Posts Tagged ‘queens’
smiling dromedary
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My long walk around a short creek continued, and the Newtown Creek Nature walk allowed me an easy path through Brooklyn’s Greenpoint section. Pictured above is one of the lesser known tributaries of Newtown Creek – Whale Creek – and that’s a NYC DEP “Sludge Boat” docked along it.
Sludge Boats transport the processed/treatment sewer solids from the 12 sewer plants to the 13th one on Randall’s/Wards Island where it’s dewatered in centrifuges.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Kingsland Avenue hugs the fences of the sewer plants, and it’s also where Newtown Creek Alliance HQ is found (520 Kingsland).
It’s a pretty crappy experience on foot, have to say.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Those cylinders are exhaust pipes for the sewer plant, which burn off the methane produced by the treatment process, directly into the atmosphere. That makes the Department of Environmental Protection the single largest and most constant source of greenhouse gases in the entire Borough of Brooklyn.
Remember that when Eric Adams mandates that you need to spend $100,000 to convert your house over to electric from whatever you use to heat and cook in it right now.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Kingsland Avenue carried my carcass to Greenpoint Avenue and it’s eponymous bridge. This shot is looking east along Newtown Creek. Brooklyn is on the right, Queens on the left.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Things were getting pretty surreal, sky wise. Everything was painted in saturated radiates as the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself descended into whatever the hell might be on the other side of New Jersey.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My very productive day wasn’t over yet, I’d mention.
Cannot tell you how many times this exact same route has disappointed. Part of the reason I walk it so often are days like the 12th of April.
Back next week with more wonders, at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“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.
peradventure may
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The estimable bridge tenders of the NYC DOT were on station at the Pulaski Bridge when a humble narrator scuttled by. What makes them “estimable” is that if you see them hanging around a draw bridge, odds are that the bridge will be opening soon, hence you can estimate.
These are more photos from an extremely productive walk I took on the 12th of April. Six photo posts have been offered here for awhile now, as I’m trying to “catch up” with the real world calendar.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pulaski Bridge is the first crossing of Newtown Creek you encounter when navigating in from the East River. Constructed in 1954 at the behest of Robert Moses’s DOT, Pulaski Bridge carries five lanes of auto traffic as well as dedicated pedestrian and bike lanes. It’s a double bascule draw bridge, electrically powered, and is part of the NYC DOT’s portfolio of movable bridges. It connects Greenpoint’s McGuinness Blvd. with LIC’s 11th street.
One thereby scuttled across “the red one” to Paidge Avenue in Brooklyn, which allowed me to enter the Newtown Creek Nature Walk.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The sewer plant in Greenpoint was reconstructed beginning in the early 1990’s, and the NYC DEP was compelled to comply with the NYC Charter requirement of “1% for art,” which sets aside a percentile of every municipal construction project for art or public space. The Nature Walk, thereby, wraps around the sewer plant and is accessible via either Kingsland Avenue or Paidge Avenue between dawn and dusk. It’s proven to be quite a popular destination for Greenpointers.
As I arrived, I spotted two tugboats at work.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Sea Lion, pictured above, was towing a recycling barge from the SimsMetal dock found on the Queens side of Newtown Creek. Sims does a lot of maritime shipping from this dock. They handle recyclables collected by DSNY, crushed cars, and all sorts of scrap metal here. The materials are brought in by truck, but shipped out by barge. A maritime barge carries the equivalent cargo of 38 heavy trucks.
Sea Lion is a harbor tug, as in its fairly small in size at 64.7 feet in length, but the 1980 vintage vessel is mighty – she produces 1,400 HP, which is more than that railroad engine I showed you the other day. Ocean going tugs are fairly enormous.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A larger class tug, the Seeley, was waiting patiently for the bridge tenders to open up Pulaski Bridge. Sea Lion didn’t need the bridge to open, as the height of her conning tower and antennae were well below the bridge’s double bascule undersides.
The horns began to blow, and then the chiming of the signal arms sounded, and then traffic stopped flowing over the Pulaski Bridge for an interval so that a different type of traffic could pass.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Seeley navigated through, and although I’m incapable of the emotional state called “happy,” a humble narrator was slightly less miserable than normal for a few minutes.
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.
budding branches
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
April 12th offered an extremely productive evening up to me. The weather was perfect – crisp and clear – and I had no obligations to hold me back from just wandering around the “study area.” A long walk was on the menu, so here we go…
First stop was at “hole reliable” along the fence lines of the Sunnyside Yards, where a Long Island Railroad train was hurtling through the Harold Interlocking on its way into Manhattan.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Next up was yet another visit to Long Island City’s 29th street to document the continuing collapse of a bulkhead into Newtown Creek’s Dutch Kills tributary.
Fill in the blanks: XXXXXXX matters, XXXXXX cares.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Yup, getting worse, every time it rains.
Can’t wait to call out the elected officials and agency personnel at the funeral of whomsoever ends up dying here when the street collapses. I will happily testify at the court case too.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One continued on his merry way, and decided that tonight would a good one to loop across the Newtown Creek at the Pulaski Bridge and then use the Newtown Creek Nature Walk to connect to the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge via Kingsland Avenue to get back to Queens.
As it turned out, this was a fortuitous idea, as you’ll see later on this week.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Checked in on my beloved tree of Paradise, which was just beginning to bud with spring time foliage.
I continued up to Borden Avenue.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Long Island Railroad 404 was crossing Borden Avenue, on its way to the Main Line tracks at Sunnyside Yards. There’s a bit of complicated rail infrastructure nearby.
I’ll attempt to talk about that in some detail tomorrow, at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“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.
fair land
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
April 5 saw a humble narrator join with other maritime enthusiasts at a NYC EDC job fair set up for NYC High School aged students at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in Red Hook. Pictured above is the United States Coast Guard’s current ‘Commander of Sector New York’ Captain Zeita Merchant.
I wasn’t there to do anything other than photograph the event, and I donated my services for this one. Maritime is a great career, one that’s often overlooked by an educational system that seems to be set up for the singular purpose of creating office workers and clerks. Anything I can do to help is worth the time and effort.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The event was created by NYC EDC’s Ports unit, and they brought in Coast Guard, the Harbor Units of FDNY and NYPD, as well as a series of private capital outfits from the port. Tugboat operators, international shipping companies, lots and lots of offshore power generation companies. The kids attending the event were shuttled from table display to table display and offered a free lunch.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Longshoreman’s Union was there, and they were showing off the cool toys that they get to play with on the job. After the event ended, it started to rain and that didn’t stop for days.
Luckily, I was bogged down with photos to develop and a series of Zoom meetings which I had to attend but didn’t demand 100% of my attentions.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
April 7th, I was still in Zoom meeting hell and it was still raining, but I couldn’t help but shoot yet another rainy night view of the garishly lit Bodega across the street from HQ in Astoria.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On April 8th, it had stopped raining, but when I went out to drop off my laundry and pick up a bagel, blood trails were discovered that went on for blocks and blocks here in Astoria.
I made a few calls.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It seems that somebody was displaying his great physical prowess with the intention of impressing a young lady. This display ended when he punched out the plate glass window of a bakery and he severed arteries in both arms and the neck. Further, his reaction to the open vessels situation was to run up and down Broadway while flapping his arms. Luckily, an FDNY ambulance happened to be passing by and noticed the spot he was in. I’m told the unlucky fellow was taken to Elmhurst Hospital where he was refilled with blood.
Now, as far as cleaning up those blood trails… this is yet another one of those “incompetent fuck” NYC stories which sees the City’s various agencies passing the buck to each other as to whose responsibility it is. NYPD said it’s FDNY’s job, FDNY said to instead call Sanitation, who in turn suggested calling NYPD.
As of middle May, the shadow of the scab trails are still visible on the sidewalks of Astoria.
“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.
weary journey
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A long walk continued, and the East River coastline in Long Island City was visited. One of the fervent arguments I have, all the time, with the “bicycle people” revolves around how there’s actually entire multi block streets in Western Queens that don’t even have sidewalks.
Two wheels good, four wheels bad, nobody cares about pedestrians.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The sky had gotten dramatic while I was scuttling along and I couldn’t resist the saturated colors NYC had on offer.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This one looks up 44th drive towards the Citigroup Megalith at Court Square. I think we should rename 44th Drive as “Eric Adams is Awesome Avenue,” and then he’ll send us all vegan candy and money in the mail.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Don’t worry, there’s a bike lane under that puddle.
No sidewalk, but there’s a submerged bike lane. God almighty, does this City suck or what? The City DOT’s paving unit is literally based across the street.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Really. The brick wall with the barbed wire and the graffiti is them.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My shot of the night is presented above, depicting the Queensboro Bridge from under one of its onramps.
“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 