An area civic group wants Uncle Sam to greenlight a plan that would extend the Red Hook shoreline with sludge scooped up from the icky Gowanus Canal, and turn the toxic goo into real estate gold (“Sludge fight!” online May 1). The massive, concrete land plot, which would lie on developer John Quadrozzi Jr.’s property at the foot of Columbia Street, would fan out the waterfront and boost Red Hook’s economy with dozens of new jobs, say advocates.
Online commentators ebbed and flowed on the issue.
Look at your maps. That proposed landfill is part of the Gowanus Canal. It’s all one canal. Who has decided that this isn’t part of the canal? People living on other landfill in Red Hook?
Maps tell more truth from
Brooklyn
The truth prevails, and the majority of Red Hook has stepped up to the plate. Fantastic — bring it on! This project will turn a new chapter for “Remediation and Reuse” rather than the same old waste dumping, and it will happen here in Red Hook. Proactive, innovative, forward thinking.Yea from Red Hook
The serious opponents to this sludge cleanup are spreading so many false rumors, even slandering the company that may be getting the project contract. This fact alone indicates some ulterior motive for wanting to stop it.
The Quadrozzi Co. or G.B.X. is a community-dedicated one, with future plans that include both sides of the canal. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity for the area, bring it on.
JJBurkard from Red Hook
Quadrozzi’s a known polluter in Red Hook. Quadrozzi was about to unleash a live-music weekend club at his concrete plant in Gowanus for up to 4,000 drunk hipsters, until the Carroll Gardens neighbors stopped him.
Quadrozzi let his house in Cobble Hill go to —— because he refused to restore it to landmark standards. How many people has he promised jobs to (paid off) to get this kind of endorsement?
Mike Curatore from
Carroll Gardens
Anyone who knows Quadrozzi knows he’s an honest guy, tries to work with everyone, does things for the right reason, and doesn’t entertain anything shady.
Another voice from
Carroll Gardens
Thanks Natalie Musumeci for great reporting. Nothing wrong with the E.P.A.’s plan — they want to clean up the canal. Nothing wrong with the G.B.X. plan.
Looks like it’ll bring all kinds of great things to Red Hook — maritime, jobs, museum, park, etc. Hey just look what the Brooklyn Navy Yard did for its neighborhood.
A spectator from Red Hook
Natalie Musumeci, you should be ashamed. It is obvious The Brooklyn papers are in the pay of Quadrozzi. Red Hook does not want toxic sludge!
The poison will contaminate the ball fields and the farm which are on the site proposed. Come on, how could you write “Bring on Gowanus Sludge?” Disgusting.M. Wildwood from Red Hook
Clean the canal, clean the sludge, all enclosed, reuse the dredge, expand the terminal, make a park. I don’t see any negatives here other than what sounds like some sour grapes. Great plan!
Yakety yack from don’t talk back
Nobody wants this crap in our community. With the high rates of asthma etc., a confined disposal facility is the last thing we need on some concrete. You can’t bribe me with pretend jobs. I’m a bit more concerned with my kids’ health.Goon Fever from Red Hook
A report was made public this week on untreated and partly treated sewage that ended up in the New York Harbor. I bet everyone around the Gowanus Canal and Red Hook would want to know what quantities exited into the canal. Better to know the bad news up front.
Tom Murphy from Sunset Park
I think it’s truly sleazy the E.P.A. is considering increasing a private landlord’s private land holdings with public money.No bribe Red Hook from
Red Hook
The D.E.P. will be turning on their new super-duper flushing tunnel this year. And where are they flushing the big communal Gowanus toilet to? It is the D.E.P. that is going to deliver the toxins and pollution to all of Red Hook’s shore, not the E.P.A. Red Hook and Sunset Park needs the E.P.A. cleanup program to force the city to do what they have said they won’t do — stop the sewage flow.
C.D.F. vs C.S.O. from Brooklyn
I’ve been to all the E.P.A. meetings and listened to lots of peoples’ opinions and thoughts. Fact is with Quadrozzi’s previous record, it would be an extremely bad idea for the federal government to be involved with him in any way. All this talk of parks, museums, etc., is just a smokescreen for one connected guy’s land grab at the expense of all Red Hook residents.
Red Hook park user from
Red Hook
Mr. Quadrozzi can’t you hear that Red Hook residents don’t want this. They rallied and came to all three meetings. Don’t you get it Mr. Quadrozzi, the residents of Red Hook have spoken. All 550 of them!
Veronica C. from Carroll Gardens
Wow, this story was some good reading. Glad to see so many have come around to supporting this. Cleaning [the canal] and productive reuse is the way to go. Glad that the Red Hook Houses Community Action Coalition have come around to supporting it and that it’s not getting put into the waste stream.
OMG not from Red Hook
“Sludge Hook?” How about “Sludge Slope?” or “Sludge Gardens?” or “Sludge Heights?” The very words of this article reflect why this story is so wrong, so mean-spirited. The editors of the Brooklyn Paper seem to have no problem parroting the absurd notion that Red Hookers actually want to be known as residents of a land of sludge. We do not. We will no longer let N.Y.C think of us, without even a second’s thought, as people who love to live in a neighborhood of trash, sludge, and debris.
No more. We demand that [this newspaper] not just correct this factually inaccurate article, but that they recant the flippant, uncaring tone that so easily characterizes 10,000 people as garbage lovers.Chris Fahey from Red Hook
The E.P.A. is saving $37 million for the taxpayer-consumer because the polluters pass their cost along to us. Sad but true.
We’ll also be reducing the tons of carbon that will go into the air and the thousands of gallons of fossil fuel they’ll consume by eliminating the long haul.
Read and learn more from
Brooklyn
If Quadrozzi wanted to make a profit off of toxic waste, why did he dump it in the river in the first place? He’s getting creative now because he has fines to pay. This has no benefit for the community. So he has a plan that will save the E.P.A. some loot and make him some profit. Great, now where does the community fit in? Jobs, really? Is he going to hire all those workers right from the houses? That concrete company has been corrupt since its inception.
Fugoutaheah! from Red Hook
Bike LAMES
To the editor,
My problem is the bike lanes on Bedford, Flushing, Wythe, and Kent avenues.
Bikers still continue to use the bike lane on Bedford that the mayor took down, after pressure by Rabbi Niederman of the U.J.O. of Williamsburg. They endanger people crossing the street.
The bike-sharing program, as of now, isn’t stationed in Williamsburg, but I can see it already in Bedford Stuyvesant and the way it is blocking people from getting out of their houses into the street.
I understand rezoning the old industrial buildings to be residential, even though I disagree with it. But the bike lane issue is crazy.
Mayor Bloomberg is making people think that if you want to live in the city, you must buy a bike.
Moses Schwartz
Williamsburg
