The Newtown Pentacle

Tuesday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Philadelphia has its fair share of sapphire blue glass rhombuses which thrust rudely at the heavens, in the manner of the Tower of Babel, but NYC has them beat on soulless architecture. Back during the “Let’s Deck over the Sunnyside Yards and build affordable housing days” of De Blasio’s first term (before he practically bankrupted the City), the powers that be opined that a humble narrator was overstating the sort of structures that would be built onto the deck, and that it would be an economic “positive” for Queens. They claimed nothing more than six stories would be built east of Queens Plaza. I said “bullshit.”

In Philadelphia, where a very similar to Sunnyside Yards section of the Schuylkill Rail Yards adjoining 30th street station was decked, their municipality helped the developers of the 29 story Cira Center, pictured above, get the rhombus built by bending city zoning rules and clever machinations. Tenants, and especially the developers, are exempted from nearly all local and state taxes, as it’s part of a Federal “Keystone Opportunity Zone,” built on Amtrak land. The developers attracted tenants away from other office towers in Philadelphia, where they paid taxes and which are now vacant, with the “not taxed” bit.

So, as far as all the promises that NYC’s City Hall and the NYC EDC made about the economic benefits of NYC borrowing $54 Billion in your name to deck the Sunnyside Yards, and how they’d recoup the investment in property tax and associated economic activity… I told you so. There’s four easy words for you to remember – “Mitch is always right.”

– photo by Mitch Waxman

My train ticket to Philadelphia was $18. Northeast Corridor service on Amtrak from Moynihan/Penn Station runs frequently, and the trip takes about 90 minutes. I left NYC at 6 a.m., and hit the ground running in Philadelphia at 7:30 a.m., after grabbing a cup of coffee at a Dunkin Donuts inside of 30th street station. One thing about life as a New Yorker is that you seldom have to worry about finding somebody willing to sell you a bottle of water, or some sugar water beverage, given that we have delis and bodegas everywhere. I discovered that this isn’t the case in Philadelphia.

As mentioned yesterday, it was a fairly warm day for early March. I wasn’t “plotzing” or anything, but they also don’t seem to have hot dog carts or old spanish speaking entrepreneurs with coolers full of ice cold water bottles here either. They do have lots and lots of junkies.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

In trips to both Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, one observed significant populations of “opioid epidemic” junkies. The reason they call it an epidemic, and the Government types have responded sympathetically to them, is because these folks are generally Caucasians rather than Blacks or Spaniards. Forty years ago, when the latter two groups saw large numbers of their cohort get snared by Crack, it was referred to as a “plague” and America declared a “War on Drugs,” beginning a period of mass incarceration in response to out of control violent crime. That’s not “Critical Race Theory,” I would point out, it’s simply true – according to this “cholo blanco.”

The peril all of these ethnic combinations have in common, however, is drug addiction. The moderns started out on pain pills, then graduated to the needle. Most of the ones whom I interacted with were what I refer to as “professional junkies.” Given how much time I spend on the streets, it is not at all abnormal for these folks to approach and panhandle me. Thing about professional junkies, though, is to keep your guard up. If they see an opening to do a push and grab, they’ll take it. Even by 1980’s Crack era NYC standards, there were a LOT of people living rough in Philadelphia. Saw them everywhere I went.

They’ve got a real problem with this in Pennsylvania, one that I can’t offer an answer for. You can’t fix a junkie, and locking them up doesn’t accomplish anything other than costing the taxpayer at least a quarter million a head per annum.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

That’s the Chestnut Street Bridge. I like infrastructure better than the people it serves, as people are messy and complicated. See above.

The first bridge on this spot was erected in 1861. It was made of cast iron, and designed by an engineer named Strickland Kneass. The granite piers are original to the 1861 span, but the modern day bridge deck and trusses were installed in 1957, during the construction of the Schuylkill Expressway on the presumptive west side of the river.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The completion of a rehabilitation project for the bridge, handling age related structural deficiencies, and repaving/redesigning the travel lanes, was stalled by Covid. Construction activity was ongoing during my visit on March 7th of 2022, and was going to be theoretically finished by the end of March. Don’t know if it’s done or not, and I’ll find out next time I’m in the neighborhood.

Chestnut Street Bridge is some 371 feet long, with a width of 44 feet, and provides 27 feet of clearance over the Schuylkill River.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Another 1959 vintage truss bridge, refurbished in 2009, is the John F. Kennedy Boulevard Bridge. Carrying three lanes of vehicle traffic, and two very wide sidewalks, it overflies a set of CSX freight rail tracks and the Schuylkill River. It’s 47.9 feet wide, and 487.9 feet long. Up top, it’s a primary approach to 30th Street Station for vehicles.

More tomorrow.

“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle

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Monday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

As mentioned last week, a humble narrator boarded an Amtrak train for a day trip to Philadelphia with an ambitiously drawn up shot list. My plan for the day involved a granular series of photos of several of the Schuylkill River bridges, with an eventual sunset destination at the Benjamin Franklin Bridge along the Delaware River.

My usual habit of remote scouting, using Google Maps to plan my shot list, was utilized and I found myself acuttling around in the City of Brotherly Love on the 7th of March, in 2022. The weather was warm (middle 60’s – low 70’s) and somewhat humid. The forecast for the day was a bit ominous, with a line of rain and storms meant to impact the area in the late afternoon or early evening. I was glad that I had worn a cotton sweatshirt rather than the fleece one that the calendar normally indicates, and had left the filthy black raincoat back in Queens. I had my full kit with me, including an umbrella, and arrived in Philadelphia just after 7:30 a.m. I got to work early.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

After visiting the power plant discussed in last Friday’s post, my next stop was at the South Street Bridge over the Schuylkill River.

Pictured is the 2010 version of the span, which replaced a 1920 bridge that was coming apart at its seams. As mentioned in earlier posts, my plan was to exploit the Schuylkill River Trail for photographic pursuit.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

As part of the South Street Bridge reconstruction, the City of Philadelphia also created a “boardwalk” connected to the bridge project. Apparently, some sort of Federal Economic Stimulus money was applied to the creation of this pathway. Long ramps carry pedestrians and bicyclists from the streets above down to the waterfront.

I was shooting this series of photos all “artsy fartsy” with a filter that acts in the manner of sunglasses and cuts the light down to nocturnal levels. That’s why you’re not seeing the multitudes of people that I saw with my eyes, as they’d have to be standing stick still for at least thirty seconds to appear as anything other than misty ghosts and blurred shadows.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The boardwalk continued northwards – or at least I think it was north. Also as mentioned in a prior post, I really had no sense of direction regarding the cardinal meridians here. In NYC, I can tell you exactly which direction is which, based on a few landmarks – the Empire State Building and the like – but geospatial awareness is something that develops with experience and this was a day trip, after all.

I can tell you, however, that this boardwalk was an absolute magnet for the population of the surrounding neighborhoods. Moms with kids, dog walkers, people eating breakfast or just having a stroll. There was a cool vibe in the air, no doubt due to this being a warm and bright – if somewhat overcast – day.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Philadelphia seems to have several sections which would qualify as “downtown,” although for some dopey reason they call their downtown “Center City.” They should really bring in consultants from New York City when they’re naming things hereabouts. This shot is looking up the Schuylkill River in a direction I’d posit as being north, towards 30th street station.

I’m told that this “zone” is where the gentrification forges are constantly billowing locally grown fire and artisanal smoke. Nearby, and to the left/presumptive west, in the shot above, is a section of the city referred to as “University City.” You’ll find the campus of the University of Pennsylvania there. The high speed road on the left side of the shot is the Schuylkill Expressway.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

My next subject was the Walnut Street Bridge. The masonry piers are original to an 1883 crossing which was demolished in 1988. The three modern day truss bridge segments carry two motor vehicle, two pedestrian, and a singular bike travel lanes (bike was added during a retrofit of the span in 2012). The modern bridge opened in 1990. It’s 60 feet wide and with its approaches some 2,408.3 feet long.

More tomorrow…

“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle

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Friday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

An Amtrak train carried me from NYC to… Philadelphia… for a day trip. I had rolled through here not too long ago, but my visits were only as part of a layover on two trips to and from the pretty city of Pittsburgh on the western side of Pennsylvania.

Pittsburgh postings from my first autumnal visit, listed in chronological order – Great Elms, Gnarled Orchards, Ancient Walls, Lower Meadows, Choked Fissure, Human Clothing, Other Constellations, Certain Circumstances, Terrestrial Gravity, Needed Form, Without Dissolution, Calculations Would, Grave Doubt, Luckily Obtainable, Abnormal Toughness, Prodigious Time, Unexampled Flight, Earthward Dreams, and finally Bacterial Agent.

Both times I was in Philadelphia in 2021, my schedule was extremely limited, and a decision was undertaken just after Christmas to return to Phillie in 2022 and do my thing in a planned and intentional fashion.

Here’s what I gathered last time I was passing through the Brotherly Love Capitol in November of last year – “hideous gnawing” “menacing dreams” “every hand” and “passed close.” Again – I had little idea what to expect there, and a very limited time to shoot.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

This time around, there was a plan, and a rather ambitious shot list. When designing the list, I was fully cognizant of the fact that there was practically zero chance of getting through the entire thing in the roughly 13 hours I’d be spending in the municipality.

On our way into 30th street Station, which is “the Penn Station of Philadelphia” and pictured above and below, I spotted the historic rolling stock of an outfit called “Catalpa Falls” which offers luxury rides on heritage Pennsylvania Rail Road executive cars that have been lovingly restored to their original glory. Neat!

– photo by Mitch Waxman

A couple of things to state;

First – I only possess a tourist’s level of knowledge about Philadelphia. Ok, I’m not an ordinary tourist, but if I state something in this or subsequent posts that’s wrong, I’d beg for corrections in the comments. Unlike the sort of “deep dive” stuff you associate with me on the waterways of NYC, I haven’t got a lived experience for these posts that I can lean on to inform the narrative. I ain’t from here.

Second – 30th street station, pictured above, is found along the Schuylkill River. The Schuylkill is 135 miles long, stretching from Pottsville to Philadelphia, and is a tributary of the larger Delaware River. Given that I have to analogize everything to NYC as that’s my frame of reference – the Delaware is like the Hudson, and the Schuylkill is like the East River. I spent most of my day along this path, and the Schuylkill River.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

There’s a post industrial series of landings and pedestrian/bike piers set along the Schuylkill’s shoreline, which follows along active freight rail tracks, and form what’s known as “The Schuylkill River Trail.” I’m told that “Schuylkill” is pronounced as “school kill” which is dumb and the reason why Phillie is stupid as compared to New York. Sky Kill would be better, and they should have checked with a New Yorker before working out a pronunciation.

A third thing for these series of posts that I’m going to warn you about – I’m from Brooklyn, and shit talking Philadelphia is a part of my DNA. I like using “America’s Consolation Prize” best for the place, when throwing shade. Saying that, it’s still one of the great American population centers, a significant contributor to our ancient and current culture, and one of the major nodes found in the North American Megalopolis. Philadelphia is actually a very cool and fairly astounding place, but I’ll never let one of those cheesesteak eaters hear me say it out loud.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

My fourth caveat in these posts is that I’m not 100% on cardinal directions since I’m largely unfamiliar with Philadelphia, but I’m pretty sure that the initial point that my shot list started at (above) was southeast of 30th street Station. I walked as far as the Schuylkill River Trail allowed me, which was right alongside a power plant and a set of railroad tracks.

The rail trackage seems to be the property of the CSX outfit, and later on in the day, I saw one of their trains using the right of way. You’ll see that too, but sometime next week, so at least now you’ve got something to look forward to.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

An energy outfit based in Boston, dubbed Vicinity Energy, operates a gas powered electrical generating mill here, in what I’m told is South Philadelphia. They pump out some 163 megawatts of electrical juice from this “cogen” plant as well as supplying steam to hundreds of buildings. “Cogen” means that they co-generate steam and electric, just like Big Allis on the East River in LIC. The landward sections surrounding this plant are called Gray’s Ferry and Forgotten Bottom.

An attempt at finding out a bit more about this power plant was subsumed and overwhelmed by tales of racial tension and ethnic clashes in the neighborhoods surrounding the plant. Apparently, the residential areas nearby this section of the Schuylkill have been a flashpoint for turmoil and animus along social class and racial lines for decades, if not centuries.

Next week – more from Philadelphia’s Schuylkill waterfront.

“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.