Posts Tagged ‘ny harbor’
colossal and protuberant
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There I sat, broken hearted…
Somehow that old Brooklyn Public School aphorism was on my mind as I scuttled along the street ends of Greenpoint. These shots were attained at India Street’s junction with the East River and depict the shield wall of a Shining City as viewed from the collapsing pierages of an ancient and crumbling competitor.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s difficult for us to think of the Boroughs as separate cities… well, it’s hard to imagine Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx as separate while with Staten Island it’s quite easy… but they were. This location upon which I was standing was, until quite recently (from a historical perspective), heavily industrialized. A workshop, this section of Greenpoint is in many ways responsible for the ascendency of Manhattan over not just it’s local competition but the Nation itself.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is another of the zones which the City fathers has designated for whatever they call “urban renewal” these days, and plans are both afoot and underway to convert certain structures to residential use (such as the “Pencil Factory”) or to clear away the existing building stock to make way for new construction.
The good news, or bad depending on your perspective, is that a condition set forward to the real estate interests by the City is that a waterfront pedestrian concourse not unlike the one nearing completion across the Newtown Creek in Long Island City must be built in return for certain laxities of enforcement regarding the zoned height of waterfront development.
At least there’ll still be a place down by the water where the kids in Greenpoint can go and dream of an age when you needn’t have to commute to get to work.
Additionally, the following event will be happening in Greenpoint on May 4th, 2011. I’ve met Shawn Shafner and he’s got a LOT of good stuff to say about some very bad stuff indeed. I’ll be there- at the Temple of Cloacina- how about you, Citizen?
Text from the flyer with links:
Water for Cities: Responding to the Urban Challenge*
Moderated by Shawn Shafner of The People’s Own Organic Power Project www.thePOOPproject.org
Wednesday, May 4th 2011 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm Talks followed by a panel discussion
Visitor Center at Newtown Creek 329 Greenpoint Avenue Brooklyn, New York 11222
The Speakers are: Frederik Pischke Interagency Water Advisor UN-Water, Vyjayanthi Rao Assistant Professor of Anthropology New School for Social Research, New York, Jennifer Farmwald Project Manager Water Supply Infrastructure & Watershed Assessment NYC Environmental Protection.
Visit DEP’s website at www.nyc.gov/dep Follow us at www.facebook.com/nycwater
Magic Lantern Show
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It is needless to say, of course, is that my magic lantern is digital. In the dawn of the age of photography, journeyman shooters would travel all around the world, or to corners of the City which the genteel upper crust would eschew- and capture images of titillating subjects for the entertainment and evangelization of the moneyed classes who would otherwise never encounter such things. Jacob Riis and Matthew Brady come to mind, and whereas your humble narrator would never allow himself to invoke those names for fear of the vast hubris it would call crashing down about my ears, a belief nevertheless persists around Newtown Pentacle HQ that such an exhibition can still find a modern audience.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just under an hour long, this Magic Lantern Show about Newtown Creek is personally narrated, and transports the viewer to every corner of the Newtown Creek- every tributary and street end, on the water and above it, and is presented in the idiosyncratic and off beat manner which has become familiar to regular readers of this- your Newtown Pentacle. It attempts to explain certain core questions in under an hour which have been repeatedly presented to me over the last couple of years, and the entire talk is illustrated with both my photography and historical researches and documents:
- What exactly do you mean by the “Newtown Pentacle”?
- When did the Newtown Creek begin to matter?
- Why should I care, how does the Newtown Creek affect me, as I live in Manhattan?
- Where exactly is this place?
- Who is responsible for this mess, and exactly who is it that’s going to clean it up?
- How can I get involved and help my community revitalize and or restore the Newtown Creek?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The entire evening will cost you a mere sawbuck, or $5 as it’s referred to in modernity (and I’m not altogether certain what the deal is if you’re already a GAHS member, you’d be best served by checking in with them), and will be presented at the Greater Astoria Historical Society on June 6th, 2011 at 7p.m. I’d love to see you there, and there will be a question and answer period after the show, in which I’ll endeavor to respond to any random question from the audience. Luckily, GAHS will be there, should my knowledge fall short. Come one, come all.
Believe it or not, this still isn’t the BIG announcement. Await with baited breath the next thrilling installment of this- your Newtown Pentacle.
Bernie
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Bernard Ente died this morning. Master photographer, historian, community leader, advocate for Newtown Creek and all things maritime, Bernie is survived by his wife and daughter- who for the time being, ask Bernie’s many friends to abstain from attempts at contacting them. They know and appreciate that you want to reach out, but require some private time during which to come to terms with their loss. As does the entire City, for losing Bernie from our collective community is a body blow.
Bernie was one of the guiding lights at Working Harbor Committee, Newtown Creek Alliance, and one of my very favorite people. His knowledge of the history of New York was second to none, and Bernie was the one who encouraged and nurtured an entire generation of bloggers and photographers to step forward and publish (including your humble narrator).
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Bernie would call me up late in the evening and ask “So, what are you doing tomorrow?”.
No matter what, I’d say “nothing”, and resolve to clear my schedule or call in sick to work because when Bernie called there was an adventure to be had. Whether it was riding on a Fireboat, or taking a group of tourists on a walking tour of some distant and long forgotten locale, or showing off New York Harbor to a class of inner city kids- it was always an adventure. His sense of humor was legendary, and he was one of the most honest people I’ve ever met- possessed of an incontrovertible sense of “right and wrong”.
More on Bernie will be said in the coming days, but I’m a bit overcome by the loss of my friend at the moment.
Things To Do!!!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Mr. Kevin Walsh, supreme and unyielding webmaster of the intrepid Forgotten-NY.com will be teaming up with Richard Melnick of the Greater Astoria Historical Society for a walking tour of Skillman Avenue, a street which begins in Long Island City at 49th avenue and ends in Woodside at Roosevelt Avenue. Your humble narrator will be along for the trip, and has been busy producing the snazzy collateral booklet for the trip, and folks- this one is a visual feast.
Photography enthusiasts will find themselves especially pleased, as will the general antiquarian community, as we move through a fast moving and epic landscape crowded with the sky flung monumental relics of an industrial revolution.
Trace the history of Queens from a civil war era rail road station, stagger through the mighty Degnon Terminal, marvel at the titan Sunnyside Yards, and experience the pastoral glories of entering the Sunnyside- all in under 3 miles on Saturday, April 16th at 11:30AM.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The price of this tour, and one just might think of it as tuition, for time spent with Mr. Walsh and Mr. Melnick often leaves one with the sense of having attended a scholarly dissertation- will be $25. This relative pittance, however, includes the price of an informative and handsome BW booklet written by Mr. Walsh and illustrated with photography whose odd style would be familiar to regular readers of this- your Newtown Pentacle.
The intended route is detailed here, or visit Forgotten-NY’s tour page here.
As mentioned, Mr. Melnick of the Greater Astoria Historical Society will be assisting Mr. Walsh, and has vouchsafed a discount of some 20% for the existing members of his esteemed group, bringing the price to a mere $20.
hoary and sinister
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned in prior postings, your humble narrator has been making a dedicated effort to visit and revisit certain sites along the Newtown Creek to which access was restricted during the long and icy winter. This springtime survey is referred to as “walking the beat” around HQ, although it really should be described as “scuttling the beat”. On March 19th, my camera and I found ourselves at the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant‘s Nature Walk.
Click here for more on the Nature Walk
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A surprisingly beautiful space, the Nature Walk is the safest and one of the most accessible vantage points along the infamous industrial waterway. Despite it’s relative remoteness, at the end of Paidge Avenue past the corner of Provost Street, people do find their way here. For some reason, I always find this surprising.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Newtown Creek has several access points, but most are pestilential street ends bordering industrial sites which are defended by dull eyed watchmen and aggressive private security guards. A few of them actually take you to the water’s edge, but you end up standing in contaminated mud amidst the rusting hubris of 150 years of breakneck industrial growth. The nice bit about the NCWWTP Nature Walk is that you are actually fairly safe (well… as safe as you ever are around the Creek…) and that it provides gorgeous wide open panoramas for the journeyman photographer.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The tributary which the sewer plant adjoins is Whale Creek. Once upon a time, this section of Greenpoint was the center of the lamp oil refinery trade, and said lamp oil was sourced from whale oil. Just down the main waterway from here were the shipyards of Neziah Bliss (and others) which supplied, augmented, and repaired the ships of New York’s whaling fleet. Additionally, the African slaves of Greenpoint and Newtown were known to join the crews of these ships, as 19th century whalers didn’t care about what color you were, just how hard you could work and how long you might survive.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The planters you see here are blocking the kayak launch, part of the controversial decision on the part of the City fathers to disallow boats to access the Creek from City property (obviously for liability reasons, in the wake of the Superfund announcement by the Federal Government). That decision has since been countermanded, and the launch is scheduled to reopen at the start of the “season” which greatly enhanced the happiness of those redoubtable kayakers emanating from the Long Island City Boathouse.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Personally, you couldn’t get me to interact with the water here even at gunpoint, but past postings have described the vast physical cowardice which cripples me. I can tell you, from everything I know about the Creek, that the water quality here isn’t “horrible”. It’s a little dirtier than the East River in this section, except after a rain event, which demands an interval of time to allow the bacterial and colorectal dumping of Combined Sewer Outfalls to dissipate. Luckily, radiation from the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself destroys most of these pathogens within a few days, and the focus shifts from bacterial to chemical contamination.
You are insane (or a Viking), though, if you spend much time beyond the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge or in Dutch Kills, Maspeth Creek, and especially English Kills. Lots of people are thusly “insane” however, and hardily survive the experience- so perhaps I’m being over cautious.
Time will tell, and cancer is patient.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Tomorrow, we’ll talk about the rest of the Nature Walk, and some of it’s more interesting features, but while viewing the shield wall of the Shining City with it’s titan blocks hurled at the sky- I noticed one of those small details which often escapes casual notice. Note the fencing in the lower left corner of the shot above, and the white placards affixed to it.
One of my pet peeves about the Newtown Creek watershed can be expanded upon here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Three bits of signage, and I am assured by powers and potentates alike that these are strictly temporary, admonish and inform users of the waterfront access point about the esoteric dangers which one might encounter along the Creek. When an earlier posting at this, your Newtown Pentacle, warned the cadre of boaters docked at the Vernon Avenue Street end that they were placing themselves in “Mortal and Existential danger“- this is the sort of thing I was talking about.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My pet peeve, as it were, is that these signs are difficult to notice and written in English. Observations of who it is that actually fishes in Newtown Creek have revealed that it is mostly Spaniard and Slavic anglers that ply these waters- and the populations which line its Brooklyn banks are demographically disposed toward demonstrating literacy in the Spanish or Polish languages. Logic dictates, therefore, that this would be an excellent place for a multi-lingual bit of municipal signage.
As mentioned, I’ve been informed that such multilingual signage is “in the works”.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The English issue is something that I’m increasingly concerned about as we move into the Superfund era, and one that I’ve raised at the Newtown Creek Alliance meetings. If someone reading this posting is fluent in either Polish or Spanish, and wishes to “get involved”- please contact me here or swing over to the NCA website to find out more about the organization. My particular focus within the group is Queens, of course, but I see the communities surrounding the Creek as being more involved with each other (Long Island City and Greenpoint are ultimately one entity, despite political sophistry. Back in the day, they lived in Greenpoint and worked in LIC) than the neighborhoods surrounding them on the landward side.
Come to think of it, the Eels that this sign cautions against might explain those eyeless wriggling things that I’ve observed in Maspeth Creek- hmm.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Note: The following is a personal viewpoint, and doesn’t reflect the policies of any organization-
The world only makes sense when you force it to do so. Titanic forces and entities are on the move around the Newtown Creek, and the season of tumult and change upon the ancient waterway has begun. Whether the final shape of the place will be determined by outsiders or the community itself is ultimately up to us. The truth of Newtown Creek is that it is still one of the great economic engines of New York City, and one of the few places where someone without a collegiate degree can earn a decent living by the sweat of his brow. Do we want to lose this in the name of providing anchorages for some rich guy from Manhattan to park his yacht? What do you want the Newtown Creek to look like 20 years from now?
Paraphrasing Roger Waters- Are we destined to become a nation of waitresses, and waiters?
The Newtown Pentacle 