Gowanus, Brooklyn’s former industrial hub, is cleaning up its act — theguardian.com

In a shop window in the Gowanus neighbourhood of Brooklyn, a painted effigy of Saint Joseph bows his head at passersby. Beyond him, baristas serve pastries inside a library packed with Edward Gorey books, vinyl records, and pillows printed with microbial cell images. Occupying the ground floor of New York’s first death-themed gallery, the Morbid Anatomy Museum, Black Gold coffee shop is just the latest in a recent crop of new businesses brightening up Third Avenue, a formerly derelict corridor linking the BQE overpass and downtown Brooklyn.

Read More