Beginning in the 1960s, locals formed the Carroll Gardens Association (CGA) to lobby for civic improvements, including cleanup of the Gowanus Canal. Long-time restaurateur Nick Monte called it a "stinking, cancerous sore" and a "stinking cesspool". CGA founder Salvatore "Buddy" Scotto Jr. referred to the canal as "the most polluted waterway in the world", and "the spine of our deterioration", relating it directly to the economic problems of the area. In 1971, the City of New York held hearings on a Gowanus Industrial Urban Renewal Project, but did not support it with funding.