Gowanus Framework Ideas and Feedback

Provide updates on the Ferrara Bros site redevelopment.

DO NOT LET POLITICIANS IGNORE THEIR CONSTITUENTS

When city planning comes up with the concrete zoning recommendations for currently occupied mixed use buildings, they should listen to the people who have lived in the neighborhood for decades and not let politicians use them as pawns in political games to make themselves look better. When small to medium size local developers agree to work with long-neglected tenants to improve their living situation and enable them to remain in their homes, you should not impose unreasonable requirements on them. We are not talking about the Kushners or the Tischmans here. You should encourage private partnerships that will help create more residential spaces by the canal while maintaining a thriving artist community with no cost to the city. Email me if you want to talk more.

Don't shoot me, but what about parking?

The plan ignores many realities in Gowanus, including parking needs. With more people, come more cars: PLAIN AND SIMPLE, no matter how many use public transportation. A search of the complete proposal mentions "parking" 35 times. More than half of those references are included in language similar to this: "Alleviate unnecessarily high parking requirements for new construction and enlargements." As a lifelong resident of this area, parking used to be simple to understand. If you moved your car from a Gowanus spot during the workday, you wouldn't be able to get a parking spot until the factories closed at 3-5pm. But after 5, and on weekends, no worries. Heck, we'd have weekends where there were no cars on 2nd avenue at all. Since the residential development began on 4th Avenue, losing spots to bioswales/ CitiBike, and the changes in the mixed commercial/industrial use blocks, including the Parole Center, parking is a nightmare ALL THE TIME and it is impacting residents and businesses alike. We've lost many wonderful, long-time, businesses in Gowanus to parking problems. Why should we care about cars and parking? Because: parking availability means jobs for our industrial friends in Gowanus, cars & parking mean jobs for many blue collar workers, cars mean mobility for our disabled residents, cars help keep our older residents more engaged and active, and, essentially, cars, and more parking, make it easier to live here. We pay a premium to live in Brooklyn, and that premium has been growing exponentially lately. Parking is a commodity, and it's becoming reserved for the affluent in our community, and that's not fair. I am ALL for more people coming to Gowanus, for many reasons. I am privileged to live my life here, and raise my family here, but let's be real. Unless we make a REAL plan for PUBLIC SCHOOLS, PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION, PUBLIC PARKING, and SOLVING THE RAIN WATER/SEWAGE RUN OFF PROBLEM, bringing more people to Gowanus is just going to make it a mess. This plan helps make a lot of money for a small group of people, at the expense of many more.

Allow/encourage larger Industrial buildings

If the practical endpoint of the planning process will end up with more housing by way of easing the height and volume restrictions on residential blocks, not allowing a similar increase in industrial building size (for industrial purposes) will put a terminal blow on industrial jobs. Why would any landlord be willing to tolerate industrial zoning if the revenue from industrial buildings is so much lower than residential? They won't and in a short while there will be intense lobbying to remove industrial zoning and there will also be lots of circumventing the law. If volume and size of industrial buildings are allowed to increase - with no change in use - then there will be an incentive for landlords to increase industrial space, adding to industrial jobs - and that includes modern eCommerce fulfillment spaces which we need. The increased space will keep rents from becoming prohibitively expensive for renters such as myself and overall there will be a net gain for everyone.

Nothing about maritime recreation?

Hi there! I'm a member of the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club. I was pretty shocked that this framework is almost completely lacking in plans for recreational maritime users of the canal. What is the city's plan for safety and accessibility for canoers, kayakers, jetskiers, and boaters, especially as the EPA's dredging and cleaning chugs along and makes the water more appealing for these activities?