Say What? Native Americans STILL in Gowanus?

The name Gowanus is derived from the name of a local Native American chief from the indigenous Canarsie tribes. To my knowledge, the Canarsie do not have any communities to speak of in the area. But another Native American tribe may. From the Middletown Press:

"“To Brooklyn and Back: A Mohawk Journey” tells the personal story of Tarbell, who is a Mohawk herself, as she explores her roots and traces the connections of her family to the Mohawk community in Brooklyn. The stories of the Kahnawake Mohawk women who lived in the North Gowanus section are rarely heard, but Tarbell would like to change all that."

Anybody out there know anything about the Mohawk Community in Brooklyn or its location? According to the ever reliable Wikipedia, a large community of Mohawks worked on construction projects in the early part of the 20th century, which resulted in a settlement in somewhere in Brooklyn called "Little Caughnawaga", which Ms. Tarbell's film documents. I will look forward to watching it.

New Tax Proposal Could Help Put The Fund in Superfund

The biggest problem with Superfund designation of the Gowanus Canal (which we were in favor of) stems from the availability and speed of funding to pay for the program. Opponents were quick to (correctly) point out that the funding would ultimately come from adjoining property owners, who collectively branded as "the taxpayers". What they also conveniently forgot to mention is that the property owners responsible for cleanup are also those responsible for the mess.

In any case, a new proposal is making it's way around which would pay for Superfund cleanup with a tax on current polluting industries, such as oil and gas. From American Public Media (NPR's Marketplace; download the mp3 here):

"...when Republicans took control of Congress in 1995, they did away with a tax on the petrochemical industry that funded the clean-up of almost half of all Superfund sites. These were sites where nobody accepted responsibility for the contamination. Funding for these projects dried up seven years ago. Since then, taxpayers have had to pick up the tab."

In the current national political climate, I doubt that the implementation of a new tax, even one on an industry with such deep pockets who have the public's wrath right now, would be received well, however anything that cleans up the canal can't be a bad thing. I do question the rationale of seeking funding from current gas and oil companies though; isn't a large point of the Superfund program to go after past polluters as well?

Ax Comes to Area Services: Fair?

There has been much consternation lately about cuts to city services in the area, and there are many. Some others are picking up on the issue. From the New York Times:

"Within a 10-minute walk, three day care centers, one senior center, one swimming pool, one after-school program and a health clinic are to close. Venture 20 minutes more, and six additional facilities — two day care centers, two after-school programs, a senior center and a health clinic — are also to shut down on July 1, the start of the new fiscal year. Making matters worse, the nearest public transit option — the B37 bus along Third Avenue — is being eliminated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority"

You can add to this the elimination of the B71 and other local bus routes.

But here's the rub: if not here, then where? Does Red Hook deserve cuts more? How about Brownsville? Kew Gardens? Inwood?

The cuts have to come from somewhere. While I'm not exactly pleased about them happening here, I can't be so self-centered as to think that Carroll Gardens (or Gowanus or Cobble Hill or Boerum Hill) is a neighborhood in need or somehow "deserves" the service more than any other neighborhood.

It's easy to walk most places, there is great subway access and there are still numerous bus routes in the area. If my 85 year old grandmother can manage (which she does), so can you.

Happy Ending for Henry Street Residents

Residents of Henry and Degraw Congress Streets should be happy to know that John Quadrozzi (he of dubious Superfund critique) will be fixing his crumbing house. From the Daily News:

"Henry St. homeowner John Quadrozzi must make immediate repairs to the badly cracked walls of the 1852 brownstone as part of an agreement made with city officials in Brooklyn Supreme Court last Friday.

"[Buildings Department] engineers found that the owner's repeated failure to maintain these buildings created a hazard to the public and an eyesore for the neighborhood," said Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri in a statement.

A round of cosmetic repairs, such as plugging holes in the carriage house roof, will begin later this year."

I'm just happy that the scaffolding will come down at some point!

On the Edge: A Life on the Shores of the Gowanus

The Brooklyn Eagle did a nice profile on Pat Bruno, a man who has lived on the shores of the Gowanus his entire life, in the same house!

"Pasquale “Pat” Bruno, 77, still lives in the same house on Bond Street where he was born in 1932. For a year or two after he married, he lived a few blocks away, but he and his bride soon returned to the house he grew up in with his two sisters and two brothers in a neighborhood filled with other two- and three-family homes. It was a world bounded roughly by Smith Street, Atlantic Avenue and Nevins Street to the east and Third Street to the south, but he’s not sure what that neighborhood’s called today. “Sunset Park, Carroll Gardens, even I don’t know where that is,” Bruno said with a laugh. “When I was growing up, it was all just plain old South Brooklyn.”"

Mr. Bruno makes a great point about South Brooklyn/Red Hook. He also sounds like an endangered species.

Who is hungry for some crumb buns?

Update: At It Again

At it again outside of 360 Smith this morning. How about we add a little topical flair and have them blow a Vuvuzuela or three?

Katia also posted an update this morning on a view from someone's window. Please note that views are NOT protected by most land-use laws.

Enough To Make You Gag

We all saw the condo going up on Sackett between Smith and Court (and the shoddy pointing work on the facade). Some of us even laughed when the put some bamboo in front of the lobby windows to try and class the place up. Well, get ready to gag at an New york Times article that quite possibly describes that building (process of elimination), and it's newest residents:

"The residents are often young, but at one small building on Sackett Street in the Carroll Gardens neighborhood of Brooklyn, a large percentage of them are really young: Four of the six buyers had five babies among them when they went to contract in the fall and closed in April. 

The sleep-deprived residents are settling into a rhythm that contrasts with the hushed order found in some buildings. The lobby often has an arsenal of Diapers.com boxes stacked at the entrance. Residents sometimes confuse cries emanating from other apartments as those of their own babies, and the first meeting of the condominium board was scheduled around feeding and sleep times. Besides the four pairs of new parents, a fifth buyer has a 4-year-old, a scooter-wielding preschooler named Quincy, the building’s oldest child."

I guess there really is no point in whining about the continued Slopification of Carroll Gardens, but good god. Do they have to be so happy about it?

You Stay Classy, Marco Polo

A ruckus outside of Marco Polo on Saturday night, probably viewed ironically by passing hipsters. From the Brooklyn Paper:

"Police were called to the famed Carroll Gardens eatery at the corner of Union Street at 12:30 am after several guests attending the party began fighting with each other.

As the squabble spilled out into the street, cops grabbed four men, ranging in age from 26 to 53, charging them with disorderly conduct.

All four were given criminal court summonses and sent home, said a source inside the 76th Precinct, adding that no one was throwing punches when officers arrived, but the group flat out refused to disperse.

Three of the men arrested were from Staten Island. The fourth was from Bensonhurst, they said. One was the man whose daughter is about to walk down the aisle."

Though my favorite quote comes later in the article, from an "eyewitness":

"“They were all behaving like unflattering stereotypes about certain Italian-Americans. It was very interesting to watch and we spent at least five minutes observing from across the street.”"

Does that sound like something that was translated into Spanish, then into Italian, then into Portugese, and then back into English?

Red Hook Trolley Again?

A quick trip through Sunset Park, Gravesend, DUMBO or Red Hook will show anyone that there is still evidence of what was once a vast Brooklyn Streetcar, or Trolley, network. Basically the buses of yesteryear, streetcars are now making a comeback in many cities around the world, as their benefits are now clearly seen. Although the idea of a Brooklyn streetcar network has been raised from time to time, funding has never really been there for one. Well, it still isn't, really, but there's money for a study! 

From the New York Post:

"DOT plans to finally take advantage of a $300,000 federal grant that Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-Brooklyn) secured for the six-month study in 2005.

Velazquez said the project is crucial for Red Hook, since the isolated neighborhood is facing brutal service cuts to its already-limited bus service -- the B61, B77 and B71 lines. The neighborhood has no subway; its nearest train line -- the F -- is more than a mile away.

Bob Diamond, president of the Brooklyn Historic Railway Association, which has tried to create a trolley line since 1989, estimated the project would cost $10 million to $15 million to complete."

That's a low estimate. By a LOT.

Gowanus Drug Boss Sent Away for Attempting to Assassinate...The Carroll Gardens Diary?

Scary stuff from Courier Life about a drug boss in the Gowanus Houses:

"Price was ordered to spend the rest of his life behind bars on May 14 after being convicted of racketeering, murder and four attempted murders — all of which were planned from his drug-dealing domain inside the Gowanus Houses.

Officials said that Price, his brother Robert and uncle Eddie Pressley, “ran a violent drug trafficking organization that dominated the sale of heroin and crack in the Gowanus Houses throughout much of the 1990s.”

Back in August 1990, Price allegedly shot Ronald Chavis and Michael Brown after luring them from the Gowanus Houses to another housing project in Bedford Stuyvesant.

He killed Chavis, but only wounded Brown, who managed to escape the assassination attempt."

Whew. Glad he's going away and glad I got away!

More Housing on the Gowanus?

4th Avenue and Smith Street, with their access to walkable commerce and public transportation, are excellent areas for dense development. Gowanus? Ehh. it's better than Gerritsen Beach, but not by much. So why is everyone looking to house more people there? From the Brooklyn Paper:

"“An environmentally restored Gowanus area could support an additional 1,500 to 2,000 housing units above those already planned,” the report states.

Those units, of course, are captive to the clean-up of the waterway, one of America’s most-polluted sites. Even under the best-case scenario, that process will take 10 years and cost $400 million.

Some development companies have said the lingering “Superfund Stigma” will make it impossible to ever build in the canal zone.

“There won’t be new housing until the cleanup is done [and] that is 20 years away,” said David Von Spreckelsen, a vice president for Toll Brothers, which opposed Superfund designation and withdrew its plan for a 447-unit luxury complex on the canal after the federal decision was announced in March."

You mean, except for the larger project that includes affordable housing, being done just a little ways down the canal from your proposed development, Von Spreckelsen. Was he in Goldmember?

Another Misused Courtyard

Our sympathies go out to Dan Silverstein and his fight against the ugly courtyard on First and Court. From the New York Post:

"Last December, Christmas tree salespeople left the place a mess of trees and wreath-filled garbage bags that lingered for two months, Silverstein recalled.

Today, there’s graffiti on a wall adjacent to the yard, and cars parking there day and night, a violation of city law.

“Small public spaces are extremely valuable,” Silverstein said. “They’re places we walk by every day, and they affect how people feel about their community.

Silverstein is hoping to convince the city, which technically owns the courtyard, to let him design the space to better serve the neighborhood. So far, he said, he’s had some encouraging words from Councilman Brad Lander (D–Park Slope), but no firm commitments."

While the site is an eyesore, I doubt that there is really very much that can be done. Unless the car parking continues...

"Brooklyn is Suburb Enough For Me" - Carroll gardens on "Film"

Noted for sometime, but now out with their first episode is a short show by Robin Reed called "Carroll Gardens". Here's how it is described on it's landing page:

"Within this little suburbanesque community politely at odds with itself exists a group of 30 somethings politely at odds with the fact that everyone is running away from one thing....becoming their parents!"

Although I take bitter offense to the characterization of this area as "suburban" (I guess that dense, walkable areas with great access to public transit and few mega-chains equals suburban to Ms. Reed), the short is cute, well done, and has many local places and characters (mostly in the opening segment). Check it out.



Carroll Gardens: The Pilot from Robin Reed on Vimeo.

Baroque Dancing? Ok....

From NBC New York:

"Sure, Baroque dance hasn't been popular since...oh, the reign of Louis XIV, but the performance troupe Company XIV is bringing this predecessor of classical ballet from the court of Versailles to Carroll Gardens. Only this time around the dance floor choreographer Austin McCormick is throwing in a few other things from the last four centuries of dance, theater and storytelling.

With music ranging from Vivaldi to Lady Gaga, McCormick's newest performance, Le Cirque Feerique, or the Fairy Circus, if you will, re-imagines classic fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen and The Brothers Grimm using a combination of flamenco, ballet, cabaret, and yes, baroque. The colorful costumery is elaborate enough for any of Louis' formal balls but also playful enough for, well,  the circus."

I guess if it's your thing, go for it.


Company XIV is the resident company of 303 Bond St. a 3,800 square foot rehearsal/performance venue located in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. The space was converted from a tow truck warehouse with the addition of a state of the art dance floor, glass facade, and theatrical lighting.

Sponge-Worthy Park Wins Award?

From the American Society of Landscape Architects:

"The Gowanus Canal Sponge Park™ is a multifunctional public open space system that slows, absorbs and filters surface water runoff to remediate contaminated water, activate the private canal waterfront, and revitalize the neighborhood. The proposal communicates a larger vision for environmental stewardship to a broad community through productive landscape strategies, collaboration among public and private constituencies, and an interactive design process that incorporates the input of residents, community groups, and city, state, and federal agencies."

The park itself is a great idea. The housing that is going to go along with it...eh. Not so much.