It’s Time to Finish Bushwick Inlet Park!
Joint Letter from Civic Organizations
In 2005, Bushwick Inlet Park was promised as a 27.3-acre waterfront park serving Greenpoint and Williamsburg. Today, although the City owns the full 27.3 acres, only 6.5 acres are open to the public. Fewer than two new acres have opened since 2013. Nearly 80 percent of the park’s acreage remains closed, and roughly 40 percent remains unfunded and without a defined scope.
A brief review of the parcels underscores both the progress achieved, including approximately $350 million spent to acquire the land, and the work left undone:
● 86 Kent (4.6 acres) — Approximately $35 million to complete an athletic field opened in 2010, and an administrative building and playground opened in 2013.
● 50 Kent (1.89 acres) — $6.4 million to complete a passive park opened in April 2021.
● Motiva (1.9 acres) — $9.8 million; currently under construction, with an anticipated Fall 2025 opening that has been delayed.
● Citistorage North & South (8.53 acres combined) — $75 million allocation toward the demolition of Citistorage, completed in January 2025. The site is now awaiting investigation and remediation, with additional funding required for completion.
● Bayside (10.38 acres) — Currently unfunded and under negotiations with potentially responsible parties (PRPs) regarding environmental remediation.
The scale of public investment has been significant but the public has only benefitted from a small portion of the initial vision for the park. The 2005 Greenpoint–Williamsburg rezoning paired substantial residential growth with a commitment to deliver meaningful new open space. Since then, tens of thousands of housing units have been built and the population has expanded dramatically. Yet the park that was central to that public agreement remains largely inaccessible.
Other Brooklyn waterfront parks, including Brooklyn Bridge Park, advanced through phased development with defined funding and maintenance structures. Bushwick Inlet Park, by contrast, has experienced extended delays in remediation, construction, and capital planning.
We believe the Mamdani Administration has an opportunity to reset the trajectory of this project and restore public confidence. Specifically, we urge the following actions:
1. Accelerate the opening of the Motiva site.
The Motiva parcel is nearing completion and is currently awaiting inspection by the Department of Environmental Protection to confirm adequate plant establishment. We urge coordination to ensure inspection occurs promptly after winter conditions lift, enabling a spring opening rather than further delay.
2. Restore stewardship on unfinished parcels.
At the Bayside site, significant quantities of discarded materials—broken playground equipment, torn safety mats, damaged benches, barricades, trash receptacles, and clusters of boulders—have accumulated over several years. Clearing this debris is an immediate and visible step that would signal renewed stewardship.
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3. Reassert City leadership over the Bayside remediation timeline.
The 10.38-acre Bayside parcel remains unfunded and subject to ongoing negotiations with Potentially Responsible Parties. To date, those negotiations have effectively dictated the pace of progress. We urge consultation with the Law Department to evaluate options for advancing remediation more assertively, ensuring that the City sets the timetable, rather than polluters.
4. Establish a dedicated maintenance fund tied to new development.
The proposed Monitor Point project would introduce substantial additional density adjacent to the unfinished park. We recommend consultation with the Office of Management and Budget to explore restricting a portion of tax revenue from Monitor Point into a dedicated Bushwick Inlet Park maintenance fund, similar to the restricted funding model recently enacted for Hudson Yards.
5. Publish a binding completion timeline for the remaining acreage.
The Citistorage parcels—6 acres acquired in 2016 at a cost of $160 million—were cleared with demolition completed in January 2025. A transparent investigation, remediation, and construction schedule should now follow without further delay.
As the Mamdani Administration advances a broader vision for housing production and public realm investment, Bushwick Inlet Park presents an opportunity to demonstrate that growth and infrastructure move forward together. Completing Bushwick Inlet Park will expand athletic capacity for youth leagues, improve waterfront access, strengthen climate resilience, and deliver long-promised open space in one of the city’s fastest-growing districts. Realizing the long-delayed vision for Bushwick Inlet Park is one of the best ways to support NYC Parks’ excellent work. It will also demonstrate that public commitments made through neighborhood planning processes are honored in full.
The 20+ undersigned parks partners, local businesses, citywide advocates for open space and the environment and concerned citizens urge the Mamdani Administration to take decisive action to finally complete Bushwick Inlet Park and secure its long-term future.
Signatories:
Katie Denny Horowitz
Executive Director, North Brooklyn Parks Alliance
Adam Ganser
Executive Director, New Yorkers for Parks
Julie Tighe
President, New York League of Conservation Voters
Tamar Renaud
New York State Director, Trust for Public Land
Rebecca Macklis
Director of Urban Design & Policy, The Municipal Art Society of New York
Hunter Armstrong
Executive Director, Brooklyn Greenway Initiative
Julian Macrone, Maria Garrett
Co-Chairs, Brooklyn Parks & Open Spaces Coalition
Jackson Chabot
Director of Advocacy and Organizing, Open Plans
Oded Holzinger
Executive Director, Natural Areas Conservancy
Julie Raskin
President and CEO, Waterfront Alliance
Tracy Brown
President and Hudson Riverkeeper, Riverkeeper
Peter Malinowski
Executive Director, Billion Oyster Project
Shanjana Mahmud, Luke Eddins
Co-Executive Directors, Seaweed City
Tarek Pertew
Co-Founder, NYC Footy
Jason Vela
President, LOVE NY Soccer
Dale Choonoolal
Founder, NYC Soccer
Colin McLear
NY Coed Soccer
Robin Ottaway
President & Owner, Brooklyn Brewery
Roseann Needleman, Hillary Jordan
Co-Chairs, Northside Alliance
Bronwyn Breitner
Organizer, Make McGuinness Safe
David Clark Smith & David Ruperti
Organizers, Banker’s Anchor Public Plaza
Caoimhe Anglin
Secretary, North Brooklyn Dogs
Piper Carty
Organizer, Dog Parent Alliance of Cooper Park
Priyana Rikhy
Organizer, McCarren Dog Allies
Paul Kelterborn, Sarah Sheffield
Co-Chairs, Friends of Cooper Park
Brent Bovenzi & Solveig Entwisle
Organizers, North Brooklyn Open Streets Coalition
Gregory C. Baggett
President, A. Philip Randolph Square Neighborhood Alliance
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