Posts Tagged ‘south side slopes’
Knoxville Incline Greenway
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This pathway in Pittsburgh’s ‘South Side Slopes’ section has been on ‘my list’ for a while now. The ‘Knoxville Incline Greenway’ is what the sign says. The incline, or funicular railway, which it is named for hasn’t occupied this space since 1960. Read all about it here.
Now, I should mention that I’m currently rating my ankle as being ‘85%’ of what it used to be as far as physicality goes.
Jack ass that I am, that means it’s time to start taking chances again and to stop avoiding problematic situations and places, out of an abundance of caution. I’m still being cautious, just loosening myself up a bit and trying to stamp out the last embers of the PTSD regarding stairs which have been annoying me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The greenway itself is entirely consumed by the verge that surrounds it, growing out of what’s essentially a cliff face. The elevation plunges down quickly here, from the heights of Allentown and through to the wicked street grades of the South Side Slopes, and to the flood plain of the Monongahela River found in the South Side Flats section.
There’s a set of ‘city steps’ embedded within that vegetative tunnel.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Following the steps, and your humble narrator startled two sleeping raccoons while negotiating his path through the treacherous condition.
One of the critters fell out of a tree in his panicked reaction to me.
The steps section is pretty short, maybe three or four hundred feet. You descend at least a few building stories worth of verticality in that interval, however. The steps were covered with sticks and leaves, and thereby were quite slippery in certain spots. I obliged caution and moved slowly, but with a purpose.
‘This isn’t ankle safe,’ thought your humble narrator.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The greenway materializes back into the real world at a street called ‘Welsh Way.’ This is a quite narrow, and steep, residential street dead end that’s sort of ‘tucked away’ on the side of Mount Washington. Also, as previously mentioned, if a street has the word ‘way’ in its name here in Pittsburgh, it’s actually an alley.
The extreme grading is precisely what I was looking for, regarding the whole ‘stretch and strengthen’ deal for the ankle.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
People live here. I’ve been told by residents of the area that the City of Pittsburgh pays them a lot of early attention during winter weather, as far as salting and plowing goes. I guess you’d have to or you’d never be able to get a heavy vehicle up this hill otherwise to execute those tasks.
One scuttled along.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A church steeple encountered at Welsh Way’s intersection with Brosville Street captured my attentions. That’s the same church mentioned in past posts about the ‘Church Route’ steps up on Pius Street.
Yes. You’re not imagining it, everything is actually connected. All the walks, the drives, everything. I know that it’s seemed random – here, there, the other place…
Back next week with more – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
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“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.
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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Buy a book!
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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.
“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.
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.
The Newtown Pentacle 