Toxic Waste Won't Deter Brooklyn's Gowanus Neighborhood

It could take a decade or more to clean up toxic industrial wastes and raw sewage on New York City's Gowanus Canal.

But for now people seem willing to overlook some of the worst of old Brooklyn to be a part of the new Brooklyn.

Along the banks of the Gowanus, there's a new, 12-story luxury apartment building with a waterfront esplanade, a gourmet grocery with a rooftop greenhouse and a funky barbecue joint with drinks flowing on the outdoor deck.

Such development has belied predictions made six years ago that declaring the Gowanus Canal a federal Superfund site would turn the area into a development dead zone.

But with Brooklyn's well-documented economic resurgence, developers and newcomers are increasingly turning to grittier neighborhoods like Gowanus.