By MATT GROSS

The neighborhood along the banks of the notoriously polluted Gowanus Canal in South Brooklyn ? bounded by gentrifying brownstone districts and full of half-empty warehouses and semi-derelict factories ? is drawing New York City’s hipsters to art galleries and rock-climbing gyms, nightclubs and rooftop film series. It seems the postindustrial blight ? and its much-maligned waterway ? give Gowanus a special cultural edge, like a miniature Baltimore, Maryland, or Detroit, Michigan (with terrifying pollution substituting for terrifying crime).

“There’s no place in Brooklyn, or in New York City, that feels kind of more pleasant than being right here, which is odd given that that is a toxic waterway,” said Jennifer Prediger, a producer of environmental videos who lives in nearby Carroll Gardens. “But it’s actually quite lovely. It’s the loveliest toxic waterway I’ve ever spent time on.” The Environmental Protection Agency plans to make it less toxic.

In March, the E.P.A. designated the canal and its immediate surroundings a Superfund site, ordering a cleanup it says will take 10 to 12 years and cost $300 million to $500 million. The move was opposed by the city, which wanted to avoid the Superfund stigma and manage the cleanup itself, and real estate developers like Toll Brothers, which planned a 480-unit canal-side apartment complex.

“We had a big party,” said Marlene Donnelly, a member of Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus, a group that fought for the Superfund designation. “There was hope in the world that the mayor and his cronies and rapacious developers lost,” said her husband, Benjamin R. M. Ellis, an architect. “It was clearly a victory.” That victory, as they see it, is still only partial. The E.P.A. cleanup covers only the canal and the polluted soil, but does not address sewage runoff.

Whenever it rains, sewage from the surrounding neighborhoods runs directly into the canal. Responsibility for fixing that problem lies with the city, whose current plans would alleviate only part of the runoff, Mr. Ellis said. Until the sewage system is improved, residential development should be delayed, he said.

What locals want to see are developments like the Old American Can Factory, a complex of Civil War-era brick buildings that were converted to affordable offices, studios and workshops for creative businesses such as the fashion label Vena Cava. The idea is to preserve what attracts people to the Gowanus in the first place.

People like Turner Cody, a folk and blues musician who recently shot a music video there and described the view as “a nice bit of urban decay.” And James Stillwaggon, a 34-year-old Brooklynite, who on a recent Wednesday evening took his 12-year-old nephew to explore with the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club, which has provided free canoes to thousands of canal visitors since 1999.

“We saw some oil slicks, we saw some beer bottles floating, we saw some tugboats or some barges,” said Mr. Stillwaggon. “We saw a wineglass floating, which was pretty fantastic. Somebody had a great time! But we also saw an egret, we saw a cat, we saw a lot of birds overhead.

You know, it’s amazing how the industrial space becomes grown over with all this green that refuses to be held back.” Was he worried about being on the polluted waterway ? “No. I mean, if you grew up on Long Island in the ‘80s, there were always days when there was sewage in the water, there were needles in the water ? all sorts of horrible stuff. So I don’t think it’s anything to be afraid of.”