Picture Of The Day: Gowanus Graffiti

On Second Street and the Gowanus

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"Zipper: Coney Island's Last Wild Ride" Screening Tonight At Brooklyn Society For Ethical Culture

Zipper, a documentary about "greed, politics, land use and public policy' and the battle over Coney Island and the future of the 'people's playground" will be screening at the Brooklyn Society For Ethical Culture  tonight, Wednesday, February 27, 2013, at 7:00 pm at 53 Prospect Park West, Brooklyn,
For more screening information, click here.

If you miss the event tonight, another screening of the film will take place this Friday afternoon, March 1 from 3 to 5 PM at the Loews Village VII 66 3rd Avenue, New York, NY. Buy tickets here.

Directed and produced by Amy Nicholson,  Zipper is a must see for all Brooklynites and for all those who miss the old Coney.
To read more about Zipper, click here.

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Gowanus Whole Foods Taking Shape

Construction of the future Gowanus Whole Foods Market at 3rd Avenue and 3rd Street has progressed at a steady clip in the last few weeks. Crews have been busy driving long piles into the ground and the steel frame of the 56,000 s.f. organic market appears to be mostly completed.

Prior to construction, the approximately 2.15 acre site was remediated under the Brownfield Clean-Up Program under the supervision of the New York State Department Of Environmental Conservation. The work included excavation and disposal of soils impacted with contaminants, the removal of underground tanks, ground water monitoring, the installation of a soil cover consisting of several feet of new fill and a layer of gravel to cap the site.

 One can only hope that the remediation will not be affected by the construction work. After all, the long piles are being driven deep into the ground through the protective soil cap, which is meant to protect from residual contamination.
And there seems to be plenty of digging through the clean fill as evidenced by the photo below taken by Martin Bisi last week.

The Whole Foods site along 3rd Street. Photo taken by Martin Bisi

Now that the steel structure is almost completed, it has become evident how completely the new Whole Foods market will wrap around the historic Coignet building.
The landmarked structure, which shares the site with Whole Foods, was not part of the original land purchase.  However, under the sales agreement with owner, Richard Kowalski, of Beach Haven, N.J., Whole Foods agreed to restore and repair the old building. That work has yet to start.

In January 2012, despite objection of preservationists, Whole Foods was granted a special dispensation from the New York City Landmarks Law to reduce the size of the Coignet building lot from 125 feet to 55 feet on the 3rd Avenue side, and from 55 feet to 40 feet on the 3rd Street side.

Just recently, owner Kowalski has put the Coignet building up for sale or lease.

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Upcoming Meeting Of EPA Gowanus Canal Superfund Community Advisory Group

The EPA Gowanus Canal Superfund Community Advisory Group (CAG) will be meeting on Tuesday
Feb. 26 at 6:30 PM at Mary Star of the Sea Senior Housing, 41 1St Street.
The meeting will focus on the Proposed Remedial Action Plan (PRAP), which was released in late 2012.

Just a reminder: the EPA will be accepting public comments on the PRAP till the end of April 2013.
Written comments on the proposed plan should be addressed to:

Christos Tsiamis

Project Manager

Central New York Remediation Section

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

290 Broadway, 20th Floor

New York, New York 10007-1866

e-mail: GowanusCanalComments.Region2@epa.gov

OR, contact Natalie Loney, Community Involvement Coordinator, at 212-637-3639,

Also, for those interested, the CAG Archaeology Committee will meet on February 27th, 6:30 pm at Proteus Gowanus, 543 Union Street, Brooklyn
On the agenda: Review of PRAP and EPA archaeology documents.

All CAG meetings are open to the community.

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Halstead Property Closes Office At 206 Court Street In Cobble Hill. High End Houseware Store Moving In?

Though it seems that there is a new realty office opening in the neighborhood every other week, here is news that one is closing.
Almost exactly a year ago, Halstead Property bought Cobble Heights Realty at 206 Court Street in Cobble Hill as well as Heights Berkeley Realty at 76 7th Avenue in Park Slope.

Though Halstead already has an office on Court Street, just blocks away at 162 Court Street, it kept both locations open for a year.  However, it has just closed the office at 206 Court Street and is directing everyone to its existing location at the corner of Amity Street.

A real estate source informed me that "the deal was originally made just so Douglas Elliman could get the corner location in Park Slope formerly occupied by Heights Berkeley Realty."

What's more interesting for Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens residents is that the tipster also informed PMFA that a high end houseware store is coming to the Court Street location.
That's great news. We sure could use one.

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Love, Gowanus Style: Mallard Couple Seems Happy On Canal

Can we look forward to ducklings in the Gowanus Canal in a few weeks?
On a walk across the Union Street Bridge yesterday, I spotted a pair of Mallards on the shores of the Gowanus Canal.  One cannot imagine a worse place for wildlife than the Gowanus Canal, which has been polluted for over a century, but the duck couple seemed to be rather comfortable in this environment. The female even followed the drake into the foul water for a swim, before jumping onto a log and cleaning herself.

According to Wikipedia:
"Mallards usually form pairs (in October and November) only until the female lays eggs at the start of nesting season which is around the beginning of spring, at which time she is left by the male who joins up with other males to await the moulting period which begins in June."

Perhaps the Gowanus Canal is far from the ideal place to rear one's young, but the waterway does seem to at least partly fit the requirements for an ideal duckling nursery.

"When seeking out a suitable nesting site, the female's preferences are areas that are well concealed, inaccessible to ground predators, or have few predators nearby. This can include nesting sites in urban areas such as roof gardens, enclosed courtyards, and flower boxes on window ledges and balconies more than one story up, which the ducklings cannot leave safely without human intervention."

As cute as it would be to see ducklings swimming on our canal, the idea is just a bit unsettling.  I would feel so much better if the Gowanus were already cleaned up.

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Bareburger Taking Shape On Court Street

It looks as though it won't be too long until Bareburger in Cobble Hill will be open for business.  The new eatery at 145 Court Street is diagonally across from Trader Joe's and the new Chipotle.

Like the original Bareburger, which got its start in Astoria, Queens, back in 2009, this outpost of the micro-chain of burger restaurants will be "serving food made of organic ingredients free of hormones, pesticides and other unsavory elements."

Customers will be able to create their own burger by choosing either beef, lamb, wild boar, elk, bison or ostrich and pairing it either with brioche, multi-grain roll or tapioca rice bun, to name just a few of the choices.   For vegetarians, Bareburger offers fresh salads.
Click here  to check out the entire menu.

Sounds great, though of course, there already are quite a few burger joints on Court Street.

This location was previously occupied by Immigrant Travel, a middle eastern store which sold suitcases, clothing, perfume and newspapers.

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