Alexiou offers an overview of the tensions between development and environment while expressing doubt that current practices will ever result in a cleaned-up, safe environment. The Gowanus Planning Study is an overview of a plan to rezone (or upzone) the neighborhood to allow denser residential development. How could New York do things differently, what does “clean” even mean in 2020, and what right do New Yorkers have to a clean and safe place to live? Your reflection could offer a critique of current NYC zoning practices, a critique of the Gowanus draft study, and/or a critique of the EPA cleanup efforts under the Superfund project.

New York could do things differently by putting more effort into projects for the canal before adding housing. It puts a lot of residents at health risk, but it seems that the focus is always on making money instead of making a cleaner, livable environment. If housing was put in a place that is hazardous for floods and the like, money could be made off of individuals paying for repairs or frequent health checkups. In “The Gowanus Canal will never be clean”, the city deliberately denies working on the canal, and I feel it is because it doesn’t seem that serious enough and it won’t provide any other substantial benefits. I feel like “clean” means decent enough in NYC. If it’s not killing anybody at a concerning rate, then it’s “nothing to worry about.” A majority of the five boroughs have been riddled with trash and the streets are only being cleaned for so long until things start getting noticeably uncanny.  I feel that New Yorkers have every right to a clean a safe environment that they live in and pay taxes for. If somebody fell in and eventually came out undead – or something of that nature came out of it as a creation – NYC will be the cause of an apocalypse.