The Gowanus Canal Conservancy is hosting a festival called "Gowanus Goes Green" this Sunday. Much of the festivities will be held at The Yard, which in case you live in the neighborhood and wonder just what the heck is going on with the music and the hipsters walking back and forth between the deli on Hoyt (for beer) and the bridge, click here to find out just what goes on behind those big gates. Don't get me wrong I like the Yard and have attended a couple of events there but I know many of the locals don't really know who or what they are.The photo above is what may be built by the Toll Brothers should the canal area be rezoned to build condos.
Anyway it is quite confusing to me as The Gowanus Conservancy (a brilliantly deceiving name) is for the most part in cahoots with many of the developers who have great condo development plans for the Gowanus. Many of them for the greening of the Gowanus but not the type of green ($$$) they are trying to promote in this fair. Just check out the list of their sponsers here.
You see, the Conservancy doesn't come right out with it but they are for the most part pro-development and the enviromental clean up in their opinion will be done with the help of the developers (yeah right!!!!), they mask it very well and I have heard that the Park Slope Food Co-Op has been hoodwinked by them as well. The conservancy presented them with some sort of award for being "green". Oh please. I noticed that the Toll Brothers name is not on their sponser list but now that more is known about the brother's Troll it's probrably a good p.r move not to include them. The people responsible for their great work in New Orleans (The Army Corp of Engineers) will also be there to assure you that they will "do the best they can" to clean up and fix the pumping station for good. It's soooo comforting to know that they are involved too!Anyway if you want to attend this shiny happy shindig, click here for details.
ALSO! Important City Planning meeting tonite at PS 32 at 6pm regarding what's going on with the rezoning at this point. P.S 32 is located at Hoyt and Union Streets.
ALSO! I received a press release that Councilman Bill deBlasio who will be holding a press conference outside the school at 5pm. He is against the building of more hotels/motels around the Gowanus. I can't argue with that. The potential for them to turn into "hot sheet" motels are pretty high with the close proximity to the BQE and convenient to the long existing skin trade around Nevins and Third Avenue and they could also very well displace the current functioning businesses in the area.
Related posts:
This is the open sewer where Toll Brothers want to build...
Toll Brothers Make the Bad Boy List
*All photos lifted from The Toll Brothers/Gowanus website.
Posts
5 comments:
Bob Zuckerman here. I just discovered this post, which is so filled with inaccuracies, I don't know where to start.
You completely quoted me out of context. It is very obvious by reading the entire quote that I was referring to the percentage and number of affordable units in the Toll Brothers plan, not the height.
The full paragraph from the Brooklyn Paper is as follows:
“One hundred thirty units of affordable housing is very positive for the community,” said Bob Zuckerman, director of the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation, which has long called for residential construction in the area. “It’s not as high as we would like, but it’s significantly higher than it could have been."
It has also come to my attention that several people have inaccurately stated that the GCCDC and the Conservancy are supporting the Toll Brothers plan. That is actually not the case. Both organizations sent letters to City Planning stating we would should wait for the full rezoning of the area to take place before we take a position on this proposed development. Furthermore, Toll Brothers has never sponsored anything with either the GCCDC or the Gowanus. Never.
The Conservancy has been hard at work with our Sponge Park proposal to provide much needed recreation and park space and deal with the CSO issue at the same time. I guess you haven't been to any of our presentations. We'll be presenting again at CB6's Parks Committee meeting in June. I invite you to attend.
In the meantime, please stop quoting me out of context, and please stop the unncessary attacks.
OK but the Toll Brothers have sponsored fund raisers for The Dredgers (which I see as part of the Conservancy, GCCDC trifecta.) I have been to almost all of the presentations (including the outdoor one a couple weeks ago) and while the Sponge Park sounds good I know that the land is for sale and if the rezoning goes through it will most likely turn into condo complex to mirror the Toll Brothers.
Also I AM promoting your festival by posting it so I am giving people the option to join in even though I am no fan of your sponsors. (real estate companies and developers).
And to be fair, I took out that quote but you still come off being pro-development in an area that really shouldn't be developed for residential housing. I shudder to think what will be released into the air when those buildings get knocked down and foundations begin to be built. But if that happens I'll be gone and you won't have to hear my complaints...
I sometimes work in the local public schools and know for a fact that they are filled to capacity. Ever
teach in a trailer? Oh but I guess the condo people
would never send their kids to PS 32. Also i have
first hand experience with flooding and its
altercations so any mistrust I have with potential development and it's interaction with the canal's enviromental issues (flooding, sewage, brownfields on it's shores) is well founded and my blog is a vehicle to express that.
Please see the following article for the Bob Zuckerman quote that not only praises the height and density of the Toll Bros site, but also praises the open space that will be developed. http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/31/8/31_08_bell_tolls_for_the_gowan.html
Yeah, Bob, building 460 units, 6 buildings on two blocks, two buildings of which will be at least 12 stories (they say 12 stories but if you count the floors of the tall buildings in the drawings on their website, there are more) - this will actually create open space? That's a fancy trick. How does filling up our sky create open space? And how can a conserancy that is even aware of the most basic science NOT know that the shadows that will create over the canal are not good for breaking down the crap that is in it? The canal needs sunlight, Bob. If you want to read a good article about the Gowanus, read Tom Angotti's article in the Gotham Gazette:
http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/landuse/20080219/12/2432
Mr. Angotti is a City Planner. Impartial.
The Gowanus Conservancy is a ruse, and people are starting to take notice. The idea that only if you build will the canal get cleaned up is convenient for developers. And that "affordable housing" line is along the lines of Ratner trying to shove Atlantic Yards down the communities' throats. Like we are really going to believe that it's all about altruism! Broklyn is too smart for that!
With all due respect Bob Zuckerman: cut the crap. Props to Anyonymous for being on the case-- I got your back next time, Sister.
Bob: ya'll are trying way too hard to play both ends against the middle but guess what?
1) Toll Brothers will fuck you & all the sponges in King Neptune's iridescent green canal without a second's thought. I'll challenge you or anyone in this so-called "Conservancy" to discuss the REAL history of the Canal zone, be it over the last 40 years or the last 140. Sorry to make you do a little work but that's the way it goes when most Brooklyn history is so far unwritten.
2) There ain't no middle.
3) What the do you get out of it anyway, Bob?
I grew up in Canarsie, not South Brooklyn, but I know the area v. well and you make no sense, Bob.
Please, if we are mistaken, speak up, & speak the TRUTH, not just a form of political triple-speak.
Regards,
Junius Van Sinderen
Ombudsman
Who Walk In Brooklyn
During the "sponge park" presentation the conservency rep's stated clearly that they are, and will be, working with the Toll Developer to assist in implemeting the green garden ideas.
This development, Toll, GCCDC/Conservency, is clearly a joint effort. Even if Bob did submitt comments to DCP that the piece meal resoning should not be done outside of the general rezoning.
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