Toll Folds, Hudson Holds In Gowanus

I just bought and am moving into the area (two blocks from canal) after 10 years in the heights. I am thrilled it is a superfund, I have no trust that the private sector has any interest in cleaning it up for the purpose of protecting citizens and as someone said here, whole foods and toll brothers have not even started anything, they only seemed to take a lead when EPA stepped in, if EPA stepped out (ie not superfund designation) why would they do anything. The anti goverment mentality does nothing to clean up a canal that has been polluted for years as far as I can see.

I doubt retail will close becayse it is a superfund area, and I don’t see people not buying either, on the contrary, the knowledge it is to be cleaned makes it more attractive, and no, I never believed that toll brothers, whole foods and few other developers would clean this. For its many failings I trust the EPA way more.

I’m two blocks from the canal and thrilled about the designation. Is the Federal goverment perfect? Obviously not, but I do think that the EPA is much less likely to be influenced by local politics. I’m not anti-development, my last job was for a developer. I am however against over development, which is what the Toll project felt like. Toll Brothers pushed to have the zoning changed and lo and behold a week after the new zoning went into effect, Toll Bros. filed plans to build a building that the zoning was tailor made for. From the outside looking in, it felt very much like insider trading on a political level. Sort of like 360 Smith Street, where even though new zoning went into effect, the owner was able to get an exemption based on the foundation being 75 percent done, even though to my trained eye, and every other professional in the trade that I spoke to, it did not look anywhere near that level of completion on the excavation, much less the foundation work as a whole. I find it hard to believe that the same political shenanigans wouldn’t take place with the canal. So while I don’t think the Feds. are great, I do think they are the best solution in this case.
Last but not least, lets not forget that a large amount of the contamination in the canal settled to the bottom of the canal due to the flushing pump being broken for decades. The same flushing pump that is owned and operated by the city.

Christopher — I’ll add to what feral says. Its not like this Superfunding came out of nowhere. If there was profit to be made by a private developer (like Toll or Hudson — I know you just held out Toll as a theoretical example, not as an only possibility) doing the cleanup, one would have stepped up to do it. And Ditmas makes a good point too. Whole Foods hasn’t done a thing with their site, and they’ve had it for how long? You’re arguing for a theoretical alternative that no one has come close to offering to make a reality. Perhaps a private entity could do it faster and cheaper, but they won’t, because why would they. Toll had the biggest stake, and they obviously felt that they could build their buildings and make their money without a cleanup, which is why they probably didn’t try to strike a deal to do the cleanup themselves in exchange for tax breaks or subsidies or whatever.

The reality is that if the feds don’t clean the canal, no one will. Putting your philosophical objections to government inefficiency aside, I don’t see how, given the history of the site, you can deny that from a practical standpoint a government run cleanup is the only way it will happen.

IMBY,
Nice photos.