Posts Tagged ‘The Strip’
Corridors, oh the urbanity
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Continuing with a scuttle down Penn Avenue from Pittsburgh’s Bloomfield, and then Lawrenceville, towards the Strip District and then ‘downtown.’ Along the way, I noticed a colorful bit of architecture and it turns out that it’s the Pittsburgh Midwife Center. Neat.
I was pulled in by the artwork on a mural they have installed.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s just lovely, thought a humble narrator. Nice.
The section I was walking through seems to have escaped the gentrification hammers so far. At least the old building stock, and some of the businesses which occupy them, seem to still be extant.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Signage occasionally catches my eye. My guess is that this is a late 1980’s vintage painted sign. It’s mainly the design sense that says ‘1980’s’ to me.
Good news is that the shop’s window has an ‘open to the public’ sign in the window, meaning I now know where to go shopping for commercial grade cooking equipment. This replaces that joint on 43rd and Northern I used to buy pots and pans from, back in Astoria.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Strip District, where you can express your love of all things Pittsburgh by buying souvenirs and gewgaws. There’s also a bunch of multi generational businesses which offer specialty meats and cheeses, candy and treats, and all the Steelers and/or Pirates gear you can afford. Very popular area.
The streets there are positively infested with humans.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Exiting the Strip and approaching the last leg of the day’s effort. This ‘zone’ used to be involved in the commercial level of food distribution. In NYC, this area would be referred to as a ‘terminal market.’ Essentially, produce and meats would arrive by boat and train from extant locations and then were sold to market and shop owners wholesale. The latter would then stock their retail shelves in whatever section of the city they served. The Heinz factory was just on the other side of the river from here, btw.
It was time for a quick sit down, incidentally, as the humidity had been growing all day and your humble narrator needed a break from the sun.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I sat down on the steps of a church, and within a couple of minutes, the Pastor came outside and asked if I needed a drink of water or wanted to come and sit inside to partake of their air conditioning. This was extremely nice of the fellow, thought I. Very Christian.
I introduced myself, and mentioned my nascent desires to get the ‘sacred spaces’ project going. We exchanged business cards. Hopefully, I’ll get an invite to come inside and photograph the place sometime.
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.
Dark alleys
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
If a street is labeled as a ‘way’ in the Pittsburgh area, it’s an alley.
Unlike NYC, which has few alleys and those that exist have an ‘affordable housing’ component, Pittsburgh uses these alleys for deliveries and trash collection. The garbage trucks work through the alleys, which are usually badly maintained but still serviceably paved roads. Every now and then, you’ll find yourself driving through one of these paths as a motorist, while trying to avoid congestion or a construction project.
Me? I was walking along recently on a stroll from Lawrenceville to the Downtown section, and for some reason found myself wanting to walk through these ‘alleys’ as much as possible along the ‘way.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s a lovely sensation of isolation when walking along these paths. Just half a block in either direction, the sidewalks of Pittsburgh’s Strip District were absolutely packed with pedestrians. There was a baseball game occurring later in the day, and the Strip District seems to be where people visiting the City for a day trip like to congregate. It’s an ‘Arthur Avenue’ sort of situation on game days, where people who are descended from the original inhabitants of the neighborhoods return from the suburban hinterlands for a game, and seek out the familiar and unchanging that they remember from childhood.
Notice that the alley is relatively orderly. Illegal dumping, not so much. A reasonable amount of graffiti, no piles of blood, scabs, or hair (which is a call out reference to the punk band Fear’s ‘New York’s Alright.’)
While walking through these paths, I was generally completely alone, which is also kind of interesting.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m sure that this is another one of the things that I find myself doing here which will elicit an ‘are you crazy, you’ll get killed’ from the locals. According to about half of my friends, every walk I took around Newtown Creek was going to end with me getting killed by Mafiosos, with my body disappearing into either the flow of garbage through the Creeklands, or that I’d entombed in a concrete block. The latter warning was literally offered to me once as the likely consequence of taking a walk in Maspeth.
‘Fear is the mind killer.’ If something’s going to happen, it’s going to happen. Can’t sit at home fretting. Go outside. Talk to somebody. See a thing. Do a thing. Don’t wait, the day after tomorrow might not come. Every single media outlet and social media site is designed to scare you into thinking the world outside is far worse than it actually is so that you stay home and consume more of their content. ‘If it bleeds, it leads’ is an actual motto in news rooms.
Go.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve always been obsessed with Apocalyptic thema. From the Christian book’s ‘Act 3,’ to the breaking of the iron gates of Dhu al-Qarnayn, and of course: George Romero’s Zombie opuses…
The bit of historical wisdom I often offer the young is that ‘Civilizations come and go, but life goes on.’ The Romans are Italian now, and the Ottomans are now just Turks. Just in my own lifetime, the Soviet civilization collapsed, but the Russians kept on going.
Unfortunately.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This wasn’t an alley, in the shot above, rather it’s an avenue. I had arrived at the gateway point to Pittsburgh’s Downtown section. The structure above the street is a rail trestle which feeds into the Amtrak station (to the left) off of the Fort Wayne Railroad Bridge spanning the Allegheny River.
This walk was about six miles. I find I can easily do that distance now, in comparison to the late spring when my still gamey ankle was giving me all sorts of problems after a couple of miles. Push, push, push.
In the long term, the only thing that can actually cripple me is my own bullshit, and fear. I can and will survive, even if it’s just out of spite, until I don’t. I will survive this year, if it kills me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I think spite, and an underlying garden bed of simmering hatred, might be an important motivator. Everybody rejects the negative emotions, but in doing so, they end up in psychological hell by sublimating and feeling guilty about using the software that they were born with. It’s ok, let it out occasionally to bleed out the pressure. Anger is an energy.
On a different note, last year Our Lady and I attended one of Mark Houser’s Skyscraper Roof tour events, and I was able to record the view from up top on a couple of those giant piles of brick and steel above.
Check out ‘suit and a tie zoning,’ ‘Koppers Building Roof tour,’ ‘Frick Building Roof tour,’ and ‘Benedum Trees Building roof tour.’
Back tomorrow with the end of this particular scuttle.
“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.
Almost, almost…
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After reacquiring the waterfront trail here in Pittsburgh, which follows the shoreline of the Allegheny River, your humble narrator continued on his lonely path. I wasn’t using headphones on this walk, as I wished to remain very aware of my surroundings for some reason. Wasn’t worried about getting jumped at all, although I was likely the best target on the trail due to the camera. A vast physical coward, if somebody tried to mug me, I’d probably just end up vomiting on them out of fear. Experience states that puke ends a street fight faster than Kung Fu does.
This walk ended up being six and half miles long (that’s 411, 840 inches), a new personal best in this post broken ankle season I’m living through.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I was fascinated by the tree growth seen around the lumber piles above, which makes the wood look like it was molten and poured. There’s a ghastly life and death narrative at work there, with the cut lumber piles being subsumed by the living trees. Wonder what used to be here that needed docks…
This is where I soon found myself marching into another ‘angle’ between neighborhood areas, as it’s where Pittsburgh’s ‘The Strip’ metastasizes into ‘Downtown.’ Still wondering what was here that required docks…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I cannot express the sense of joy I get from my ignorance, and then getting curious about something. Recent background reading has focused in on Zinc, as in the mining/processing/industrial application thereof. Positively galvanizing, the story of zinc is. It’s anodizing, as well.
Guess I’m going to have to start reading up on the history here, as I’m getting curious about all the ‘once, long ago/used to be’ stuff. Sigh. I’ve been enjoying my ignorance… did you know that Zinc is the 4th most abundant metal on the Earth, despite its relatively low melting point?
Your humble narrator still had a little bit of walking ahead of him to get to that T station where the light rail would be boarded for a ride back to HQ.
Come with? 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.
Hammer time
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s Railroad Street pictured above, with some of the newly constructed housing units and concurrent parking lots which Pittsburgh’s Strip District now houses. Observationally, many of the people who live in these new buildings are students, or young professionals employed in the nearby downtown section. Personally, I’m not at all interested in living here in what look to me like a great deal like barracks, despite their colorful and shiny facades. I said the same thing about LIC, as a note.
I’m also determined never to share walls with anybody else other than Our Lady of the Pentacle and Moe the Dog by choice again. The nearly three years which we’ve been living in a private house is the longest period in my life I’ve gone without seeing a roach or a mouse appear inside my home.
Astoria was freaking infested. I knew a guy there whose back yard became infested with cats. Cats! What do you do, bring in dogs? It’s like that old Porky Pig and Daffy Duck cartoon. The mind boggles.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Not for me, as I often say. If I wanted apartment living, I’d have stayed in NYC. My song will probably be different when I’m in my late sixties rather than fifties.
The development projects here have been a great success, apparently, and brought a 24/7 population into an area that used to empty out at night and on weekends. Tax rolls are up, but the lousy architecture contagion is spreading. Hey, people are voting with their feet to live here, who cares what I think. It would have been smart for the city to demand green roofs on all those parking lots though, to offset the storm water situation, but that’s me. Maybe they like building sewers and treatment plants at City Hall, I don’t know.
Things started getting a little boring, as they do in these sorts of areas, so I hung a right and headed towards the Allegheny River waterfront in pursuance of acquiring the trail which follows it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s really the same old story here. ‘Used to be, once, long ago,’ replaced by new and shiny quick construction designed to minimize development and maintenance costs by using common wet walls and utility conduits. Very ‘YIMBY.’ Have they built schools, fire houses, police capability to serve the new populations? Sewerage? Anything? I really don’t know.
At any rate, the ankle was really starting to sing its song at this point in the walk. I had just passed through my former threshold point of five miles in terms of what I could reasonably expect myself to be capable of.
The current ‘uncomfortable’ thing that happens in the ankle and foot is a sensation that I have two shoelaces wrapped tightly against the heel of my foot and then something ‘clicks’ during heel strikes. The Docs tell me these symptoms are tendon related and will ameliorate with time and exercise. Stretch and strengthen, they tell me.
Push on, weakling, push.
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.
Transitional zone
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As you may recall from last week’s folderol, thy humble narrator was busy scuttling along the Allegheny River side of Pittsburgh, towards its ‘Golden Triangle,’ on a constitutional and exploratory walk. The effort began in Lawrenceville, to the east, and the goal was to get to the ‘Downtown’ section where a T light rail station would provide me with transport back to HQ about five miles away in the Boro of Dormont.
Pictured above is the massive 31st street bridge.
Beyond a bit of exploring on foot, and snapping a bunch of photos, the purpose behind this walk – specifically – was to take advantage of one of the very few places in Pittsburgh that is ‘flood plain flat’ to give the still recovering broken ankle some much needed exercise. Flat walks of this type are one of the legs of a three legged stool for me at the moment, along with walking down steep slopes and negotiating ‘natural’ surfaces. By ‘natural’ I mean walking through grass and soil in semi woodland environments. Still having trouble with sloped surfaces.
If my ankle, hips, and legs ain’t sore at the end of a walk, I didn’t walk far enough. Rebuilding muscle is not very much fun. Nevertheless, push on, push, push, push. I’ve had enough sitting down for a lifetime.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Appalachian soil which underlies the Pittsburgh metro is famous for producing potholes during the winter, as well as promulgating the formation of sinkholes. Seriously, this happened here in 2019. Saying all that, this is precisely the sort of obstacle course which I’d normally dance my way through and barely even notice, but which – at the moment – I need to stop and scry a path through before stepping forward.
My walking speed has suffered tremendously from the inactivity, and I’m currently scuttling along at a speed which most would describe as ‘normal’ or ‘understandable’ but which I call pathetic. I’ve often mentioned here how toxic my inner dialogue is, and this circumstance im in has found me mentally berating myself for breaking the ankle in the first place, like an asshole would. My Jewish mother may be dead, but part of her lives on rent free in my head.
Push on, weakling. Push. Do better. Do more.
This inner voice of mine is quite profane and mean spirited, and it speaks in a dialectical manner that would have been judged as politically incorrect even back in 1980’s Brooklyn, let alone these days. None of this self abuse is ‘machismo’ based, by the way, nor is it sympathy speaking. I just know that I can and will do better if I overlook the pain and atrophied weakness. It’s temporary. Everything is temporary, the tyranny of the ‘now.’
Push, push, push.
One of my literary heroes, and the originator of an oft repeated motto, is Boxer the Horse from Animal Farm, with ‘I will work harder.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Anyway, back to Pittsburgh.
Having just wandered about in the shrinking sclerosis of an industrial zone in Lawrenceville, and having crossed under the 31st street Bridge, I was now officially in a ‘transition zone’ – or as I used to call such areas back in NYC – the angle – between Lawrenceville and The Strip District.
The cognomen ‘Strip District’ refers to an area in Pittsburgh which used to serve the larger city as a food warehousing and distribution center, with rail and boats bringing fresh produce in for wholesale distribution to urban markets and shops.
As I understand it; 19th and 20th century pre-supermarket era, that’s when the Strip’s glory days were. There’s a section of it which is a sort of historic district, with businesses that predate the modern era and seem to be a big part of the multi-generational cultural heritage around here. People drive to this zone, over multiple hours, to then wait on line for a certain cheese to ‘bring’ on Thanksgiving or Christmas or just ‘for the holidays,’ that sort of thing.
I’ve been here a few times since coming to Pittsburgh, but my experiences in the area are fairly limited. There was lots and lots of intriguing stuff on this walk which hasn’t been featured because I have got to know more about it before mentioning it.
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.
The Newtown Pentacle 