Celebrating Community
Just because the Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group voted in June to take the summer off for their meetings, doesn’t mean that cleanup constructions and plans have taken a hiatus too. Here are the current projections as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) moves forward with the project: Construction of the Fulton Manufactured Gas Plant cut-off wall (from the top of […]
The Department of City Planning (DCP) came to Community Board 6’s Economic/Waterfront/et al. meeting on May 20 to talk about the future of the Gowanus Canal waterfront. DCP has already talked about what they call a Shore Public Walkway, which is part of their rezoning plan for the area. They have issued pretty pictures of people walking in the 40 […]
Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez and the EPA provided updates regarding the Gowanus Canal cleanup at a 2019 Public Superfund Town Hall held May 29. The last town hall meeting, also hosted by the Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group (CAG), took place in Nov. 2017. Velázquez spoke first. “The Gowanus Canal is a high-profile Superfund site … because of all of you […]
I’m happy to be able to start off this column by cheering some neighborhood heroes on a hard-fought victory. Last year I wrote about the plans of an investor to build a huge apartment building over where the Chase Bank is on Hamilton Avenue. I called it a ridiculous idea, based upon their presentation at the community board. In addition […]
Halyard’s is a low-key bar in the heart of Gowanus. Known for its “local-bar” attitude, good but not pretentious cocktails, and light and simple food, it’s got a great neighborhood comfortability that is charming and relaxed. Quietly, however, it’s been doubling as a great place for music, and has been turning into a musicians’ hang. For over two years, there […]
As progress continues toward cleaning up the Gowanus Canal, the controversial Gowanus rezoning plan has become entwined in the discussion. The Gowanus advisory group, called the CAG, hosted reps from both the Planning and Environmental Protection agencies to answer questions about how their actions will impact the Superfund work. The Gowanus rezoning will result in skyscrapers invading Gowanus, bringing as […]
As conversations about the impending Gowanus upzoning and Superfund cleanup continue, ideas are beginning to form about how the Gowanus Canal’s shorelines can be better utilized in the Waterfront Access Plan. The Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club provided some suggestions during their presentation to CB6’s Economic/Waterfront/Community Development & Housing Committee on March 18. “Our waterfront is unique in the sense that […]
The Gowanus Landmarking Coalition wants to thwart the planned demolition of the S.W. Bowne Grain Storehouse, a circa-1886 brick industrial structure at 595 Smith Street. On the morning of March 13, the preservationists held a rally on the Hamilton Avenue Bridge over the Gowanus Canal. Last year, a fire damaged the Storehouse, which the Chetrit Group, a real estate development […]
Last Thursday I sat through almost three hours of a city process that will force permanent, sudden transformation on a neighborhood that has undergone only incremental change since the Dutch first showed up in Brooklyn. The very next night I sat through two hours of something quite similar, albeit on a smaller scale. The one constant in both cases was […]
The first Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group (CAG) meeting for the new calendar year was held on Jan. 22 without Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s presence due to the partial federal government shut-down – the longest shutdown in U.S. history, which had reached Day 32 by the meeting’s date. CAG member Brad Vogel facilitated the night’s agenda that featured the NYC Department […]