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26
Jul 09
Yesterday I spent a couple of hours helping to clean up the block of Degraw Street between Nevins and the canal. The event was organized by the Gowanus Canal Conservancy. We picked up and bagged trash and tidied the planted beds along the sidewalk, where rugosa roses were being overwhelmed by weeds. The Parks Department created the beds some years back as part of the Greenstreets program, but can no longer afford to maintain them because of budget cuts. They did provide the group with tools and mulch to do the work. This is an excellent initiative that helps people take control of their own neighborhoods.
The last time I was on the block it looked like this:
After we were done and the garbage was bagged, it looked like this:
A volunteer prunes bushes. Let's hope the Sanitation Department does its part and picks up the trash we collected.
And this:
Will the cleanup make it less likely people will dump garbage here in the future?
The gentleman at the auto shop at the end of the block said he would help take care of some new plants that Lowe’s sold the Conservancy from their discount table for a penny apiece.
Volunteers plant lilies near the auto upholstery shop.
A feeling of accomplishment.
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10
Jul 09
So has Whole Foods definitively decided to pull out of its Gowanus location, as was widely reported earlier this week, or not?
Community Board 6 District Manager Craig Hammerman sent out an e-mail to the Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association listserv earlier today, writing, “In light of recent media reports, I thought you might be interested in the following memo below.”
Here’s the memo in full:
TO: Craig Hammerman
FROM: Mark Mobley
Whole Foods Market
DATE: July 10, 2009
RE: Update on Whole Foods Market’s plan in Brooklyn – “Reports of our demise have been greatly exaggerated”
I am writing with just a quick update to let you know that recent reports of Whole Foods Market’s demise in Brooklyn seem to have been greatly exaggerated! As you may have seen, the Brooklyn Paper published a story this week that inaccurately suggests we have definitively decided not to pursue the development of a store on our property at 3rd Street and 3rd Avenue and further that we are planning to sell the property. This is simply not true and we have sent a letter to the Brooklyn Paper editor clarifying our position and requesting a correction.
You may recall that last Fall I sent you a memo explaining that Whole Foods Market had begun re-evaluating our plans for our property and that we would be working to identify potential development partners for a Brooklyn store. That is exactly what we have been doing in recent months and we are continuing these efforts in hopes of arriving at a potential development scenario that will enable us to finally come to Brooklyn.
Therefore, while nothing has yet been finalized and we are still not in a position to be able to share any additional information, please be assured that we will be back in touch as soon as we are able to provide more details about our plans.
Hmmm. “Potential development partners”?
One question that comes to mind: does the “potential development scenario” mentioned depend on a city-engineered, rather than a Superfund, cleanup of the canal?
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08
Jul 09
A mulberry tree embraces the guardrail on the west side of the canal at Huntington Street. July 8, 2009.
Today I came upon this tree growing near the cement plant on Huntington Street. It’s a mulberry tree. A few desiccated berries still cling to its branches.
It was surrounded by at least five different kinds of wildflowers. I’m in the process of trying to identify them all.
Later in the day — completely by chance — I came across this quote from Willa Cather on the blog aMMPh:
“I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do.” And then, upon researching further, I found that the quote is from O Pioneers!
I pulled the book down from my shelf. One of the characters says these words while sitting under — a mulberry tree.
That tree goes on to play a major role in the story. What happens under it is both beautiful and horrifying. The tree itself simply goes on growing.
Like this one on the banks of the Gowanus, which shades shattered glass, used condoms, a discarded bag of golf clubs. And one vine of pink morning glories.
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07
Jul 09
The New York Times has a nice slideshow today from a photographer named Jose Gaytan, who has been shooting on and around the Gowanus for the last six years. Beautiful stuff. He has a show up at the Brooklyn Public Library through August 29th. I can’t wait to go see it.
Gaytan says the big sky around the Gowanus is one of his inspirations. I have to agree. And it’s one of the things I’m most worried about losing as the area develops.
Blue skies over the Gowanus, seen from the Lowe's parking lot. July 4, 2009.
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06
Jul 09
The canal at Second Street.
I live about a half mile from the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn. It is a smelly, filthy, problematic body of water, often vilified and ridiculed. As I write this, the canal is being considered for federal Superfund status. It is a neighborhood joke, and a source of shame and anxiety for many of those who live near it.
I would like to look at the Gowanus in a different way. As a place where things live and grow. As a natural habitat.
Daisy fleabane, I think, blooming in the Lowe's parking lot on the eastern bank of the canal. July 4, 2009.
I will be doing that here.