Gowanus Flood Prevention

A tire, a log and sandbags will hopefully do the trick. Sort of looks like some sort weird art installation of a strange bed except it's not,these are cellar doors being battened down on Carroll Street.

Anyway it's old news at this point that Whole Foods is now saying that they are going to start to set up shop on 3rd Street after years of delays. It's a well known and documented fact that the area that surrounds the site and around Gowanus Canal sits in a flood zone (hence the need for the Root Hill Cafe to go the measures that they do) It should be interesting to see what happens when Whole Foods puts their foundation in, it will be sure to fill with water whenever it rains. That site was full of water until a couple weeks ago, it was like a little swamp most of the time. Anyway I saw foundation flooding happen repeatedly on the Scarano building on Bond Street and it took YEARS to finish that stupid looking thing. So, in closing I really hope that the D.E.P really did magically re-mediate the toxic plume that runs (or ran?) beneath the soil on the site for the sake of the construction workers health and also the local communities.

Gowanus Whole Foods Site Flooded

To those that don't take the threat of rising tides and flooding in the Gowanus seriously, all I can say is a picture is worth a thousand words. These photos were sent to me by a reader with some very astute observations.

View from 3rd Avenue Bridge that is over the turning basin behind Whole Foods site.

"Wetland it is! Looking at the picture makes you wonder just how a "green" organic market can look at this wetlands and think "good place for a market". It more mind boggling that they designed a building as a cellar with parking on top. A cellar would have to be 2/3rd below grade!"

And here we have the canal flooding Dyke's lumber yard which is across from the Whole Foods site.

I wonder how high the tides are in the basement of the lumberyard?

Some food for thought, Whole Foods!

Community Meeting with Whole Foods Representatives on Monday

There has been nothing but back and forth with that toxic parcel of land which Whole Foods owns on 3rd Street for years. They had pretty much abandoned the site, the construction fence often collapsed, as you see in this photo. Recently there has been some activity. Are they cleaning up and thinking about building again? Or cleaning up for someone else to develop for which they will receive a tax credit? I suppose it might be found out at this meeting.

From Community Board 6's email:

Feb 22 Public Safety/Environmental Protection/Permits/Licenses Committee

Presentation and discussion with representatives for Whole Foods on the resumption of environmental remediation activities at 210-230 3rd Street and 370-384 3rd Avenue (southeast corner 3rd Street/3rd Avenue).

Presentation and consideration of a letter of support for an application for a Gowanus Watershed Initiative grant that proposes various Combined Sewer Overflow reduction measures for the Gowanus Canal.

PS 32 Auditorium
317 Hoyt Street (between Union & President Sts)
Brooklyn NY 11231

6:30 PM

Read about the recent activity going on at the site over at Pardon Me For Asking.