He Promised, He Came, He Listened" Comptroller Stringer Joins Community Members For A Walk Around Gowanus

NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer and members of Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus (FROGG) and Carroll Gardens Coalition For Respectful Development during a walking tour of Gowanus.

Despite the rain and cold on Tuesday morning, NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer joined members of Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus (FROGG) and Carroll Gardens Coalition For Respectful Development for a walking tour of the Gowanus Canal area.

The Comptroller had accepted the invitation by members of FROGG during a Community District 6 Stakeholder Roundtable, which he hosted at the Carroll Gardens Library in October 2016.
The purpose of the walk was to give the Comptroller a better understanding of the many challenges facing Gowanus as the neighborhood is rapidly changing.

The issues discussed during the tour were:
-the environmental clean-up of the heavily polluted canal by the Environmental Protection Agency
-the constant threat of flooding along the Gowanus waterfront
-the crumbling infrastructure in the area
-the proposed re-zoning of the area from mostly manufacturing to mostly residential, the potential land banking and the resulting displacement of long term residents.
-the responsibility of the City of New York to address the Combined Overflow that is still discharged regularly into the waterway
-and finally, the staggering cost of a 8-million gallon CSO retention tank at the head of the canal, which the City prefers to build on private land that it needs to take under eminent domain rather than on City-owned land across the street, which would be a cheaper and quicker alternative.

Along the way, residents pointed out old and new businesses that have thrived in Gowanus under the current zoning.

"This is fascinating", Stringer said several times during the walk. He had never visited the Gowanus area and he clearly enjoyed discovering it through the eyes of its residents. "I am especially enjoying visiting in the rain," he said, obviously understanding the neighborhood's drainage problem highlighted by large puddles on the streets.

Joseph Alexiou, the author of Gowanus: Brooklyn's Curious Canal, who joined the tour, gave Comptroller Stringer a signed copy of his book so that he may continue to learn about the area's history.

Later in the afternoon, the Comptroller's office posted a photo of him and the group standing on the
Carroll Street Bridge on his Facebook page with the caption: " Spent the morning discussing community development with Frogg : Friends & Residents Of Greater Gowanus. Progress happens when we work together."