Posts Tagged ‘Pickman’
treasures offered
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Lots to do next week, meetings and galas, all sorts of situations to feel socially awkward in are coming up. Smart and well positioned opinion will be available for the price of attendance, at Newtown Creek Alliance’s “Spotlight on Citizen Science” on Monday the 25th in Long Island City.
NCA’s February meeting will highlight the wide array of local citizen and student scientists exploring all angles of the creek. The meeting will be structured as a showcase, with quick presentations on each topic, and materials for you to peruse in person. Come mingle with your local citizen scientists.
NCA Spotlight on Citizen Science
February 25, 2013 at 6pm
LaGuardia Community College
E Building, Room E-242
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A different sort of gathering will be happening at The India House Club, when Working Harbor Committee hosts its annual Gala, and this year’s honoree is Lucy Ambrosino. A great party, the Gala gathers the movers and shakers of NY Harbor together, and proceeds from the event help fund the WHC’s education programs and summer boat tours.
That’s Tuesday the 26th.
from workingharbor.com
Lucy Ambrosino is being honored for her ardent commitment to the Port of New York and New Jersey and the working harbor which supports it. An effective and committed consensus builder, Lucy is a strong advocate and enthusiastic participant in all efforts to educate the public about the value of the working harbor.
The award will be presented by Andrew McGovern, President, New Jersey Sandy Hook Pilots at 7:15 p.m.
Tuesday Evening – 26 February 2013
India House Club — Marine Room
One Hanover Square, New York City, NY 10004
6 o’clock — 8:30 o’clock – Business Attire
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A town hall meeting, with the NYS DOT and several local elected leaders, will discuss the upcoming Kosciuszko Bridge project. The meeting is being hosted by OUTRAGE, a community group concerned by the enormous footprint of truck based industry in North Brooklyn.
That’s Wednesday the 27th.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Lastly, the unfortunate locale and long neglected and seldom considered municipality called Manhattan will be the setting for a “Long Term Control Plan: Citywide Modeling Workshop.”
Discussions of the recently experienced meteorological phenomena and concurrent flooding is necessitated and accordingly an understanding of the “New Normal” will be offered by the authorities. Ramifications will be explored, existential quandaries expounded upon and considered by representatives of the inestimable NYS DEC and the stalwart NYC DEP.
This one is Thursday the 28th, and I’m sure it will be a civil engineering and urban planning hootenanny.
from nyc.gov
LONG TERM CONTROL PLAN: CITYWIDE MODELING WORKSHOP
Thursday, February 28, 2013 at US Customs House, Auditorium, 1 Bowling Green from 6:00pm – 8:00pm.
The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is co-hosting a citywide workshop to present and review the modeling processes that will be used to test potential alternatives identified as part of the Long Term Control Plan (LTCP) Program with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). At the workshop, DEP and DEC staff will review the Watershed/Landside and Hydrodynamic/Water Quality models and the proposed baseline assumptions for evaluating the benefits of CSO control alternatives.
stark hideousness
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One is never truly alone in New York City, given that it is one of the most densely inhabited and developed sections of the entire planet, but one often experiences a deep and abiding loneliness here. This is paradoxical, as any New Yorker- when queried as to their deepest wish- will answer with “I’d just like to left alone and have everyone else just mind their own business instead of paying attention to mine.”
That, and they’d like to win something called the Lottery, quit their jobs, and move someplace called “the country” where there is “no bullshit.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A product of this place, having existed in its schools and streets and along the waterways, your humble narrator is lonely by nature- but that has nothing to do with the City. Vainglorious humility is oft invoked when describing myself as an Outsider, but I’m only half joking. Regardless of my social status and ability to “fit in,” one would have no desire whatsoever to leave New York were my “ship to come in.”
That would be giving in, and allowing the City to say that it beat you (although the thought of a little country place in Vermont sounds pretty sweet).
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The desolations of solitude, wherein the mind spawns metastases of self accusation and secondary guessing, are at the root of much of what ails most. How can one truly be alone in a crowd, or lonely in New York City? One such as myself craves (and in fact deserves) desolating isolation, the quiet of the tombs, and the absence of others.
Then again, I was raised as an “only child” and never had to share a bedroom with someone I didn’t wish to.
shaking encumbrances
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Recently spotted, the tug Nanticoke, plying NY Harbor. Upon reading the name “Nanticoke,” your humble narrator grasped for some meaning behind this enigmatic arrangement of ordinary vowels and consonants. Knowing that the Vane company often names its vessels after inland and coastal waterways, a certain river came to mind.
from wikipedia
The Nanticoke River is a major tributary of the Chesapeake Bay on the Delmarva Peninsula. It rises in southern Kent County, Delaware, flows through Sussex County, Delaware, and forms the boundary between Dorchester County, Maryland and Wicomico County, Maryland. The river course proceeds southwest and it empties into the Chesapeake at Nanticoke, Maryland. The river is 64.3 miles (103.5 km) long.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Nanticoke was on duty with a barge, heading south toward Staten Island from some origin point northwards on either the Hudson or East Rivers. A fuel barge, who can guess what sort of volatile cargo might have lurked within it, vouchsafed by Nanticoke?
from vanebrothers.com
The Nanticoke is 95’ long, with a 34’ beam, and a 15’ draft. Her gross tonnage is 99 tons. She is powered by two CAT 3516, 2100 horsepower engines with Kort nozzles, and maintains running speeds of better than 12 knots. Featuring a model bow and square stern, her fuel capacity is approximately 90,000 gallons. Potable water capacity is approximately 9,000 gallons. With accommodations for seven crew members, the Nanticoke is dedicated to 50-class tank barges on the coastwide trade.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Maritime Sunday staff here at Newtown Pentacle HQ offer a wave of the hand and official shout out to the Vane Brothers Nanticoke cast and crew. Huzzah!
also from vanebrothers.com
The Vane Brothers Company has served the maritime industry in the Port of Baltimore and the U.S. Eastern Seaboard for more than 100 years. Today, we are comprised of five divisions operating out of the ports of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Norfolk, and Charleston.
Project Firebox 59
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At 34th Avenue’s junction with Northern Blvd. waits this long serving alarm box. Its seen fire and its seen rain…
sufficient accuracy
DUE TO AN ILLNESS, THE FRIDAY NIGHT MAGIC LANTERN SHOW WILL BE POSTPONED!!!
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A week of darkness was promised you, lords and ladies, and this Friday posting provides a neat bookend.
Long Island City is one of the most difficult spots in New York City to hail a cab, precisely because so many Cab companies are based here. Drivers don’t want to pick you up if they’re in the neighborhood, as Cab Drivers are generally heading here to drop off the car and end a shift before they get hit with a penalty for being late.
The reverse of “bringing coal to Newcastle”, it would seem, is in effect.
from nytimes.com
Many taxicabs are used by two drivers a day, each working a 12-hour shift. To ensure that each leg is equally attractive, taxi owners schedule the shift change in the middle of the afternoon, so each shift gets a rush hour.
But the switch cannot happen too early, either: a 2 p.m. changeover, for instance, would require a day driver to start his 12-hour shifts in the wee hours of the morning. And cabbies say the midafternoon offers brisk business not evident 12 hours later, when fares mainly consist of late-night revelers.
Hence the 5 p.m. compromise. When the changeover became standard, its timing did not pose a big problem for passengers. Many taxi garages were situated on the Far West Side of Manhattan, requiring cabs to make only a short trip to 11th Avenue before heading back to Midtown with a fresh driver.
But in the 1980s, as commercial rents rose, taxi fleets began migrating across the East River, particularly to Long Island City, Queens. The 5 p.m. shift change now included a journey over the often-packed Queensboro Bridge, not to mention the return slog to the city. Drivers started going off duty between 4 and 4:30 p.m., to ensure that they had enough time to make it to the garage; even today, tardy cabbies can be hit with a $30 fine.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It is an interesting sight, seeing hundreds of Taxis arrayed about their dispatch and maintenance yards in the wee hours of the morning. Taxi’s are not unlike Police cars in this manner, inasmuch as they seem to be in perpetual motion and always in gear.
Drivers have described the system to me, shift work accomplished in long stretches behind the wheel during which they struggle to first pay the day’s lease on the car and then the fuel bill. Once this sum has been reached, whatever is left over is theirs to keep. They are functionally without a union, and vulnerable to the whims of politician and businessman alike. The overnight drivers also describe having to deal with cleaning up a lot of bodily fluids, the product of nightlife and its revelry.
from wikipedia
The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) was established in 1971 with jurisdiction over the city’s medallion (yellow) taxicabs, livery cabs, “black cars”, commuter vans, paratransit vehicles (ambulettes) and some luxury limousines. The TLC was founded to deal with the growing number of drivers and to address issues important to both the taxi and livery industries. Its predecessor was the New York City Hack Bureau, operated under the aegis of the New York City Police Department. TLC Inspectors are New York State peace officers who carry batons, pepper spray, and handcuffs.
In the 1970s and 1980s both the unofficial livery services and the medallion taxicab companies began finding more and more of their drivers in the growing populations of black, Latino, and middle eastern immigrants to the city as the previous generation of cabbies retired and moved out of the city. Crime in New York City had become severe at this point, and cabbies were often the victims of robberies and street crime.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On a different note, a distinct point of interest is the Court Square Diner, which is a completely different structure at night than during the day. On this particular morning, despite my screaming desire for a cup of joe, the place was passed by and merely photographed. The whole “shooting at night” thing was produced by a bout of insomnia, after all, and the last thing that the sleepless needs is the sort of hot brown jet fuel sold at Court Square.
from courtsquarediner.com
Court Square Diner was built in 1946. Since then it has only had three ownerships.
The current owners, Steve and Nick have been in operation since 1991. When they had first purchased the diner, it was mainly a small diner for breakfast and lunch. In 2009, the Court Square Diner was renovated with an all new retro look. Now it is a full service 24 hour seven day a week successful diner complete with breakfast, lunch, brunch and dinner. The delivery service is 24 hours a day seven days a week. All the baking for the diner is done on the premises.
The Newtown Pentacle 