown Creek. Reservations are required, which can be had by visiting the following link:
http://www.ohny.org/site-programs/weekend/programs/walk-down-newtown-creek
Oh, did I neglect to mention that this walking tour is free, as in gratis, as in no cost to you- Lords and Ladies?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is the first of two big announcements, the second is still under wraps and I’m not able to discuss it at this point. Hopefully, within the next couple of days, I’ll be able to say more. Open House NY weekend is a citywide event, and there are multiple opportunities to do cool and unique things. Please check out the rest of their offerings, but you definitely want to come on this exploration of a hidden and neglected waterway which is found less than one mile from midtown Manhattan.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Bring a camera, of course, but I would be remiss if I didn’t advise you that broken pavement and largish puddles might be encountered- so proper (closed toe) footwear is advised. Additionally, this is as close to an urban desert as you are ever likely to find, so if you are one of the folks who likes to “stay hydrated”, bring a beverage along. Sparks deli on Borden Avenue will most likely be open, but one never can tell. Looking forward to seeing you along the Dutch Kills, and as always-
Want to see something cool?
Bring a camera, and ID…
Follow me…
cheering illusion
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Long island City, as we know it, was all about trains. Everywhere you go, tracks are. Despite this, the entire modern place is defined by it’s relationship to the automobile, which seems to have been the guiding principle behind much of its development in the middle 20th century- pull up the tracks and lay asphalt down for trucks. For those of you who might have seen me tagging along on one of Kevin Walsh’s audacious 2nd Saturday tours this summer, this will be a familiar refrain, but one of the things I’ve been going on about for the last several months is the “Locomotive City” versus the “Automotive City”.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
What I mean is that during the 19th and early 20th century, the place was set up and designed around access to rail based transportation rather than automotive needs. It’s why it’s so hard to park in LIC, except if you’re driving a train. 50 years ago, it was still not an uncommon or remarkable thing to see a Locomotive engine making its rounds at grade level around these parts, before everything switched over to truck and car based transport and the spars were cut.
This “locomotive city” had its own set of problems, of course, noise and pollution and accidents and all that- but the “automotive city” of the latter 20th century which we are all so familiar with is no picnic either. At least the earlier incarnation of the place was a lot more efficient.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As regular readers of this, your Newtown Pentacle, know- I’m kind of an infrastructure geek. One of my favorite topics are the sewers after all, and anyone who has accompanied me on a walk through LIC has had to endure me running over to a construction site and waxing rhapsodically about the layer cake of street systems which are revealed whenever workmen have dug their way down to perform maintenance or repairs on some buried subsystem.
In a single vertical yard, you will see asphalt, cement, belgian block cobblestones, macadamized or creosote treated wood blocks, oil saturated compacted earth- all the way down to the loose fill which was appropriate for horse carts. The industrial history of New York City, in cross section.
Today’s post is a bit of a placeholder, by the way, big announcements are imminent…
evasive outlines
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Recently, your humble narrator was assisting a colleague in the execution of a walking tour of the Newtown Creek when this tug and barge were spotted sliding across the water.
This was “the short tour”, which includes only the tiniest part of Greenpoint’s north side and includes the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant Nature Walk.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Esteemed, the person whom I was helping out has a rock solid grasp on the science and politics of the area, but had asked me to come along just in case anyone wanted to know who Provost Street or Kingsland Avenue are named for. That’s when I spotted this handsome scion of the McAllister towing company engaging in its occupation advancing down the Newtown Creek toward the East River.
The tugboat Resolute, side hitched to a fuel barge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
An oft repeated but seldom comprehended statement which those of us involved with the story of this place like to throw out is “a century ago, this was the busiest waterway in North America, and the Creek carried more shipping traffic than the entire Mississippi river”. The official date for that high water mark is actually 1912, so next year we will be correct when saying century.
Your humble narrator, of course, will use the word “centuried” simply because it sounds creepy and cool.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In times past, it wasn’t just fuel barges mind you- vast amounts of mineral products destined for manufacturers like Phelps Dodge, or barge loads of putrescents destined for corporations like Van Iderstines were common sights as late as the 1970’s along the Newtown Creek.
But- like everywhere else in New York City- nobody really makes anything these days, and even the fuel which the Resolute’s barge carries is refined elsewhere.
The Newtown Pentacle 