Celebrating Community
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 […]
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 […]
After the revelation last month about a provocative letter sent by some Gowanus Superfund Community Advisory Group (CAG) to EPA heads, some thought that the next monthly meeting would be filled with fireworks (see our last issue). However, Chief Engineer Christos Tsiamis, who has been providing updates to the project almost every month for the past dozen years, diffused all […]
To either the surprise, or the apathy, of local residents, Mayor Eric Adams announced that MSC Cruises will be coming to Red Hook in the spring of 2023 bringing year-round cruise ships to the Atlantic Basin. The terminal was inaugurated in 2006 as the NYC home port for the Queen Mary. Another ship, The Regal Princess, has been using Red […]
Christos Tsiamis, Chief Engineer of Gowanus Superfund project. Despite the strong opposition of New York City, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and local Councilman Bill deBlasio, the Gowanus Canal, called one of the most polluted waterways in the world, was finally declared an EPA Federal Superfund site in 2010. This meant that the canal would be subject to federal jurisdiction when […]
Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez and Assembly member Jo Anne Simon spoke to a frustrated crowd of people in the Whole Foods parking lot next to the Gowanus Canal. They both voiced their concerns about the city’s Gowanus rezoning plan which was approved by Mayor Bill de Blasio. The rezoning plan would allow real estate developers to build new condos in the […]
At the end of March, the EPA filed an Administrative Order making specific demands of the City of New York regarding their unkept promises at the Gowanus Canal cleanup. Christos Tsiamis, Chief Engineer of the project, has said many times in the past that the Federal government, of which the EPA is part of, has sovereignty over city government, which […]
Members of the Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group were smiling in their Zoom squares when Christos Tsiamis, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) engineer leading the Gowanus Canal Superfund cleanup, reappeared on their screens on March 23. Tsiamis had not attended the group’s monthly virtual meetings since December, when he expressed concerns over changes utility company National Grid made last summer […]
When the city unleashes a rezoning and its accompanying host of contentious public review meetings on a neighborhood, seldom does anything stop it. A coalition of local grassroots organizations led by Voice of Gowanus managed to do so temporarily by suing the city and preventing it from triggering the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), a seven-month path leading to […]