Despite Assurances From DOT, New Signage Eliminates Parking On North Side Of 2nd Street Between Bond Street And Gowanus Canal

2nd Street between Bond Street and the Gowanus Canal

New "No Parking and No Standing" signs on North side of the block

 Newly opened "Quick Park" garage on north side of this block

New bicycle lane and parking signage on Bond Street

Prior to construction of Lightstone Group's mega housing development at 363- 365 Bond Street in Gowanus, 1st Street and 2nd Street between Bond and the Gowanus Canal provided public parking
both day and night for local residents.
Those parking spots were taken away when these two blocks were blocked off as construction began in 2014.

Concerned that Lightstone may apply to make  the1st and 2nd Street blocks a “no parking zone" permanently, Gowanus resident Carl Teitelbaum reached out to the NYC Department of Transportation in the fall of 2015 to ask if the developer had done so already.  "Is there any public scrutiny and feedback if that is their intention? How can we make public the desires of the neighborhood in this matter?" Teitelbaum inquired. He added: "Parking is very tight in our neighborhood and taking away what were public spaces would be a great disservice to existing residents."

The answer he received came directly from DoT's Brooklyn Borough Commissioner Keith Bray.
"All parking regulations will be restored once the work on this conduction project is complete," Bray assured Teitelbaum.
This, however, does not seem to be the case.

While this stretch of 1st Street remains closed during ongoing construction at 363 Bond Street, the 2nd Street block was reopened this fall. At the beginning of this month, local resident Michael McGinn reached out to neighbors to report that new D.o.T. signage "eliminates all parking on the north side of Second Street between Bond and the canal."

Incidentally, the entrance to a new private parking garage in Lightstone's 365 Bond Street building is located on the north side of Second Street.

Coïncidence?  "I have a lot of trouble with the idea that a for-profit parking garage means eliminating public parking spaces," Michael McGinn wrote to his neighbors.

The loss of parking spots on 2nd Street is in addition to new parking rules on Bond Street which were implemented in September  to create a bicycle lane.  According to DNA Info: "DOT removed 13 parking spots on the east side of Bond between Sackett and Douglass streets and changed the entire west side of Bond between Third and Douglass into a 'no stopping any time' zone."

As more people move into the 700  apartments at 363-365 Bond Street, parking will just get tighter, especially if additional spots are removed when 1st Street between Bond and the canal re-opens.

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Apartments At '365 Bond' Luxury Building In Gowanus Now Listed On Craig's List

As seen from the Carroll Street Bridge, 365 Bond Street in background, 363 Bond Street in foreground

365 Bond Street at First Street

At Second Street

365 Bond Street apartment listings on Craig's List

Pardon me for asking, but doesn't it seem a bit surprising that 365 Bond Street, the 12-story rental development by Lightstone Group in Gowanus, has felt the need to advertise its apartments on Craig's List?  The developer is now offering a month free, 'end of summer specials', and telling people to ask about 'incentive information' on the building's own site.  Could this be an indication that, perhaps, the units in this building are not renting out as fast as anticipated?

Just search Craig's List for 'apartments for rent' in Gowanus (or Carroll Gardens) and you will come across quite a few listings for units at 365 Bond Street.

The luxury rental development on the shore of the Gowanus Canal, an EPA Superfund, was completed in early 2016. Of the 430 apartments in the building, 83 were set aside as 'affordable'.  The market rate apartments were offered for rent this past March through Douglass Elliman, which operates a  'leasing gallery' right inside the building.  By the beginning of April, the first tenants moved in.

The rent for the apartments currently available range from $2,483 a month for a studio apartment to over $6,800 for a two bedroom with a terrace.  Yes, the apartments are very nice, but the rooms are rather small.  The amenities in the building are awesome, but perhaps not enough to justify the rental price?

We keep on hearing from our politicians (and developers) that there is a huge deficit of apartments in the area. If that is the case, one would imagine that the building would have been fully rented by now and that the developer would not need to offer rental incentives.

More apartments will be available in Gowanus in the near future. Just next door to 365 Bond Street, a 12-story sister building at 363 Bond Street will be completed in 2017.  It will add another 268 units to the development complex.

Councilman Brad Lander has been pushing hard for an overall rezoning of the Gowanus Canal corridor from mostly manufacturing to mixed use, which will open the floodgates to more residential developments similar or even larger that the Lightstone development.  That will mean thousands of new apartments may soon come on the market in Gowanus.
That's rather ambitious for a neighborhood that sits squarely in a flood zone and includes one of the most toxic waterways in all of the United States. An environmental clean-up of the Gowanus Canal is planned, but is still years away from completion.

In the meantime, those adventurous enough to move into these new buildings will have to deal with foul odors emanating from the canal and with rats, as it would appear.  As the photos below show,  rodent bait stations have been place every few feet along the circumference of 365 Bond Street.

***And one more thing:  I have heard that those who won the lottery for one of the 83 affordable apartment units at 365 Bond Street have not been allowed to move into the building yet.  Apparently, Lightsone is waiting to fill all the market rate units before letting the lottery winners move into the building.
Is that correct? Can someone shed some light on this rumor?

Rat baiting stations surrounding 365 Bond Street

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Today's Extra-High Spring Tide Caused Gowanus Canal To Breach At Second Street Near Lightstone Group's Residential Building

(photos courtesy of Frederic Gindrey)

Today, March 9, an extra-close new moon, also called a "Supermoon", created a higher-than-usual tide, which could be observed in the Gowanus Canal. The phenomenon, also called perigean spring tide,  was captured in photos this morning at about 8:30 am by Carroll Gardener and friend Frederic Gindry.

The photos were taken from the Third Street Bridge and the Carroll Street Bridge and show that water level was extremely high.

As can be seen on the last photo, the high tide caused the canal to breach its bank at Second Street right next to the Lightstone Group's 700 unit residential development.  The polluted water also appeared to be sweeping over parts of the new promenade in front of the development.

High tide will return tonight and will be even higher tomorrow, March 10th, before returning back to normal.  Luckily, it is not going to rain in the next day or two. Otherwise, Gowanus residents would have a big problem.

However, it does not take a 'super moon' or a perigean spring tide to cause flooding at 2nd Street near the new development.

Friend Martin Bisi sent me the photos below, which he took the night of February 24th, after a day of steady rain. Again, one can clearly see that the Gowanus overflowed at 2nd Street and that the promenade is partly submerged in Gowanus water.

The Gowanus, of course, is an EPA Superfund, which means that contact with its polluted water is not a good idea.

Pretty scary stuff considering that the first tenants will be moving into the development within the next few weeks.

 (photo credit: Martin Bisi)

****Update****

I took some more photos this morning, March 10th, at about 9 AM during high tide. I walked down Second Street towards the canal, but was stopped by construction workers.  I was able to take the one photo below that shows some flooding from the canal near the building at 365 Bond Street . The crew did say that the water front promenade will be open to the public in early April.

I also would like to share an email that I received this morning from Brian Carr of United States Environmental Protection Agency Region 2 regarding the spring tide and the photos of the Gowanus Canal.  He writes:

Just a clarifying note on the supermoon tide story and photos, purely as background info. 
The photos as described are unintentionally a bit misleading.

The end of 1st Street where the gravel is has not been completed, but will be an intertidal habitat area that is supposed to get wet. The bulkhead is lower in this spot on purpose. I believe it will planted when it is completed. It’s supposed to compensate for the encroachment of the new bulkhead into the canal.

The end of 2nd Street is the Sponge Park, which is still under construction I believe, so that street end is more open to flooding. Although I’m not 100% familiar with the final design, I’m pretty sure that this street end will be lower like 1st Street is, which is why the bulkhead steps down to 2nd Street. Part of the “Sponge.”

That said, the elevation change from the supertide to the Lightstone buildings is about 6 feet, and the water is indeed not clean, with contamination and pathogens.

Here is a bit more about spring tides from Earth Sky.Org:
"Spring tides accompany March 2016’s supermoon. Will the tides be larger than usual at the March, April and May new moons? Yes, all new moons (and full moons) combine with the sun to create larger-than-usual tides, but perigee new moons (or perigee full moons) elevate the tides even more.

Each month, on the day of the new moon, the Earth, moon and sun are aligned, with the moon in between. This line-up creates wide-ranging tides, known as spring tides. High spring tides climb up especially high, and on the same day low tides plunge especially low.

The March 9 extra-close new moon will accentuate the spring tide, giving rise to what’s called a perigean spring tide. If you live along an ocean coastline, watch for high tides caused by the March, April and May 2016 new moons – or super moons."

Will these high tides cause flooding? Probably not, unless a strong weather system accompanies the perigean spring tide. Still, keep an eye on the weather, because storms do have a large potential to accentuate perigean spring tides.

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This Morning's High Tide Brought Polluted Waters Of The Gowanus Canal Dangerously Close To Lightstone's Residential Building

Photo of the Lightstone Project at 365 Bond Street on the shores of the Gowanus By Mark Karwowski

He calls the picture: "double eyesore' because of the reflection in the water

Photo taken from Carroll Street Bridge 

 This morning at high tide, the polluted waters of the Gowanus were level with the base of Lightstone Group's  second building currently under construction at 363 Bond Street and Carroll Street.  The mechanics for the Carroll Street bridge in the foreground were totally submerged.

 More flooding.  Looking at 363 and 365 Bond Street

Looking at the Union Street Bridge this morning at high tide

Friend and local resident Mark Karwowski walked over the Carroll Street Bridge this morning at high tide and took the photos above of the 700-unit Lightstone Group construction site at 363 and 365 Bond Street at the edge of the canal.

As you can see, the level of the water was extremely high. This is, of course, not the first time that the the Gowanus Canal have risen to this level.  It merely illustrates what local residents have said for a long time…the area is prone to frequent flooding and is, perhaps, not the best place to bring more residents, especially given the warnings about Global Warming.

We all know by now that when the Gowanus Canal floods, local residents don't just have to deal with water in their basements.  After all, the canal is an EPA Superfund and its waters are highly toxic.

Karwowski, who is a member of Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus, also took the photo below from the 9th Street Bridge this morning, showing an oil sheen on the water of the canal.

And my friend C. captured this image of a goose swimming in the canal yesterday.  How very sad.

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Checking In On Lightstone Group's Gowanus Development: First Glimpse Of Public Esplanade

Lightstone Group's Gowanus development as seen from the 3rd Street Bridge

The public waterfront esplanade at 365 Bond Street taking shape

The development at 363 Bond Street and 365 Bond Street as seen from Hoyt Street and First Street

As seen from the Carroll Street Bridge

It has been a while since PMFA has checked in on Lightstone Group's 700-unit mega development along the shores of the Gowanus Canal. Now with Phase One substantially completed at 365 Bond Street and the second phase at 363 Bond Street well on its way, it was time to take some new photos.
Besides, reader and friend C. had alerted me to the fact that the public esplanade along the canal was
taking shape.
Sure enough, from the Third Street Bridge, one can clearly see freshly planted grass, benches and lights along 365 Bond Street, which runs parallel to the canal from First Street to Second Street . The esplanade will continue along the second building to the Carroll Street Bridge once construction is completed.

According to Lightstone, 365 Bond Street will be ready to welcome residents in early 2016. "Highlights of 365 Bond include a 24-hour concierge doorman, indoor valet parking, a world class fitness center with yoga and spin room, a garden courtyard, and a game room with a variety of recreational activities. Other premium amenities include a library, residence lounge, private dining with gourmet chef’s kitchen and a children’s playroom. The building will also feature multiple exterior rooftop terraces with 360 degree panoramic views, cabanas, barbecues and dining areas. Lightstone is also creating a publicly accessible waterfront esplanade park that will include a boat launch and water access point. The waterfront park will include outdoor learning centers highlighting the history of the Gowanus Canal."
The apartments will feature custom Italian kitchens with Quartz countertops and wide plank white oak hardwood floors. Each residence will be equipped with state-of-the-art Bosch appliances, including in-unit washers and dryers, and Kohler and Symmons fixtures."

The waterfront esplanade looks lovely, but it is a small consolation for those, like me, who feel that the development is way out of scale for Gowanus, given the area's environmental challenges. As we all know, the Gowanus Canal is an EPA Superfund site that has yet to be remediated.

A quick glimpse at the surface of the canal this morning confirms that any resident moving into one of Lightstone's rentals will certainly have to deal with some nasty stuff floating by until the clean-up finally happens.

Usual nasty stuff floating on the surface of the Gowanus this morning

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