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Gowanus is Counting on a Cleanup (NY Times)
The Times, ever the cutting-edge observer of real estate trends, proclaims that Gowanus is booming:
The canal is among the most polluted in the country, and the area is zoned for manufacturing, limiting residential growth. Soon that could change. In 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency declared the canal a Superfund site, opening the door for a massive cleanup. Brad Lander, the New York City Council Member who represents Gowanus, is leading an effort to rezone the neighborhood for mixed-use development.

Brad Lander Petition: Transparency & Fairness in Brooklyn Parole Headquarters Siting
The planning process for this facility has fallen far short of what any community deserves from their government. Over several months, not one single written word about the facility has been provided by DOCCS to the community or its elected officials. DOCCS has failed to articulate a coherent rationale for choosing to site a borough-wide facility in the heart of an industrial business zone close to a vibrant residential community. DOCCS has not shared the criteria it uses to site facilities, the solicitation, RFP, or process through which this site was chosen.

Parole Office Doesn't Belong in Industrial Gowanus, Borough President Says (DNA Info)
“[T]he placement of such a facility should not come at the expense of the city's limited manufacturing zoned land stock,” Adams said in a statement. He recommended that DOCCS find a site in a commercial area that's not in an IBZ — an industrial business zone — designed to promote manufacturing businesses.

A reader's comment to this article:
"Now where was Adams and CB6 when two large blocks of Gowanus manufacturing buildings were given away for an out-of-place housing development by Lightstone?"

Build, Baby Build: A Conversation with Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams (YIMBY)
Adams held up the Bloomberg-era Park Slope rezoning as a model (of upzoning areas for housing development ). “We protected the inner blocks, we raised buildings on Fourth Avenue. We upzoned there and it was a great trade-off.”