Gowanus Whole Foods Year End Special: Come On In

The abandoned Gowanus Whole Foods site closes out the year the way it spent much of the last half of 2007: wide open to visitors that want to check it out. The environmentally-challenged site got some attention in November when Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum and others criticized the grocer for maintaining a public hazard. Well, attention from public officials can have a very short half life. The site was closed up for a couple of weeks, but the shoddy fence has been more open than closed ever since. (A reader notes that even the portable toilets on the site have been removed, which we suppose is one way of economizing.) Advice to the grocer that own the toxic property that gets many, many, many visits: invest in a work crew, buy some new wood, get a lot of nails, install a sturdy new fence around the property & keep an eye on it. Will Brooklyn's biggest toxic playground remain to entertain in 2008? Keep watching. We will.