“Hello” we called on the new Gowanus. Our voices echoed back. This was not the Gowanus Canal of the last thirty years. It also was almost unrecognizable. Bulkheads stretched high above our heads. And then the final blow: It was Glen Canyon before the dam with high rise buildings soaring toward the sky, creating a new canyon within the heart of Brooklyn.
Read More
The inaugural Gowanus Art Parade crosses the Union Street Bridge on June 1, 2024, with a changing landscape along the shores of the canal. As hundreds of revelers cross the Union Street bridge, the old and the new Gowanus are in sharp contrast. All eyes are on the Gowanus Canal and its environs as it undergoes an upgrade from the 19th century to the 22nd century.
Read More
EPA Inspector General Sean W. O’Donnell issued a report this morning outlining how oversight failures by EPA Region 2 and willful obstruction by the City of New York have led to soaring costs and increased health risks in Gowanus.
Read More
I have expected to say this for at least a decade, and now, post COVID, it is finally here. The Gowanus I photographed for thirty years is officially dead, and the new Gowanus is here to stay. And it’s not my generations Gowanus by any stretch of the imagination. This Gowanus will be enveloped with people and buildings to resemble the riverwalk in Providence, RI, or San Antonio, TX. The wild spirit that existed on […]
Read More
Every time I approach the Gowanus Canal, I don’t know what to expect. This time, standing on the Third Street Bridge looking northward, Movers, Not Shakers… the glorious black building with YOU SHOULD MOVE TO BROOKLYN, in 15-foot letters… was gone. Mark Ehrhardt created the display so that you could plainly see it as you rolled your shopping cart out of Whole Foods, after bringing his company from Red Hook to Gowanus, renting the location beside the Third Street bridge from 2014 to 2021.
Read More
How did a Superfund site end up in South Brooklyn? The Gowanus Canal stood stagnant for more than 30 years after the propellor which sucked fresh water from New York Harbor was broken in a construction accident. The flushing tunnel was sealed in the 1960s. Originally a series of tidal creeks, the native Americans named it Gowanes Creek in honor of Chief Gowanes of the Canarses tribe, who lived, hunted, and fished along its length. […]
Read More
