By Matt Chaban 8/24/12 5:53pm

Superfun

A Gowanus Lighthouse

Superfund Solutions: Gowanus Lighthouse Development Will Be Rental, Not Condo

Who would want to live on the shores of a Superfund site? Maybe the better question is, who would want to own a place on one?

Toll Brothers killed their plan to build a new housing complex on the Gowanus Canal two years ago when the U.S. Enviornmental Protection Agency decreed the canal was toxic, despite protests and counter-proposals from the Bloomberg administration. That is why the news earlier this month that the Lighthouse Group was going to develop the site was so surprising. But part of the developer’s secret appears to be hundreds more units and renting them rather than selling them. Read More

By Michael Ewing 2/13/12 11:37am

Superfun

Artless? (Whole Foods)

Gowanus Little Guys Fear Whole Foods Sludge Will Ruin Artsy Neighborhood

The seven-year roller coaster ride that has been Whole Foods’ Brooklyn saga may be taking another nose dive. The blissful ride started in 2005, long before Brian Williams had ever heard of Brooklyn. It slowed to a snail’s pace in 2007 and then completely halted in 2008 in the midst of the grotesque Gowanus Canal’s Superfunding. New York State was nice enough to clean up the property and set Whole Foods back on track in 2010.

The whole ordeal has left us twisted and nauseous from the bureaucratic and communal ups, downs, and loop-de-loops. (Or maybe the toxins are making us nauseous.) Regardless, Whole Foods might be one rubber stamp away from approval, but the Gowanus locals are not succumbing without one last fight. Read More

By Joseph Alexiou 3/02/10 6:26pm

‘Hallelujah’ for Gowanus Canal, Superfund Site

In the wake of the EPA’s decision to designate the Gowanus Canal as a Superfund site, pro-designation activists celebrated the morning of the event with jubilant emails and phone calls.

“We did it!” whooped Linda Mariano, a member of the Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus (F.R.O.G.G.), in a phone interview on Tuesday. “I Read More

By Eliot Brown 3/02/10 4:53pm

Gowanus Canal Goes Superfund, a Blow to Bloomberg

In a blow to the Bloomberg administration, the long-polluted Gowanus Canal has been named a “Superfund” site by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, a move officials fear will squash city planners’ visions of a new residential neighborhood sprouting along the waterway.

The Superfund status is intended to give a legal process to round up the Read More