Posts Tagged ‘south side slopes’
Downhill, from here…
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Recent endeavor found your humble narrator in Pittsburgh’s Allentown Section, where a last minute change in my plan for the day manifested. I had originally intended to take a somewhat longer walk, starting from a spot about a half mile away, but changed my mind at the last minute and took a different path instead. Serendipity!
Pictured above is the T light rail turning out of Allentown for its long descent towards the Panhandle Bridge, over the Monongahela River.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The path I decided to take is a bit of a backwater, and – driving wise – is the one which you use to skirt around rush hour traffic by ‘taking the local streets.’ It’s a winding ‘mountain road’ sort of situation, with lots of switch backs and blind sharp turns to negotiate. Very exciting. This road is called ‘Brosville Street.’
There’s a location along this path which I’ve been wanting to get a look at, and I owed the still recovering ankle a serious exercise day, so…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Cool, an abandoned house. There are so many of these in Pittsburgh that it’s actually staggering.
Brosville Street, and the places it leads to, are set into a steep section of Mount Washington. This scuttle would involve walking down a severely angled series of streets, with my intention being to absolutely blast the muscles in my ankles, calves, and those ones in the front of the thighs which lead up into the hips. Hard to reach muscle groups, these are.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The grade of the land forces one’s gait to land the foot on the balls of the feet (the bottom forefoot, or metatarsal head) rather than the heel. This alters the gait, and causes one to constantly seek balance. This helps to condition the discrete musculature and the tendon/ligaments which were hyper extended during my injury. Walking up this hill would also use a completely different set of leg and back muscles, but those aren’t the ones I’ve been having problems with since the broken ankle incident.
It’s all life’s rich pageant, ain’t it?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Habit sees me avoid taking pictures of people’s homes, as it can get a little weird. Saying, couldn’t resist recording that set of steps leading from the sidewalk down to that house. I’ve often wondered about the logistical circumstance of bringing in the week’s groceries, a piece of furniture, or just getting a pizza delivery at locations like this one in Pittsburgh. Wow.
I should mention that in addition to my neuroses about being on time or early to assignations, I’m constantly worrying about personal logistics. To be fair, I’m always managing a constellation of camera gear that’s strapped to my person, so planning ahead makes sense to me. It annoys people, however, this incessant need of mine to ‘walk through’ and minutely plan an event prior to committing to it.
In my defense, it’s reasonable to ask – for instance – ‘where do you intend to urinate,’ amongst several other existential factors, when ‘out and about.’ Plan on thirst, discomfort, and fatigue when on a walk and you’ll never be surprised by them.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I was wearing my silly $7 Costco fishing hat, along with the usual duty uniform of black army/cargo shorts with a white guayabera over shirt worn over a white t-shirt, and my trusty Merrell hiking shoes of course.
It was warm, and I was trying to travel light on this particular day. My massive camera backpack was left back at HQ, and I was using a sling bag instead. Three lenses were with me – a zoom on the camera, and a couple of prime lenses in the bag. No tripods or extraneous gear on this scuttle.
Tomorrow – the Knoxville Incline Greenway – as it were.
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Three from Pittsburgh
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s a ‘T’ light rail train set operating at street grade, along Arlington Avenue in Pittsburgh, and sitting at a red light. The transit service is currently rerouted from its normal efficiency to accommodate a construction project rehabilitating a transit only tunnel punched through Mount Washington which it normally uses.
Your humble narrator was car based on this particular day, due to high atmospheric temperatures and a desire to see a lot of things all at once. Luckily, I’ve developed a fairly decent knowledge of how to get around hereabouts in the last three years. Zippy.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A quick drive over to Etna found me sitting under a bridge to take advantage of the offered shade. I was trying for a railroad trifecta, but Norfolk Southern wasn’t playing ball. I had other stuff to do, and my ‘me time’ interval was coming to an end.
All of the posts you’ve seen this week were captured rapid fire on that particularly hot and sultry morning.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On my way back to where the car was parked, this truck carrying smaller trucks caught my eye. I asked the trucker if I could grab a couple of shots and he waved me on saying ‘I couldn’t give a flip.’
Back tomorrow with something different.
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Slopes to flats
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described last week, your humble narrator was engaged in walking a downward sloping section of the milieu here in Pittsburgh, in pursuance of exercising several otherwise hard to hit muscle groups in my atrophied legs.
Said atrophy had been caused by the ‘recovery from the broken ankle situation,’ which I do realize that it seems I never stop mentioning.
Sorry about constantly bringing it up, but it’s been a pretty impactful experience for me and it’s become one of the ‘book end’ events with which I’ll be using to differentiate the various sections of my timeline. Book ends are what I call life changing events – graduate school, first job, marriage, death of your parents, etc. The ankle and it’s aftermath also has become a delimiter to my movements, and thereby omnipresent.
I soon found myself limping down South 18th street, a pathway which I’ve shown y’all before. This scuttle began in the South Side Slopes area, and it was all downhill on the walk until I reached the South Side Flats section which occupies the flood plain of the Monongahela River.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When you get to the Flats area, the first thing you notice is the strict homogeneity of much of the housing stock. I always refer to this kind of row houses as ‘Philadelphia Style,’ with narrow sidewalk pavement and little to no space between buildings. Directly across the street from these houses is a busy railroad trestle which carries Norfolk Southern traffic, and it provides a neat division between ‘slopes’ and ‘flats’ here on the south shore of the Monongahela.
Yeah, I did hang around the tracks for a while, but at the time of day I was passing through – nada – as far as trains. As is usually the case, as soon as you get far enough away from the tracks to make it impossible to photograph the scene, you hear a train coming through. Sigh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I showed y’all a view from the opposite side of this newly cleared parcel of land a few weeks ago, a point of view some three city blocks away. This time around though, the camera was already wearing a lens that could fit through a chain link fence, I’d offer.
Back tomorrow with more.
“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.
All downhill from here
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Every now and then, I’ll be driving somewhere and spot an interesting or oddball situation which I make note of for a future exploration on foot.
To wit, a recent diversion due to street construction forced me into driving down St. Patrick’s Street in the South Side Slopes, here in Pittsburgh, to get from ‘A’ to ‘B.’ While negotiating its steep grade and winding path, a mental note to walk this route was filed and ‘here we are.’
The housing stock you observe in this area is disturbingly heterogeneous. If you encounter two buildings that are from the same plan (as above), write that down and comment on their homogeneity. Part of this lack of a standard typology of design, of course, is due to the terrain and the unique opportunities and challenges of each parcel. Properties here, observably, can display a height differential of as much as twenty to thirty feet from one side of a lot to the other. Retaining walls, and other accommodating infrastructure to combat landslides and gravity, are everywhere you look. It’s wild.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The landform here is part of Mount Washington, which is basically a tall ridge overlooking the Monongahela River. The other side of this prominence slopes away in a comparatively shallow fashion towards a region called the ‘South Hills,’ where HQ in the borough of Dormont can distantly be found. The roads here are narrow, too narrow in fact to require sidewalks for most of the downward course. Urban forest fills in the edges of, and areas between, the real estate parcels.
Speaking of, valuations seem to be all the place in this area, ranging from the mid $100 thousands all the way past the half million mark. There’s also open lots for sale, which is kind of interesting, given the recent popularity of Yurts.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
St. Patrick’s street itself offers a series of switchback curves on the downward path, and it eventually leads towards South 18th street. I’m certain, from the shape of the topology, that water flowed through the interchange area between them, probably still does beneath the asphalt. There’s a shallow angled set of steps which allows egress from one to the other, city infrastructure which I took advantage of.
My legs got the workout I was seeking.
Back next week with more from the south side of the Monongahela River, here in Pittsburgh – 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.
Get’s and go’s
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s a T light rail entering Potomac Station in Pittsburgh’s Dormont, where Newtown Pentacle HQ currently is found. I really have to get back to doing night shots, I’ve decided. Miss it.
Problem is that Pittsburgh is a very, very daytime focused place – or at least my style of life here has been. I get up early these days, about six in the morning, and am usually back in bed by about eleven at night. A huge change for me, this is, given how thoroughly nocturnal I used to be back in NYC. It’s darker here, I should mention, as there’s far less scattered light pollution bouncing off of concrete and buildings.
It’s funny, I feel like I’ve been slacking lately, although in reality I’ve been pushing the physical envelope as much as I can, post broken ankle wise. Every one of the longish walks I’ve been showing y’all has resulted in a day or two of painful soreness, but echoing in my head is ‘everything’s ok now, push harder.’ In reality, everything is definitively ‘not ok,’ but I’m trying. Everything will be better if I just work harder.
Really do miss the night stuff, though.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Next door to Dormont is Mount Oliver, and amongst other things, that’s where Moe the Dog goes for his dog training. He’s good at being a dog – to be clear – what with all the barking and the pooping so he doesn’t need any help on that front, but Moe has a lot of rough edges and bad habits we’re trying to coax him out of.
After dog training, it was time for me to figure out a route for my next walk. As mentioned, ad nauseum, one the goals at the moment is to pick routes which will provide certain otherwise hard to impact muscle groups in my legs which atrophied during my hermitage a decent workout. I also want to ‘see some stuff’ along the way.
On this walk, I had the whole kit with me – tripod, prime lenses, zoom lens. For this sort of carry, I prefer a knapsack, and the one currently on my back is from the Patagonia brand. Water resistant, lots of internal pockets, multiple compartments. The bag itself weighs practically nothing. This particular bag can – and has – held more than I had packed into it on this outing, but this was a day trip and not an overnighter. Additionally, I have to be concerned with how much the bag weighs which I’m slinging it onto my back because… you guessed it… the ankle.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
St. Patrick’s street, in the South Side Slopes/Allentown zone of Pittsburgh, that’s where I had a Lyft driver drop me off. I’ve been up here a few times in the past, but have never walked this particular route before. It’s almost like I’m systematically working my way through the street grid of an intriguing neighborhood, isn’t it?
I’ll show y’all what I saw along the way, on what ended up being a four and change miles scuttle, much of which was walked downhill at quite a steep grade. Interesting neighborhood, this.
Back tomorrow with more, at 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.
The Newtown Pentacle 