Posts Tagged ‘Uptown’
Urban Anaphylaxis can be shocking
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Continuing today with a medium length scuttle, one that started at the edge of ‘The Hill’ neighborhood and now continues into the ‘Uptown’ section of Pittsburgh in today’s post.
I’ve been really trying to not ‘deep dive’ into history these days, after spending fifteen years doing so at Newtown Creek. Saying that, I’m led to believe – by the various texts which I’m definitely not diving into – that Uptown was historically a working class and largely Jewish neighborhood. That changed in the post steel environment, and there’s a lot of abandoned and decrepit buildings found there now.
Supposedly, a redevelopment scheme is afoot. Hope so, as this ‘zone’ is fortuitously placed between the very busy and wealthy Oakland and the office buildings of Downtown Pittsburgh. Hope that there’s a plan to include the people who are living here now in this redevelopment… ha, see what I did there – expressed hope that things wouldn’t work out as awfully as they probably will… lol.
It’s got negatives, Uptown does, notably being hemmed in by a couple of nearby and quite busy highway interchanges. It’s also currently kind of ‘crimey,’ according to local residents with whom I’ve conversed.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A dead end street called Allequippa sits on the border between ‘The Hill’ and ‘Uptown,’ and one became intrigued by that yellow house for some reason.
‘Keep on keeping on’ is one of my mottoes, though, so one scuttled forth.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’d be walking over the Birmingham Bridge (pictured above) to the other side of the Monongahela River soon enough, but a few blocks of adjustment to the path were required to aim my carcass at the entrance of its pedestrian lane. Just out of frame to the left, in the shot above, was a homeless encampment of some size and sophistication.
Negotiating the street crossing here is not a comfortable experience, I’d mention. A high volume intersection, with vehicle traffic pouring off of that bridge and also out of Oakland. Luckily, this walk took place on Thanksgiving Weekend, and the city of Pittsburgh was largely empty and somewhat depopulated. Made me miss Covid, actually, this walk.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
An intriguing industrial building, seemingly empty, sits at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and the Birmingham Bridge. Burrell Scientific is the name on the painted sign, which also promises availability of all sorts of scientific laboratory related glass products from the company.
According to Google’s AI:
Burrell Scientific is permanently closed and was formerly located in the Uptown area of Pittsburgh at 2223 5th Ave. While the original company is gone, its legacy lives on through its products, such as the iconic Wrist Action® Shaker, which are still available through other suppliers like Reagents. There are also related companies like Burrell Corporation, which is headquartered in the city but focuses on technology solutions, not laboratory equipment.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned, lots of abandoned buildings can be observed here in Uptown. I’ve been told by people who live here that it can be a rough section to live in, particularly so at night.
All will be mended, however, by affordable housing and the loving embrace and good intentions of the real estate industrial complex. Look how great that worked out in Brooklyn and Queens, with the whole ‘affordable housing’ dealie. What could go wrong?
Bah!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Inexorably, one scuttled on. Thump, drag, thump, drag… I try to be aware of the position of the busted ankle while shlepping along. Habit sees me falling back into the sort of gait which emerged during my invalid interval. Thump right foot, drag left foot, etc.
A bit of mental discipline asserts itself here, and an attempt to force the rebelling body parts into obeisance to the command organ is made.
Thump, thump, thump, indeed.
More tomorrow.
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Hill, and dale
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This particular scuttle began on the corner of Reed and Kirkpatrick Streets, here in Pittsburgh. This intersection is found at the edge of a neighborhood called ‘The Hill.’ Kirkpatrick Street in particular has interested me when driving along its length, due to the near complete abandonment of its building lots. A rideshare was used to drop me off here, and your humble narrator soon found himself kicking dirt and scuttling downwards towards the Monongahela River.
The Hill District is somewhat analogous (yup, comparing Pittsburgh to NYC again, me) to Bedford Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, or Harlem in Manhattan, as far as its cultural significance to the local African American Community. I’m largely ignorant regarding its story.
Visitpittburgh.com offers this primer, but the story of this neighborhood is something that academic careers, and a good amount of jurisprudence, are based on upon. Politics surrounding this topic are apparently generational and quite volatile.
I’m just walking here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Kirkpatrick Street winds down the side of a geographic prominence, heading in a southerly direction towards the bluffs of the Monongahela River, and the Birmingham Bridge which spans it. Oakland, with its universities and hospitals, is just to the east. Downtown, with its office towers and governmental outposts, is to the west. Uptown, with its busted streets and abandoned tenements, lurks squamously at the base of the steep hill which Kirkpatrick twirls about on. Other side of the river? Glad you asked.
Yeah… everything is starting to come into focus.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My stride was halted upon encountering this stout iron cage, affixed to a storm sewer’s open drain. This was peculiar, as its design seemed to lean more towards keeping something inside of the sewer pipe, rather than keeping things out of it. Curious.
What? You don’t notice sewer infrastructure when out and about?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A small Baptist church was observed, tucked into an odd sized lot, and it caught my eye for some reason. Looking out into the verge from either side of the road, building foundations and the remnants of retaining walls were observed.
Your humble narrator was once again the singular pedestrian, incidentally. Plenty of vehicle traffic passed me by, but the only person walking about was encased in a filthy black raincoat.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The weather has turned cold here in Pittsburgh, and this was the first walk of the year in which I had to wear ‘long John’s.’ That’s a layer of thermal underwear, for the colloquially or sartorially challenged. Beyond the underwear, I was encased in my normal mass of swirling black sackcloth, festooned with secure pockets. I’ve lost count of how many there are at this point… pants have something like 8 velcro sealable pockets and the sweatshirt offers 19 zippered/velcro pockets as well as channels for me to run headphone wires through the thing. Local area network guy, that’s me.
A fuligin shroud which adorns and protects the delicate skinvelope of the decaying pre-corpse which ferries my brain about, that’s what my ‘couture’ is. I consider the brain to be ‘me,’ as in that’s where the perception of consciousness resides – ‘between the ears and behind the eyes’ – whereas the jangly limbs and obtuse chemical factory in the belly and chest are perceived as being somehow external to the operation (until something goes wrong). I’m all ‘effed up.
I had the camera bag strapped across my back, of course, and the camera itself was being ‘worn’ beneath the raincoat to protect it from prying eyes, and possible precipitation. I was also wearing the flash orange ball cap which has become my regular ‘cover’ these days. ‘Cover’ is soldier talk for a hat, btw.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Your humble narrator was deeply involved with one of his self deprecating internal monologues, literally beating himself up about something ugly which occurred several decades ago. Whether it was actually my fault or not, I’ve decided to take personal credit as having been the villain of that story. I doubt the other parties would even remember the conflict all these years later.
Regrets, I’ve got a few.
Y’know, this is why I always thought it was silly to assign readings of Dostoyevsky or Camus to students under the age of 20. Regret? What can you possibly regret at that age, as nothing has actually happened to you yet and you haven’t had the time to really screw up enough to cause lasting harm to others?
Late 50’s? Yeah…
Back next week with more – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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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.
“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.
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
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.
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.
The Newtown Pentacle 