Posts Tagged ‘Uptown’
Down, up, over
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described in prior posts, your humble narrator was recently cavitating through a section of Pittsburgh’s Shadyside neighborhood known as ‘Millionaires Row’ along Fifth Avenue. The latter byway then offered me egress through the Oakland section, whereupon I arrived at the veritable edge of this parcel of reality.
Fifth Avenue offers vehicle traffic an entrance to a high speed arterial road, called I-376, known colloquially as the ‘Parkway ‘east’ or ‘west.’ A particular annoyance for me is that there is no accommodation in place for pedestrians or bike riders to cross at the entrance ramp to this parkway, so you have to just wait for a break in the never ending stream of automobile traffic bleeding off the local grid and then onto 376. Dangerous.
Bah!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In this section of the country, the Governments need to install signage adjuring ‘no pedestrians’ or ‘motor vehicles only’ at on ramps for high speed roads. It may seem like overkill, that, but there’s a pretty sizable Amish and Mennonite population hereabouts. You don’t see them too often in the city, but they’re out there riding about in their horse drawn buggies. It’s also not uncommon for me to see some ‘english’ dude walking along the highway’s service lane or on the other side of the guard rails either, I’d mention.
For the Amish, everyone who’s not ‘Dutch’ is ‘English.’
It’s similar to the way that NYC’s Hasidim see the world: you’re either ‘Jewish’ or you’re ‘Goyem.’ Even other Jews, from different sects, are considered to be ‘goys’ to the fundamentalist eyes of the Hasidim.
Fundamentalists, huh? A bad joke from the neighborhood I grew up in, which was on the border of one of the Orthodox’s ‘zones’ in Midwood, was ‘Now Hasidim, now ya don’t.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Inviting pathway, no?
After following this pavement, and then being forced to cross against traffic at a bridge’s off ramps – because a cross walk was occupied entirely by idle construction equipment – one negotiated the shattered pavement of the Uptown area, and began to make my way towards the pedestrian entrance of the Birmingham Bridge.
There’s a lot of obstacles, and zero signage. Luckily, I’ve walked this section before and knew where to go. I was being eyeballed by a ‘creature of the street’ so it was decided to walk a little bit faster in order to avoid trouble.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s actually startling how few intentional pedestrians there are here, outside of areas like Oakland. It’s all about the motor vehicle in Pittsburgh.
I’m famously not an ideologue on this subject, but it’s quite startling.
It’s probably because parking is fairly easy in this city. Odds are you’ll find a free or meter spot pretty close to where you’re going, except Downtown or Oakland where you have to pay for the privilege in a garage. Even then, this is not NYC, so commercial parking seldom costs more than $10 – and usually it’s less than that.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Me? I like leaving the car at home in the driveway when I can, and getting around on foot. Since I don’t have to worry about getting back to the parked car, thereby, I’m free to wander and indulge in serendipity.
Additionally, if I want to stop off at a bar at the end of the walk and have a beer or two (which is often) I can without having to worry about intoxicated driving.
As you can see, I made it to the Birmingham Bridge. I took the opportunity for a quick ‘sit down’ on that concrete barrier that the lamp posts are attached to, and changed lenses. The zoom lens went into the bag, and a wide angle 16mm prime lens was affixed.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Crepuscular Rays. That’s what those shafts of sunlight penetrating the clouds are called. You’re looking at the Monongahela River, which is likely pretty familiar to long time readers at this point.
I was heading over towards the South Side Works area, which would then place me within the East Carson street corridor. Both areas have a surfeit of bars and restaurants, and thereby there’s a fairly thriving nightlife economy. East Carson operates and looks a lot like first or second avenue did back in NYC’s East Village.
As mentioned, I was meeting up with Our Lady of the Pentacle for a dinner out, which is a fairly rare thing for us these days. We normally cook at home, in a nicely sized suburban style kitchen.
Back tomorrow.
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Oakland 2 Uptown
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One last mansion, from Pittsburgh’s ‘Millionaire’s Row’ on Fifth Avenue in Shadyside. This one is called called the Hillman house.
The next section of this particular scuttle would see me moving through a very, very different section of Pittsburgh, called Oakland.
A quite urban section of the City, it’s replete with ritual centers for the various religious denominations, universities, and you’ll observe vast campuses of hospitals and college buildings.
Traffic is always heavy here and it’s the only place in Pittsburgh, other than nearby a stadium on a game day, that I’ll regularly observe thousands of pedestrians milling about.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Eventually, I’m going to properly explore Oakland – on foot – in a block by block fashion, but on this particular outing my goal was to get through it as quickly as possible. Your humble narrator had an evening assignation with Our Lady of the Pentacle, during which we were going to meet up for a dinner ‘out’ at a restaurant, and I was anxious about getting myself over to that comparatively far flung area where we’d be meeting up.
When you’re on foot, most places are far flung.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Fifth Avenue corridor in Oakland is a congested mess. Street construction is never ending, and they’re building a couple of new hospitals, and there’s ten million college kids milling around, and grinding red light related traffic is omnipresent. I don’t fear driving through here, because I’m a former New Yorker, and this still ain’t what I’d call ‘traffic.’
If you’re not being forced into pushing your car’s transmission lever into the ‘park’ modality while sitting still in a trench on the BQE, or find yourself admiring Maspeth from up on the LIE, it ain’t traffic.
The Yinzers, on the other hand, would seemingly rather have bamboo shoots inserted under their fingernails rather than sit in this sort of slow down. Road rage is always on display here in Pittsburgh. That makes this sort of traffic dangerous to move around on foot.
As a note: the middle pedal in front of the driver’s seat activates the brake. Cars don’t just move forward – they can slow down, and stop too. Also, you can turn the steering wheel fully during a turn, it’s not just small adjustments and then driving up and over on the sidewalk’s curb.
These are people who have lived and learned to drive without the gentle guidance of the NYPD showing them the way, to be fair.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Polio was cured somewhere along this stretch. Jonas Salk, vaccines, scientific miracle – all that. Remember this as being part of ‘reality,’ as it’s also called ‘history.’
One managed to negotiate his way through the crowds of students, and started thinking about the next leg of this scuttle. I had already decided to attenuate certain plans…
It should be mentioned that this walk occurred on the one year anniversary of the broken ankle incident. My original plan had involved some ‘showing off,’ thusly, but I thought better of it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I was planning on spitting in the eye of my stair based PTSD by walking down the most insane set of City Steps which I’ve encountered so far in Pittsburgh – the ones leading down from ‘The Bluff’ nearby Duquesne University. In a rare moment of comportment, one reconsidered that plan and decided that it would be ‘daring the universe’ to do so.
One will be scuttling those steps again, just… not yet.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Plan B involved crossing the Monongahela River via the Birmingham Bridge, just under a mile away, and downhill at that. More on that one tomorrow.
Remember: if it looks bad, don’t look, and always save the last bullet for yourself.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Ebrius est calor
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That abandoned structure pictured above, found in Pittsburgh’s ‘Uptown’ section, feels like it might be my spirit animal.
One was scuttling along on a dangerously warm afternoon, guzzling water from a flask that I now carry religiously. I had a bit of a trek ahead of me, but had downgraded the breadth of the route due to the fierce weather. A plan was hatched, and a new destination and path decided upon.
It still surprises me how many abandoned structures there are here – not just in Pittsburgh – but in the many communities that cluster around the city. After the steel industry pulled up stakes, the population collapsed.
Apparently, it’s quite a palaver to try and do anything with these properties – due to red tape, politics, etc.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One leaned into it, and soon found myself heading towards my new goal.
There’s a long stretch of fairly empty buildings and barren streetscapes to cross, between my spirit animal house nearby the Birmingham Bridge, and the downtown area. This is the very edge of the Downtown section, quite nearby the court houses and City Hall.
Some kid walked over to me, who appeared to be a creature of the streets, and scolded me for taking a photo which she thought she was in. ‘You have to ask permission to take somebody’s photo,’ she said. Rather than get into an argument with her, I just said that I didn’t take a photo of her, which I didn’t, and she sauntered away probably looking for someone else to annoy and boss around.
Lots of ad hoc constitutional scholars out there, these days.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My short term goal is pictured above, the Smithfield Street Bridge over the Monongahela River. Given the atmospheric conditions, I decided that my best course of action would be to find some shady but photogenic spot where I might spy some passing Railroad action.
That brewery I like on the other side of the river, thereby, became my next walking target.
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.
Rain scuttling
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A few odds and ends from a rainy day walk in Pittsburgh for today.
The shot above depicts the scene from a section of the metro area called ‘Uptown.’ The skyscrapers rising out of the mist are in ‘Downtown,’ and it was everything I could do to not break out into a song from the catalogue of the ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ theatrical production.
At the end of the walk, my companion used his phone to calculate our mileage between the two parked cars, which ended up being something in the neighborhood of seven miles – if memory serves. My ‘Mobile Oppression Platform’ was waiting for us downtown, whereas his ‘two ton murder machine’ was behind us in Oakland.
I hope to never be unthankful to the good people of NYC’s Transportation Alternatives lobbying operation for introducing many hyperbolic terms to my vocabulary. A favorite from the last months I served as the Transportation Committee Chair for the Astoria community board was that when a driver placed a key into the ignition of a motor vehicle, they were entering into a state of ‘pre murder.’ Two wheels good, four wheels bad, just ask ‘em.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Speaking of murder, there’s a new Facebook group that’s sprung up which calls itself ‘Death Stairs.’ It took the Pittsburgh commentariot about three days to overwhelm the moderators, and entirely take over the group.
This lonely collection of ‘rises and runs,’ which led from ‘nowhere’ to ‘somewhere else you don’t want to go,’ captured our attentions when we walked past them and they demanded a shot or two.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the Birmingham Bridge, connecting Pittsburgh’s peninsular section to the ‘South Side’ across the Monongahela River. There’s a few posts which I’ve offered about the span in the archives, including one where I walked over the thing. It’s a neat bridge.
Back with something different, from the Paris of Appalachia, at this – your Newtown Pentacle – next week.
“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.
Up leads to down
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned in prior posts, due to the challenging nature of the terrain here in Pittsburgh it’s best to have a well thought out route in mind if you’re planning on taking a long walk. The hills and valleys often create cul-de-sac areas that you’ve got to be mindful of lest you find yourself having to double back over a steep hill.
This particular walk began at a ‘T Streetcar’ station called ‘Steel Plaza’ in Pittsburgh’s Downtown business district, then led through and into a neighborhood called Uptown, with the ultimate goal of walking over the Birmingham Bridge spanning the Monongahela River governing the route guiding my steps. Said bridge is pictured above, in the left hand section of the shot.
The area pictured above squats upon a considerable prominence which offers a substantial and sheer drop off to a flatter patch of land far below, found along the river. That’s also where speedy and voluminously populated highway roads are found, as well as the waterfront Eliza Furnace Trail – which I’ve mentioned in the past.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Incidentally, I had finished listening to the ‘1984’ radio drama that was playing through my headphones at the start of the walk, and had switched over to enjoying some music instead. This time, it was Husker Du’s 1980’s perfect album ‘Zen Arcade.’ I like light hearted and cheery fare, music wise.
This spot seemed to be fairly industrial in character, but there’s a lot of construction work going on nearby so maybe that’s a temporary thing. Remember that bridge which collapsed about a year ago in Pittsburgh, when the President was in town? That was quite nearby.
The collapse set off a mad dash of engineering inspections city wide, scrutiny of an overpass bridge in this area revealed it was dangerously close to collapse, due to a lack of maintenance and heavy usage. They’ve (as in the local and state Govt.’s) been rebuilding the thing ever since. That’s why you’re starting to see all this construction ‘stuff’ popping up, as I got closer and closer to the Birmingham, which the circumspect overpass bridge overflies a part of. Big project underway, right here.
One wandered down the hill a bit, to get a better look at the bridge project, and see what might be lurking about, on my way to the Birmingham Bridge’s pathway.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Photo Tip: Something I’ve learned over the years – through long trial and years of error – is that you want to place your camera’s focusing point on the post between the windshield and driver’s side window when photographing vehicles, especially when they’re large ones like the truck above. This sort of knowledge really matters when shooting in low light and wide aperture, I’d offer.
The truck was rigged up with – what looked like to me – one of those giant suction pump and pressure cylinder frammistats you’d use to slurp water out of manholes and underground pipery.
A humble narrator always has to repeat a corny joke when witnessing one of these setups – Hey, ya see’s dat truck over dere? yeah? Aww, that truck, it just ‘effin sucks.
I’m here all week, two shows on Saturday…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Believe it or not, I wasn’t the only pedestrian. Saying that, it wasn’t exactly a well populated path that I was scuttling along. Except for cars, trucks, that sort of thing. I saw zero bicycle enthusiasts.
My plan for the second half of this longish walk would involve crossing the Monongahela River, on the Birmingham Bridge’s pedestrian and bike path. I hadn’t walked that one yet, although one has quite enjoyed several automotive drives across the span, while motoring upon the thing. Sick views, yo.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It always strikes me, how visually distinct Pittsburgh’s various sections are from each other. There aren’t ‘gradient areas’ between them, due to the geology of the place, I’d reckon. You cross a street with skyscrapers behind you and on the next corner there’s an abandoned Second Empire rooming house or a boarded up terracotta mansion. Off in the distance you see train tracks and highways, and then there’s a band of one family homes set into deep valleys or atop steep ridges. Just beyond that… and then… and then… Pittsburgh is just… fascinating.
Negotiating my steps towards, and finding a path to, the entryway of the Birmingham Bridge was my next move, so off I scuttled.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the Birmingham Bridge pictured above, and I’ll be taking y’all on a walk high over the Monongahela River upon it – soon.
I’m going to be taking next week off from the normal offerings, and do a week of single images you’ve seen here sometime in the past, (as is my habit) for the holiday interval between Christmas and New Years. We’ll pick up at the Birmingham Bridge for the rest of this walk on the 1st day of 2024, which I’m told will be a Monday.
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.
“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 