Gowanus Canal

I have finally gotten the time to begin wandering around parts of New York that I don't know, so I went to the Gowanus Canal area of Brooklyn.   The Gowanus Canal is a short canal (originally a stream) that is a branch of New York harbor.  It famous for being one of the most polluted sites in the United States, and is now an EPA superfund site.  The pollution was/is both industrial and sewage related. It's the kind of water that if a teenager in a horror movie fell into it, he or she might emerge as a mutant toxic avenger.  It was originally a heavily industrialized site, now very little of that industry is left.   It is, however, between the Park Slope and Carroll Gardens areas of Brooklyn, meaning that it is valuable real estate, so , in the ways of New York, it is being redeveloped.    So next to the stink of the canal, a metal scrapyard and abandoned industrial buildings, there is a Whole Foods and new condos.   There was a New Yorker cover which satirized this phenomenon.

So I went to wander and take pictures, looking as always, for color and geometry, as well as the unusual and unexpected.

Well, the canal looks rather pleasant from this angle, but don't even think of touching the water.

And there is a beautiful old wooden bridge:

New condos, with industrial ruins in the foreground:

An old water tower across from the new condos:

There was an extraordinary old abandoned power plant, which at a certain point became a squatter's paradise, nicknamed "The Batcave"

The blogger Nathan Kensinger posted this photo of the interior:

Then there were lots of other things I saw:

Piles of scrap metal:

And all those water bottles:

Despair and Incomprehension

This blog normally excludes any kind of political commentary, but on the occasion of the election of Donald Trump to the presidency, I cannot possibly pretend that the world is normal.  

David Remnick in the New Yorker puts it clearly:

"The election of Donald Trump to the Presidency is nothing less than a tragedy for the American republic, a tragedy for the Constitution, and a triumph for the forces, at home and abroad, of nativism, authoritarianism, misogyny, and racism. Trump’s shocking victory, his ascension to the Presidency, is a sickening event in the history of the United States and liberal democracy. On January 20, 2017, we will bid farewell to the first African-American President—a man of integrity, dignity, and generous spirit—and witness the inauguration of a con who did little to spurn endorsement by forces of xenophobia and white supremacy. It is impossible to react to this moment with anything less than revulsion and profound anxiety."

I cannot understand how the country I was born in can elect someone who is so manifestly unqualified to be president.   I can understand that people might have different political views from mine, and that in a democracy, people can choose to vote the issues that are important to them.    But I am ashamed to be from a country that would elect such a horrible person to be the president, and I really can't understand how this has happened.  
As Jennine Crucet in the NY Times put it succinctly after conversing with a Trump voting relative of Cuban descent,  "I cannot make sense of these choices.  There is no sense to be made."

The only positive thing I can think of in what is happened is that now that the right wing is totally in charge, they have nobody to demonize any more.   Whatever happens is a consequence of their policies.   Who can they blame for the next catastrophe?  The liberals have no power.   I only hope the people who were conned into voting for Trump begin to realize what they have done when the wall fails to materialize and the coal mines stay closed.

I will continue to write this blog and write about the things that I love, but with a deep-seated anguish about what has happened to the world I live in.    I have no choice but to go on and cherish what still exists.   And I treasure the experience of being in New York City, where, despite all the tensions of city life, I feel reassured by the enormous diversity of humanity around me.