Gowanus Canal Solution: AquaBlock!

The soil around the Gowanus Canal might be so flammable you can set fire to it with a match, but a new solution to the problem of the canal’s toxic underbelly is being explored, according to an article in the Brooklyn Eagle.

Instead of dredging the muck out, the Army Corps of Engineers is considering covering the contamination with a clay-based seal called AquaBlock.

“If the canal is dredged from top to bottom, you’re talking tens of millions of dollars. To use a clay capping like this AquaBlock material, it would be in the single digits,” said one of the engineers.

Is this like recoating your bath tub?

More here.

Brooklyn Garden Diva, Hard at Work

Front yard on Second Place in Carroll Gardens. The sign says "Garden Diva, Hard at Work." (Click to enlarge.)

Can you find the ladybug?

Photo by MK Metz

McBrooklyn home page here.

KeySpan Workers on Tinderhooks as Merger with National Grid Looms

Both Brooklyn-based KeySpan and National Grid -- the British company close to taking over KeySpan, once known as Brooklyn Union Gas -- have initiated an early retirement offer for management-level employees in an effort to cut some 700 jobs, according to Newsday.

The job cuts are crucial for "the promised hundreds of millions of dollars in so-called synergy savings" from the merger. If the voluntary program doesn't do the job, however, the two companies will "review other options."

One KeySpan veteran said the planned cuts have affected worker morale. "Everybody is walking on eggshells," said the worker.

More here.

Previous posts about the KeySpan/ National Grid merger here.

Photo by MK Metz

A Dozen Brooklyn Restaurants Make New York's 'Best Cheap Eats 2007'

The list is out -- and Cobble Hill's Hibino (pictured) at 333 Henry Street near Pacific has been listed as just one of a dozen Brooklyn eateries in New York Magazine's "Best Cheap Eats 2007." Hibino offers home-style small plates, "Japanese comfort food" and various oshi, or pressed sushi, such as "the one layered with shiso leaves, microgreens, and egg, topped with soy-marinated fish."

Other picks include Bocca Lupo in Cobble Hill, Choice Market in Clinton Hill, and Petite Crevette in Carroll Gardens. See the whole list here.

Photo by MK Metz

You Know You Like It -- McBrooklyn Readers Vote For Green Bike Lanes

The results are in! The city Department of Transportation is testing color schemes that would make bike lanes more visible and keep cars away. McBrooklyn readers have voted their preference -- and green bikes lanes have defeated sky blue, blue-green and the wide-open "other" category.

To see examples of these DOT color experiments, see our previous post here.

The final tally:
Green: 47%
Sky blue: 11%
Blue-green: 19%
Something else: 22%

Brooklyn Bikers Seeing Green

Photo by MK Metz

Brooklyn Wednesday in Brief

- DeStefano's Steakhouse in Williamsburg might be the one to vanquish Peter Luger, says Bloomberg. And the servers are women ... friendly women. Bloomberg

- Mystery Bride of Fourth Street: She was dumped because “she was bi-polar and wouldn’t take her medicine." The Brooklyn Paper

- You can ride one of those very old subway trains on display at the Transit Museum (the ones with the straw seats?) on a special Nostalgia Ride. The next excursion will take place on Sunday, August 12. The Brooklyn Eagle

- Yesterday was one big day for preservation and development in Williamsburg and Brooklyn. The Landmarks Preservation Commission decided the future of both the Eberhard Faber complex in Greenpoint and McCarren Pool. And in Williamsburg, architect Raphael Vinoly gave a presentation about the future of the historic Domino Sugar Plant. Whew! The Gowanus Lounge

- The permits on 360 Smith Street are NOT imminent, says the group CORD after a meeting with Councilman Bill de Blasio. Carrollgardenspetition

- It's down to the semifinals in Brooklyn Botanic Garden's greenest block in Brooklyn contest. ABC-7Online

Smith Street: Zombies? Performance Art?

So we spotted a half a dozen pedestrians standing motionless at the corner of Smith Street and Second Place, near the infamous 360 Smith Street. It was hot. The pedestrians didn't move. The minutes ticked by.

Then suddenly, as if they had communicated telepathically, they all hustled off at the same moment and ran down the nearby F train subway steps.

It wasn't till we turned around that we discovered the hidden meaning of this mysterious migration.



We'd heard you could see the F train from a stop on Smith Street but this was the first time we'd seen it in action.

More about Smith Street here.

Photos by MK Metz

Brooklyn Tuesday in Brief

Grocers including Fairway Market have put up signs telling customers that the store no longer sells certain types of Chinese fish, and many shoppers say they are avoiding Chinese food altogether. See Crain's New York Business

Velmanette Montgomery says she has "major reservations" about Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan. At Streetsblog

Pictures from inside the soon-to-open Hotel le Bleu. At the Brooklyn Eagle

The plan to have a company of British and American actors perform classics at both the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Old Vic in England will be delayed for a year due to illness in the family of star Stephen Dillane. Shakespeare's“Hamlet” and “The Tempest” had been on the bill for this fall. More at the New York Times.

Brooklyn Monday p.m. in Brief

Councilman Charles Barron is the first candidate to officially announce that he wants to be the next Brooklyn borough president. He's a former Black Panther who'll be, in his own words, "taking care of black folk. Unapologetically." New York Magazine

An old Eberhard Faber pencil factory in Greenpoint, adorned with 10-foot-tall pencils, will be considered on Tuesday for landmark status by the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The New York Times

Davey “Dance” Fishel has danced his way around the world, armed only with an iPod, a famous landmark, a Canon PowerShot, and the gift of improvised dance. Here, he dances on the Brooklyn Bridge. Gothamist Video of the Day

How to hire a day-laborer in Brooklyn, while avoiding Christian bigots, lawyers and other creeps. Brownstoner Forum

Say Goodby to 182 Atlantic Avenue

Take a quick look: a source tells us that 182 Atlantic Avenue, recently the site of the Independence Community Foundation, will pass into the hands of Two Trees Management Wednesday, at which point the wrecking ball will arrive. (ICF has moved to 45 Main Street, a Walentas/Two Trees property recently plagued by a bit of a crime wave, according to Curbed.)

Two Trees has already started digging up the pavement east of 182, once used as a parking lot for Sovereign Bank, which is moving across the street to make room for a Trader Joe's.

After 182 Atlantic is torn down, construction will begin on the 37-unit, six story apartment building Two Trees is putting up behind the bank building. The Brooklyn Eagle has a photo of what the finished product will look like here.

Photo by MK Metz