Gowanus at Sunrise
Gowanus, both the canal and neighborhood, is an endless source of fascination for me. The waterway is simultaneously reviled for being a massively polluted mess, and, recently, celebrated for being a prime location for clandestine dance and pool parties.
It is an area in flux. The EPA has proposed adding the canal to its list of Superfund sites, which will slowly (I mean, really slow: stretches of the Hudson River were declared a Superfund site twenty five years ago and are only now entering the final stages of cleanup) but surely remove the most toxic contaminants from the area but not necessarily involve any sort of revitalization of the sagging industrial landscape. The Bloomberg administration, eager to rezone the neighborhood and effectively turn it into Brooklyn's next Williamsburg, has quickly cobbled together an alternative plan in which they cleverly but deceptively state that they would use EPA-style measures to clean up the canal, but of course do it much faster than the EPA would, using readily available taxpayer money instead of holding the polluters accountable. Call me skeptical of the city's plan to say the least.
This morning was a gorgeous one in Gowanus, following a dreary, rainy day. I took the above photos while walking my dog Theo over the Carroll St. bridge and could not help but be struck by the strange beauty of it all. Yes, it needs to be cleaned up. No, it's not a pretty place in the traditional sense of the word. But something about the neighborhood is endearing to me and I would hate to see that charm eradicated by ultra-modern, 10-story steel and glass condominiums.
Comments [0]