Editors Note: Star-Revue publisher George Fiala has been an at-large member of this group, the CAG, since 2012.
If it was just about cleaning the canal, there would be no problems. But even before the Gowanus Canal was declared a Superfund, back in 2010, there was conflict between the real estate community, Gowanus residents and the local politicians that look after both of those interests.
There is still a large vacant lot in Carroll Gardens near Smith and 9th Streets. Until the 1960’s, that land, known as Public Place, was used by the Brooklyn Union Gas Company as a place to convert oil into gas, known as an MGP facility. Heavy industry surrounded the parcel from the 19th into the 20th century. It is still vacant because of the incredible pollution left behind.
By the turn of this century, efforts were underway to clean up the land, preparing it for modern use. The land is city owned and at one time it was promised to the community as a park.
That idea morphed into a plan that would combine parks with residences and was called Gowanus Green.
You can glean multiple facts from the cover of the 392 page RFP submitted to the City in 2007 (next column). First is the portrayal of parkland in the foreground and buildings in the back, which is how all real estate developers package proposals that require community buy-in. Next of course, the date, which pre-dates the Superfund designation of the body of water next to the boardwalk in the picture. Third is the three letter word, FAC, which refers to the Fifth Avenue Committee, a non profit that began in Park Slope in 1978 with an initial goal of creating affordable housing on large tracts of unwanted and vacant Park Slope land. From 1993-2003, a young Brad Lander was its Executive Director. He was succeeded by Michelle de la Uz, who remains. She and the FAC was the prime mover of the above RFC.
During the first decade of this century, the local City Council member was Bill de Blasio. When he became mayor, was succeeded by Lander, and de la Uz was appointed to the City Planning Commission by de Blasio.
On the other side of this is an organization named FROGG, which stands for Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus. One of it’s founders was the late Linda Mariano, who purchased and restored a Gowanus brownstone in the 1970’s.
She became interested in preservation when a local building, The Mill, was sold and converted to condos. She was one of those who worked to have the Gowanus Canal named a superfund site.
The Superfund designation in 2010 is what scuttled the original plans for Gowanus Green. But these fights never die. Both FROGG and FAC made sure they were represented on the Superfund community advisory group, and up until now have maintained a frosty, yet somewhat cooperative relationship.
Until now.
Alongside the cleanup was a rezoning of Gowanus, spearheaded by Brad Lander, which as part of it revived Gowanus Green, of which FAC remains a partner.
In the fall of 2021, the Chief Engineer of the Superfund project, who reports to the CAG on a regular basis, indicated that, speaking as a scientist, he wasn’t sure that building on Public Place was such a good idea.
This was an idea immediately shut down by the city and the EPA, and Tsiamis mysteriously was not at the next monthly meeting.
The FROGG contingent of the CAG began asking that EPA add Public Place to the Superfund. The following spring FROGG, along with a newer non-profit, Voice of Gowanus, (VOG) filed suit against the city, alleging that environmental law was not followed in the rezoning.
Everyone at the CAG meetings, which by now were held only on Zoom, knew that a majority were connected to the lawsuit. They also knew that a minority of CAG members were very much for the rezoning, due to benefits from the rezoning, either as developer or recipient of things such as low-priced community office space.
It now turns out that last March, about a month after the VOG lawsuit was filed, a letter was sent to the Regional Administrator of the local EPA by four of the CAG members on the pro-rezoning side, including Michelle de la Uz, Andrea Parker of the Gowanus Canal Conservancy (a recipient of community space), and Eric McClure, member and now Chairperson of Community Board 6, which approved the rezoning.
The letter, mailed without the knowledge of most of the other CAG members, but copied to all the local elected officials and the three EPA staffers who have been with the Gowanus Superfund since its inception, stated the following:
“Those of us who want to return to focusing on what’s going on between the banks of the Gowanus Canal are now a small minority, and despite the CAG’s overly complicated charter, there’s no mechanism for removing members who are abusive to others or who repeatedly violate CAG rules or stray outside its mission.”
It goes on to recommend training in “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice for all members.” It asks that the EPA enforce “no bullying, no harassment, no rudeness, no racism, no sexism, and no sustained disruption of discussion. It demands a diverse, equitable and representative CAG, and also to ensure that any meeting involving any EPA employees focus exclusively on Superfund issues.
At the end of the letter, they collectively threaten to resign from the CAG.
Members were shocked to discover that an internal group of CAG members would complain to the EPA bosses behind their back. The letter, which was only recently leaked, was sent on a blank letterhead, although in the style of of the many letters that the whole CAG has approved and sent to EPA, cc:d to politicos, over the years.
As mentioned above, I myself have been an at-large member of the CAG for many years. While I am completely not surprised at the frustration of de la Uz and others over the VOG lawsuit, I am surprised that not one politician, or EPA insider, let the local media, of which I am one, know about the letter.
CAG meetings are open to the general public, and since they are now exclusively online, recordings are made available on the CAG website. The next meeting, scheduled for January 24, should be a doozy.
Some of the CAG doings, and the recordings, are found on their website…
gowanuscag.org
