The East River waterfront is getting a major glow up.
On Tuesday, December 27 Friends of Bushwick Inlet Park (FBIP) cheered as the City has allocated $75 million towards the completion of Bushwick Inlet Park, a response to the recent publication of the NYC Adopted 2022 Capital Budget,
FBIP commends Mayor de Blasio on following up his historic securing of the park’s final piece with this milestone investment that will create significant progress towards the park’s completion.
“This is a big step towards actually building this long-promised and intensely-needed new public open space,” said FBIP Co-Chair Katherine Thompson. “We are thrilled to see the City acknowledge both the promise it made 16 years ago in the rezoning and the way the pandemic has underscored that adequate park space is essential to the health of our communities.”
Bushwick Inlet Park was a commitment made by the City during the 2005
Greenpoint-Williamsburg Waterfront Rezoning for 27 acres of open space to accompany the massive rezoning of the North Brooklyn Waterfront. To date, less than half the park has been built and funded.
The $75 million in new funds combined with $17 million in previously allocated funds and $1 million in discretionary funding from the City Council brings the funding available for the park to more than $90 million. These funds will go toward demolition (of the former CitiStorage warehouse on the site), remediation, design and construction of the next phases of the multi-phase build-out of the park.
“What better function of government than to build a world-class park such as Bushwick Inlet Park. With the funds committed in the November Capital Plan, the de Blasio Administration has taken a major step towards seeing this long-promised park come to fruition,” said Councilmember Steve Levin. “Over 16 years ago we were promised Bushwick Inlet Park as part of the 2005 rezoning. When I came into office in 2010 we still had no park. But through the hard work of the community advocates, along with my office and my fellow local elected officials, Mayor de Blasio has gotten us closer than ever to giving Brooklyn the park it deserves. There are still years of work ahead, and I urge our community, and our incoming Council Member Lincoln Restler, to keep pushing and holding the next Administration accountable so that one day soon all of New York can enjoy the beauty of the Brooklyn waterfront.”