Category Archives: Gowanus

Post Sandy Red Hook and Gowanus

Posted by rmichals on November 4, 2012 1 comments

Sandy has been a horrible disaster for the New York area. I so wish I could believe that this was a 1-in-one-hundred year storm and all we need to do is help the people that have lost the most and clean up and repair the city. Sea level rise will be experienced as a series of increasingly intense storms. The question of how to build resilience into the city has now become acute.

On Thursday, after Sandy, I walked through Gowanus and Red Hook. There was little to see of the real suffering that I know took place and is continuing to take place because of the storm.

Gowanus Canal, November 1, 2012


The Gowanus is achingly beautiful at dawn. Beautiful in the way a ruins are beautiful.

Gowanus Canal, November 1, 2012


On this morning, it seemed like the brick buildings were relics from the past. I am sure that if I had been worried about its legacy pollution flooding my home during Sandy, it would not look so beautiful to me. It would look malevolent.

9th Street Bridge, Gowanus Canal, November 1. 2012


More garbage than usual was in the water but by Thursday there was little visible damage from Sandy to be seen.

F train over Gowanus Canal, November 1, 2012


I was so happy when I saw the F train go over the bridge. I will never take the F train for granted again.

BQE, Gowanus Canal, November 1, 2012


Traffic appeared to be at a standstill on the BQE. Of course, that isn’t that unusual.

I then walked through Red Hook park which looked very normal except for the yellow tape across the entrance and by the farm where it looked like one of the temporary structures there had been blown over. Then I walked behind the Ikea. Workers were cleaning up. Everything looked normal except for a few tell tale signs that I remembered from Irene. There were boats in places where they are not usually having sought shelter from the storm.

Erie Basin, Red Hook, November 1, 2012

The wooden fence that blocks off the area where the Revere Sugar Factory stood was temporarily down so I took the opportunity to get a closer look at the ruins.

Red Hook, November 1. 2012

As I walked out along the edge of the water, I could see the warehouses (I remember Francis Marrone saying it was these warehouses lining the edges of Brooklyn that gave it the nickname “The Walled City”) and how they were built to accommodate loading and unloading.

Looking back from the Revere Sugar Factory lot to the city which at the moment this photo was without power. It is possible that this storm will change the future of this site. Once there were rumors of building student housing here. I don’t know how parents would feel abut their children living in Zone A.

Red Hook, Brooklyn, November 1, 2012

This is what is left of the factory. This was also a location in the movie Across the Universe.

Red Hook. Brooklyn, November 1, 2012

Here I met a man named Sean who was fishing. He actually caught 3 fish while we talked. He was a construction worker who had fallen off a building 6 years ago. He hasn’t worked since then. But he loves fishing. He loves sitting at the edge of the water. We both sat there taking some solace in the water, the sunshine, the air. The same elements that wrought so much damage but now were all so peaceful. I felt grateful to be there.

Red Hook

Posted by rmichals on June 22, 2011 None comments

Red Hook is one of the neighborhoods in Brooklyn besides Coney Island and Manhattan Beach that is likely to be hardest hit by sea level rise. When looking at map of Red Hook from 1834 and comparing it with Overpeck and Weiss’s Map of sea level rise in 2100, there are some strong similarities. The areas around both Atlantic Basin and Erie Basin are predicted to be inundated. Both were originally ponds. Where Atlantic Basin is now was Cornell’s Mill Pond with the mill indicated on the northern end. It was protected from the waters of Buttermilk Channel by Locust Island. (Note this jpg is oriented with north on the left side not the top.)

Map of the City of Brooklyn, S. C. Herbert & R. Tolford, 1835. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.


Erie Basin is now where Van Dyke’s Mill Pond once was. In 1835, it already looks suspiciously rectilinear.

Map of the City of Brooklyn, S. C. Herbert & R. Tolford, 1835. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.


Just to give a sense of how quickly things changed, here is all of Red Hook on a 1852 map.

Kings and Part of Queens Counties, Long Island, NY, M. Dripps, 1852. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.


My understanding is that Red Hook was probably not already built out as indicated in the map, that this would have been the planned grid system. Oddly there is no indication of Erie Basin.

The Columbia Street Grain elevator stands where there was marsh and water in 1835 and where streets were projected to run in 1852. It is now projected to be in the water by 2100.

Red Hook Recreation Area, Brooklyn, NY, May 27, 2011

The area of Louis Valentino Junior Park between Atlantic Basin and Erie Basin, I think, corresponds to the knob marked Red Hook in the 1835 map. Even though it juts into the harbor, it is projected to lose only a narrow band of land compared with other parts of Red Hook.

Louis Valentino Junior Park, Red Hook, Brooklyn, NY, May 27, 2011

The Gowanus Canal is also expected to widen by 2100. This junk shop under the 9th Street Bridge is likely to be underwater.

Ninth Street Bridge, Gowanus, Brooklyn, NY, may 27, 2011


While that is sad, the scary part of sea level rise around the Gowanus relates to contamination of the ground in the area particularly around the three sites that hosted manufactured gas plants. I did hear from Christos Tsiamis at an event that “pure product” which I take to be coal tar has been found on the Lowe’s site. This is the portion of the foot print of the manufactured gas plant that was supposedly remediated.