Posts Tagged ‘Pittsburgh’
All wet on the Ohio River, part 1
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself attended another rainy day boat tour recently, one which proceeded down the Ohio River. It was teeming, unfortunately, but that’s the gamble you make when you buy a boat ticket in advance of the date. This one was offered by the Doors Open Pittsburgh outfit. It proceeded from a dock on the Monongahela River and headed over to the Ohio River, where a circumnavigation of one of the largish islands found in Pittsburgh was accomplished.
We’ve experienced a weird couple of weeks in Pittsburgh. Our next door neighbors suffered a pretty involved house fire, one which saw a massive response by local firefighters who saved the building but not before some pretty major damage occurred. This really freaked us out, I should mention. Horrible stuff. Nobody got hurt, thankfully, but seeing somebody’s entire life go up in smoke was a pretty awful and unsettling experience. In a separate storyline, we got an up close look at the Opioid Epidemic in this region which was… it was wild.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On the boat we were riding on, there were a small and soggy band of camera wielders which I soon found myself a part of. We were all compressed into a spot which offered some shelter from the rain. It was difficult to keep the lens clean, but there you go.
From what I could discern of the narration, over the sound of the rain itself hitting the river, the facility pictured above is some sort of wastewater plant.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of the more intriguing places here on the Ohio River is called Brunot’s Island. It’s private property, and owned by an electrical transmission outfit, and thereby unavailable to public inspection. There used to be an automobile racetrack there, I’m told. I’m also informed that bird watchers and nature enthusiasts will sometimes kayak to and landfall/trespass on its privately owned shorelines during the summer months.
More 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.
Objectively, a fountainhead
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The mental construct I’ve been building, in pursuance of understanding the Pittsburgh region, uses the fountain pictured above as the titular center of the metro region. This is ‘sorta kinda’ true, given the Point State Park’s proximity to the corporate and governmental sections of ‘Downtown.’ The Steelers stadium is across the river, which is where the actual beating heart of the City of Pittsburgh is found. Most of the transit in the region has its first or last stop somewhere within a half mile of this fountain, so…
A friend who’s a multi decade resident of Pittsburgh once described the macro layout of the region to me as ‘spokes and wheels,’ an analogy which I’ve found fairly accurate. It seems that the part of Pittsburgh surrounding this fountain is the ‘master cylinder’ for those other geographically distributed wheels.
I recently read an interesting history of this area which describes the spot where that fountain is found as once having been the site of an exposition hall which hosted what would now be called a ‘World’s Fair.’ The rest of the site’s history was what you’d expect hereabouts – rail yards and steel mills, essentially.
Developing an geospatial awareness is still something I’m still working on. I’ll often stand in a spot, pointing my fingers in various directions while saying “East, North, etc.” and then when I check my phone for verification of my ideations, discover that I’m hopelessly and wildly wrong. I’ll get there, I suppose.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The fountain was my ‘turn around point’ on this particular walk, wherein the journey back to HQ starts. Downtown Pittsburgh is weird. It reminds one of Batman’s Gotham City, but that could just be me transposing, as they actually did shoot parts of the Christian Bale Dark Knight movies here. Most of the buildings in the larger metro region spread out horizontally, on enormous plots and sport campuses that are fenced in by parking lots. Downtown is a bit more of a skyscraper situation, with lots of corporate and government buildings crowded into the triangular river delta, forcing the density up vertically rather than spreading it horizontally.
Pittsburgh doesn’t use a grid system for its streets, mainly due to terrain and the industrial past. Having grown up in a grid based city, this means I’m often confused by its long arcing roads and dead ending ‘No Outlet’ cul-de-sacs. To be fair, though, it doesn’t take much to confuse me these days. I’m old, and scared of teenagers. I think a wolf might have been following me, too, or at least a large Pomeranian.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The scene above amused the heck out of me. One thing I’ve been trying to do, here in a more genteel section of these United States, is to curb my Brooklyn potty mouth. My natural speech pattern is South Eastern Brooklyn based, meaning I use ‘effin’ as an adjectival modifier intuitively. If I was writing assembly instructions for a piece of furniture in my native idiom it would go something like “get that a-hole into place, then use that d-bag wrench over there and ‘effin turn the c-sucker until it stops. Don’t be a D and force it, ya s-bagging s-head dumb-a.”
I’ve consciously moved over to using ‘heck’ and ‘darn’ as a crutch, and have been washing my mouth out with soap when needed.
“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.
Stairway to… heaven?
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Apparently, Pennsylvania’s highway planners reached out to Robert Moses for advice on transit planning ‘back in the day,’ and his unmistakable trademark of running high speed roads along urban waterways is very much in effect here in Pittsburgh. This is from the Golden Triangle side of the Monongahela River, and it’s one of the busier high speed roads you’ll encounter here in the Paris of Appalachia. It ‘carries,’ and ‘connects,’ and ‘leads to.’
There’s pay parking lots below the highway ramps and along the Monongahela River’s banks, which I’m told are colloquially known as the ‘bathtub’ given their propensity for flooding during the spring thaw. A hiking and bike trail forms the actual ‘water’s edge.’
Of course, that’s what I was walking on and what I was heading towards was the bathtub.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There were a couple of sections of this flood prone underworld which host collections of tents, occupied by the unhoused and indigent. This population of unfortunates is causing the local landlord class to gnash their teeth, and are being blamed for all sorts of problems in the Downtown area.
The Landlords blame declining real estate valuations in Pittsburgh, affecting their nearby office and commercial properties they own on the tent people, rather than acknowledging that the post Covid trend towards remote work is the causal factor. Additionally, taxes are quite a bit lower in other counties, and businesses can also find a decidedly lower rent for more spacious in office parks found in outlying areas a half hour in any direction.
Instead, punch down and blame the homeless.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I found a set of those famous municipal steps that are found all over Pittsburgh to carry me back up to the street level. Unfortunately, these would ultimately put me on the shoulder of an on ramp to one of those highways in the first shot, which was pretty terrifying. A lapse in traffic allowed me to scuttle quickly across the ramp and onto a nearby sidewalk. Brr.
Back next week, lords and ladies.
“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.
Scuttlin along, peaceful and calm
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A friend from the ‘old neighborhood’ who was visiting with us had headed home to NYC the night before, and ‘exercise day’ reared its head again. A humble narrator crawled up the hills here in Dormont, where HQ is found, and boarded the Light Rail service which is known as ‘The T.’ I was headed into Downtown Pittsburgh.
Unlike NYC, which is flat, in Pittsburgh you need to have some sort of plan for a walk lest you find yourself walking up incredibly steep hills and then back down the other side into a valley where you inevitably hit another steep hill which needs climbing. There’s exercise day, and then again, there’s a forced march. I don’t do forced marches unless I have to. Hence ‘a plan.’ It started with the T Light Rail, pictured above.
The so called ‘Golden Triangle’ Downtown area of Pittsburgh is a river delta, so – sort of flat. That means I can wander about without a plan and see what wants to be seen. Always a wandering mendicant, I.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I debarked the T at the Station Square stop on the southern shoreline of the Monongahela River and scuttled across the Smithfield Street Bridge.
One wasn’t carrying a full kit, rather I had outfitted myself for a ‘photowalk’ and had zero intentions of getting artsy or fartsy with filters or tripods. The point of the effort involved kicking my feet about and burning off some calories while getting the ticker to tick at an elevated but not too elevated rate for a set period of time.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There is an absolutely surprising amount of port activity here in Pittsburgh. Lots of tugs. Supposedly, it’s possible to navigate to both the Great Lakes (Erie) and the Mississippi River from here. For reference, Pittsburgh is more or less 400 miles away and about 1,000 feet up from where you’ll notice the ocean.
Back tomorrow, as always.
“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.
Egress in Etna
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned yesterday, I had a friend in town, who wanted to see the sights here in Pittsburgh. Our travels around the region were by car, and the Mobile Oppression Platform allowed for the visitation of several extant locations.
We got lucky at the Etna Riverwalk when a Norfolk Southern train set came barreling through.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the Senator Robert D. Fleming Bridge over the Allegheny River. You’re not crazy, btw, I’ve been here before – back in early February. There’s a bunch of places which I’m planning on revisiting now that the trees and hills are dressed up in green.
I’m starting to get a feel for Pittsburgh, I think. I’m not traveling around with the entire photo kit that I would carry to an ‘away game’ anymore, and am instead saying ‘this lens’ is what I’ll need for today. Not prepared for ‘everything,’ just ‘most things.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This one looks up the Allegheny towards the USACE’s Lock and Dam 2. I’m fairly sure that’s the Highland Park Bridge, and a rail bridge behind it, but I can’t really be ‘sure’ of anything yet as I’m still learning about the place. Back in NYC, I was like a walking encyclopedia. It’s refreshing to not be that person anymore, and learning new things every day.
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.
The Newtown Pentacle 