Gowanus and Sewage, Perfect Together

There are few neighborhoods in New York City, or Brooklyn, where conversations about development and the future immediately turn to sewage. (Although, there are some where the talk can turn to toxins.) In this, Gowanus is unique. Case in point: the article about Gowanus by Jake Mooney in today's New York Times. The piece deals with the coming neighborhood rezoning and with developments that the Toll Brothers and Shaya Boymelgreen would like to build in the neighborhood. Most of the story, however, treats the subject of sewage in Gowanus, including the geysers of sewage that erupt in the neighborhood during really bad rainstorms and the flushing tunnel that turned the Gowanus from a stagnant, fetid cesspool to the less offensive body of water that it is today. The bad news: Ye Olde Flushing Tunnel is going down for repairs that will take a year-and-a-half. Given our sense that Gowanus water quality has had some pretty bad patches in the last year so, we think it's going to be a very, very, very long 18 months.