Posts Tagged ‘newtown creek’
yellow rays
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just after sunset, and back at the Dutch Kills tributary of Newtown Creek in Long Island City.
I’ve been keeping an eye on a collapsing bulkhead along 29th street for a while now. It’s a difficult subject, due to there being no easy point of view for the area. This, thereby is one of the few times that I willfully trespass. It’s worth the risk, right here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s two abandoned oil barges in the water here. Nobody knows who’s responsible for that, but they’ve been here for more than 20 years.
Nothing matters, and nobody cares.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The barges have so thoroughly decayed by this point that it’s not even possible to lift them out using a crane.
Want a picture of what’s wrong with NYC? Look at the one above.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the collapsing bulkhead, lit up in yellows and oranges by a nearby sodium lamp, one mounted on a self storage warehouse that neighbors the waterway. There are no street lights on 29th street.
This is Long Island City, mind you. A block from La Guardia Community College, and two blocks from the Court Square subway station. Hottest real estate zone on the planet, as well. This property itself isn’t owned by some defunct corporate entity either, rather it’s the MTA’s – as in the “gub’mint.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This slow moving disaster has been going on for three years, with a significant uptick of shoreline dissection beginning around Thanksgiving of 2021. Since then, everytime I check in on this area, things have gotten a little bit worse.
It’s MTA’s, but they have exceptions written into the laws that govern situations like this which indemnify them from the attentions of the regulatory agencies who would normally write an order to fix things up.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
What that means is that any solution to this problem, prior to 29th street collapsing, will be a political one. The cart has to be driven by an elected official, essentially. Currently, there are lawyers who are lawyering other lawyers.
Nothing matters, and nobody cares.
The Newtown Creekathon returns!
On April 10th, the all day death march around Newtown Creek awakens from its pandemic slumber.
DOOM! DOOM! Fully narrated by Mitch Waxman and Will Elkins of Newtown Creek Alliance, this one starts in LIC at the East River, heads through Blissville, the happy place of Industrial Maspeth, dips a toe in Ridgewood and then plunges desperately into Brooklyn. East Williamsburgh and then Greenpoint are visited and a desperate trek to the East River in Brooklyn commences. DOOM! Click here for more information and to reserve a spot – but seriously – what’s wrong with you that you’re actually considering doing this? DOOM!
“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.
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Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Scuttling, always scuttling, from place to place with camera in hand. Filthy black raincoat flapping about in the poison wind. Sometimes, the light is absolutely glorious.
We pick up where last week left off, at the Dutch Kills tributary of Newtown Creek in Long Island City. One had set up the camera into its long exposure/landscape modality, with filter and tripod and the rest of the deal. Sunset was just getting underway.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When leaving HQ, it had already been decided that this was going to be a long walk, and that a lot of ground would be covered. That’s the LIRR’S Cabin M railroad bridge, which was described in some detail in last Friday’s post.
Before you ask, this was a Sunday, and there’s virtually zero chance of getting in the way of freight rail operations along Newtown Creek on a Sunday.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s a not exactly secret pathway along the water down here, between the two rail bridges on Dutch Kills. I seldom walk it, as it’s pretty obscure and were I to find myself in trouble down here I’d have a hard time explaining to the 911 operator where I was.
Saying that, I do roll through here occasionally.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s DB Cabin, another LIRR rail bridge, but one whose tracks are normally pretty active. It connects two freight rail yards across the waters of Dutch Kills, and carries the LIRR’s Lower Montauk tracks.
Kills is “old Dutch” for Creek, I’m told.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A new player has emerged in the Blissville yard, which is a good thing. Not sure what they do, but it’s good to see freight rail being embraced by industry.
One continued scuttling along in an easterly direction, towards the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pictured is DUGABO – Down under the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge Onramp. The surface street is called “Railroad Avenue.”
On my Amtrak travels last fall, I discovered that there’s a street called “Railroad Avenue” in nearly every City that I went looking for one in.
More tomorrow.
The Newtown Creekathon returns!
On April 10th, the all day death march around Newtown Creek awakens from its pandemic slumber.
DOOM! DOOM! Fully narrated by Mitch Waxman and Will Elkins of Newtown Creek Alliance, this one starts in LIC at the East River, heads through Blissville, the happy place of Industrial Maspeth, dips a toe in Ridgewood and then plunges desperately into Brooklyn. East Williamsburgh and then Greenpoint are visited and a desperate trek to the East River in Brooklyn commences. DOOM! Click here for more information and to reserve a spot – but seriously – what’s wrong with you that you’re actually considering doing this? DOOM!
“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.
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Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Scuttling, always scuttling. Camera in hand, filthy black raincoat flapping about in the poison wind, sometimes the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself hangs pregnantly in the vault of the sky.
I knew this was going to be kind of a long day for me, so my first steps involved using the Subway to cut a bit of walking off of the trip. The R carried me east to Jackson Heights, where a transfer to the 7 was enacted and one proceeded westward. My ultimate destination was the same place where every other bit of wind blown garbage goes – Newtown Creek. Specifically, the Dutch Kills tributary of the larger waterway found in Long Island City. One exited the Subway system at the Hunters Point Avenue stop and got busy.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My first stop was to check in on the collapsing bulkhead along 29th street. Said collapse is causing the underpinnings of the adjoining roadway, the aforementioned 29th street, to empty out into the waterway. This is called undermining.
So far, my pals at Newtown Creek Alliance and I have managed to activate every single elected official in western Queens, from Borough President to dog catcher, about this issue. Interested in reading the actual signed letter we sent to Janno Lieber at MTA about the bulkhead? Click here for a Google docs link.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The odyssey since has involved a bunch of lawyers and an admission from MTA that this is, indeed, their property. No tangible or material progress has manifested itself yet, because the lawyers are still lawyering, and luckily the street hasn’t collapsed in on itself while we’re waiting for them to finish all that stuff up. Yet.
Nothing matters, and nobody cares.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My “artsy fartsy” section of the day could commence, after having captured reference shots of the bulkhead to show to the various entities who might own it or have a regulatory stake in it, one headed over to the Montauk Cutoff. It was, after all, nearly time for sunset.
I’m not one of those photographers who only shoot during sunrise or sunset, but if the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself is about to paint the sky with color, and you’re already out…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s Cabin M, the “abandoned” railroad drawbridge which is part of the Degnon Terminal Railway – aka the LIRR’s Montauk Cutoff – a similarly “abandoned” rail spur that used to connect Long Island Railroad’s Lower Montauk tracks along Newtown Creek to the nearby Sunnyside Yards, and the LIRR Main Line leading to Woodside and Jamaica. The reason MTA owns that bulkhead on 29th street is due to the bankruptcy of the national Penn Central Railroad company, which by the 1960’s owned LIRR and all the other private rail spurs in Long Island City. Richard Nixon nationalized the assets of Penn Central, with its passenger service becoming Amtrak and its freight business becoming Conrail, and their intra city or commuter rail operation was given to the states. Philadelphia created SEPTA, Massachusetts established the MBTA, and here in New York – Governor Nelson Rockefeller created the MTA. Rockefeller combined the bankrupt New York City Transit Authority’s Subway and Bus operations, as well as the profitable bridges and tunnels which he stole away from Robert Moses, into what he dubbed as the “MTA.”
Believe it or not – the paragraph above is a quick summary. I did a video about Sunnyside Yards a few years ago that discusses this complicated saga in some detail – click here for a YouTube link.
Cabin M, like the 29th street bulkhead, is infrastructure which MTA didn’t design or build but they’re responsible for maintaining it – maybe. Like I said, lawyers are lawyering.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s DB Cabin, a swing bridge which sits at the mouth of the Dutch Kills tributary of Newtown Creek. Before you ask, “Cabin” is railroad talk, I don’t know. The bridge connects two Lower Montauk track rail yards – Wheelspur and Blissville. Best date I’ve been able to find for it being built was 1919, but this structure replaced earlier ones. There’s been railroad tracks in this zone since at least the late 1860’s. Definitively, the date for rail in this zone – connecting Jamaica to the east with the industrial heartlands of Newtown Creek in Maspeth, Bushwick, and Ridgewood to the East River in the west is 1870.
Back next week with more, at this, your Newtown Pentacle.
The Newtown Creekathon returns!
On April 10th, the all day death march around Newtown Creek awakens from its pandemic slumber.
DOOM! DOOM! Fully narrated by Mitch Waxman and Will Elkins of Newtown Creek Alliance, this one starts in LIC at the East River, heads through Blissville, the happy place of Industrial Maspeth, dips a toe in Ridgewood and then plunges desperately into Brooklyn. East Williamsburgh and then Greenpoint are visited and a desperate trek to the East River in Brooklyn commences. DOOM! Click here for more information and to reserve a spot – but seriously – what’s wrong with you that you’re actually considering doing this? DOOM!
“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.
it shines
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Dutch Kills, and my little tree of paradise. I check in on this tree about once a week these days. It would absolutely break my heart if I showed up here and it was gone. Eventually, it will affect the structure it adjoins and will be removed, or it will be hydrologically undermined by the waterway and fall into the water. I understand this.
Saying that, gosh do I hope this thing continues growing and thriving in these horrific circumstances, along the Long Island City reaches of the fabulous Newtown Creek. These shots were captured in mid February, I should mention.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The thick plate of ice which Dutch Kills had been encased in was “rotting” away as I was moving around the zone. The polka dots effect was fascinating. I’ve had a few people ask me if this was due to some environmental factor, but I think it’s just what happens in a tepid tidal situation involving brackish water.
The extreme cold of early to mid February typically creates icing along the tributaries of Newtown Creek and in isolated sections along the main part of the waterway. Saying that, it has to be fairly cold for a protracted period of time for the “main stem” to get fully frozen over.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
What I found kind of interesting was the presence of these snowflake shaped ice holes closer to the boundary between liquid and frozen. This particular spot is always lurking under the Borden Avenue Bridge.
As far as you seeing photos from February, with today being the Ides of March, one has been lucky enough to be a couple/three weeks ahead of schedule here at Newtown Pentacle for most of 2022. I’ve got some cool stuff coming your way, including another Amtrak based day trip to America’s consolation prize – Philadelphia. Also, I’m cooking up a few “in person” Newtown Creek events which I’ll be announcing soon.
More tomorrow, at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“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.
harmless stupidity
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Scuttling, always scuttling, camera in hand, filthy black raincoat flapping about, shoes scraping the concrete. That’s my life. Wherever I go, there I am. Nothing ever changes, nothing matters, nobody cares. Everyday, it all starts over again. Sometimes it snows.
Frost bitten and friendless, there I was at Dutch Kills as the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself rose in the dawn sky. One hoped for the boughs of that little tree to be laden with snow, but this too was denied.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Unfortunately, due to a series of reasons that I don’t really want to get into, the decision to walk over to a nearby collapsing bulkhead before heading back to a heated room in Astoria was arrived at. All ten fingers were numb, but only six of them were reporting. So too did a couple of my toes go offline. The tip of my nose was similarly missing without leave. It was 12 degrees Fahrenheit, with a steady wind.
This isn’t the coldest I’ve ever been. There was that negative 37 time in Vermont, and that time I had to ride a boat up the East River at 5 in the morning in January with my old pal Bernie… I’ve been cold before. Saying all that, it was pretty uncomfortable being out. It’s taken weeks for my fingertips to recover. Good news is that in the interval, I’ve been able to pinch out candles with zero discomfort.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As far as 29th street, and the collapsing bulkheads along it go, my pals and I at Newtown Creek Alliance have recently been working the channels of “officialdom” and got sign on’s for immediate action from Congresswoman Maloney, Senator Gianaris, Assemblywoman Nolan, Borough President Richards, and Council Member Won along with a few other powers and potentates, as well as a few local business owners. It’s still a developing situation, down there in LIC.
Back next week with more numbed finger action, at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“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 