Gowanus Blooming, Ripe For Own Chelsea Market?
Maybe most living organisms can’t grow in the Gowanus Canal (though we hear the oysters are doing swimmingly), but a bunch of pollution hasn’t stopped man-made growth. A number of new venues are opening, detailed in this month’s issue of The Real Deal. Union Hall is opening a new club in the neighborhood, joining Bar…
Maybe most living organisms can’t grow in the Gowanus Canal (though we hear the oysters are doing swimmingly), but a bunch of pollution hasn’t stopped man-made growth. A number of new venues are opening, detailed in this month’s issue of The Real Deal. Union Hall is opening a new club in the neighborhood, joining Bar Tano on the eastern side of the canal. Danny Tinneny, Jr. is finishing up a coffee shop and wine bar this summer that would have waterfront seating, joining The Yard and Gowanus Yacht Club on the canal’s west side (possible grounds for an East Side, West Side rivalry). Some people can see the sleepy industrial area becoming Brooklyn’s newest hot spot for gallery and bar hopping, the only place in the city where you can down your favorite night cap alongside a real live canal. What could possibly top that off? Massey Knakal broker Ken Freeman thinks a down-scaled, Gowanus version of the Chelsea Market where light manufacturers could make and sell their work. Freeman is marketing two sleeping giants on Third and Bond Streets, one for $15 million and the other for $10 million, where such a project would be as-of-right. The market would be adjacent to the Third Street bridge and kitty-corner from The Hudson Companies’ townhouse project meticulously documented by principal David Kramer on this blog. “To me, you have to use the water,” Freeman told The Real Deal in an accompanying article. “If you have a little promenade on the water and a café over there, I think you’d be amazed at the amount of people who would sit and eat by the water, or take laptops and work there all day.” What do you think? Could you see it?
More places to see art, party in Gowanus [The Real Deal]
Defending Gowanus [The Real Deal]
Oh My Rockness: Union Hall Expanding in Gowanus [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn Nibbles: Carroll Street Cafe Coming [Gowanus Lounge]
Gowanus’ “uniqueness” will be obliterated by the visions being extolled by those who like its “uniqueness”. I have lived in the area for 25 years, anyone who is counting on having a business where people sit along its banks is asking for it. The canal is an open sewer. And though it does not stink as much as it did 20 years ago, it still stinks. I don’t care how many “Gowanus Goes Green” celebrations the “Gowanus Conservancy” organizes. The only green in the Gowanus is the green (and purple) oily slime on its surface; and the bucks that the luxury housing developers who want to build along its banks.
Where exactly is “Gowanus” suppossed to be? What are the boundaries (the neighborhood, not the canal)? I probably live in it, but I’m not sure. Can anyone enlighten me? When I bought, I was told Carrol Gardens, but if I had bought twenty years earlier, it probably would have been called Red Hook, now I think it’s Gowanus. Confusing, very confusing.
3:41
Yes, Russia, the land of abundant fresh food…
It would be terrible to have access to cheap, fresh food – a real blow to capitalism.
Gowanus is coming up in the word. It was never really a “Sketchy Neighborhood” or fringe by most people’s (Here) definition. But it has been largely industrial and commercial with a lot of potential with the new developments and close access to the subway.
Cant wait to spend alot more time in the area, it really is very interesting and unique.
isn’t gowanus “bordered by the thriving areas of” carroll gardens and park slope?
2:36 please go back to russia
What a nice thread.
i saw a bunch of jellyfish in the gowanus this year.
I think that, in an idealized world, markets should be set up in every neighborhood in the city. The NYT ran the story about disappearing supermarkets not long ago. Similarly, small businesses are being run out of their storefronts. Publicly subsidized markets (though looks this one is private) are an excellent way to support healthy eating, fresh food, and local retailers while invigorating a neighborhood and delivering the type of goods that residents want.
A publicly subsidized market would be a building that is owned by the city or a city authority and where space is leased at low rates for local retailers. Ideally the market would be open later so that people who work regular hours could shop as well. The markets would house produce, meat, fish, baked goods, and vendors of clothes, jewelry, art, etc.