Breaking News: Whole Foods to Begin Brownfield Cleanup at Third and Third

Breaking News: The proposed Carroll Gardens / Gowanus / Park Slope Whole Foods is proceeding with Environmental Remediation efforts. Letters such as the one scanned below have gone out to various stakeholders and community groups, detailing (somewhat) the efforts being made to participate in New York's Brownfield Cleanup Program. 

According to the letters, mailed from mega-law firm Akerman-Senterfitt (a frequent representative of developers) efforts will start on January 11 and are anticipated to take about three months and no traffic disruptions are anticipated. By participating in this program, the developer is eligible for tax credits to help defray the costs of cleaning up the site.

Will we one day see a Whole Foods? Looks like it!

Staples: How is this Legal?

Everyone knows the Staples on Third Street and Fourth Avenue. Seems like any other Staples ever, no? Shared parking lot (which is VERY tight), rude managers, long lines - it has it all. But, there is something subtle that makes this Staples even worse than the average one. Take a look at this picture:

Notice anything?

How about now?

That's right. Staples hates you. Or, more accurately, Staples hates you if you don't drive.

If you are not a driver, you MUST venture into an active traffic lane to enter the Staples site. They managed to install a sidewalk that connects to the city sidewalk, but then put up a huge fence, so as to make a walk to Staples to pick up some staples a life-threatening activity. Down with Staples!

While Staples certainly deserves some negative press for this choice, more disconcerting for me is the fact that this situation is allowed to exist. How did the City Planning Department's ULURP process not catch this? How does the DOB not red tag the site? How does Transportation Alternatives not make a fuss about this?

Maybe the hipsters who re-painted the Bedford Avenue bike lanes need to head on down to Gowanus with some bolt cutters...