So, what does someone do if one is walking down the street with one’s spouse and dogs and is attacked by insane dogs that have escaped from a construction site? Apparently, one should reach deep inside and appeal to the God of one’s understanding. We were in touch yesterday with one of the victims of […]

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We have posted many times about the Robert Scarano-designed building at Bond and Carroll Streets that we call the Bunker, but this scary story isn’t about the building or its design or the slow progress on the structure. It is about a GL reader who wrote to say that she and her husband and their […]

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Big changes are coming to the Public Place site between Smith Street and the Gowanus Canal as a prelude to a clean up of severe contamination and eventual development. Yesterday, we got an email from Community Board 6 District Manager Craig Hammerman noting that work is about to start on concrete removal at the site, […]

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There is a lot of background to this crazy video, which involves a tenant of a building on Ninth Street pursuing someone that works with/for the landlord.

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Pratt Center for Community Development Director and City Council candidate Brad Lander was among those who spoke at the City Planning Scoping hearing on Thursday on the big and controversial Toll Brothers project in Gowanus. Late on Friday, Mr. Lander emailed to us to clarify things because he had been described as giving testimony that […]

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Today’s Times notices the changes that have been underway for a while along Third Avenue in Gowanus, particularly on the Third Avenue corridor where restaurants are sprouting. The story lists many of the developments that have been chronicled and even mapped (although they fail to mention the hotels). Here’s a sample: Just before Christmas, he […]

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The spit-and-tape fence at the toxic Gowanus Whole Foods site took a hit during last weekend’s windstorm. A week later, it’s still down, although someone has thoughtfully added yellow “caution” tape to the wreckage. The good news is that no one even has to duck in order to go for a walk on the polluted […]

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The City Planning Department held its Scoping Hearing yesterday for the proposed Toll Brothers development on the Gowanus Canal. With neighborhood resistance to the project getting organized, the hearing attracted more attention than the average technical City Planning session. The room was full during the afternoon session and about 18 people spoke on the project. […]

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Things are coming along well in the Gowanus Hotel Row, ie President Street between Third and Fourth Avenues. The new hotel at President & Third is taking shape and demolition permits are out for properties up the street where SAI is building two hotels. The day is coming when there’s a very good chance mom […]

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The “Scoping Hearing” for the big, proposed Toll Brothers Gowanus development is today (3/13). There are two sessions, one from 2PM-5:30PM and the other from 6PM-8:45PM. It will take place at 22 Reade Street. Attendees can make statements of up to three minutes about the project and written statements can also be submitted through March […]

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The first step for the Toll Brothers firm in trying to win approval for its big proposed development in Gowanus will occur tomorrow (Thursday, 3/13). That’s when a “Scoping Hearing” to determine the contents of an environmental impact study (or its scope) will take place at the Department of City Planning. The scoping document is […]

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You simply don’t see a lot of drawbridge signs in New York, but there are a number of them in Gowanus, where there are five drawbridges over the Canal, all of which open and close from time to time. This signs is on Ninth Street as one approaches the Ninth Street Bridge under the Smith-9th […]

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A new South Brooklyn neighborhood coalition is in the works in Carroll Gardens, Gowanus and Red Hook to push issues on which there might be common ground. A private meeting took place on February 27 to discuss the mechanics of setting up the group and to work on developing a mission statement. Several groups, including […]

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As the Toll Brothers firm seeks its own zoning approval for a big project on the Gowanus, a proposal for rezoning the neighborhood, which would create a framework for significant changes in the industrial neighborhood in the future, could be ready by late Spring or early Summer. (A number of meetings have taken place over […]

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The community meeting last night about the big Gowanus project proposed by the Toll Brothers firm that would leapfrog the actual neighborhood rezoning project, drew a big crowd and even attracted two representatives from the development company itself, included VP David Von Spreckleson. City Council Member Tony Avella held forth about the advantages that pro-development […]

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These birds aren’t just Brooklyn Parrots, they’re Gowanus ones. The photos come from Christian Hanson, a GL reader who, for a time, was doing a blog called walksbklyn. He writes: I was doing some work on the computer this afternoon when I noticed an inordinate amount of “squawking” going on outside my window. Much to […]

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“There was the famous case of the language poet from Red Hook who grew despondent when the Shift key on her MacBook broke. She couldn’t write for weeks. Overcome by melancholy humors, she jumped into the enchanted, glowing waters of the Gowanus Canal, her pockets full of stones. And … she was cured! The metaphors […]

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Gowanus residents are preparing to fight the Toll Brothers proposal for a big development on the banks of the Gowanus Canal. The developers are looking for city approval for the project–which would include buildings up to 12-stories tall and 577 units of housing–before the Gowanus rezoning. An organizing meeting to prepare for a “scoping hearing” […]

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Our Carrol Gardens Correspondent passed by the artwork painted on the construction fence at Third and Bond in Gowanus, where some condos are going up. The project is being chronicled with a cool insider feature at Brownstoner every week that offers an up-close at the project. Check out the latest installment here and the websit […]

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There’s an impending gallery opening to report in Gowanus. It’s the Bond Street Gallery, a photo gallery that will be opening at Bond and Union. Word was passed along by Dalton Rooney who produces the excellent photoblog seriously excited!, whose work we often link on Saturdays. In any case, the gallery is work of photographer […]

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Don’t expect to see construction equipment soon at the big, polluted site at Third Avenue and Third Street where Whole Foods is planning to build a large grocery. Our friend Gabby Warshawer at Brownstoner has been talking to state officials and found that it could be a while. While the cleanup plan for the toxic-laden […]

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We happened upon this story from the October 23, 1903 edition of the New York Times and were amused enough by it to offer it as diversion here: Battling with a big blaze on the bank of Gowanus Canal, Brooklyn, last night, the firemen were driven back by the sudden breaking loose of a great […]

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This is Gowanus Green from the Hudson Companies team. The design is from Rogers Marvel Architects and landscape designers West 8 and Starr Whitehouse. (Rogers Marvel and West 8 designed the winning proposal for Governor’s Island and the architectural firm is also designing the redo of McCarren Pool and 340 Court Street in Carroll Gardens.)

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Yesterday, we noted that one of the more interesting things that was said at the community meeting on Monday night about the big Public Place development along the Gowanus Canal was the fact that the owner of a neighboring property was said to be interested in joining with the winning development team. The privately-owned parcel […]

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Someone was kind enough late yesterday to send us high quality renderings of the Related Companies/Monadnock proposal for the Public Place parcel. Related is one of the two finalists along with the Hudson Companies to develop the long-vacant property which was once home to a manufactured gas plant. The city will likely choose a developer […]

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