Last Night's Heavy Rain Turns Gowanus Canal Into One Huge Toilet Once Again

I know that poop and condoms are not a pleasant topic, but it bears repeating over and over, until the City Of New York finally assumes its responsibility and stops using the Gowanus Canal as a huge toilet every time our local sewer treatment plant gets overburdened.
Last night's heavy rain caused another Combined Sewer Overflow event last night and by 11 PM, much of the waterway was covered with raw sewage.  The smell was unbelievable.  It was too dark to take photos, but I took a walk over both the Union Street and Carroll Street bridges at 6 am this morning, and took some pictures. It was still rather awful and smelly and the bacteria count in the water must have been off the charts.

It is unfathomable to thing that the new residents of the 700 unit Lightstone Group Project at the shores of the canal will have to deal with this every time it rains heavily.

This morning, I also found an email from my friend, who lives in Gowanus Houses.  She has been complaining that raw sewage gurgles up in her kitchen sink every time there is a heavy downpour.
She sent along photos that she took last night.  Pretty awful, isn't it?

The topic of sewer back flow at the Gowanus Houses came up at Councilman Brad Lander's Bridging Gowanus meeting last week.

We all need to join together to demand that there be no new sewer hook ups in the Gowanus corridor until the City stops dumping s**t in our waterway.
Because this is not acceptable.




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Construction Update For Lightstone Group Project In Gowanus

Rendering of Lightstone Group's Gowanus project

Get ready for some tough weeks if you live anywhere near Bond Street between Carroll And 2nd Street.
Community Board 6 has sent around a notice above from Lightstone Group regarding their 12 story, 700 unit rental project on the shores of the Gowanus.
In the next few weeks, excavation, soil boring and removal, as well as pile driving will move forward.
Pile driving has already started and the noise on Bond Street was deafening.  The pounding noise actually reverberated all the way to Smith Street and could be heard in front of PS 58 and in Carroll Park.
Odd that the notice doesn't mention "environmental remediation" anywhere, especially since the site is still contaminated.  After all, the developer has recently applied for tax monies under the NY State Brownfield remediation program.

Below is a poster that was pasted recently along the construction site. I think it expresses what many in the community feel about the project and the changes in Gowanus.

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Gowanus Current: Hello, My Name Is ….. And My Vision Of The Future Of The Gowanus Is…...

There is no doubt that Gowanus is a neighborhood that will face tremendous changes in the next decade. What the future will bring for this historic industrial neighborhood is of yet uncertain, but there is no doubt that developers have already laid claim to the area. All that stands in their way is an overall rezoning that will allow residential development.  What that would mean for Gowanus is likely to resemble the 12-story, 700-unit Lightsone Group development that is currently moving ahead on two blocks adjacent to the canal.  The site, located between Carroll Street and Second Street at Bond Street had been granted a spot-rezoning from manufacturing to mixed use by the City Of New York back in 2009.

But how do the people who live and work in the area envision the future of Gowanus?
Gowanus Current, a documentary project by Jamie Courville and Chris Reynolds gives a voice to residents of the area and focuses on "development, diversity, and what makes a neighborhood."
At the recent TedX Gowanus conference, Courville and Reynolds recorded people's vision of the future of the neighborhood. Take a listen to the stories here.

Over the course of a year, Courville and Reynolds will continue to follow the changes in Gowanus. The result will no doubt be fascinating.

How would you answer the question "Hello, My Name Is--------- And My Vision Of The Future Of The Gowanus Is……" If you live or work in the neighborhood and would like to share your thoughts , please click here.

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