While preparing for a walking tour of Brooklyn’s Gowanus neighborhood for SLA-NY members, I realized the canal has a rich history and there are complex plans to improve it. The neighborhood’s history and plans for the future, like elsewhere in New York, include concerned residents, manufacturers, business owners, politicians, real estate developers, artists and environmentalists. This area in Brooklyn was part of the homeland of the Lenape Indians, successful farmers who also harvested plate-sized ...