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Your search for Hackensack, NJ
found 91 items
Record World, Riverside Square Mall, Hackensack, NJ 1983
Pia was doing an in-store for some reason. |
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SKU:
18-037
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (AKA 'Spirit') |
Holy Trinity Church, Hackensack, NJ 1987
Way over the altar is this large image which I had seen every Sunday of my childhood. I thought those orange things were mushrooms - the ones that grow on trees. I still don't know what they are.
Anyway, I hadn't seen the image in a while, so I shot this at my nephew Michael's christening. |
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On my roof, Hackensack, NJ 1988
The First Presbyterian Church's bleacher seats. |
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From my roof, Hackensack, NJ 1988
I love the architectural potpourri of the neighborhood.
Since I was baptized in that church and since my landlord used to be in the distant office building to the church's right, this used to be called 'My Lord and my Landlord'.
The Ramapo Mountains are in the background. The Packard's smokestack on the right is now gone (as is Packard's). |
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SKU:
18-081
First Presbyterian Church steeple |
Hackensack, NJ 1988
Without the foliage, you can see the lights of Union St to the steeple's left. |
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Out of one of my bedroom windows, Hackensack, NJ 1989
You know that American Express commercial that says, 'Don't leave home without it'? My new photo philosophy is 'Don't leave home'. This is EXACTLY how the sky looked - no filters, no tricks.
The church is the First Presbyterian Church of Hackensack and you will see it in a LOT of my 'home' photography, but this is one of the best ones.
I was going to call the shot 'Saints and Sinners' - the line of lights in the lower left is the Meadowlands Racetrack - but not all racing fans are sinners and not all churchgoers are saints. |
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SKU:
18-070
Hackensack gets the green light |
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Main St (near the Courthouse), Hackensack, NJ 1989 |
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Hackensack, NJ 1989
This juxtapositioning occurred by the cemetery behind the First Reformed Church (Church on the Green). I'm not sure what it means, but it appears to have a slightly humorous aspect to it............something about deadbeat loans, perhaps? |
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Out of one of my bedroom windows, Hackensack, NJ 1990
I get some great sunsets from here, but this gets the Oscar for the Most Detail in a Single Sky.
Scan has cut some of the bottom out. |
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SKU:
18-018
Kipp's Bend, Hackensack River |
Hackensack, NJ 1991
This was taken out of my living room window when the morning sun reflects off the river.......sometimes it's blindingly bright.
The tree with the yellow leaves on the right is on the northern tip of Foschini Park in Hackensack. Teaneck is on the other side of the river, but the buildings are 2 more towns away in Fort Lee and Cliffside Park - just south of the George Washington Bridge on the Palisades above the Hudson River. |
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Anderson Park, Hackensack, NJ 1992
The entire park has since been redesigned (though not necessarily all for the better), but everything else is the same. My building's in the middle (I live on top), the Second Reformed Church is on the left, the Baptist Church and school take up the block on the right, and the Presbyterian Church's white steeple is positioned to appear to be atop the Baptist Church (hard to see in this scan).
If that's not enough churches for you in one spot, the church that I was baptized in is a block behind my shooting spot. Any atheists in the neighborhood must feel like they're living in hell...................as do the tenants of my building, which used to be a nice place years ago until the current owners took over and ran it into the ground.
A real shame. |
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My roof, Hackensack, NJ 1992
This is simply the facade of my building reflected in a roof puddle. A built-in blue filter was used at sunset. |
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On my roof, Hackensack, NJ 1992
I used my long-time friends as guinea pigs to try out this weird background lighting technique before I tried it on bands (see 'Dee Snider's Widowmaker' photo 12-021 below).
I like the way this one came out better than the Snider one. |
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My Building's Entrance, Hackensack, NJ 1992
Before a gig 25 miles south of me, Dee and the boys came up for a shoot. After I went downstairs to greet them, we all came up in the elevator and it was a bit noisy.
When we got out of the elevator, a woman who lived across the hall from it opened her door to see what the commotion was, looked at Dee and the boys, bugged her eyes and shut the door............fast.
The next day, she asked me if Dee Snider was really in her building or did she just have a nightmare.
I said 'yes'. |
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My Roof, Hackensack, NJ 1992
For this shoot, I had someone dressed in flat black from head to toe (black ski mask is a must!) who 'painted' the background after the flash went off (while the shutter was still open).
The 'paint' is of my own design and is extremely technical................I wrapped a long string of 2-inch Christmas tree lights around the assistant's hand. Wherever the hand moves gets 'painted' (tricky, huh?). The assistant is not lit up by the lights because of the flat black clothing. The band has to stand still for the 30 seconds that the shutter was open or else the paint 'bleeds' onto them.
By the way, that curved thing in the upper left corner is a plane coming in on final approach to Teterboro airport. Its lights also painted on the film while the shutter was open. |
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One block from Sears, Hackensack, NJ 1992
This is the back of Holy Trinity Church. |
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SKU:
20-067
Dull, boring parking lot at night |
Out of my living room window, Hackensack, NJ 1992
There's only one night each year (Christmas Eve) that I can attempt this, so I can't practice it too often.
Because of churches on either side of me, cars pour into the lot for Christmas Eve services, so it's the only time I can depend on lots of car lights to work with on film. When the camera's shutter is kept open and the cars pull in, their lights 'paint' on the film. Going around corners turns white headlights into red taillights.
Same thing in the sky - what appear to be scratches are the lightpaths of airplanes during the 30 seconds that the shutter was open. There are even one or two stars visible that have a slight blur to them due to the rotation of the Earth during those 30 seconds!
There are also window reflections - avoidable only if I wanted to go outside and freeze to shoot this, OR, in a real fairy-tale world, if security lights were properly aimed (they rarely are, especially by PSE&G - the electric company that installs them in this area).
But I digress. Also (and barely) visible is New York City - Manhattan is just above the apartment building on the right. My old 280ZX is in the lot on the left side and is lit by the car that just pulled in.
There are those who look at the 3 dual-headlight paths solely and see something completely different in an abstract, neon sculpture sense.
Nuff said! |
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From my roof, Hackensack, NJ 1992 |
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SKU:
18-044a
Manhattan from Hackensack at Christmas |
Taken from my living room, Hackensack, NJ 1993
The Empire State Building is dressed in its Christmas colors. |
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SKU:
18-066
Hackensack in Early Autumn |
Sears Building, Hackensack, NJ 1993
This is NOT a double-exposure. As the moon rose behind the fluttering flag, I left the shutter open for 15 or 30 seconds.
And this is a HORRIBLE scan. |
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On my roof, Hackensack, NJ 1993
I hope He doesn't mind me connecting my hammock to His steeple. |
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From the penthouse roof, Hackensack, NJ 1994
I tried to be clever and make the long string of a cloud appear to be coming out of the high-rise's chimney, but took it a few seconds too late.
Inept foreign scanning cut some of the bottom off this scan too. |
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from my roof, Hackensack, NJ 1994
Under the Red, White, and Blue, Sears is temporarily red, white, and blue. |
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SKU:
18-072a
Sun reflecting off the Empire State Building - The View from Hackensack |
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Taken from my living room, Hackensack, NJ 1994 |
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SKU:
18-061
Kipp's Bend, Hackensack River (Winter) |
Hackensack, NJ 1994
One of my absolute favorite 'from home' shots. Would you believe this was taken less than 10 miles from New York City?
The trees and the church's cross (actually a double-cross [!] on the Methodist Church at Summit Ave. and Passaic St.) are in Hackensack and the mountain (Garret Mountain) is in Paterson, 8-10 miles away.
Shot with a 600mm f/4 lens (borrowed from Minolta Corp. - thank you) on Kodachrome 64. |
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SKU:
18-043a
Fly Me To (or near) The Moon |
From my roof, Hackensack, NJ 1995
I first saw the plane when it was at the bottom of the frame. I thought it might hit the moon, so I ran inside, got my camera, took test readings, and got this just in time.
Two things in my favor were the setting sun which lit up the usually-unseen plane, and a lack of wind that kept the exhaust plumes intact. |
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On my roof, Hackensack, NJ 1995
When I get bored, I start doing multiple-exposures to see what comes out. This was a triple exposure done of a setting sun, and, a couple of hours later, the moon and the lit steeple. |
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My roof, Hackensack, NJ 1995 |
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On my roof, Hackensack, NJ 1995
There used to be an awning here years ago, but I've left up the framework because it adds interesting lines and shadows to some of my shots (and also because I'm hoping the landlord takes the hint and fixes it.............fat chance). The sun is reflecting off the window of my old darkroom. |
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SKU:
18-063a
Wild Sky + Roof Puddle = Cool Shot |
On my roof, Hackensack, NJ 1995
Add a fisheye lens to the equation.
A somewhat orange version of image 22-012. |
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SKU:
18-074
Holy Trinity Church steeple |
From my roof, Hackensack, NJ 1995
After a storm, the setting sun pops through. Visible in the background are the Ramapo Mountains of New York state. |
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From my roof, Hackensack, NJ 1995 |
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SKU:
18-076
Coming into Teterboro Airport |
From my roof, Hackensack, NJ 1995
With Teterboro about 3 miles south of here, these planes come in very low. The only good thing about that is you can take shots like this with the setting sun lighting up the underside of the plane. |
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Hackensack, NJ 1995
NOT a good scan. |
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Hackensack, NJ 1995
Some bottom missing from this scan also. |
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SKU:
18-079a
The Kipp's Bend Mountain Range |
From my living room, Hackensack, NJ 1995
Overnight, these magnificent mountains sprang up out of nowhere (and if you believe THAT..............).
OK - lotsa stuff here. From the bottom: Hackensack, Hackensack River at Kipp's Bend, Treeneck..........uh, I mean TEANECK, the high-rises of sunny Fort Lee and Cliffside Park, a mountain of clouds, and a plane.
It's SUCH a pleasure to be able to stand in my living room in my underwear (THERE'S a visual you didn't ask for!) and take shots like this. |
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From my roof, Hackensack, NJ 1995 |
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Isle of Gibraltar and Hackensack, NJ 1987 AND 1996!
This is an amazing and touching story.
In 1987, my parents went to Gibraltar. My father asked what slide film I used and I told him Kodachrome 64. He bought a few rolls and off they went.
Nine years later, with my father in a Veteran's Home with Alzheimer's disease, my mother gave me some 'unused' K64 film of his that was still in the refrigerator.
I shot the roll and when I got it back, I was shocked to see that the film wasn't 'unused', but had now been used twice! Everything was double-exposed, nothing lined up, and all my good shots screwed up all his good ones and vice versa...............except for this one shot.
This gentleman in Gibraltar, with the sun at his back, is seemingly shooting the Hackensack high-rises and Hackensack's sun! The Gibraltar haze obscures the line between the buildings and water and makes it look real...........it works!
My parents' 50th wedding anniversary was coming up 2 months later, so I had a blowup made. I knew Mom was sad about not having Dad there, so I gave her a present that I told her was truly a collaborative effort - something made by her husband and her first son.
She would not believe that Dad was capable of making ANYTHING at that point, so she was absolutely floored when she saw this and heard the story. She loved Gibraltar and she loved my apartment and views.
I was THRILLED that I was able to come up with such a lucky, yet meaningful gift for my mother. I will always treasure the look on her face and was glad that this happened when it did because she didn't live to see her 51st anniversary. |
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SKU:
18-046
Kipp's Bend, Hackensack River |
Out my living room window, Hackensack, NJ 1996
As a storm leaves and the sun moves in, things look a little different. |
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From my roof, Hackensack, NJ 1996
After their wedding at one of the 346 churches on my block, the couple and their photographer went across the street to newly-redesigned Anderson Park to do the wedding photos. I took this as the pair returned to the church.
And no, they've never seen this (unless they stumbled across this site). |
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SKU:
18-073
Massive Tornado Destroys Hackensack! |
My roof, Hackensack, NJ 1996
Yeah, right. Well, it DOES look nasty, doesn't it?
If you look real close on either side of the left chimney, you can see the buildings of Manhattan, including the sun-reflecting Citicorp building on the chimney's left and the even-brighter World Trade Center on its right. |
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From my living room - 'E' municipal parking lot, Hackensack, NJ 1997
There usually aren't too many good shots to be had shooting a vacant parking lot during the day.............except for this one. The straight lines, the curves, the clean snow, the Mickey Mouse-eared meters and their shadows, the nicely dug-out space all made for a shot I don't take very often (or even SEE).
I had a print made up and on my birthday, I thought I'D give the present, so I found the woman who rented the cleaned-out space and, as a thank-you for the good job she did in adding something to my picture, I gave her the print.
You would have thought I was handing her a bag of botulism, judging by her reaction! So, thank you, Ms. Space #85, for being an ingrate and ruining my birthday and my good intentions. |
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SKU:
20-031a
Two points off for spelling |
Hackensack, NJ 1997
This is about 6 or 7 blocks from me, so I have to be semi-neighborly.
There are pictures of dogs on either side of the words. I'm guessing, with a bathtub out front, that it was supposed to say 'Barking Bathhouse', but unless the owners have bats in their belfry, they paid for a big misspelling. |
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Hackensack, NJ 1997
Rain to the left of me, rays to the right
Here I am - stuck in the middle with you
(with apologies to Stealers Wheel................and you) |
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From my kitchen, Hackensack, NJ 1997
This doesn't look like much, but it's actually a pretty cool shot! Remember the Hale-Bopp comet? That's what that white dot is.
I had tried earlier to get this comet on film outside on a tripod - no luck. One night, I just set the camera up on my kitchen counter and aimed it where I thought the comet was and left the shutter open for 30 seconds and got it. While the shutter was open, a plane was coming in for a landing at Teterboro Airport and its lights streaked across the frame, adding some much-needed color.
The light on the wall (at an 8th-floor level) comes from a PSE&G security light installed at a 2nd-story level (and tilted downward!) nearly 2 blocks away at Passaic and Park for the Gutterman-Musicant Funeral Home. They've been asked to get this light out of my kitchen, but have so far refused. Why ground security requires throwing light everywhere else is beyond me.
Along those lines, the pronged item in the lower left is an old TV antenna, whose underside is lit up by the lights of the redesigned Anderson Park across the street (and 7 floors down), a park whose designer thought it would be a good idea to illuminate park benches at night by throwing light not only on the surrounding apartment buildings, but also straight up into the sky.
'50s sensibilities at '90s prices. It's a wonder I could see the comet. When will this city ever get a handle on its light pollution problem? Unbelievably, the head of its Environmental Commission was also the designer of the idiotic park lights!
You'd think he, of all people, would know better. |
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SKU:
22-036
20 Prospect @ Hackensack Hospital |
from a bedroom window, Hackensack, NJ 1997
The building going up is at 20 Prospect Avenue - a medical building at Hackensack Hospital, from where I took photo 22-016 four years later. |
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Taken from 7 floors up, Hackensack, NJ 1997
Shown are the Gentile Funeral Home (foreground), some high-rises, and a lit baggied building being built. This is the Hackensack Hospital addition at 20 Prospect Avenue. |
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My roof, Hackensack, NJ 1997
Pretty cool-looking shot for a colorless color slide. The scan could be better.
There was a monster lightning show that night (see next pic). |
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Hackensack, NJ 1997
Unbeknownst to me, a relative I hadn't yet met was going through a difficult childbirth this same evening at a hospital in Virginia. Her baby was named Dante and I'm fairly certain his arrival was announced to me simultaneously via the dual bolts in the above scene.
There's a cute shot (21-059) of the little devil at age 1 on this site under 'People'. |
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Hackensack, NJ 1998?
One of the wildest sunset cloud patterns I've ever seen. The fisheye lens' built-in orange filter helped a bit. |
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From my roof, Hackensack, NJ 1998 |
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from my roof, Hackensack, NJ 1998
Just another incredible sky, aided and abetted by the built-in orange filter of my fisheye lens. |
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From my roof, Hackensack, NJ 1998 |
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From a bedroom window, Hackensack, NJ 1999
Scan cut out some of the bottom of image. |
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From my roof, Hackensack, NJ 1999
Not really 'ice' (it was summer), but an incredibly unusual divergent sky. I've never seen one quite like it. |
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Hackensack, NJ 1999
The sun sets behind the Prospect Avenue high-rises. |
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From my roof, Hackensack, NJ 1999 |
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from a bedroom window, Hackensack, NJ 1999
Exactly as it was..........no filters.
Here's an oddity that took me a while to figure out. See the 2 small lights that are on top of each other to the left of the steeple? There are a number of radio/TV towers in the area and I thought that's what these lights were.
One problem with that theory: the number and placement of the lights changed every few minutes! And some nights, they weren't there at all! I finally figured out what they were - a line of airplanes waiting to land at Newark Airport, about 20 miles south of me.
Sometimes, I'd see 5 or 6 lights on top of each other and it was just 5 or 6 planes spaced (I think) 5 miles apart and at different altitudes, all coming on a northerly approach to land at EWR. |
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SKU:
21-061a
And yet another cool-looking sky |
SKU:
22-019
Holy Trinity Church Carnival |
Hackensack, NJ 2001
The old Holy Trinity School that I attended from grades 1-4 used to be in this parking lot. I packed my equipment for the long journey there and hiked the 2 blocks.
There were 4 equidistant sets of lights on this carousel. I set the tripod up and mentally calculated how long 1/4 turn took (the time it would take for the lights to streak around and 'connect').
The horses went so fast, they were a blur and threw all the kids off to serious injury, but I got my shot with nice sharp backgrounds and everything else in motion.
Oh...........just kidding about the kids. |
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Hackensack, NJ 2001
This scan's a little weird. |
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Hackensack, NJ 2001
Ever try to photograph a rainbow? By the time you get your camera set up, it's almost gone. I saw this one starting to form from my living room and it was in full bloom by the time I was ready to shoot.
You might not be able to see it in this scan, but in the slide, the rainbow continues all the way down to the street and lands on a man with an umbrella standing at the bus stop on Anderson St by Main St.
I thought this was pretty cool until I took the next picture. |
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Hackensack and Bogota, NJ 2001
My favorite photo of the year! And shot from my living room!
The building in the foreground is the Hackensack YMCA. The rainbow is falling on St. Joseph's Church in Bogota. They must have gotten a BIG donation that day!
Strange, but true............if someone was standing right next to me when I took this, they would not have seen the exact same rainbow! And, yes, the sky inside a rainbow is lighter than it is outside of it. |
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on the roof, Hackensack, NJ 2001
Extremely cool and unusual cloud patterns.
I love this stuff! |
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Hackensack, NJ 2001
This was taken from an examination room at a doctor's office at Hackensack Hospital and looks northeast towards Englewood Cliffs and Tenafly along the Hudson River.
My building has a yellow side wall and is to the left of the white steeple. I was baptized in the church on the left. My hometown of Teaneck is in the trees behind the buildings.
Not a great scan. |
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SKU:
22-035
Fourth of July (on August 14) |
from my living room, Hackensack, NJ 2001
Hackensack's 4th of July fireworks were postponed twice until August 14, but were well worth the wait.
Too bad the same thing didn't happen exactly 2 years later. August 14, 2003 was the night of the Blackout of 2003 and fireworks would have looked REALLY cool that night! |
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SKU:
22-001a
September 11, 2001 (both towers up) |
From my apartment, Hackensack, NJ 2001
I'm not always awake before 9am and I am NEVER out that early, but I had to bring my car in to the dealer for servicing before 9am on that Tuesday morning.
I got there at around 8:40am, spent about 15 minutes at the service desk and went into the waiting room to wait for their car service to take me home.
The others in the waiting room were gathered around the TV, where I could see a tower of the World Trade Center burning.
'What happened?'
'A plane hit the World Trade Center!'
At that moment, a replay came on and I saw a plane tear into a tower.........except it wasn't a replay! It was the second plane hitting Tower 2 live on TV!
OMIGOD!
I called a friend and woke him. 'Turn on your TV!' I then demanded a driver to get me home fast and got one. On the way home, we both cursed the only name we could think of in that situation - Osama Bin Laden.
I got home at about 9:25am and could see the WTC from my living room window, about 10-12 miles away. I immediately started shooting stills and video.
From my perspective, Tower 1 has always blocked Tower 2 from sight. In this photo, both towers are still standing and burning.
By the way, that terrorist balloon shown that you never heard about was an advertising balloon for Sifford Pontiac in Bogota, NJ. Apparently, they were called by the authorities and told to take it down pronto.
This image is weirdly-cropped because we had a problem with the foreground during scanning, so we just cut it out rather than waste a lot of time. |
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From my apartment, Hackensack, NJ 2001
This is my most dramatic photo of the entire event. This was taken with a crappy 500mm mirror lens and is not sharp.
From 10-12 miles away, you can see the dust clouds of Tower 2 rushing up against some of the nearby buildings.
The darkest lower area is Hackensack, the next lightest area is NJ along the Hudson River and the lightest buildings are, of course, in NYC.
This photo freaks out more people (including myself) than any I have ever taken.
Some other photos may be found under the 'September 11, 2001' listing. |
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SKU:
22-013
Anderson Park at Christmas |
Hackensack, NJ 2001
This park is right across the street from my building, which is barely visible on the left. The First Baptist Church and School are on the right and the First Presbyterian Chuch's white steeple is in the center. |
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From my apartment, Hackensack, NJ 2002
The Ground Zero lights on the right were not easy to photograph from my apartment because they weren't that strong against the sky from that distance, and, just like the towers, one blocks the other from my view.
Low clouds were a big help because the beams would hit them and light them up before continuing upward. In this photo, that's exactly what happened. This time, the smoke/steam was coming from a power plant in Ridgefield, NJ, and the winds blew it past the Empire State Building, whose spire is also in the clouds. |
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My apartment, Hackensack, NJ 2002
An absolutely stunning sky above my living room (center wall and behind big chimney).
If you'd like to be totally sickened, scroll down to image #22-026 to see what my landlord and Nextel did to me and this scene in 2003. |
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Hackensack, NJ 2002
Taken from my roof, this shows the First Baptist Church/school and parking lot, some of Hackensack, and a quarter moon. |
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From my roof, Hackensack, NJ 2002
One of the most amazing skies I've ever seen! No tricks, no filters - this is just how it looked! |
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on the roof, Hackensack, NJ 2002
Some more of that amazing sky taken from a different part of the roof. |
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from the roof, Hackensack, NJ 2002
We had a fire in our building a few years ago that put half the tenants in motels for 2 weeks because the landlord didn't replace overheating basement wires that the Hackensack Fire Department ordered him to.
He also owns the building across the street at 50 Anderson St, where he was told to install sprinklers.
This is unsprinklered 50 Anderson St., which had a quarter of the building demolished in this fire. Lots of Ecuadoran immigrants, who lost their homes and possessions, fortunately did not lose their lives. |
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Hackensack, NJ 2002
Taken from my roof with a fisheye lens and its built-in orange filter on a very cool sky. |
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from my roof, Hackensack, NJ 2002
One of the steeple's lights was out, giving it a great-looking dark panel.
On the far left horizon is NYC, the bright lights to the steeple's left are from the Meadowlands Racetrack in E. Rutherford, a car's taillights head down Union St past the funeral home, and the high-rises of Prospect Ave loom on the right. |
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Taken while standing in my bedroom (!), Hackensack, NJ 2003
This was pretty amazing. Over the years, I had seen a hawk or 2 sitting on the roof TV antennas, but when I tried to get within 50 feet of them, they're gone!
I always hear small birds landing on my bedroom air conditioner, but this day, I heard big CLAWS behind the shade! I tried to raise the shade without freaking out the bird and got some video, but then spooked it somehow and off he flew.
Damn! I wish I had the chance to get some stills!
This happened a few hours before the Presidents Day Blizzard of 2003. As I sat to watch TV, I heard some squawking outside. I ran to another window and saw 2 birds flying fast, followed by a big crow. I didn't think anything of it until I saw this juvenile red-tailed hawk zooming after the crow!
The hawk went around the corner and landed again on that A/C. As I was getting my camera ready, the crow blitzed the sitting hawk twice, almost knocking him off the A/C. The crow left and the hawk stayed as I shot through the dirty window from a foot or two away.
You can't get within 50 feet of them outside, but put a thin pane of glass between you and him and you get once-in-a-lifetime shots like this. |
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Municipal parking lot, Hackensack, NJ 2003
In motion: 2 cars and 1 pedestrian. |
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Hackensack, NJ 2003
Taken from one of my bedrooms. |
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SKU:
22-041
Hackensack University Medical Center Construction Crane |
From my apartment, Hackensack NJ 2003
Dull by day, dazzling by night, this crane was uniquely lit for all to see.
Sharpening made this a little weird, but it's a nice, sharp shot. |
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My apartment, Hackensack, NJ 2003
The worst thing that has ever happened to my neighborhood and my tenancy. Through a series of State errors, my landlord and Nextel conspired to uglify the historic neighborhood, irradiate tenants, and turn my apartment into a cell tower!
The 12 antennas (4 on a chimney that runs through my apartment, 4 on a wall opposite my front door, and 4 more to the far left - not shown here - that are at my foot level and ONE FOOT above a 6th-floor tenant's bedroom window) were originally supposed to be on the building's front and side facades, but the NJ State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) stepped in because it's considered an historic building and they have strict rules about these antennas being visible on historic buildings.
So what do they do? They ordered them moved 'inland' to what they thought was an unoccupied elevator room. They didn't know it was my apartment! When I contacted SHPO, they admitted their error and said this design would not have passed had they known this at the time.
However, in the interim, SHPO told the FCC that there were 'no adverse effects' and the FCC gave Nextel the go-ahead to start construction! These antennas are usually found on commercial buildings and sometimes on residential apartment buildings with historic apartment buildings being usually the last resort. We have 3 commercial streets to our IMMEDIATE east, but Nextel didn't bother to explore/exhaust those possibilities.
On March 20, 2003, the US invaded Baghdad and Nextel invaded my building.That's my living room air conditioner you see in the window. The computer where I sit writing this is right behind the left chimney, which has been hit by lightning! (see the repairs on far left?)
My TV and sofa are between the window and my computer, so I spend half my life within a few feet of these idiotic antennas! SHPO has admitted their error, but refuses to lift a finger to correct it, so the FCC, which wants these things everywhere - health be damned - has no reason to change anything!
Half the politicians in the state are trying to help, but as of this writing, nothing's changed yet.
Nextel's workers, who assured me everything was safe, left the above message one weekend. It was gone the following Monday. I guess they didn't know I'm a photographer.
All these installations are always well above the level of any human beings. There is no other installation in this county where cell antennas are placed above, at, and below the level of a living person.
Not only did SHPO screw up royally, they also violated their own rules in the process! The reason for the change was because these antennas are not to be visible on historic buildings, yet this installation is about a hundred times MORE visible than the facade plan! I can see them from the next town! And did I mention that we have 4 churches and 4 schools within a block of us?
Fifteen years of family and friends on the roof for the 4th of July fireworks ceased this year because of this. I imagine my roof photography and my general enjoyment of my roof is over too. Nextel has also taken over tenant common area in the basement for their control room.
What do we get for all this?
Cooked.
I have a feeling I'll be writing in this space for a while until it gets resolved.
Stay tuned. |
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From my living room, Hackensack, NJ 2003
Forced inside this year by Nextel's idiotic cell antennas, I managed to get at least one decent shot. Nextel refused to turn the antennas off for 2 hours.
'It would hurt our customers', said the callous representative, not caring a whit for the people who live in this building and their traditions. |
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from my living room, Hackensack, NJ 2003
Looking out my window on a Sunday morning, I saw this plane heading out over the Atlantic Ocean. I'm not sure where the shadow came from, but it looked cool, so I shot it. |
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From my roof, Hackensack, NJ 2003
I was without electricity for 9 hours on a 90-degree day. Fortunately, the moronic Nextel antennas were also knocked out, so I could venture onto my personal roof space for the first and only time all Summer.
At night, it was quite nice with a refreshing breeze not found at street level and perfect for some blackout photography.
The intersection of Union St and Passaic St was lit by police flares and car lights. The church steeple, which reaches 8 stories tall, was lit 'thanks' to a neanderthal car dealership FOUR BLOCKS AWAY that uses 1950's lighting technology that's dedicated to making sure no one from here to Ogden, Utah, ever sees a star in the night sky again.
Obviously, some places got their electricity back quickly. Unfortunately, River St, which is FOUR BLOCKS AWAY, was one of them. In the distance, the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford is aglow (or maybe it's another car dealership).
Starting at the far right, a long line of high-rise apartment buildings on Prospect Ave is lit in the first half, dark in the second and end at a lit Hackensack Hospital.
On the roof, I had a transistor radio that I didn't bother using, a phone that I did (to invite a neighbor up), a hammock, and lots of melting ice pops. I was going to sleep in the hammock, since the apartment was too hot.
As I was dozing off in the strong breeze, the lights came back on at about 1:20am. I would have stayed, but I didn't need a midnight tan from Nextel's antennas, which quickly buzzed back to life.
Time to go inside and hide until the next blackout lets me on my roof again. |
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Hackensack, NJ 2003
Some of the top floor facade's bricks fell into the street and the city closed the street while scaffolding was erected and repairs took place.
This was the pre-dumpster conduit for the rooftop waste material. As I write this, the work continues as the engineers find more and more problems the deeper they dig.
No one is surprised - the landlord hasn't done a speck of preventive maintenance in the 20 years he's owned the building.
Why couldn't Nextel's antennas fall into the street instead?
Vaguely reminiscent of photo 20-039. |
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