Determined New Yorkers are taking urban renewal into their own hands in an unlikely part of town, says Peter Knight
Would you willingly move your family to one of the most polluted parts of town and spend your weekends planting perennials while tonnes of toxins boil and bubble beneath?
That’s exactly what trendy newcomers to a blighted bit of Brooklyn are doing. Their actions could be seen as either rank stupidity or enlightened community spirit. Either way, the story of these urban pilgrims who have settled around the dangerously polluted Gowanus canal is pretty extraordinary, or as they would say: about making the area extraordinarily pretty again. One day it may be seen as a model for urban renewal, if the Brooklyn pilgrims and their progeny survive the noxious emissions.
Brooklyn is the biggest of the five boroughs that make up New York City, sitting on the extreme west of the land mass that is Long Island. Brooklyn was one of the first areas to be developed when the Dutch arrived in the early 1600s, and it used to be the richest part of town.
After declining in the 20th century, it has now become the coolest part of New York City, known for its cultural diversity, tattooed hipsters riding single speed bicycles, and delicious artisanal food and drink.
The Gowanus canal used to be a boggy creek when the Dutch first settled, displacing native farmers. The industrious Hollanders quickly turned the creek into a waterway (just like home) and used the tide to run a mill.
As Brooklyn grew into an industrial powerhouse, there were calls for the creek to be turned into a commercial canal. Various plans were considered and, of course, the American tradition prevailed and the cheapest infrastructure was chosen. This led to the creation of a mile and a half of canal that relied only on the tide to flush it clean – not a great idea when Brooklyn’s sewage flowed in at the top end.
Pollution city
Over the decades the combination of domestic and industrial sewage, industrial pollutants from waterfront industries, undetected leaks from oil storage tanks, prevarication from the authorities and the inability to flush itself clean created what is today officially deemed to be among the most polluted places in the nation. The federal government has declared the Gowanus a Superfund site, to be cleaned up (eventually) with taxpayers’ money.
You would think that the mere thought of living on a Superfund site would be sufficient to encourage the urban pilgrims to set sail for sweeter-smelling places. Not at all. This is where many are headed, to raise their young and establish a community.
The Gowanus area has attracted artists, urban planners and other community-minded spirits. They have founded the Dredgers Canoe Club – despite the water having the highest level of pathogens in the entire New York harbour area – and organised boat tours of the canal and arts festivals.
The city authorities have created open spaces bordering the canal that are tended by more than 200 volunteers. One of the first bars providing a community gathering place opened recently, named after the wisecrack local reference to the smelly canal: Lavender Lake.
A prominent resident, the local funeral director, has been pushing the authorities hard to realise his vision of turning the stinky waterway into a Venice-like Grand Canal. And why not?
Supporting him are some extremely determined Lavender Lake pilgrims. One attaches a video camera to his child’s kite and flies it over the canal to record where pollutants are coming from during heavy rains. Fellow pilgrims are then dispatched to plant shrubbery at the source so that the runoff can be absorbed before it hits the canal. The urban gardeners use compost made on an unused lot by another pilgrim.
Of course, the centuries of industrial muck will not go away without a huge injection of funds from the federal government (through Superfund) and determined action by the city authorities. The pilgrims realise that. But they also know that taking responsibility for their own back yard is an important step towards renewal.
Without the pilgrims making a noise around the Lavender Lake, government would continue to do what it does best: delay and prevaricate. Or in local parlance, kick the can down the road.
One of the most inspiring aspects of life in the United States is that the country is filled with people who don’t much like government and don’t wait for the authorities to act. These urban pilgrims may squabble a lot among themselves, but they quite literally fly their kite for the good of the community.
Peter Knight is president of Context America.