Phil_F_NM
Camera hacker
I'm planning on posting up in the First Calvary Cemetery right next to Newtown Creek (if allowed) to watch the Kosciuszko bridge be demolished with explosives.
See y'all there?
Phil Forrest
See y'all there?
Phil Forrest
Crazy Fedya
Well-known
Great idea, Phil.
I will try my best to join you.
I will try my best to join you.
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Phil,
This is a great opportunity. Thanks for the post. I surely will try to get some shots.
I'll do some biking to scout out the area.
Cal
rajmohan-fotograf
rajmohan
Thanks for the heads-up, Phil - I'll do my best to be there. 
Phil_F_NM
Camera hacker
Cal,
I've only reconnoitered this on the aerial view of the bridge and nearby area. The cemetery is directly north of the highway and it has a "slight" knoll to get the highest viewpoint of the bridge. If you come upon access to a nearby rooftop we could use or some other place with a good view, let us know. As far as I can tell so far, the city isn't going to dare disturb an active cemetery and they don't usually close them. Since the graveyard is adjacent to the highway, they might restrict access, who knows. If we can use the cemetery though, I'm bringing my 4x5 and shooting one good moment-of-detonation photo with a cable release then killing a roll with my Mamiya 6. I want the biggest negative I can get. Maybe I'll bring a 4x5 pinhole and do a very long exposure that covers countdown past the viaduct fall.
Phil Forrest
back alley
IMAGES
what happened to june?
Phil_F_NM
Camera hacker
This is not to replace a regular June meeting. This is a weekday event that I am going to get to and I thought I'd mention it on RFF to see if the NYC folks wanted to check it out as well. A few of us have a keen interest in Newtown Creek as well. The crumbling infrastructure there and in a few other parts of NYC are great opportunities for photos.
Phil Forrest
Phil Forrest
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Phil,
I am deeply rooted in the Newtown Creek area. I surely will have lots of scoping to do now that we have a mission.
Since you were a Sea Bee perhaps you might fill us in on demlition. All I ever saw was on film. I am sure you have training on blowing up fortifications.
I'm looking to you for expertise.
Cal
Phil_F_NM
Camera hacker
Not really any expertise there, Cal. I just took the photos.
I read the plan for the day and the viaducts on both sides of the main span are what will be demolished with explosives. I believe the main span will also be cut from the stanchions this way but left in place. It will be lifted and then dragged away on a barge after the initial demolition. From what I've found, I still don't know the time but the city hasn't said when that will happen. They're going to need some big planning ahead of time to reroute traffic off the BQE for at least the time of demolition. I'm expecting there to be a closure probably a day in advance and a few days after because of the survey work to be done on the new adjacent viaducts and the necessity to ensure safety when the barge lifts a few ten-thousand tons of bridge span. So I guess, watch and listen for closure of the BQE near that date. The city will certainly let the public know when it is supposed to go boom.
Phil Forrest
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Phil,
John and I spent some time in that cemetery shooting. I also did a lot of exploring of that area, but that was a while back when I lived in Long Island City and even farther back in Greenpoint.
Are you aware that there is a lack of subway and more or less one has to hoof in (walk). I would think bringing food is a good idea.
I'm pretty sure I will connect the dots so we have ample logistics worked out. I'm your man on the ground, and I'll be documenting the behind the scenes before demo day.
Perhaps we could hook up sometime in June, either in Philly or NYC.
Cal
rajmohan-fotograf
rajmohan
Phil and Cal - I didn't know anything about the Newtown Creek area until your descriptions, but it sounds fascinating and very worthy of exploration!
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Phil and Cal - I didn't know anything about the Newtown Creek area until your descriptions, but it sounds fascinating and very worthy of exploration!
Raj,
Raw sewage is reported to have been dumped into Newtown Creek as early as the 1850's. Underneath Greenpoint, in the groundwater is an oil spill that is estimated to be three times the size of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. In the summer you can smell the oil. Today there is a massive sewage treatment plant wher 1/3rd of NYC's sewage is treated.
Newtown Creek extends over 4 miles into Long Island and divides Brooklyn from Queens. On a subway map it is an area where there more or less are no subways, and it is mostly industrial. There are only a few pockets of residential areas and pretty much it is limited to Blissville by the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge, and another small pocket that I think is Masbeth.
Some say it is the most polluted waterway in the U.S. and pretty much only recently (1970's) was it listed as a Superfund Site.
Back during the Great Recession I went to shoot in this area on the weekends, and pretty much you did not see people and basically you were all alone, even though you can still see Madhattan. Pretty much it was scary during the day, and if you saw a car you had to know you were on your own if anything bad happens.
On one September 11th I got chased by a NYPD helicopter (I was trespassing in a railyard), but I evaded capture by scurrying like a cockroach and hiding in the shadows. Another time I almost got arrested for trespassing, even though the abandoned area was not placarded, and the fence to restrict access had fallen down.
Anyways back then this abandoned area displayed a very moody loneliness that spoke of neglect and decay. I have hundreds of thousands of negatives. I went crazy because back then film was cheap, and I knew there was wisdom to document this heavy industrial area before it too changed. I made a lot of people angry because all I concentrated on was image capture, and today I know that I'm sitting on a stockpile of documentary/historical images. The last of the old gritty NYC before it got suburbanized.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Phil and Cal - I didn't know anything about the Newtown Creek area until your descriptions, but it sounds fascinating and very worthy of exploration!
Raj,
When I lived in Greenpoint I ventured underneath the BQE not far from my house. In an industrial area I saw that someone practiced shooting a 12 guage shotgun on a Stop sign to document the spray pattern, and a flock of dead Sea Gulls that were feeding on a pile of garbage.
The row house where I lived was on the fringe, and just a block away was industrial zoning. The first week we lived there a woman was pounding on our door, and when I opened the door, she ran into our house.
It took a while for her to compose herself. She was in a state of panic and kept yelling Joanie who was our landlord's wife. Eventually she said, "You are not Joanie." LOL.
We learned that this old woman lived just down the block, but she had just gotten mugged right in front of our house. I told the tenant who lived on the third floor about what happened, and Bill the cop told me that Greenpoint is a very safe neighborhood, and that generally there is only one murder a year reported.
So later that first summer a few blocks away a young guy had an ice picked driven into his brain, and he was murdered while sitting on his mother's front stoop.
A year later a drunk was beaten to death at McGolrick Park just a block away.
Pretty funny that the annual murders in Greenpoint for two years happened within a few blocks of my house. LOL.
Cal
rajmohan-fotograf
rajmohan
Thanks for the back story of your experiences in the area, Cal. Sounds amazing (and not a little frightening!). I hope we'll get to see some your your photographs from those days at some point!
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Raj,
"Living on the fringe," I say. BTW when I lived in Greenpoint a tall skinny Chinese guy was not appreciated at all. Pretty much I was unwelcomed. In my hood perhaps 80%-85% of the people spoke Polish, and perhaps about half spoke no English.
When I lived in Williamsburg it was on the Southside. It had not yet been conquered by hipsters, and during the day once you crossed Grand and Metropoliton there were no people on the streets. After dark I would get called by my gal to meet her on Grand Street and Bedford to escort her though the no-man's land.
At that time the Domino sugar refinery was operating so I lived right next to a potential Fuel-Air-Bomb. Outside my door I found a shell casing from a 45, and one time I heard a sound like someone dragging an airconditioner down steps. Boom-boom-boom-boom...
Maggie asked me what was making that sound, and I said, "I don't know," but I was lying. It was the sound of someone emptying a clip from a hand gun practicing. LOL.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
BRIDGE SMUT: Last night on the news they explained that the reason for this new span is that the original bridge was not designed for the current capacity.
After the old span is demo'ed, a second span will be built in its place. Basically twin bridges.
This new bridge features LED lighting.
Interesting to note that the LIC skyline is evolving.
I do believe when they eventually build high rises over Sunnyside Yards that the population of NYC will be 10 million people. It is reported that the current population is 8.6 million. Now add in new residents from Hudson Yards, and Queens South and pretty much you have 9 million. I do think this will happen within a decade.
Cal
After the old span is demo'ed, a second span will be built in its place. Basically twin bridges.
This new bridge features LED lighting.
Interesting to note that the LIC skyline is evolving.
I do believe when they eventually build high rises over Sunnyside Yards that the population of NYC will be 10 million people. It is reported that the current population is 8.6 million. Now add in new residents from Hudson Yards, and Queens South and pretty much you have 9 million. I do think this will happen within a decade.
Cal
rajmohan-fotograf
rajmohan
Living on the fringe indeed! But you survived to tell the (very entertaining in retrospect) tales
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Living on the fringe indeed! But you survived to tell the (very entertaining in retrospect) tales
Raj,
One of the reasons why photography is so important to me is to document all the moving around I have done. It is a different kind of "Homelessness" where one exists in places where one does not belong.
Home should be a "safe place" but all my life that was never true for me. I always have stood out in a crowd, and also because of that I have been targeted.
Anyways in 2007, a decade ago, when there was a housing crisis, it had a profound effect on me, and it exaggerated many things for me. I was very aware of the housing bubble well before it popped. When I lived in Greenpoint my landlord was riding the market and towards the end of our stay there in this row house there were frequent visits by appraisers, real estate agents, and banks; but we got out before we got surprised and displaced and moved into a loft on the Southside of Williamsburg.
Interesting to note that I feel that I personally made the banks, the landlords, and the real estate agents lots of money over the decades; and I got so little in return. I will say Me and people like me are what makes NYC an interesting place, a reason for tourists to visit, and a creator of a culture that makes NYC a great city; but as we get displaced by wealthy people who bring nothing besides their riches somethings get lost.
In the end, if I am forced out as I age out, I will always have my negatives and digital files as a legacy to carry with me. Sadly my obsession with photography is my way to struggle for survival, otherwise I will be defeated and my life will have no meaning.
I remain hopeful that I can stay in NYC, even if I consider that it is getting suburbanized and sterilized. I spoke with someone I met in Central Park that moved from San Francisco, and he described the evolution of where that city is now only very rich and very poor (homeless). Eventually I believe NYC will become like San Francisco.
Cal
oftheherd
Veteran
Fascinating remanences Calzone. Thanks for sharing.
rajmohan-fotograf
rajmohan
Cal,
No doubt you're right in that the average Joe makes the banks (and other big corporations) plenty, and that the balance is well and truly tipped toward the latter. It is fortunate that you have photography to offer some solace when faced with the present situation.
It would indeed be a shame if the city were to lose its character and heterogeneity. Even in my relatively short time here, I have found that some areas in particular have become more homogenized and somewhat soul-less. But on the plus side, there are still swathes of the city that are diverse and interesting, and one can only hope that the segments of the population in these areas are resilient enough not to be bought (or forced) out.
Raj
No doubt you're right in that the average Joe makes the banks (and other big corporations) plenty, and that the balance is well and truly tipped toward the latter. It is fortunate that you have photography to offer some solace when faced with the present situation.
It would indeed be a shame if the city were to lose its character and heterogeneity. Even in my relatively short time here, I have found that some areas in particular have become more homogenized and somewhat soul-less. But on the plus side, there are still swathes of the city that are diverse and interesting, and one can only hope that the segments of the population in these areas are resilient enough not to be bought (or forced) out.
Raj