Celebrating Community
Late Friday afternoon, Aug. 30, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) released the results of the first phase of its Gowanus-wide soil vapor intrusion investigation, conducted during the 2023-2024 heating season. The investigation, which tested 113 buildings, found 15 buildings requiring mitigation due to elevated levels of one or multiple contaminants. Five buildings had elevated levels of […]
The How Many Stops Act, which includes a bill that requires New York Police Department officers to record the race, age and gender of the civilians they approach during investigative encounters, officially took effect on the first day of July. (The second bill requires the NYPD to report when a person denies consent to be searched.) Previously, officers were only […]
Gowanus is a changing neighborhood. From once being an area with mostly light and heavy industries, the Gowanus Canal is now slowly becoming surrounded by residential and mixed-use buildings, a process which has significantly sped up since the rezoning of the area was approved in 2021. But the changing scenery has not come without difficulties. In the past decade-and-a-half, environmental […]
A big part of the EPA Superfund plan for the Gowanus Canal is preventing future pollution. One of the biggest polluters is the City of NY, due to the fact that when local sewers can’t handle a big rainstorm, raw sewage is pumped into the Canal. This has been happening for years and is a big part of what is […]
In our July issue we wrote about the concrete recycling plant that temporarily occupies part of the Columbia Street Waterfront District docks. At the time, the NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) told us that they “take all the necessary steps to mitigate dust and keep the public safe.” That is important because crystalline silica, a compound present in concrete, poses […]
(Editor’s note – Mr. Hang takes issue with our characterization of these events, and requested that we include his clarification: “Please note that we have NOT called for a “moratorium on new construction” in the Gowanus Canal Area. We respectfully wrote Governor Hochul: “Until the shortcomings of New York’s Brownfield program have been fully assessed and all applicable regulatory cleanup requirements […]
The Gowanus Oversight Task Force met for its second quarterly meeting of the year on Thursday evening, June 27. This time around, the public meeting tackled the issues of “community resources” and “streets and safety.” This task force took life as a condition of the Gowanus rezoning, which allowed for the building of high rise residential buildings in the formerly […]
A concrete recycling plant opened up along the Columbia Street waterfront earlier this year, raising concerns among some residents in the neighborhood and nearby Cobble Hill. The plant, located by the intersection of Columbia and Kane Streets, is only there temporarily, however. It was moved there in February to accommodate the city’s plans to develop offshore wind. Just next door […]