By ROB GILLIES and MARIA VERZA

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney met with President Claudia Sheinbaum Thursday on a two-day visit to Mexico focused on how to diversify trade under U.S. tariff threats and keep the most important free trade agreement in the Western Hemisphere alive in the lead up to negotiations next year.

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The United States-Mexico-Canada trade pact, or USMCA, is up for review in 2026. More than 75% of Canada’s exports and more than 80% of Mexico’s go to the U.S.

The two leaders shook hands and strode side-by-side into the presidential palace in Mexico City, where Canadian Sen. Peter Boehm said the leaders were slated to commiserate about U.S. President Donald Trump.

“What are they hearing from the Americans, what we are hearing. It’s an opportunity to talk about how to handle the U.S. administration going forward,” Boehm said.

Canada-Mexico trade by maritime routes

Sheinbaum said they want to increase bilateral trade in different sectors through the free-trade agreement and to do so through maritime routes – which would avoid those goods having to pass through the United States.

“The idea is to strengthen trade through ports between Canada and Mexico on both oceans,” she said Thursday during her daily morning press conference before Carney’s arrival.

Carney is also looking to improve relations with Mexico during his two-day visit after some of Canada’s provincial premiers talked last year about cutting Mexico out of any new free trade deal with the U.S.

Seeking improved relations

Trump lumped Canada in with Mexico on fentanyl smuggling and promised sweeping tariffs on both countries. Ontario Premier Doug Ford said then that Trump comparing Canada to the Mexico was “the most insulting thing I’ve ever heard from our friends and closet allies, the United States of America.”

Boehm said the comments by the premiers, which he deemed out of their lane, upset the Mexicans.

“The Mexicans are particularly sensitive on these matters and there was concern about that, no doubt,” Boehm said.

Boehm represented the Canadian government when Sheinbaum was sworn in as Mexico’s president last year and is pushing for more engagement with Mexico. He said relations recently improved, noting Mexico appreciated Carney inviting Sheinbaum to the G7 summit in Alberta in June. Carney also sent his foreign minister as well as his finance minister to meet with Sheinbaum in August.

“A lot of people don’t realize that we trade more with Mexico than we do with the entire European Union, all of the Europe, including the U.K.,” Boehm said. “It’s a pretty big deal for us.”

Mexico is Canada’s third-largest trading partner after the U.S. and China. Canada was Mexico’s fifth-largest trading partner in 2024.

But trade with the U.S. remains paramount for both countries and preserving the free trade pact will be critical.

Trump looms over visit

A key exemption for Canada and Mexico shields the vast majority of goods from the punishing duties. Canadian and Mexican companies can claim preferential treatment under the USMCA. But Trump has some sector-specific tariffs, known as 232 tariffs, that are having an impact. There is a 50% tariff on steel and aluminum imports.

“Trump looms over this visit. Mexico and Canada now share a common threat from the U.S,” said Nelson Wiseman, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto.

“While both leaders are interested in expanding their countries trade with each other, I think their priority is to strategize on how to deal with Trump and the coming renegotiation of the USMCA. Carney and Sheinbaum now recognize that tag-teaming Trump may be more effective than competing for separate deals with Trump, although they are still angling for them.”

Different approaches to Trump administration

Mexico and Canada have had different approaches to manage the negotiations with Trump’s administration but both countries want to increase bilateral commerce within the North American treaty. Sheinbaum said the countries are already setting up teams and reviewing the agreement with the hopes of keeping trilateral free trade in place.

Mexico also wants to encourage more Canadian investment in the country but Sheinbaum said the mining companies should respect Mexican laws, namely environmental regulations which the leader said “they haven’t necessarily followed.”

Canadian companies are the largest foreign investors in Mexico’s mining sector, accounting for almost 70% of foreign investment in the sector.

Carney will have a one-on-one meeting with Sheinbaum on Thursday. There will then be a working lunch, which the leaders will be joined by their Cabinet ministers and secretaries. Carney will visit the Canadian embassy on Friday.

Gillies reported from Toronto. Verza reported from Mexico City.

Commercial broker Mark Hulsey has no illusions about Highland Station, the four-bay service station, micro-convenience store and car wash he’s attempting to market for sale at the corner of Snelling and Randolph avenues.

Snelling Avenue is a state highway that draws high traffic counts. Randolph Avenue runs through the Macalester-Groveland neighborhood, one of St. Paul’s higher-end communities. Highland Station sits on more than a half-acre of land. Combined, those assets would make 485 Snelling Ave. S. a ripe target for a developer with plans for a five-story apartment building over underground parking, if this were 2019.

But the year is 2025, and between current development costs and slowing demographic projections for St. Paul, that’s not going to happen. Hulsey, 62, who has been marketing properties throughout the Midwest since the early 1980s, imagines a future owner-operator will come calling, or the owner of multiple gas stations may want to add one more to their portfolio.

“Five or six years ago, it would have been more prime for redevelopment, just because the redevelopment market right now is not terribly strong,” Hulsey said. “The cost of labor, materials, interest rates has really put the kibosh on a lot of development opportunities.”

Still, “it’s a heck of an important corner for St. Paul,” said Hulsey, who handled a phone interview Thursday on behalf of his son Hayden Hulsey, whose partner was in labor.

The asking price for Highland Station, which was built in 1964, is $1.7 million on the open market. That it’s being marketed openly is a bit out of the ordinary for a service station.

“I don’t want to call it rare,” Hulsey said. “They trade behind the scenes. Here we have an owner-operator who has done his time at multiple stations and is going to retire.”

Owned by Sean Kriger and Krigers, Inc., the property last sold in 2003 for just under $756,000.

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Usually, I talk about how the fall-like weather is making it feel like booya time.

Since that weather seems a far way off this year, all I can say is that the thick, rich stew, cooked over an open flame, is good in any weather!

In fact, my family usually makes it during the summer.

Anyway, here’s our annual list of booya events. Every organization’s booya recipe is a little different — so maybe get out there and try a few! These are mostly fundraisers run by volunteers, so you’re eating for a good cause.

If your organization is holding a booya, please send your information to eat@pioneerpress.com, and we’ll add it to our list.

Sept. 20: Knights of Columbus Council 4374, 6133 N. 15th St., Oakdale; 7 a.m. until noon.

Sept. 20: Montgomery Lodge, Sherwood Lounge, 1418 White Bear Ave., St. Paul. 10 a.m. until noon or gone.

Sept. 28: St. Gregory the Great, 38725 Forest Blvd., North Branch; 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. or sold out.

Oct. 4: Hudson’s Fourth Annual Golden Rule Booya, Weitkamp Park, 648 O’Neil Road, Hudson, Wis.; 1 to 7 p.m. Family activities including a petting zoo, book character visits, games, face painting and exploring emergency vehicles.

Oct. 4: Roseville VFW Post 7555, 1145 Woodhill Drive, Roseville; 11 a.m. until gone.

Oct. 4-5: Stillwater Knights of Columbus Blessed Solanus Casey Council 163. Booya sold from 8 a.m. to noon Oct. 4 at St. Mary’s Church, 423 S. Fifth St., Stillwater, and after all weekend masses at St. Michael’s and St. Mary’s churches in Stillwater and St. Charles church in Bayport.

Oct. 5: St. Francis de Sales Booya Fiesta, Highland Park Pavilion, 1200 Montreal Ave., St. Paul;  11:30 a.m. until gone. Booya, tacos, hot dogs, beverages, music, children’s games and raffle.

Oct. 5: Woodbury Lutheran Church, Oakhill Campus, 9050 N. 60th St., Stillwater. 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. or gone. Booya, crackers, cookies, bars and coffee. Takeout available; containers provided. Proceeds benefit the local food shelf.

Oct. 11: Chef Ben’s Booya at St. Paul Brewing, 688 E. Minnehaha Ave., St. Paul; 11 a.m. until gone. Fire barrels, music, Mummy Train Pumpkin Ale release and Flannel Fest — wear your favorite flannel fashion for a chance to win prizes.

Oct. 12: American Legion Post 620, 5383 N. 140th St., Hugo; noon until gone.

Oct. 18: American Legion Post 577, 1129 Arcade St., St. Paul; 11 a.m. until gone.

Oct. 19: Church of St. Agnes Fall Festival and Booya, 530 Lafond Ave., St. Paul; 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Games, raffle, country store and other food items available as well. Takeout available.

Oct. 25: North St. Paul VFW Post 1350, 2483 E. Seventh Ave., North St. Paul; noon until gone.

Oct. 26: Church of St. Peter, 2600 N. Margaret St., North St. Paul; 8 a.m. until gone. Takeout available at church’s east entrance and garage on 17th Avenue; containers provided.

Oct. 26: Carry-out booya at St. Jerome School, 384 E. Roselawn Ave., Maplewood. 6 a.m. until gone; St. Jerome will provide containers.

Nov. 1: St. Mary’s Catholic Church Lowertown, 267 E. Eighth St., St. Paul; 9 a.m. until noon. Sold by the quart. Containers provided. Indoor Fall Festival begins at 2 p.m.

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“This tension illustrates the challenge of linking environmental restoration with housing policy: without careful calibration, initiatives meant to expand opportunity can unintentionally contribute to exclusion.”

The Gowanus Canal in 2023. (Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

The Financial Times recently profiled the $2 billion remediation of Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal under the optimistic headline: “New York’s Gowanus clean-up: can toxic ‘black mayonnaise’ become commuter gold?” The article paints a compelling picture of wildlife returning, new towers rising, and artists securing subsidized studios.

Yet beneath this hopeful framing lies a more complex story. The Gowanus cleanup is not only an environmental project; it is also an example of how large-scale restoration and urban redevelopment can reshape neighborhoods, raising important questions of affordability, equity, and resilience.

The article highlights the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s dredging of toxic “black mayonnaise” and construction of two 12 million gallon sewage overflow tanks. These measures are significant. But the framing suggests linear progress: contamination removed, infrastructure added, and the canal reborn.

In practice, ecological risk is ongoing. My research, which integrates geospatial analytics and IoT monitoring, shows how bulkhead gaps, tidal backflow, and storm surges continue to bring pollutants into the waterway. Hurricane Sandy in 2012, which flooded 11 billion gallons of raw sewage into New York City waterways, reminds us that dredging alone cannot guarantee long-term resilience.

Groups such as the Gowanus Canal Conservancy have played an essential role in keeping these risks visible, stewarding habitat restoration and engaging residents in ecological monitoring. Building on that work, a more equity-centered approach would include transparent metrics for Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) reduction, participatory monitoring accessible to residents, and climate-adaptive planning calibrated to future storms rather than past averages.

Affordable for whom?

Central to the FT’s story is the promise of 8,500 new homes, with 3,000 “permanently affordable.” At face value, this seems a major win. But affordability in New York is benchmarked to Area Median Income (AMI), which reflects higher incomes across the region.

As a result, many apartments marketed as “affordable” may still be beyond reach for long-time Gowanus residents. At the same time, the median rent for a two-bedroom has risen to $6,200 a month, a 79 percent increase in just five years. This raises the concern that the very communities who lived with the canal’s environmental burdens for decades may find themselves unable to remain once the neighborhood is redeveloped.

This tension illustrates the challenge of linking environmental restoration with housing policy: without careful calibration, initiatives meant to expand opportunity can unintentionally contribute to exclusion.

South West view from the intersection of Nevins Street and Butler Street in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn on July 26, 2024 (Adi Talwar/City Limits)

Artists and cultural continuity

The FT piece emphasizes Gowanus’s creative legacy, from Keith Haring murals to the punk-era “Batcave” and highlights current commitments to subsidized artist studios through community benefits agreements. These efforts are meaningful.

At the same time, history shows that artistic communities often become early catalysts of neighborhood change. Their presence can rebrand industrial landscapes as vibrant cultural spaces, attracting investment that eventually drives up rents. In Gowanus, the promise of 100 to 140 subsidized studios, while significant, may not fully offset broader market pressures in a neighborhood where average rents already exceed those in adjacent Park Slope.

This raises the question of how cultural preservation can be sustained not only through symbolic commitments but also through broader policies that address affordability across sectors.

Whose voices define success?

The FT quotes a local resident who warns of “overdevelopment” and environmental hazards, juxtaposed against profiles of newcomers drawn to new amenities. This contrast reflects a larger issue: whose perspectives shape the definition of success?

For many long-time residents, success is measured in breathable air, resilient infrastructure, and stable housing costs. For developers and city officials, it may be counted in housing units delivered and investment attracted. For outside observers, it is often the visible transformation of a once-industrial landscape into a residential and cultural hub.

My own fieldwork in Gowanus, including conversations with housing advocates, artists, and environmental stewards, underscores that community trust is fragile. Civic trust, as the FT itself notes, is “in short supply.” Unless residents are given not only a voice but a meaningful role in shaping outcomes, redevelopment risks repeating patterns of displacement seen elsewhere in New York City.

The symbolism of Gowanus

Gowanus has always been more than a canal. Once tidal marshlands stewarded by the Lenape, later the busiest industrial canal in America, it embodies cycles of exploitation, abandonment, and reinvention. Today it stands at a crossroads: will it be remembered as a model of climate-resilient renewal that integrates equity, or as another case where sustainability goals advanced without sufficient attention to who benefits?

The FT leans toward the former, portraying a neighborhood on the rise, convenient for commuters, vibrant for families, and increasingly attractive to investors. Yet the metrics that matter most, CSO reductions, equitable housing access, cultural continuity, and climate resilience are still to be determined.

If Gowanus is to become more than real estate gold, its success should be judged not only by property values or rooftop amenities, but by whether communities most burdened by its toxic past are able to remain and thrive.

A Combined Sewer Overflow point at the Southeast corner of the Carroll Street Bridge over the Gowanus Canal, pictured here in 2020. (Adi Talwar/City Limits)

Toward equity-centered redevelopment

An alternative narrative is possible. By integrating GeoAI monitoring, participatory governance, and equity-based housing metrics, Gowanus could pioneer a more balanced model of regeneration. Rather than measuring progress solely in square footage or rents achieved, we could track:

Real-time CSO metrics accessible to residents

Displacement risk indicators tied to rent burdens

Community benefit audits to ensure promises to translate into lived equity

Climate resilience benchmarks designed for future flood scenarios

This approach does not replace ecological restoration efforts, many of which groups like the Gowanus Canal Conservancy have championed, but complements them with social and equity measures. Together, they could create a more holistic model of urban sustainability.

The FT article captures the surface transformation of Gowanus: birds, breweries, and new buildings rising from a toxic canal. But deeper questions remain: how will the benefits and burdens of redevelopment be distributed, and how will success be measured in terms of both ecology and equity?

Gowanus is not simply sludge turned gold. It is a test case for whether New York can pursue environmental sustainability without overlooking social justice. The answer will resonate far beyond Brooklyn’s 1.8-mile waterway.

Mark Yarish is a Brooklyn-based sustainability researcher completing his doctorate in sustainability at Capital Technical University. He serves on the Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group and the Gowanus Oversight Task Force. The views expressed are his own.

The post Opinion: When ‘Black Mayonnaise’ Becomes Real Estate Gold, And The Equity Challenges of Gowanus appeared first on City Limits.