Posts Tagged ‘south side slopes’
Back to level ground
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Your humble narrator was highly satiated and satisfied by scuttling the spectacular Sterling Street Steps in Pittsburgh’s South Side Slopes section, as described in prior posts. The subsequence of this walk played out on the way downhill, and then into the South Side Flats area. I was already thinking about photographing trains.
Saying that, what a fascinating place this neighborhood must be to live. Challenging, though.
What if you drop an apple or orange on your way back from shopping?
The tumbling cultivar might build up enough momentum, rolling down that hill, to achieve ballistic speeds. You wouldn’t expect that, an orange moving faster than the speed of sound smacking into you. That’s ‘how they get ya.’
Also, as you’ll recall from a few posts ago, I’m quite concerned about the idea of Diurnal Vampires – Day Walkers.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just like back in NYC’s Queens, all those centuried waves of immigration to Pittsburgh have also allowed egress for hordes of parasitic ghouls, devils, and all the horrors that bedeviled these populations in the old world who followed their victims overseas. These entities have long set up shop here in the Republic.
Vampires are just part of the ‘evil equation,’ and luckily they’re pretty rare. You can’t have too many human hunters in one area, even in NYC, for the same reason that Tigers are solitary and have to maintain huge hunting ranges. A wolf, for instance, needs to consume 5-7 pounds of meat a day. Too many predator vampires, not enough blood. Basic economics suggest thereby that the price of keeping a human alive prior to exsanguination becomes expensive, and inflated. Best to spread out.
There’s persistent local legend here in Western PA., about ‘hill people’ who secretly inhabit the larger Appalachian region – as in they’re cannibalistic ‘people’ who live inside, and under, the hills who grab and carry away kids and hikers from the woods. It doesn’t get talked about.
Actually, Lore Lodge recently did discuss it extensively.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Wittering and worrying about the armies of the night on a brightly lit afternoon just speaks so much about my psychology… I can find a ray of darkness in any point of light…
This part of Pittsburgh was extensively mined in the 18th and 19th century. Mount Washington, which is the landform that these steps are set into, used to be called ‘Coal Hill.’
Coal mines that were abandoned, even the ones which the State environmental people know about, are a real problem in these parts.
About a year ago, some poor woman and her dog were swallowed up by a sink hole that spontaneously subsided in their back yard. That hole dropped them down about 40 feet into an old coal mine which nobody knew about. The lady died, but the dog was rescued by Fire Dept. personnel. Concrete was poured into the mine’s void and the ground restored.
It seems that you didn’t need to file a building plan with the local Government, back to the 1830’s and most of the way to the 20th century, when you wanted to start digging into the verge in search of fortune. Lots and lots of small scale mining activity happened below the surface, and no records were left behind of the subterrene corridors, columns, and chambers which were carved out and then abandoned.
Pennsylvania has maps of the abandoned mines which are known to exist, but every Academic and Authority bemoans that it’s incomplete.
Beyond these abandoned voids allowing a place for the ‘Hill People’ and other legends to congregate and lurk in fuligin darkness, abandoned mines also produce acid runoff and other environmental hazards. Good news is that Pennsylvania leads the nation in terms of mushroom harvest.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A rickety steel bridge at Mission Street, overflying a park and also neighboring a municipal water pumping facility, marked my turn off from the Sterling Street Steps and corridor. From this point out, it was all fairly familiar ground.
The plan from here out was to really lean into my strides and walk as quickly as I could, these days. Flat ground was nearby.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve walked down South 18th street quite a few times. Steeply graded, South 18th’s severely angled pavements have helped me regain the strength in my calves after the broken ankle incident.
South Side Flats isn’t an area where I’ll worry about esoteric things like Ghasts or Day Walkers, instead I’m looking out for the ‘dope sick’ and desperate who might decide to try and take something from me to feed their habits.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Were I younger, and I mean in my early thirties, the South Side Flats would have been where I wanted to settle here in Pittsburgh. A nearby commercial street is full of restaurants, bars, nightlife. Great spot. Lots of junkies, street people, and tons of ‘law and order’ trouble at night, however. Very much reminds me of First Avenue or Avenue A in NYC’s East Village.
I’m old, though, so we moved to the suburbs, and just come down here when a night out is desired.
My toes had already pointed in the direction of the Sly Fox Brewery, where a pint of beer and – hopefully – a bunch of CSX trains would be waiting for me for the price of walking another mile or so.
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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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.
Styling down Sterling St.
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
First off, I had no idea that an event called ‘Steptrek’ was playing out on the particular day I took this walk, but it was.
I’ve been slowly consuming Laura Zurowski’s ‘City Steps of Pittsburgh’ book, and visiting some of the interesting locations discussed by the author, when ‘fancy’ strikes, or I just need a good downhill sort of workout for my still gamey ankle.
In this case, that how I ended up at the Sterling Street Steps, found in the South Side Slopes.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This ‘zone’ is somewhat insane, in terms of building a neighborhood onto terrain this challenging and steep. The City Steps of Pittsburgh allow for pedestrian egress around these hills and valleys. They also provide unbeatable views of the city.
There’s ‘orphan houses’ up here, which are only connected to the outside world via the City Steps. No other street access.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking down at the entrance/top of the Sterling Street Steps, and in the distance is the Birmingham Bridge, over the Monongahela River. On the other side of the river, that’s the neighborhood of ‘Uptown’ squatting on ‘The Bluff.’ Beyond, it’s the ‘Hill District’ for that tree line, and towards the right is Oakland, where the colleges are. It’s all very exciting, really.
It was a perfect day, weather wise, in Pittsburgh. Temperatures in the middle/high 60’s and low humidity. The sky was milky, but clear.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As far as the event I’d inadvertently wandered into, there were lots and lots of people with printed out maps who were wearing athletic clothing and participating in ‘StepTrek.’
Chatted with one bloke from the promotion for a few minutes, on these steps, imparting him with every bit of encouragement I could to dare walking Rialto Street and then trying out the St. Nicholas Church trail. I advised him about how horrific the latter experience is, but opined that you really have to just scratch that one off your list.
Hey, check me out, I actually know something about Pittsburgh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Longtime readers will tell you that I’ve been assiduously working my way around, over, down, and through Pittsburgh’s many corridors since getting the ‘all clear’ from the Orthopedic people in late Spring. At first, my post broken ankle movements were truncated, pained, and difficult. Penguin walking, as I described it.
Throughout the summer and early autumn, gradual improvements in stride and pace have occurred as I’ve fought to build my strength back up.
Nobody is chanting ‘playah’ when I scuttle past, but there you are.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
No matter what happens to you, you need to keep moving.
An unstoppable person is an irresistible force. Get out into the world and see it with your own eyes. Don’t believe half of what you read or any of what you hear until you’ve witnessed it for yourself. All is false and phoney. The only truth out there is what can be seen and touched and smelled. And photographed, of course.
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.
Entirely pedestrian pursuits
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Continuing today, a medium length scuttle that started in Pittsburgh’s Allentown section, continued down the Knoxville Incline Greenway, and then stepped back out and onto the steeply graded streets of the South Side Slopes neighborhood here in the Paris of Appalachia.
The housing stock in this area used to be considered as ‘worker’s dwellings,’ back when the shorelines of the Monongahela River were lined with steel mills and rail yards. The quote for what Pittsburgh used to be like in the late 19th and early 20th centuries comes from the greatest of all American quotidians: Mark Twain.
Twain’s offering was that ‘it looked like hell with the lid off.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My path carried me towards a small masonry bridge at South 12th street which overflies a set of rail tracks and acts as one of the connections between the ‘slopes’ and the ‘flats’ zones. I’ve looked around a bit, and it seems that this one actually belongs to Norfolk Southern rather than the municipality- although I’m pretty sure that the latter entity likely controls the surfacing, signage, and maintenance of the actual roadway.
It’s a real pickle driving over this puppy, by the way.
Blind turns, all that. It’s also ‘pre modern’ in its approach to the pedestrian space. Definitely not ‘ADA’ compliant, and it would be a serious challenge to negotiate a mobility device like a wheelchair through here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was ‘ankle safe’ though, in its defense.
The subject of people who have mobility issues seldom seems to come up in the civil discourse around streets these days, drowned out as they usually are by the bicycle people and their demands for… whatever the hell it is they’ve decided they want this time. The wheelchair, cane, and walker crowd is always shouted down by these anti-car hooligans, who desire the installation of obstacles into the common roadway and the removal of obstacles from theirs.
Bah!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s a few cool views on this path, including ground level visual access to the Norfolk Southern tracks. I was specifically not hunting for trains on this walk, instead the goal was purely one of ‘exercise’ with a layer of photographic opportunity on top.
On, and on, did your humble narrator scuttle.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just look at that. The parking lane on the left side of the shot is part of a street where there’s a legal left onto the bridge – a blind 120 degree turn.
The pedestrian space leads to a step at the end of the ramp, so screw you young parents with a carriage or anyone using a wheeled mobility device.
You go a couple of hundred feet on the bridge roadway and there’s another blind turn, followed by yet another at the top of the thing. All the while, opposing traffic is executing a series of blind turns as well. The roadways design is essentially a capital letter ‘Z.’
Madness.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Back on flat ground, in the South Side Flats area, and onto somewhat familiar ground. The first half of my walk carried me down the side of Mount Washington, and now I was on the flood plain of the Monongahela River.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
“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.
