Gowanus, the southwestern Brooklyn neighborhood named for the toxic canal that snakes its way through it, doesn't sound like a hot destination. But this neighborhood is thriving — small businesses, artists, and tech startups are moving into the area in droves, taking advantage of the neighborhood's relatively low office rents and fundamentally changing its character.
Genius, a website that annotates music lyrics, literature, and news, made headlines in July when it announced the team would be moving to an extensively renovated warehouse building in Gowanus.
Could this industrial neighborhood, currently undergoing a Superfund cleanup, be the next frontier for New York City tech companies? We headed to Brooklyn to find out.
Gowanus is located in southwest Brooklyn, bordered by Carroll Gardens to the west, Boerum Hill to the north, and Park Slope to the east.
As you walk through the neighborhood's more residential areas, you'll find wide, leafy streets and classic Brooklyn brownstones. Though the streets of Gowanus may seem relatively pleasant now, it hasn't always been that way. Gowanus has long been overshadowed by the affluent neighborhoods that surround it, at times becoming a hotbed for mob violence and crime.
Source: Village Voice
That's due, in part, to the polluted waterway that snakes its way through the neighborhood. Built in 1869, the Gowanus Canal was once a major transportation route connecting the Upper New York Bay and the interior of Brooklyn. For decades, the 1.8-mile channel served as a landing point for mills, tanneries, chemical plants, and other heavy industries. But local legend holds that the canal also served another, darker purpose as a dumping ground for unlucky mobsters.
Source: EPA
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