The Gowanus Canal

[Kris]

May 19, 2003

What Rots Beneath

By DIANE CARDWELL

Ah, the Gowanus, that fetid Brooklyn canal synonymous with contamination and death. Sewage, industrial waste — perhaps even human remains — still molder at its murky bottom. On occasion, its famously noxious, sulfurous aroma wafts over its banks. But now, as if to collect that batty neighbor living in a clutter of cats and old string, the men (and one woman) in white suits have finally arrived.

For the past few weeks, a team of scientists and technicians from the Army Corps of Engineers has been putting on protective coveralls and setting out along the waterway that snakes from Butler Street out to Gowanus Bay. Equipped with sample jars, hollow-stem augurs and drills, they have been delving far into the repellent depths to catalog, in minute detail, just what is festering in all that muck. It is not pretty work, but it is far from thankless.

"You can't begin to come up with any kind of engineering plan until you understand the situation that you have," said Col. John B. O'Dowd, a brawny, affable man who is the New York District commander of the Army Corps of Engineers. "Once you can sit back and look at the picture of what you have, then you can begin to look at what you can do to improve it."

To help draw that picture, the corps and the City Department of Environmental Protection are splitting the $5 million cost of the Gowanus Canal and Bay Ecosystem Restoration study. The project, whose final report should be available by January 2005, is intended to offer potential solutions to the environmental problems and to determine what future activities the canal and its surrounding area could sustain.

So the corps team, which includes a biologist and a geologist, has been out there, working to test the water quality, identify plant and animal life, and collect samples of what lies beneath. Their work should be completed soon, but the results are months away. Still, some hopeful signs have surfaced in the polluted canal. On a recent morning, for example, the team came across several snails, glass eels and some juvenile shrimp. "That's important for us because it lets us know that all the different life cycles are represented," said Pamela Lynch, the biologist.

People have been working for years to bring the noxious waterway back from the brink. Built in the late 19th century as a commercial thruway, the canal was soon fouled by sewage. In 1911, the city opened a flushing tunnel that moved in cleaner water from the Buttermilk Channel, but the tunnel broke down in the 1960's and was left unrepaired for more than three decades. That, combined with industrial waste from nearby plants, turned the canal into a stagnant, putrid nose-sore.

But largely through the work of local environmental and development groups, the Gowanus, long a reputed dumping ground for corpses, has been coming back. The flushing tunnel was reactivated in 1999. Oysters — bivalves that can filter tremendous amounts of water each day — have been introduced into the canal and are surviving. Jellyfish, bluefish, cormorants, ducks and egrets have appeared in and around the yellow-green waters. Harbor seals have even been sighted. The many different notions of what the canal should become — a little Venice, a recreation area, a peaceful wetland habitat — no longer seem firmly rooted in fantasy.

The Gowanus is now so vibrant that it can even support its own avant garde art project. Red Dive, a group of artists who create multimedia performance installations, is planning a performance tour called Peripheral City: Rediscovering the Gowanus Canal. In the show, which is to run over two weekends beginning Saturday, the audience will walk through a tunnel and then board a boat to ride along the canal. At various points, there will be a soundtrack of voices, culled from recordings of residents talking about the canal. Those will be interspersed with performances along the banks.

"I saw the canal as this container for so many forces and needs and drives," said Maureen Brennan, artistic director of Red Dive. "Here's this place that embodies a history of fear and all the bad things about human waste and pollution and decay, and now it's this container for hope and renewal and reclaiming."

Still, the Gowanus is far from ready for toe-dipping. "You fall in that water," Colonel O'Dowd joked with Webster Shipley, a project geologist, one afternoon, "the least of your worries is drowning."

The canal still receives loads of sewage when heavy rains overwhelm the sewer system, as well as runoff from its industrial neighbors like an oil depot and a gravel yard. Indeed, what has ended up in the sediment will also help determine its final resting place. Depending on the contaminants present, said Thomas J. Shea, the project manager for the corps, any sediment dredged out of the canal could potentially be mixed with neutralizing agents and then used to top off a landfill or make building materials.

So the work of collecting and classifying the feculence continues. With a rig set up on a barge, the team drives a contraption called a split-spoon into the canal bottom, which sucks up the muck into a hollow metal tube that can be split open once it is back on board. The scientists use a meter to detect any volatile gases that might be in the sample. Sometimes, depending on the consistency of the sediment, the core samples are difficult to obtain.

"Upstream we had been hitting an oozy black mud, so we had some problems taking a sample," Mr. Shipley said just before the driller, Albert McNamara, and his assistant, John Letke, began digging the team's ninth hole of the day.

Mr. Shipley, who has been filling his van with jars of muck from various spots in the canal, said that he already had some idea of what is lurking in the water, including creosote, a wood preservative probably used on retaining walls that line the canal, and viruses from all the sewage. The other day, the team pulled up small piles of gravel, black mud and several round disks they had drilled from a stack of three-quarter-inch plywood.

There is nasty stuff at the bottom of the canal, they say. "Man's been playing around with the Gowanus Canal for 100-something years," Colonel O'Dowd said. "So who knows what you're going to find?"


Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

[Gulcrapek]

They should start with not building suburban style Lowe's and Home Depots next to it.

[TLOZ Link5]

Quote: from Gulcrapek on 5:28 pm on May 19, 2003
They should start with not building suburban style Lowe's and Home Depots next to it.

Dear God, NO! *Say it isn't so and that the Americanization will eventually stop!!!!!!!

[Kris]

http://www.southbrooklyn.net/gowanus

http://www.gowanus.org

[ZippyTheChimp]

When I was a kid in Carroll Gardens, a standard admonition from mom was, "And you boys stay away from that canal." Of course we always went there, hopefully to spot the mythical water rat, purported to be as big as a dog.

Carroll St Bridge *http://www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/Carroll%20St%20Bridge/carroll.html

Part of the Battle of Long Island was fought here. 256 Maryland malitia men were buried near 3rd Ave and 8th St. A plaque to mark the spot was destroyed about 100 years ago when 3rd Ave was widened.

[Edward]

The view of the Gowanus Canal and Hamilton Avenue Bridge (http://www.wirednewyork.com/hamilton_avenue_bridge.htm) from the Ninth Street Bridge.

http://www.wirednewyork.com/images/gowanus_hamilton_avenue_bridge_ninth_17march02.jpg



The view of the Gowanus Canal and Ninth Street Bridge from the Hamilton Avenue Bridge (http://www.wirednewyork.com/hamilton_avenue_bridge.htm).

http://www.wirednewyork.com/images/gowanus_ninth_street_bridge_hamilton_17march02.jpg



Gowanus Canal above Ninth Street Bridge and Williamsburgh Savings Bank.

http://www.wirednewyork.com/waterfront/gowanus_canal/gowanus_canal_ninth_street_bridge_17march02.jpg



Gowanus Canal above Third Street Bridge.

http://www.wirednewyork.com/waterfront/gowanus_canal/gowanus_canal_third_street_bridge_17march02.jpg



The view of the Gowanus Canal from the Gowanus Bay.

http://www.wirednewyork.com/waterfront/gowanus_canal/gowanus_canal_bay_17may03.jpg

[Kris]

How close are residences and businesses to the canal?

[Gulcrapek]

It depends where along the canal. The aforementioned Home Depot and Lowe's are almost on the water. Most of the rest of the immediate shoreline is industrial.

[ZippyTheChimp]

http://imgs.maps.yahoo.com/mapimage?MAPData=V.Xx_fhyzy3Y9JQOsd.BHyL.UFjnGnJJK GrBhxOlxD4v8Oqn2ZW6Kg5lJqK9Tl60sf9zKc7hHjKLo0ZZ6Na Eih.Q81PI_D7y7gDE0_06EQ84SMmlhUbgRzAKXjF9CpDFcvgjH cKs

Southern part is mostly industrial or abandoned, except on the Red Hook side. There's a Home Depot and other big box at the I278 sign.

Northern section. Bond St and Nevins along canal are mostly small industrial, as are side streets toward canal. Side streets running outward are all residential, brownstone and brick row houses. Smith St and Court St are retail.

The church steeple in the photo is St Agnes, on Sackett St, between Hoyt and Bond.

City Housing on Baltic St, northwest of canal (large blocks)

[Kris]

Thanks a lot.

[Edward]

Taking a canoe tour of the Gowanus Canal.

http://www.wirednewyork.com/brooklyn/gowanus/gowanus_canal_canoe_14june03.jpg

[Kris]

Slightly incongruous, but probably foretelling things to come.

[billyblancoNYC]

This could be NY's venice - esplanade, shops, apartments, etc. *It would be great. *I'm not saying trash businesses, but if it's mostly derelict, it should be done. *Also, there should be a design comp to design the entire area - using only modern, glass-based architecture. *Make it a symbol of redevelopment, of taking back our waterways, and of cutting edge architecture and design. *

They have been talking about fixing it up like this, any news?

[ZippyTheChimp]

The first thing that has to happen is the canal cleanup.
A friend of mine (I call him Steve the Tick Man) works for the Army Corp of Engineers. The Gowanus Bay up to about the Hamilton Ave bridge is a federally regulated waterway. The Corp and NY DEP started an ecological restoration feasibility study last year, due to be completed in 2005. In addition to how to remove contaminated material, most of the bulkheads need to be repaired.

It will take a while.

[Kris]

Zippy the Chimp, Steve the Tick Man... What else?

[RonaldD]

I married a crab. Does that count?

[Jasonik]

Gowanus Canal??
nasty, nasty, ewww!

[ZippyTheChimp]

Steve was doing field work early one morning at Coney Island
Creek. Before returning to his office at 26 Fed Plaza, he stopped at a downtown bar. We noticed a few little friends had become attached to him, and the name, well, stuck. He is a good source of ecological info about NY Bay - once he's deloused.

The canal improved considerably once the pumping station was
repaired. Hard to believe someone dropped a wrench into the machinery, and they waited 30 years to fix it. Life has returned - I think even crabs (anyone you know Ronald?)

[RonaldD]

"Life has returned - I think even crabs (anyone you know Ronald?)"

Maybe my wife's relatives! Anyway, I have been fortunate to go on two Gowanus Canal cruises. One was on a 65-foot boat and we were told it was one of the largest boats to go all the way down the canal in years. The other cruise was aboard the Chelsea Screamer speedboat. Everyone aboard both tours was prepared for foul odors but there weren't any. Naturally the highlight of any Gowanus cruise is watching the various bridges open. We applauded the bridge guys at each one. Our opinion of the canal is that it has unlimited potential for development, once the shoreline is cleaned up.

[Jack Ryan]

I once chucked a brick in there and it floated. Back when Jimmy Carter said "Lets give the canal back to Panama!" I was hoping he meant the Gowanus.

[Agglomeration]

I couldn't help but throw another map in. The blocks directly surrounding the Gowanus from both sides are largely industrial. Let's hope we hear new industrial and commercial activity along the canal front in the years to come.

http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/dcp/gif/lucds/bk06lu.jpg

http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/dcp/gif/lucds/lulegend.gif

(Edited by Agglomeration at 12:12 am on June 22, 2003)


(Edited by Agglomeration at 12:14 am on June 22, 2003)

[NYatKNIGHT]

Good map.

There seem to be plenty of vacant lots, parking lots, and "all others/no data" lots along the canal.

[Kris]

July 2, 2003

A Brooklyn Seal's Trick: Surviving the Gowanus

By PATRICK HEALY

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2003/07/02/nyregion/02seal.xlg.jpg
Gowanda, or Henry? Naming a seal that was found in Brooklyn is the question. It is being nursed back to health by the Riverhead Foundation.

Pretty soon, a 1-year-old harp seal that became the talk of Red Hook is expected to paddle onto Long Island Sound, leaving behind its celebrity in Brooklyn for a life of anonymity in open waters.

For years, runners and fishermen have reported glimpsing just such a seal sliding through the Gowanus Canal and its nearby bay. Many scoffed at the sightings, saying the water was too polluted to support anything but sea gulls and a few hardy fish, but the sightings and stories persisted.

One woman even offered a cash reward for proof — $100 for the first photograph of the seal.

That proof came on April 8, when. John Quadrozzi Jr., president of Gowanus Industrial Park, walked in the shadows of a defunct grain terminal that looms beside the Henry Street Basin in Brooklyn. Mr. Quadrozzi and a contractor were examining recent renovations to the pier when they noticed a bruise on the calm water.

They paid the ripples little heed until a whiskered head emerged. It paddled through the water as Mr. Quadrozzi and his companion stared into the bay, amazed.

"It's surprising enough to find fish here," Mr. Quadrozzi said. "The last thing you'd expect to see is a seal."

Word spread quickly.

David Sharps, president of the Waterfront Museum in Red Hook, said he had only seen herons, ducks and other bird species on the canal. So when he heard the seal had been found, he called his two daughters and brought them to see.

"They didn't believe me at first," Mr. Sharps said. "They said: `What? You're kidding!' We were certainly intrigued, you know, just in its unusualness."

In fact, harp seals have become a more common sight on Long Island during the past decade, said Rob DiGiovanni, senior biologist of the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research, where the seal was taken. It is being treated for dehydration and a nasty case of worms.

Such seals are natives of the North Atlantic and Arctic, but scientists believe a growing population — and shifts in climate and food sources — have pushed populations farther south.

Of the 57 stranded animals that were reported to the Riverhead Foundation this year, 26 have been harp seals. But the 80 percent of those are found on the eastern portion of the island, away from New York City, Mr. DiGiovanni said.

"They have a reputation for popping up in all sorts of strange places," said Greg Early, a marine biologist who has worked extensively with seal populations in the Northeast.

Few places seem less accommodating to a seal than the Gowanus Canal, one of the last vestiges of New York's industrial waterfront. The Gowanus waterway is lined with a cement terminal, oil storage tanks and construction barges. Yesterday afternoon, algae clouded the water, whiffs of garbage floated on the breeze, and backhoes dipped their necks into the bay, like herons looking for dinner.

"It's pretty disgusting," Mr. Quadrozzi said.

Biologists said they would probably never know whether conditions in the Gowanus contributed to the seal's malnutrition, dehydration and parasites.

Shortly after it surfaced, the seal clambered out of the water and made its way over broken asphalt and glass. Mr. Quadrozzi said he could tell the seal was hurt. Blood was smeared across the seal's muzzle, and it lay on its side in the snow, with steam streaming off its skin. It munched a little snow and languidly waved a flipper that was tattooed with lesions.

But after more than two months recuperating at the Riverhead Foundation, the seal has gained weight and swims around its tank with renewed energy. It will be released in the next two weeks, Mr. DiGiovanni said.

The community has grown attached. Before the seal is turned loose, the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation will adopt it and name it Gowanda, despite the objections of Mr. Quadrozzi, who said Gowanda is a ludicrous name for a seal. He prefers Henry.

Theo Christodoulides, who operates the nearby Court Cafe, wants to post a picture of the seal on his restaurant's walls, and he is planning a seafood special featuring "whatever the seal would eat" named after the seal.

There have even been stories of a second seal swimming around the canal, but Mr. Christodoulides is skeptical.

"Maybe it's a fisherman's story," he said.

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2003/07/02/nyregion/02seal2.jpg

Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

[NYatKNIGHT]

Quote: from ZippyTheChimp on 7:54 am on May 21, 2003
...Of course we always went there, hopefully to spot the mythical water rat, purported to be as big as a dog.Maybe the mythical water rat was a harp seal!

Its so darn cute, I wish we had more playing around the Hudson piers. Keep it in one of the fountains perhaps?

[billyblancoNYC]

Maybe after the Canal is cleaned up. *That would be a sight. *Maybe it'll be like the Wharf in SF!

[ZippyTheChimp]

Hmmmm - it could have been a seal.
Another childhood myth shattered.

[Nevin]

Dredging the Gowanus Canal

It is imperative that the Corps of Engineers, in cooperation with the city, dredge the Gowanus Canal above the I-278/Hamilton Avenue bridges to the head of the canal. The Gowanus should be classified as a Federally maintained waterway from the I-278/Hamilton Avenue bridge to the end of the Canal at the pumping station. The dredging would be beneficial in the following ways:

1) To clean out the debris and the polluted sludge that is lurking in the bottom of the Gowanus Canal.

2) To make commercial navigation easier on the barge and tugboat pilots. Believe it or not, there are four commercial barge terminals north beyond the Hamilton Avenue/ I-278 bridges. The Gowanus Canal actually handled 362,000 tons of materials in 2001, according to the USACE publication Waterborne Commerce of the USA.

3) Co-existing with the existing and hopefully expanded industries are recreational facilities, such as parks, a water taxi/ferry service (if the market demands it), and a public marina and/or boat tie up area.

[dredgerj]

A friend sent me the link to this forum, and I happily read of your postings. Personally, I belive that the canal has unlimited opportunities, but it relies on government/community support for the massive changes to actually occur. On that note, I hope that everyone who has posted an interest in the canal will be participating in the summer's activities. For example, there will be paddling opportunities tomorrow, July 26, 2003. *

http://www.waterfrontmuseum.org/dredgers/blockparty.htm

If you come at high tide, there is generally less odor. Most importantly, the canal is teeming with wildlife including crabs.

[ZippyTheChimp]

I'm glad for the efforts to repair 100 years of abuse.
I was looking for The Tick Man to inquire about dredging, but he is out in the field. As I understand it, the USACE and DEP study is for environmental restoration. Any dredging would be done to remove contaminants, not deepen the channel.
The preferred method would be to leave the material in place
and use other means. If sediment removal is necessary, the bulkheads would need to be repaired.

[Nevin]

In order to truly harness the potential of the Gowanus Canal, deepening the channel and disposing or recycling the silt is the most practical solution. It would make commercial navigation of the Gowanus easier for the tugs and barges that still navigate the canal to the existing industries. Deepening the channel would also attract new waterborne industries to the canal, such as water taxis, ferries, and other maritime uses. New York City could use more maritime jobs-or for that matter-just jobs!!

1) The three companies that have facilities on the Canal should pressure the city and the USACE for dredging to the end at the pumping station.

2) Concurrently, the EDC should take the lead in soliciting interest industries that could relocate their operations to the canal. This would allow companies that rely on trucks to switch at least some of their modes of transporting/receiving goods from land to water. Types of industries include water taxis/ferries, scrap, concrete, and other bulk cargoes.

3) The city should provide a variety of incentives, including tax breaks, to companies relocating to the Gowanus Canal area.

4) I do not see cafes, eateries, shops, and other purely service sector industries as productively harnessing the canal itself. How many shops and eateries does NYC need? A sane and rational economy should be based on the productive assets of the city (and for that matter the nation), with the service/tourist industry as complimentary to the finance and industrial sectors that should be in the lead.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Sorry, I lost track of this thread, but I did speak to the USACE field engineer about 10 days ago, and he verified what I posted *above. If contaminated material is dredged, it must be properly disposed of. Dredging will only be done as a last resort.

[Nevin]

As I had stated previously, dredging should be performed as primary option for solving the pollution and navigation problems of the Gowanus Canal. Naturally environmentally safe disposal of the silt would have to be looked into.

By the way, which individual at the USACE did you contact about this issue? I'd be curious to speak or call him/her.

Thanks! :)

[ZippyTheChimp]

I haven't contacted anyone at USACE. A friend of mine, Steve that I've mentioned in this thread, works for them. *He is not on the Gowanus project, but I've asked him for info on various projects. *He had no access to data on Gowanus, but he said the general direction of a study of this type is to find the least disruptive method of cleanup.

So hope for the worst. :)

If you want to contact someone officially, the project manager is:

Thomas Shea
26 Federal Plaza
212-264-5570
email: thomas.shea@usace.army.mil

[Nevin]

Thanks!! :)

[pianoman11686]

From the New York Post (http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/saving_the_gowanus_regionalnews_rich_calder.htm)

SAVING THE GOWANUS

By RICH CALDER

July 17, 2006 -- One smells like fresh-cut grass and the other like an open sewer, but now Central Park, that breathtaking urban oasis, and the long-polluted Gowanus Canal have something in common - their own conservancies.

Activists in southwest Brooklyn recently announced the creation of the Gowanus Canal Conservancy in hopes of ensuring a brighter future for an industrial waterway once dubbed Lavender Lake - for its chemically altered hue.

"Everybody agrees the canal has to be cleaned," said Thomas Chardavoyne, head of the nonprofit Gowanus Canal Community Development Corp., which formed the conservancy. The group will raise money and seek volunteers to convert the canal - which opened in 1866 and was once hailed as one of the world's most important waterways - for dual recreational and industrial use.

Copyright 2006 NYP Holdings, Inc.

[pianoman11686]

Fume-Free (for Now) and Looking to the Future

By JAKE MOONEY
Published: April 8, 2007

TEN years ago, the idea of worrying about the future of the land around the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn would have seemed a little strange, especially in hot weather. An underground tunnel designed to circulate the canal’s water had been out of service for decades, and as a result, sewage from nearby houses and storm drains overflowed regularly into the canal, emitting a formidable stench.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/04/08/nyregion/plan450.jpg
“There are so many possibilities,” a community leader says of
the Gowanus Canal area.

The sewage overflows continue, but with the tunnel reopened since 1999, the water circulates better — at least for the moment. The gradual return of fish and birds to the canal has enticed widely known developers like Shaya Boymelgreen and the Pennsylvania-based Toll Brothers, drawn to the neighborhood’s proximity to Park Slope and Carroll Gardens. These developers have proposed projects that could involve rezoning parts of Gowanus and adding hundreds if not thousands of residents to the area.

In response, staff members of the Department of City Planning are meeting this month and next with the local community board to evaluate the neighborhood’s needs and chart its future. Their goal is a framework for land use decisions that could allow manufacturing and residential development to coexist and maybe even open up some recreational space.

“There are so many possibilities that people have let their imaginations run wild, and that’s a good thing,” said Craig Hammerman, district manager of the local Community Board 6. “We just have to make sure that we can tether the possibilities to probabilities that are out there.”

Marlene Donnelly, a member of Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus, a neighborhood group, says her organization’s priority is addressing the persistent drainage problems.

“At the end of our block, we had one of the sewer caps geyser about 10 feet up in the air during one rainstorm,” Ms. Donnelly said the other day. “People have permanently installed pipes to pump the combined sewer flow out of their houses.”

New construction can aggravate the situation, she says, especially when it involves new paving, which creates more runoff.

The area faces other challenges, Mr. Hammerman says: Because of its 200-year history as an industrial zone, no one fully understands how many contaminated lots there are in the area, although they definitely include the 11-acre property west of the canal known as the Public Place. Both Mr. Boymelgreen and the Toll Brothers applied to have their projects made part of the state’s brownfield cleanup program; the Toll brothers withdrew their application this year.

In addition, sometime in the next few months, the city plans to shut the flushing tunnel for 18 months of repairs, and that could bring back the smell of the bad old days.

Members of the Southwest Brooklyn Industrial Development Corporation, a business advocacy group, are taking part in the meetings with city planners, lobbying for the area to remain one of the city’s last industrial zones. Phaedra Thomas, the group’s executive director, says, however, that she is open to a mix of light industry and residential use in some areas where residential construction is inevitable.

Still, Rachael Dubin, the group’s policy and planning manager, worries that even discussing land use can fuel speculation. “As soon as you start talking about Gowanus as that neighborhood sandwiched between the brownstone communities, as soon as you put it in the framework, it really becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy,” she said.

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

[ablarc]

Rachael Dubin, the group’s policy and planning manager, worries that even discussing land use can fuel speculation. “As soon as you start talking about Gowanus as that neighborhood sandwiched between the brownstone communities, as soon as you put it in the framework, it really becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy,” she said.
So ... go with the flow.

[ladybean]

This could be NY's venice - esplanade, shops, apartments, etc. *It would be great. *I'm not saying trash businesses, but if it's mostly derelict, it should be done. *Also, there should be a design comp to design the entire area - using only modern, glass-based architecture. *Make it a symbol of redevelopment, of taking back our waterways, and of cutting edge architecture and design. *

They have been talking about fixing it up like this, any news?

You know what I'm wondering... Brooklyn is a place for the strong and it should belong to people who love it...period... If you're the kind of person who has to change it and make it like some other bourgoise American city, in which there are endless amounts of, move out or better yet... don't come here at all and expect to alter it to suit your tastes! Real Brooklynites don't even notice what everyone from out of town is complaining about, I know because I grew up here and frankly... vacant lots...empty buildings... and stinky canals are just something we're used to! Personally, I'll take the colorful palette complete with one of a kind people as opposed to the pre fab ultra mod society intended only for the weakest of people who can't handle a little bit of real life and must block it entirely from their psyche. Not only that, when the waterways DID belong to someone, it was the industries that our very communities were built on that were sold out to other nations for cheeper labor so you tell me what those derelict empty factories mean! Without those, a good portion of the city would have NEVER come into existence and when they went that's when most of the people went. Talk about being chewed up, spit out, and then laughed at! Dumped and then pushed out like garbage. Before the industries, I don't think the waterways were exactly glistening streams for fairy boat rides off into the sunshine sipping pino grigio, if anything they were a way of life, I'm sure also the main exit for raw sewage and source of dinner. Stick together people! Keep Brooklyn clean and beautiful, keep Manhattan out and most of all... keep it real and tell it like is. Lachayin!

[Hamilton]

As romantic as your argument may be, ladybean, empty lots and vacant buildings don't pay for schools, sewers, and subways.

The factories weren't kicked out in the old days so much as driven overseas by the insane demands of the corrupt unions. Believe me, I grew up in a former mill town, and we would've given an arm and a leg to keep the factories, but they left anyways, so you can't really blame city policy.
New York is better for it anyway...there's less pollution and newer, cleaner, high-tech businesses have taken over.

The industrial pollution isn't just a problem of looks, either--leukemia and asthma don't afflict only the "weak" while leaving the "strong" intact.

[Eugenious]

I say they turn the Gowanus into a luxury gated community with private access to the ocean and walled off compounds.

Just to piss off LadyBean :P

[lofter1]

... factories weren't kicked out in the old days so much as driven overseas by the insane demands of the corrupt unions ...

Uh oh...

Another "Unions Killed America" theorist ...

Sure some individual union leaders were corrupt and caused damage. But so were some bosses, and some politicians and police chiefs and on and on. As if it were the unions who caused the polluting of the Gowanus and Greenpoint and the Hudson River ...

In th ebigger picture business leaders (on both sides) played hardball and made decisions which in the long run were not good for the country and are coming back to haunt us now.

But unions also gave protections to their workers.

A prime example; Health Insurance. Without my union I would never be given health insurance by ANY provider. Ever hearrad of "denied due to pre-existing condition"? Well the insurance companies are broadening that term by the day. God forbid they should have to use some of the maoney that I, you, we pay them to actually provide medical coverage.

But because my union has a group plan I have health insurance (and it still ain't cheap).

Give me a country / state which allows workers the right to organize any day. When only the bosses make decisions the majority who work end up getting screwed.

[ablarc]

^ So you're a union man, huh, lofter? Used to be a Teamster myself.

[lofter1]

In fact I'm a Multi-Union Man (which is in many ways ridiculous -- but not much I can I do about that).

[ZippyTheChimp]

Shop steward.

[ladybean]

As romantic as your argument may be, ladybean, empty lots and vacant buildings don't pay for schools, sewers, and subways.

The factories weren't kicked out in the old days so much as driven overseas by the insane demands of the corrupt unions. Believe me, I grew up in a former mill town, and we would've given an arm and a leg to keep the factories, but they left anyways, so you can't really blame city policy.
New York is better for it anyway...there's less pollution and newer, cleaner, high-tech businesses have taken over.

The industrial pollution isn't just a problem of looks, either--leukemia and asthma don't afflict only the "weak" while leaving the "strong" intact.

I am not talking about pollution, I am talking about the lame efforts to revive a community that everyone turned a blind eye toward 20 years ago when there was no glimmer of hope. "Ford to City: Drop Dead" Remember those days? Where were all the urban renewalists and upper middle class do gooders then? Thriving in the sprawling suburbs with their tailored shopping centers that had once been farms. My point, is that nothing being done to revitalize the hardest hit areas of the city actually benefit the true residents. Ask any burger flipper or midnight office maid how easy it is to get a job in a large glass office building where everyone who works there has a college degree and a long list of credentials. Ask them how great luxury living is when they can no longer afford to live there because of the rent increases and are forced to move to places like Pennsylvania, I am sure they aren't thrilled about their improved neighborhoods that include everyone but them; as poor uneducated ghetto dwellers. It's not as simple as the idealists from communities with a head start think it may be to just get up and start over in a society that locks them out with so many complicated rules and minimums. And by the way... how do art galleries, overpriced kitschy Euro style cafes, and more absurdely overpriced luxury high rise apartments pay for the schools and sewers? They don't, they go into the fat deep pockets of the property owners and the usual will be returned to the city through taxes, taxes that skyrocketed so high that the people who once needed the improvements no longer need since they are gone. And anyway, where does someone who grew up in a small mill town get off having such political opinions about communities they know nothing of? There is another point made that you apparently did not want to see.

[ZippyTheChimp]

I am not talking about pollution, I am talking about the lame efforts to revive a community that everyone turned a blind eye toward 20 years ago when there was no glimmer of hope..What do you propose be done with the canal?

[ablarc]

Shop steward.
Here... or in the union? ;)

[ladybean]

What do you propose be done with the canal?
Why is it so impossible to just clean it up? Healthier doesn't HAVE to mean restructuring the surrounding areas. Remove the trash and such... low crime shouldn't have to mean high rent either. There are options out there to make a median of the situation rather than jumping from one extreme to another. Clean isn't necessarily bad but when it means uprooting people to create some picturesque recreation place for other people... it makes you wonder if this is even about the environment or creating an oasis to get rich off of in a place where it's cheap to build it.

[ZippyTheChimp]

creating an oasis to get rich off of in a place where it's cheap to build it.That's not true.

Building here will be expensive. Environmental remediation of the surrounding land will cost hundreds of millions.

[ladybean]

That's not true.

Building here will be expensive. Environmental remediation of the surrounding land will cost hundreds of millions.

I guess that is all the more proof of why the bankers expect to make a buck off the resulting project. Chances are they only want to spend that much to make it back, no one puts out that much effort in America, NY especially, unless they intend to get something in return.

[ZippyTheChimp]

^
Sort of like how the canal was built. Sort of like how the neighborhood was built. Sort of like how NY was built.

Your posts are rambling and unfocused. What EXACTLY do you want to be done?

Just clean the canal? How does that get paid for?

Leave the surrounding land unused? That's a waste.

Park? Low income housing? Mixed use? What?

[brianac]

Gowanus Canal

The Cleanup After the Cleanup

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/11/18/nyregion/clea600.jpg Andrea Mohin/The New York Times
The famous smell still lingers, but plans are afoot to make it fainter.

By ALEX MINDLIN
Published: November 18, 2007

THE year 1999 seemed to mark the end of an era for the Gowanus Canal, and a smelly era it was. In summers past, said Craig Hammerman, the district manager of Community Board 6 in Brooklyn, “the odor would curl your toes.”
All that changed when the city replaced a long-broken propeller, flushing the canal with clean harbor water through an underwater tunnel. Within months, blue crabs and jellyfish arrived, the smell abated, and developers like Shaya Boymelgreen and the Pennsylvania-based Toll Brothers acquired land near the banks.

But the canal has since undergone bout after bout of bad publicity. Neighbors have complained of geysers of water — the back flow when the canal floods — capable of lifting manhole covers on nearby streets. A group of biology students at the New York City College of Technology found gonorrhea in a water sample. And the canal’s smell, while weaker, is far from gone.

A new $125 million project, announced piecemeal over the last few months by the city’s Department of Environmental Protection, is designed to address these problems. Starting in July, the city will widen the tunnel that brings harbor water into the canal, and install three pumps to replace the propeller, which turned out to be inefficient and prone to corrosion.

The city will also redirect to a treatment plant about 120 million of the roughly 370 million gallons of sewer overflow dumped in the canal every year. Ten to 20 percent of that mixture is untreated sewage.

Some parts of the project, such as the tunnel widening and pump installation, will be completed by 2012; for other parts, no date has been set. But when the project is finished, nearly all the canal water should contain enough dissolved oxygen to allow fish to breed, which is a key measure of cleanliness.

“Our intention in 1999 was just to reduce that smell,” said Kevin Clarke, an official of the environmental agency. “By that measure, we’ve been successful. But now we’re giving it a tweak.”


Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company.

[brianac]

“Our intention in 1999 was just to reduce that smell,” said Kevin Clarke, an official of the environmental agency. “By that measure, we’ve been successful. But now we’re giving it a tweak.”


The city will also redirect to a treatment plant about 120 million of the roughly 370 million gallons of sewer overflow dumped in the canal every year. Ten to 20 percent of that mixture is untreated sewage.

What an improvement.

1999 to 2012. Thirteen years, and the flow of s**t into the canal is reduced to only 250 million gallons a year.

Some improvement.

Why is this thread in "New York City Guide for Visitors"?

I would think this is the last thing visitors would like to read about.

[brianac]

February 29, 2008

Gowanus as a National Historic Landmark? (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/02/gowanus_as_a_na.php)


http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/gowanus-hist-dist-02-2008.JPG

Grand Central Terminal (http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail2.cfm?ResourceId=1549&Date=&Ownership=Private&priorityname=&ResourceType=Building). The Brooklyn Bridge (http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail2.cfm?ResourceId=376&Date=&Ownership=PublicLocal&priorityname=&ResourceType=Structure). The Woolworth Building (http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail2.cfm?ResourceId=398&Date=&Ownership=Private&priorityname=&ResourceType=Building). The Gowanus Canal. Which of these does not belong? Yep, that's right, it's the Brooklyn Bridge. No, just kidding, it's actually the Gowanus Canal, the only one that hasn't been named a National Historic Landmark (http://www.nps.gov/nr/)...yet. The Gowanus

Canal Conservancy is currently spearheading a drive to get the canal named a national historic landmark district, a designation that could be a "useful tool" in terms of getting funding for the canal's cleanup, according to Bob Zuckerman, the GCC's executive director. "Right smack in the middle of brownstone Brooklyn, the canal has a history all its own," says Zuckerman, noting that the transformation of the Gowanus from a series of creeks to its role in aiding industry make the waterway historically significant. Zuckerman says there's precedent for a canal being designated a national historic landmark district: The Erie and Ohio Canal (http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/ohioeriecanal/introduction.htm) is one, for example. The proposed district will include the canal, the Gowanus pumping station and flushing tunnel, the Carroll Street Bridge (which is already a city landmark (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE6D6173CF932A15756C0A96F9482 60)), as well as five buildings along the Gowanus. A Pratt student and former GCC intern is now preparing a report about the hoped-for landmark status, and Zuckerman says the conservancy will begin making moves to get the district recognized in the coming months.

Posted by Gabby (http://www.brownstoner.com/profile/Gabby) at 9:30 AM (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/02/gowanus_as_a_na.php) | Comments (23) (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/02/gowanus_as_a_na.php?comments=10#comments)
Categories: Gowanus (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/gowanus/), Historic District (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/historic_district/)


Copyright 2008 The New York Observer.

[brianac]

Not In Our Back Canal!
Residents Hear Out Toll Brothers on Gowanus Project

byLysandra Ohrstrom (http://www.observer.com/2007/author/lysandra-ohrstrom)
March 4, 2008
http://observer.cast.advomatic.com/files/imagecache/article/files/gowanuscanal_0.jpg

The vice president of Toll Brothers David Von Spreckelsen and another company representative (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/03/meeting_on_toll.php#comments) unexpectedly appeared at a neighborhood meeting in Gowanus, Brooklyn, last night to defend the 575-unit residential project the builders plan to develop along the polluted canal.

Friends of Bond Street organized the meeting to rally public opposition to Toll Brothers' planned development before the public scope hearing takes place next week.

At last night’s meeting, Toll Brothers revealed that it would not close on the two plots it intended to build on until its application for residential land use is approved ahead of the wider rezoning planned for the entire Gowanus Canal area.

Brooklyn Planning Director Purnima Kapurtold the Gowanus Lounge blog (http://gowanuslounge.blogspot.com/2008/03/gowanus-rezoning-proposal-by-late.html#links) that a rezoning draft plan for the entire area should be ready by late spring or early summer.

Carrol Gardens residents are concerned about the impact both the Toll Brothers' project and the residential rezoning will have on the already overcrowded subway system, local retail, and the overtaxed sewage system.

Toll Brothers did allay concerns about cleaning up the oil spill, Brownstoner reported. "We would not be able to sell one condo at this site unless we properly remediated it," Mr. Von Spreckelsen told the meeting.

Queens Councilman Tony Avella, who heads the Zoning and Franchises Committee, also showed up last night and told The Observer this afternoon that he expects City Council to approve Toll Brothers' land use request.

“Unfortunately the Council has been very friendly to developers,” Mr. Avella said. “The real estate community controls what’s going on in the city and what’s on the Council’s agenda. I believe that the people should have a greater say in what happens with their community... The present system works from the top down.”

Copyright 2008 The New York Observer.

[brianac]

March 28, 2008

Click link for renderings.

Reps From Toll Brothers Detail Big Gowanus Development (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/03/reps_from_toll.php)

Last night representatives from the Toll Brothers made a presentation to Community Board 6 about the company’s proposal to build a large development (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/02/toll_brothers_g.php) next to the Gowanus Canal. About 45 people showed up to the meeting, and there was a notable lack of vitriol towards a project that’s stirred quite a bit of controversy (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/03/meeting_on_toll.php) at other meetings. As one would expect—or at least hope—from a powerful national real estate firm, Toll’s presentation was polished and addressed many facets of the company’s plans, including the overall scope of the project and how the company intends to deal with environmental issues at the site. Some highlights:

Housing/Built Component: The multi-building, GreenbergFarrow-designed project between the canal, Bond Street, and Carroll and 2nd Street (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/02/a_look_at_what.php) will have 450 units, 30 percent of which Toll wants to set aside as affordable for residents earning only up to 60 percent of the area median income. The affordable component will be rental and L&M Equity (http://www.lmequity.com/) will oversee its development, not Toll. The remaining units will be condo, and at bare minimum will attain LEED certification. The affordable rentals will be clustered on the Bond Street side of the development. In terms of density, the project's buildings will get taller as they get closer to the canal, going from six stories near Bond to 12 stories near the canal. There will 268 parking spaces.

Environmental Concerns: An environmental consultant for Toll said the company’s done one Phase 1 environmental assessment and three separate Phase 2 assessments that included collecting 59 soil and groundwater samples. They found petroleum-related compounds and compounds typically associated with urban infill materials, but no evidence of a large plume of oil. The remediation of the property will involve soil removal and capping. Toll VP David Von Spreckelsen noted that bringing residents to the edge of the canal would also likely have a positive effect on cleanup of the waterway.

Park Area: In addition to building two residential courtyards and planting trees around the entire development, landscape architect Lee Weintraub has designed a public park space next to the canal. It is unclear whether Toll or the Parks Dept. will be in charge of maintaining the space. Weintraub said the park will “be more than just an esplanade.”

Rezoning: Toll’s development, which conforms to the specs City Planning has generated in its preliminary framework for rezoning the Gowanus corridor, needs to go through ULURP since it leapfrogs the wider rezoning. “We don’t know what the timeframe is on the rezoning,” said Von Spreckelsen. “We’re concerned that an area-wide rezoning might not happen in this administration and that with a new administration there might not be as much impetus to rezone.”

Reactions: Although commentary from those in attendance last night was largely civil, there were a lot of questions and concerns raised about exactly how the site’s remediation will occur and how the development will affect infrastructure, such as the sewer system. Meanwhile, Councilmember Bill de Blasio said “we have to think” about whether allowing the project to jump ahead of the larger rezoning “is the right thing to do.”

Copyright 2008 Brownstoner.

[brianac]

Mod's.

Do you think this thread should be moved to the Brooklyn section?

It's not really for visitors.

[brianac]

Monday, April 21, 2008

Gowanus Rising: New Development, Rezoning & Other Issues


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3230/2430421592_04285e697f_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/38117599@N00/2430421592/)

It's been an eventful, if not tumultuous month or two, for the Gowanus Canal and Gowanus. Last week, the Hudson Companies was picked to develop (http://gowanuslounge.blogspot.com/2008/04/breaking-hudson-companies-to-develop.html) the polluted Public Place site. Earlier, Toll Brothers unveiled their plan (http://gowanuslounge.blogspot.com/2008/03/toll-brothers-gowanus-project-fully.html) for a big Gowanus development and their intention to leapfrog the city planning process. A new gallery (http://gowanuslounge.blogspot.com/2008/03/gowanus-gallery-opens-with-coney-show.html) opened on Bond Street a couple of weeks ago and the Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment unveiled its new headquarters (http://gowanuslounge.blogspot.com/2008/04/pm-update-bcues-cool-new-green-gowanus.html) on Seventh Street on Friday. Then, there is the Gowanus Hotel District, fully chronicled and mapped out (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/03/another_gowanus_1.php) by Brownstoner. And, there is more in the pipeline, with major properties on the market for tens of millions of dollars.

When we spoke with him last week, Council Member Bill de Blasio said he was confident that some of the big developments on the drawing board--like the Toll Brothers and Gowanus Green projects--could go forward. "The odds are still good for them," he said. "This particular area is so appealing on so many levels." He said that Public Place enjoys the "advantage of publicly-owned land" and that it would spark a "cleanup waiting for decades to happen." As for the Toll Brothers, who seek to circumvent the ongoing zoning process, he said, "the jury is still out on whether they should be able to move forward" ahead of the overall zoning. He said the project had "some good elements" including the level of affordable housing and public space that it offers.

On the topic of the polluted canal itself, which will be the subject of a cleanup effort over the next decade, Mr. de Blasio said he believes "the best way to get the canal clean is to create a residential area around it" and, therefore, a constituency for faster action on a cleanup. Mr. de Blasio, whose support would be crucial for the success of the city's Gowanus rezoning, said that he is "comfortable with the framework as a starting point for discussion." The framework calls for buildings up to 10-14 stories tall on the canal as well as for affordable housing and public space requirements. He has called for the upzoning to be linked to a downzoning of Carroll Gardens. The city has refused to commit to a timetable for the latter. "The burden is on City Planning to make them correlate," he said. "I would be shocked if the whole upzoning would fail because they won't move a downzoning." Mr. de Blasio added that "I can't support a rezoning unless that downzoning is garuanteed." He did say, however, that the two wouldn't necessarily have to happen at the same time.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2231/2429609807_913dd49653_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/38117599@N00/2429609807/)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2202/2430421904_123273ef6f_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/38117599@N00/2430421904/)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2272/2429609763_f14ea5e594_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/38117599@N00/2429609763/)

posted by rsguskind at 9:00 AM (http://gowanuslounge.blogspot.com/2008/04/gowanus-rising-new-development-rezoning.html)

Copyright 2008 The Gowanus Lounge.