Village Voice Does Gowanus

We're a little late in coming to this party, but this week's Village Voice has an item about Gowanus that we'd be seriously remiss in not mentioning. A snippet:

Gowanus, the industrial district surrounding the Gowanus Canal, has long been the ugly stepsister to next-door Carroll Gardens, Boerum Hill, and Park Slope. The canal itself was notorious as an alleged Mafia dumping ground and a communal latrine; locals sardonically dubbed its putrid and polluted waters "Perfume Creek" and "Lavender Lake." And yet from the late 19th century until the mid 20th century, the canal was a crucial link to Red Hook's port, with industry thriving on its banks.

The name Gowanus is thought to derive either from Gowane, a Canarsee tribe leader, or the Dutch word for bay, gouwee. The Gowanus Canal was built in 1848 to join Red Hook's port to the interior of Brooklyn. Barges carried sandstone and lumber down the waterway, bringing in the raw materials for the stately brownstones of Carroll Gardens, Boerum Hill, and Cobble Hill. These neighborhoods gave back to the Gowanus, piping raw sewage from houses directly into the water. According to local lore, if you ran down to the canal after using a bathroom in Carroll Gardens, you could see your feces entering the stream.

Nice image, that. Other parts of the article, which you can read here are a bit more positive.