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• How Gowanus Got Its Name

  In Learn Stuff / By B. Umanov / 19 February 2014 / 0 comments

  

  Before you get all snarky with us, yes, of course Gowanus (the neighborhood) takes its name from the smelly and putrid Gowanus (the canal).

  But where did the canal get its name? There’s a fascinating article on MentalFloss.com that details not only how the Gowanus moniker came to be, but how dozens of other Brooklyn neighborhoods came to be named as well. Carroll Gardens comes from Charles Carroll, a signer of the Declaration of Independence who led a failed assault on a British encampment near the Gowanus Canal in 1776 and lost about 300 of his 400 troops. Bay Ridge was just a re-branding marketing ploy (sound familiar?) after the neighborhood’s previous name — Yellow Hook, named for the yellow sand near the water — fell out of favor in the 1850s because of an outbreak of yellow fever. As for Gowanus, well:

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• Let the Pile Driving Begin: Piles Arrive at Lightstone Group Gowanus Site

  In Limestone Group / Toll Brothers Gowanus Site / By B. Umanov / 18 February 2014 / 0 comments

  

  

  The demolition of 363 Bond Street and the associated headache were nothing compared to the assault that’ll begin when Pride Builders — the group contracted by Lightstone to construct the new monstrosities — begins pile driving. The earth will shake, everything will rattle, we’ll be jolted awake every morning, we won’t be able to think all day; nothing will feel sane to the residents of Bond, 1st and 2nd Streets. That day drew ever closer this morning when two enormously big flat bed trucks arrived and unloaded impossibly long steel poles into the snow-covered construction site (top photo above, courtesy of GYFO reader miking7). A hulking pile driver already sits ready to go in the yard, awaiting its sole task of hammering these poles straight down into bedrock.

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• Gowanus Miscellany: 3rd Street Bridge Closures, School of Rock, Sunoco a GoGo

  In Art / Culture, Kid Focused, Transportation / By B. Umanov / 18 February 2014 / 0 comments

  

  No excuses for the lack of posts here lately, we’ve just been crazy busy. Dammit… that was an excuse. But Gowanus never stops, and thankfully the most excellent South Brooklyn blog Pardon Me For Asking has some local updates for ya:

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• Tonight: Action Planning Meeting to Discuss the Future of 4th Avenue

  In Happenings / By B. Umanov / 14 January 2014 / 0 comments

  

  Fourth Avenue has undergone a slew of changes of late, perhaps more than any corridor in and around Gowanus. High-rise luxury condos now line a street that was once considered just a nasty trucking route; myriad bars dot the upper portion; the traffic lanes have been reconfigured to make the street more pedestrian friendly. And that’s just the beginning.

  There will be a gathering tonight at the Old Stone House in J.J. Byrne Memorial Park to discuss the future of 4th Avenue, especially as it relates to the new administration in City Hall. The event has been organized by Forth On Fourth, a Committee of the Park Slope Civic Council , and city council members Brad Lander and Steve Levin will be in attendance. Here’s the invite, posted at Pardon Me For Asking:

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• Will Whole Foods Spell the End of Carroll Gardens Family Businesses?

  In Food: Eat Me! / By B. Umanov / 13 January 2014 / 0 comments

  

  If you thought that the new Whole Foods in Gowanus wouldn’t have much impact upon the myriad long-standing mom-and-pop businesses of Carroll Gardens, think again. Brooklyn’s first Whole Foods is aggressively courting residents of the adjacent Brooklyn neighborhood — known for its small, family-run specialty food stores — with an aggressive ad campaign at the Carroll Street subway station.

  It’s sad to think about, but Whole Foods almost certainly means the demise of some of these businesses, many of whom were some of the only stores selling certain fare in all of South Brooklyn until Whole Foods came around. As if it weren’t clear enough in the abstract, it all came into perfect focus when I ventured down to Whole Foods to take advantage of a $20 coupon they’d dropped in my mailbox, my first official shopping sojourn at the new store.

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• TEDxGowanus Free “Instameet Up and Tour” This Saturday

  In Gowanus Inch By Inch / By B. Umanov / 8 January 2014 / 0 comments

  TEDxGowanus — an event featuring TED-style talks inspired by the unique ideas, stories and arts that have incubated in or are related to the Gowanus area – is coming to the Green Building on Union Street this January 26th. More details about the event in our previous coverage.

  But you won’t have to wait until the 26th for the fun to begin: this Saturday at 2 PM, author and historian Joseph Alexiou – who will be participating in the event on the 26th — is leading an “Instameet Up” tour of the Gowanus Canal. Here’s a description from the event’s Facebook page:

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• Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club in Gowanus Soft Opening is Next Week

  In Shuffleboard / By B. Umanov / 8 January 2014 / 0 comments

  

  According to a Facebook post by the Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club on Union Street, the long-awaited fun zone for adults is finally set for a “soft opening” next week:

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• Fort Reno BBQ is Closed for Good, Set to Re-Open Soon as Taco Joint

  In Food: Eat Me! / By B. Umanov / 7 January 2014 / 0 comments

  

  Photo: Fort Reno’s website

  It appears my Gowanus BBQ review piece from the end of 2013 is already a bit outdated: the first of the three BBQ joints to inhabit the environs of the Gowanus officially closed its doors before the holidays and will not be re-opening, according to HeresParkSlope.com. Apparently even the run-off from overcrowding at the recently opened Dinosaur BBQ across the street wasn’t enough to keep the joint open.

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• Watch a Video of This Crazy Robbery in Gowanus

  In Gowanus / By B. Umanov / 19 December 2013 / 0 comments

   

  

  Photo Credit: Pardon Me For Asking

  Pardon Me For Asking has the details of an extremely brazen robbery that took place early yesterday morning at the Satori building at 342 Bond Street between Carroll and President Streets. Here’s a quote from a resident of the building:

  A man picked the front lock, went immediately to the basement, cut the pipes to some of the water heater units, and left. The whole thing took less than 2 minutes.

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• Dinosaur Wins the Gowanus BBQ Wars!

  In Food: Eat Me! / By B. Umanov / 19 December 2013 / 0 comments

  

  Photo Credit: UrbanEdgeNY.com

  I’ve finally (finally!) had a chance to try out the not-so-new-anymore Dinosaur BBQ outpost in Gowanus, and the verdict is in: Dinosaur wins the Gowanus BBQ wars!

  How Gowanus, of all places, became host to three excellent BBQ joints still remains a mystery; I suppose it’s a confluence of the [relatively] cheap rent and available space in the neighborhood with the peaking BBQ trend in NYC. But so it is: Fletcher’s, Fort Reno and Dinosaur all co-exist within a few blocks of each other. What are their strengths and weaknesses? Does one win out overall?

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• Demolition Crew Breaks Water Main at Future Lightstone Group Gowanus Site

  In Limestone Group / Toll Brothers Gowanus Site / By B. Umanov / 17 December 2013 / 0 comments

  

  A demolition crew tearing down 365 Bond Street between 1st and 2nd Streets to make way for the Lightstone Group’s new residential development broke through a water main earlier today. Water has filled up the entire southwest end of the site and is flowing quickly down 2nd Street and into the Gowanus Canal, bringing who-knows-what from the demolition site with them. The entire east end of the 2nd Street alley is flooded as well.

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• The Twitterverse Reacts to the Grand Opening of Whole Foods in Brooklyn

  In 3rd & 3rd - Whole Foods Site / By B. Umanov / 17 December 2013 / 0 comments

  

  Opinions. Everyone’s got ‘em! Especially in Brooklyn, where today’s grand opening of the borough’s first Whole Foods supermarket has sparked a media frenzy. Let’s take a look at what people are saying about the newest Whole Foods location throughout the Twitterverse. There are some real gems in here, as you might expect!

  Be sure to check out our photos of the grand opening from earlier today if you haven’t seen them yet.

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