Posts Tagged ‘photowalk’
that gaze
A short one for Monday.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was a pretty busy weekend for a humble narrator, one which has resulted in some minor radiation burns to the epidermis – due to the untrammeled emanations of the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself as I walked the earth. My skinvelope exhibits a ruddy hue today.
Pictured above is mighty Queensboro, with the upstart 432 Park Avenue over in the shining city looming in over her. Back tomorrow with something of a bit more substance, at this, your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Upcoming Tours –
May 3, 2015 –
DUBPO, Down Under the Pulaski Bridge Onramp
with Newtown Creek Alliance Historian Mitch Waxman, a free tour offered as part of Janeswalk 2015, click here for tickets.
May 31, 2015 –
Newtown Creek Boat Tour
with Working Harbor Committee and Newtown Creek Alliance Historian Mitch Waxman, click here for tickets.
many galleries
A short one today.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A humble narrator is anxious to get outside and “into the field” today, so a single image greets you this morning, depicting the Long Island Railroad entering Woodside via its ancient path. Back tomorrow with something a bit more substantial at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Upcoming Tours –
May 3, 2015 –
DUBPO, Down Under the Pulaski Bridge Onramp
with Newtown Creek Alliance Historian Mitch Waxman, a free tour offered as part of Janeswalk 2015, click here for tickets.
May 31, 2015 –
Newtown Creek Boat Tour
with Working Harbor Committee and Newtown Creek Alliance Historian Mitch Waxman, click here for tickets.
laugh or frown
My beloved Creek, in today’s post.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Yesterday, the Newtown Creek Alliance held an event over on the North Henry Street side of DUGABO (Down Under the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge Onramp) in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint section. The point of the gathering was to imagine the future of a small inlet canal which NCA has been referring to as “No Name Canal,” but I defer to NOAA and the Coast Guard who call it “Unnamed Canal.” There’s an fairly abandoned DSNY Marine Transfer Station there, and your humble narrator entertained himself with a bit of illegal trespass. Of course, since this is City owned property, and I’m a citizen of said City, it’s mine (and yours) and therefore I was actually exploring my own property.
Our uniformed employees in the offices of lower Manhattan always seem to forget that they are – in fact – servants, and that this land is ours – not theirs – so I like to remind them of this fact periodically. This makes me fantastically popular on Chambers Street, btw.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Oddly enough, there was a tremendous midden of animal bones on the dock. May of them were clearly sun bleached chicken leg bones, and some had butcher cuts. The quantity was striking, and some specimens were clearly mammal bones – seemingly from large cats or small dogs.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One cannot even begin to speculate about the origins of this ossuary pile found on Municipal land in Greenpoint, along the languid Newtown Creek.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Upcoming Tours –
May 3, 2015 –
DUBPO, Down Under the Pulaski Bridge Onramp
with Newtown Creek Alliance Historian Mitch Waxman, a free tour offered as part of Janeswalk 2015, click here for tickets.
May 31, 2015 –
Newtown Creek Boat Tour
with Working Harbor Committee and Newtown Creek Alliance Historian Mitch Waxman, click here for tickets.
glancing through
Caution, everyone.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Famously, I wander the earth. There are few places that I won’t go. Photography and eventual postings at this, your Newtown Pentacle follow. When leaving the house, there are seldom objectives in mind, instead I literally just follow my path and keep the sun on my back. There are issues which one cares deeply about, with Newtown Creek at the paramount. For the last month or so, I’ve been talking to a LOT of people about the Sunnyside Yards and discussing my objections to the project proposed by the current Mayor which would deck them over and install the population of Albany atop them.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Inevitably, sometime during the 21st century, some portion of the Sunnyside Yards will be so converted. Likely, it will be the area around 21st street – the so called Arch Street Yard. This is likely, as it adjoins the Jackson Avenue corridor leading from Queens Plaza to the Court Square neighborhood, a zone which is undergoing a radical amount of construction – as discussed in a recent posting at my Brownstoner column.
Thing is, Queens isn’t ready to handle the amount of people this will bring – from a hospital bed, school desk, police officer, fire fighter, transit, or sewage plant point of view. It’s a bad idea being propagated by a weak Mayor whose own electoral coalition is rebelling against him, and who has a terrible record of actually delivering on the affordable housing he offers.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The effect that the Sunnyside Yards will have on my beloved Creek are somewhat terrifying, from a sewage runoff point of view. This is something I’ve been emphatically mentioning to all who would listen, which at this point is a significant number. Quite obviously, someone in City Hall has heard that I’ve been speaking out about this issue.
This is going to sound ridiculously paranoid, I realize, but the last few times that I went out for one of my long walks – I’ve been followed. I feel sorry for whomever has been assigned to do so, of course, as they’re being exposed to a ridiculous amount of pollution – but the surveillance hasn’t escaped me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Last Saturday, while walking through Maspeth, a fellow – who I managed to get a shot of (the guy in the black jacket and jeans at the lower left hand corner of the shot, right by the Phelps Dodge property) – followed me for something like two miles. I ducked off the street into a bolt hole nearby Penny Bridge, and reappeared behind him, asking if he was lost and needed directions. His confusion at how to react was actually comical as I offered him walking directions by which he could reach the 7 or G from Review avenue. Yesterday, a plain clothes detective spent his day on the corner opposite my house, swiveling his head around, for something like six hours. I know that you know that I know, now.
You’re not being paranoid if someone is actually surveilling you, and I’ve noticed that they’ve noticed.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Upcoming Tours –
May 3, 2015 –
DUBPO, Down Under the Pulaski Bridge Onramp
with Newtown Creek Alliance Historian Mitch Waxman, a free tour offered as part of Janeswalk 2015, click here for tickets.
May 31, 2015 –
Newtown Creek Boat Tour
with Working Harbor Committee and Newtown Creek Alliance Historian Mitch Waxman, click here for tickets.
offhand solution
Easter, a great weekend for probable trespassing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Ask any of the Urban Explorer types who have encountered your humble narrator over the years, and they’ll recount my lecture about doing things nice and legal. I still adhere to this philosophy, in general, but when I specifically request access to photograph a site – through proper channels – and my request is ignored… over and over and over… well…
What’s a boy to do? You come to Newtown Creek, and you don’t even invite me over for a coffee? Ok, no more Mr. Nice Guy.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
First off, your Union employees left the gates wide open on Easter weekend. This is kind of disturbing, but not unusual. One Christmas, some dummy left the gates to the Sunnyside Yard open and unguarded. This is the sort of thing that I know, and y’all don’t, because you live in an office and I live in the street. That’s the BQE back there, and I could have had unchallenged access to its foundations. I’m a good guy, but… what if I wasn’t?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Second, the contractor who’s doing the demo work for y’all really needs to train on addressing dust remediation, which is defined as setting up a hose and a lawn sprinkler in this sort of situation. They never do this at Brownfield sites around Newtown Creek, because they think nobody is watching, but one just needs to smell the “Breeze” to know who the demo contractor at work is.
I’ve been watching them for years.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Third, It might be smart to secure spots like this one, wherein the structural integrity of a building has been compromised. Don’t worry, I didn’t enter the site, but there was no reason for me not to other than common sense. There were no safety cones, no signs proscribing proper “PPE,” and certainly no security around. I even yelled out “security” at the top of my lungs. Did y’all capture that on camera?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At your front door, I could have easily slipped inside the job site on a sunny Saturday afternoon – unchallenged. The only thing holding me back from doing so was… well… respect. I never cross a fence line, as I’m like a Vampire, and need to be invited in before I can do my work.
So, the question is this… Are you going to allow me and the readers of this – your Newtown Pentacle – a chance to peer in periodically, or are we just going to play cat and mouse for the next decade? Either way, I’ll get my shots. Up to y’all.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Upcoming Tours –
May 3, 2015 –
DUBPO, Down Under the Pulaski Bridge Onramp
with Newtown Creek Alliance Historian Mitch Waxman, a free tour offered as part of Janeswalk 2015, click here for tickets.
May 31, 2015 –
Newtown Creek Boat Tour
with Working Harbor Committee and Newtown Creek Alliance Historian Mitch Waxman, click here for tickets.
The Newtown Pentacle 