Posts Tagged ‘North Side’
Operation Run, gun, and Hey Now
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It had been about three weeks since a ‘big’ winter storm had blanketed Pittsburgh in about a foot and half of snow, and that weather event also accomplished the arrival of arctic air, here in the Paris of Appalachia. Said atmospheric incursion installed frigid conditions which persisted for the better part of a month.
The shots in today’s post (and in several subsequent ones) were gathered during a short scuttle on February the 10th of 2026. As you might discern, my efforts at maintaining ‘lead time,’ as far as when these posts publish in relationship to when the photos were actually shot is currently well ahead of schedule and working out. One less thing to worry about, for me.
Of course, it’s likely that early spring has started in the northeast, as you’re reading this, and here I am reminding you of a hard winter. I’ve always offered others a glimmer of darkness, just as the sun begins to rise. I’m like a dark cloud on a sunny day, or an irregularly shaped mole on someone’s ass which suddenly starts to bleed. This is part of why everyone hates me. Pariah.
This was kind of a short walk, and ‘the path’ was governed by endemic ice and snow conditions, and the frosty horror was adhering to sidewalks and roadways. My ‘way’ was decided for me, in many cases, by these frozen accretions and the paths around them.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After debarking the T Light Rail service, which had carried my pre-corpse into town from Dormont, one set upon a northwards path.
Whereas the air temperature on this particular day was measured as being in the high 30’s, the ground temperature was still sub zero after long intervals of single digit and below zero temperatures. Any melt water coming off the snow pack instantly froze onto any concrete or masonry it touched, forming sheens of fresh and super slippery ice.
‘It was slippy aht,’ as the local Yinzers might offer, in the regional dialect.
I didn’t really have a set goal for the day, as you really can’t plan around finding out a four to five foot tall wall of plowed snow is blocking your path, in random places. One followed his nose, thereby.
It was really all about movement, and staying in it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The first area I scuttled through was right next to what I’ve learned to be the former ‘Clark Bar’ candy factory, of the D.L. Clark outfit. There’s a rail bridge back here, one which I’ve had my eye on for a bit, so I figured…
Hey Now?
Well… the sidewalks were clear at least…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey now indeed!
Luckily for me, Norfolk Southern’s #4430 showed up just as I arrived. It’s a rebuilt GE AC44C6M model locomotive, which I’m told was originally christened as NS #9212 when it first rolled out of the RR factory in 1998.
It was hauling some sort of black mineral. Likely coal or coke, but unless you know something for sure… don’t guess.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This span (the Merchant Street Bridge) connects to a rail trench which then flows northwards through Allegheny Commons Park, a spot which I’ve visited fairly regularly. These tracks then follow the Allegheny River for a spell. There’s a branch off spur which allows cross river rail connection over the Allegheny at the Fort Wayne Rail Bridge, and then also at the 33rd st. bridge. There’s other rail trestles upriver, and downriver, obviously, but I haven’t shot them all… quite yet.
Hey Now!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Yes, I’m completely aware that I’ve been moving through this area quite a bit in recent weeks.
Here’s why: I can get here pretty easily during inclement weather using mass transit, and given the presence of large institutions like the stadiums, parks, and hospitals found in this ‘zone,’ better odds of encountering pavement where the snow had been cleared exist. Theoretically, at least.
Saying that, Pittsburgh absolutely faceplanted on snow clearance during this season. I don’t think I need to mention the ‘orthopedic incident’ as being psychologically omnipresent while negotiating ice and snow.
Back tomorrow with more.
“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.
Flumen frigus Friday
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of the things that drew me out of HQ and to Downtown Pittsburgh on this wintry day involved gathering a few shots of the frozen over rivers from those pedestrian paths offered by this city’s many bridges. After wandering about in the Viking apocalypse for a bit, I set about doing just that thing.
I had a few blocks to cross, though, and the going was difficult due to the amount of ice and snow clinging to the pavement. It’s been so cold here that any water which might hit the concretized ground instantly freezes into a plate of mirror ice.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is a big part of why I haven’t been driving around, unless absolutely necessary, for the last few weeks.
Hell… we just paid off the loan on the car. Last thing I want to risk is the single largest investment in ‘tech’ that I’ve ever made. I’ve had lots of expensive computers and cameras and gadgets over the years, but buying a new car in 2022… luckily, I made the purchase before interest rates exploded and I was locked in at 2.9%.
Above, and boy oh boy do I love a good ramp, that’s an entrance ramp from Route 28 onto the Fort Duquesne Bridge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The path was followed to the Andy Warhol 7th street bridge. This is part of a trio of identical bridges referred to as ‘The Three Sisters.’ It was freaking cold, yo. The radiant cold of that frozen river’s ice, coupled with a steady wind… brrr.
Was almost as bad as that time at Dutch Kills when I caught some frostbite, but this time around I didn’t need to hang around waiting for the rising sun to shine on a certain spot.
I’ve just received word that my ‘tree of hope’ at Dutch Kills has been annihilated. Newtown Creek is death hungry, life cannot prevail against her.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Again, slightly underexposed to reveal the spectacular nature of the sky.
Saying that, it was mid afternoon and the light really wasn’t ‘on my side.’ This is the Allegheny River, looking more or less south. That bridge in the shot is one of the three sisters, the 6th street Roberto Clemente Bridge. It’s the one that had the Ferris wheel set up on it during the early autumn.
At any rate, I was here for the icy waters.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s been all over the TV news: ‘Don’t walk on the river ice, we won’t be able to save you,’ or so says Pittsburgh’s emergency response coordinator, as well as any paramedic or fireman you might ask. There were footprints – nevertheless – in the ice and snow on the river. Adult and child.
Somebody actually drove off the side of a highway and into a river recently, which resulted in their death. On the subject of the dangerous kind of road ragey driving behavior you’ll encounter here in Pittsburgh – this deadly 18 vehicle crash happened recently as well.
Tail gating is epidemic and endemic on Pittsburgh’s high speed roads. They don’t slow down for ice and snow, the Yinzers. I saw a debate on Reddit recently wherein a group of ‘lifelongs’ were arguing that you should – in fact – drive faster than normal in the snow as it’s safer that way.
And y’all wonder why I’ve been leaving the car back home in the driveway…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One continued on his lonely way. The toes were beginning to numb, whereas the fingers had long ago been rendered bloodless. I prefer not wearing gloves if I don’t really have to. My trusty go to sweatshirts have long cuffs on them with thumb holes cut out, so I can usually cover the top and palm of the hand that way. The gloves get in the way of operating the discrete controls of the camera.
Back next week with more.
“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.
Tē pudeat, tē pudeat, tē pudeat!
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
See that pathway through the snow? That’s a fantastic and completed job of snow removal by a commercial business building, by the standards of Pittsburgh, in the tourist areas surrounding the stadiums.
Shame. Shame. Shame.
I think that shame gets a bad rap these days. Look in the mirror every now and then, huh?
‘Aren’t you ashamed of yourself’ doesn’t seem to be something people consider these days. As I’ve mentioned several times over the years, the specific way that my own brain operates involves sloughing off successes and victories – that’s what was supposed to happen – and hard coding failure, embarrassment, and shame into active memory.
Keeps me honest, and up at night, this.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey Now! That’s the ‘white whale,’ an Allegheny Valley Railroad unit moving along a Norfolk Southern trestle. Sweet serendipitous victory! Already forgotten, that.
Almost slipping on a patch of wet ice? I’ll remember that one forever.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The path I was following was a bit of a loop. I’d be roaming around in the end for a little over 90 minutes, then heading back to the T. It was about twenty degrees out, and a bit windy. One was warmly dressed, but…
There’s a lot on my mind these days. No better time to think through things than when walking. Something biochemical goes on. There’s studies which suggest that some of the neurological decline of aging can be attenuated by taking long walks. Maybe it’s the meditative solitude.
As I always say: if I stop moving, I’ll stop moving…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I underexposed this one a bit to bring the sky closer into accord with the broader range of human vision. You can just see the sun peeking through, slightly above the center point of the shot.
Couldn’t feel its warmth, at all.
Things got weird here. Long blocks surrounding Allegheny Commons Park, nearby the National Aviary and several schools, had zero attention paid to their cross walks. I had to walk around a half mile before encountering a safe place to cross the street. This was annoying.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The plows had more or less cleared the roads, but they left behind ice walls of up to three and change feet high along the curbs. Pedestrians can go jump in a lake, I guess. Thankfully, the bike lanes were clear because – let’s face it – that’s the number one priority for urban planning.
Notice any bicycles in the shot above? Didn’t see one rider the whole time I was out. Lots of people walking about, though. As long as the bike lanes are available, life can persist and the Republic continues, I guess.
Watch words and phrases to listen for inclusion of, if you think your politician is going all bike laney are ‘Strong Towns,’ ‘War on Cars,’ Safe Streets,’ and ‘traffic calming.’ Should your politician start using these words, an intervention is called for. Treat this sort of thing in the same manner you would after finding drugs in your kid’s bedroom, as early intervention during bicycle lobby conversion is critical.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Bah!
I swung by the rail trench in the park, but nothing was happening there, and it was too cold to just stand around and wait for a train. My toes were thereby pointed towards the direction of a T station a couple of miles away where I’d catch my ride home.
Wasn’t done shooting, though.
More on all that tomorrow.
“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.
Kicking dirt, north shore style
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After a lovely walk down Troy Hill, where a cemetery was visited and the very steep Troy Hill Road walked upon, your humble narrator soon found himself crossing one of those pedestrian bridges which overfly a vast complex of high speed roads here in Pittsburgh.
The Fort Duquesne, Fort Pitt, Veterans, and West End Bridges are nearby, and the complex of interchanges between I-376/I-279/I-579/Route 28 and the primary and secondary local ‘arterial streets’ dominate this formerly industrial section of Pittsburgh.
As you’d deduce from the shot above, the former Heinz factory is found nearby. It’s been turned into residential lofts in the post industrial period.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These pedestrian ramps hide the presence of a fairly well established homeless encampment, one that can be observed below them. There’s a few holes cut into the fences here and there for egress. The encampment, seems to use a different spot, under and towards the end of the ramp as a latrine. It’s easy to find, if you follow your nose. Heroin is apparently one heck of a drug.
Other than leaving a bag of old clothes here and there for the unhoused, or passing off cans of dog food to a particular fellow that hangs around one of the tunnel exits whose pup I feel bad for, I try not to get involved in the lives of the street people. Trouble.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pittsburgh offers drivers a series of confusing choices which they need to make at the very last second. The city has odd road usage conventions that indicate needing to use this left lane – or the right one – to proceed. In some spots, you need to shift into the right lane for less than a block – before reaching a mandatory right turn – and then shift back into the original travel lane you were in to continue straight – merging right in the middle of the intersection after the lane you started in has to make a mandatory left turn. Confusing. This works out well once you can anticipate the situation, presuming you’re overly familiar with the place and its mores, but for a newcomer or visitor – it’s chaos. As I call it – Pittsburgh Vernacular – you just have to ‘know.’
Regardless, I was on foot.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I passed through the campus of the former Heinz Factory. Spectacular terra cotta and industrial design here. Beautiful spot, in the middle of a not so beautiful spot. There’s a number of things which, as a former New Yorker, it’s hard to reconcile about this city. There are entire neighborhoods which should be ‘popping,’ but aren’t. This is one of them.
Bah! I really aspire to not care about anything anymore.
Google’s AI tells me that ‘A lack of emotion is often defined as apathy, meaning an absence of feeling, interest, or concern, leading to reduced motivation; it can also manifest as emotional numbness, detachment, or flat affect, a reduced expression of emotion, often seen in conditions like depression, PTSD, or neurological disorders, with specific terms like alexithymia describing difficulty identifying/describing feelings.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Next on my list for a walk around is actually this section of the North Side. Looks seedy, but Andy Warhol’s family is still in the scrap metal business back there somewhere. Maybe there’s a giant soup can or something. I’ve wandered through here in the past, but not while consciously cataloging what I’m seeing. Most of the time in this zone, I’m walking on the waterfront trail when rolling through and heading somewhere else.
Maybe that’s the problem this section of the North Side has – it’s a liminal space that people pass through but seldom dwell in. I used to be familiar with a waterway in Brooklyn and Queens that had the same problem.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I crossed the Allegheny River on the 16th street David McCullough bridge. This brought me to Pittsburgh’s so called ‘golden triangle,’ which is the peninsular section where most of the corporate and governmental powers reside.
The orthopedic incident had seriously retarded my efforts in 2025. That’s more or less over now, and your humble narrator is enthusiastic about being back on the prowl in a free roaming manner.
Back tomorrow.
“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.
Atavist candy and the Allegheny River
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On Pittsburgh’s north side, nearby the stadium where the Steelers live and play, a former factory building can be observed. The 1928 vintage structure has obviously been renovated in modernity, with its snazzy windows and sharply pointed brick walls.
It’s called the D.L Clark Building and this structure used to be a candy factory. Over at historicpittsburgh.org, they’ve got old timey shots of the place from ‘back in the day.’
Recent scuttling brought this building onto my radar, and I’m glad of that.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s peculiar, to me, that a shroud of relative obscurity greets the curious narrator, as to the specifics of this building and its renovation, which real estate representatives describe as ‘a landmark.’
This shroud, I think, is the shadow result of the sort of SEO marketing efforts that real estate people engage in. Page of search results after page of search results were unified in congratulating me on my interest in renting commercial space in the building. The listings describe cavernous and desirable spaces within. Apparently, one of Pittsburgh’s news outlets is also based herein. The SEO marketing crowds out actual search results.
As far as what Google, in modernity, has become – I think Huey Lewis said it best. Shame that, Google was a great tool once.
Bah!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The excellent historicpittsburgh.org site offers this ‘D. L. Clark Company Papers and Photographs’ page, which discusses the Clark Company and its long history in some detail.
Manufacturers of the iconic Clark Bar, the D. L. Clark Company was. Said ‘Clark Bar’ was a sweet treat that was commonly found floating around in the ruck sacks of American Soldiers during the two world wars.
I was always a Milky Way or Three Musketeers guy, with a strong secondary preference for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Also, Lemonheads, mmmm. Of course, I was a kid in the 1970’s and early 80’s.
Forward, ever forward, and it was time to push on.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Your humble narrator is absolutely captivated by the ramps leading to and from the Fort Duquesne Bridge in this section of Pittsburgh. It’s not a great pedestrian space, I should mention, until you’re squarely in the shadows of these things. The entire area hereabouts is all about the needs of the automobile, despite there being a light rail station and lots of bus service nearby. This is roughly the mid point between the two big stadiums – Acrisure/Steelers and PNC Park/Pirates.
There’s a lot of new construction in this zone, and a strip of high volume bar/restaurants, of the sort which the TV show ‘Bar Rescue’ extols as being ‘profit machines’ which enjoy surge business on game days.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One reached the shoreline of the Allegheny River, and crossed the waterbody on the Sixth Street/Roberto Clemente bridge. One was hoping for some maritime activity, but that wasn’t happening (yet).
I was as happy as possible, for one such as myself. The filthy black raincoat was flapping about in the wind, and the light was good.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s when this set of stairs leading off of the bridge and down to one of the riverfront trails manifested itself. I’ve walked down these stairs dozens of times, it should be mentioned, but for some reason… the PTSD regarding the bum ankle manifested.
Couldn’t stop myself from ‘death gripping’ the bannister. Managed to force myself down them to the trail below, but it wasn’t pretty and I was literally clinging to the bannisters on that first turn down there. It’s getting better, but is obviously still present, this sensation.
Back tomorrow with more.
“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 