Last week we had guest speaker Joseph Alexiou who is the writer of Gowanus: Brooklyn Curious Canal. It was fitting for us to have Joseph with us after going to the Gowanus area ourselves and exploring the neighborhood yet, Joseph Alexiou gave us an in depth history, development, and future of the Gowanus area. One thing we learn is when the Dutch first settled in Brooklyn it was farm land, you could grow vegetables, fruits, and there were even oysters in the Gowanus canal. Being a Brooklyn native it’s hard to imagine Brooklyn being anything other than an urban area.

Something I appreciated was that we visited the Gowanus Canal before the lecture because it made it easier to visual the rich history we learned from Joseph. For example we learn Edwin C. Litchfield had a huge involvement with the development of Brooklyn. He established trade along the Gowanus Canal, where many barge ships would pass and dock; this created a lot of diversity. Litchfield saw Brooklyn as an up and coming area which is still true until this day. On the other hand, all improvements have it’s faults such as people who were poor living around the Gowanus Canal which was polluted by nearby factors, engulfed by a horrid smell, flooded often, and had a high crime and death rate. Also because of the high amount of barges being transported bridges would stay open which caused a lot of traffic. A fun fact I learned that is that 3rd street is wider than any other street in the area because that’s where Edwin C. Litchfield office and house was located, and it has twice as many street lamps.

A quote Joseph Alexiou said was “all of  Brooklyn stories relate to real estate”. This applies to Gowanus because all the issues is becoming an up and coming area that people want to move to, so developers are swarming to get property to build. Unfortunately for developers the Gowanus became a Superfund site, which means it’s an area that’s polluted requiring a long-term response to clean up the  hazardous material contamination. At the end of the day the Canal is still polluted and waste is still flowing into it. People like Bloomberg didn’t want Gowanus the be a Superfund site because once you claim an area is toxic how can you market luxury apartments in that same area. The city of New York even tried to convince the government that they would clean the Gowanus better and cheaper than the Superfund organization just because they knew they would have to pay for the Superfund site clean up. In the end the Superfund organization won which slowed down development not completely stopping it. It’s estimated that the canal won’t be cleaned until 2030.

Altogether I learned a lot from Joseph Alexiou lecture that I can pass down to others. He was informed, upbeat, and held our attention throughout the time. I also liked the fact that you can tell he did extensive research to stand to talk to us about this subject, since he cited so many resources. Joseph lecture help realize that as a New York I sometime take where I live for granted for not learning more about what’s going on around us. So from this moment on I’ll try to go explore different area, and learn about the history and what’s in store for it’s future.